Mediterranean Diet Save Brain

 

A Mediterranean diet that's loaded with fresh vegetables, fruit and the occasional drink could help preserve your brain into old age, researchers reported Wednesday.
It's the latest in a series of studies showing that a healthy diet can preserve health, including brain health.
This one's a little different because it doesn't seem to show that adding fish to the diet makes any difference. It's not clear why, but it adds another piece of evidence in favor of dumping junk food and turning instead to fresh salads dressed with olive oil, plenty of fresh fruit, hummus, beans and pasta.
Everyone's brain shrinks as they get older. This study, published in the journal Neurology, found that people in their mid-70s who ate a Mediterranean-style diet lost less brain mass than people who ate a diet more typical of their native Scotland.

"A bigger brain is in general better for you because at least in late life, it makes a person more resistant to the effects of brain diseases."

"We found that lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with greater three-year reduction in total brain volume," Michelle Luciano of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and colleagues wrote.
Related: Vegan diet may save your life and the planet, too
The team used a group of Edinburgh residents who were born in 1936 and have been followed ever since. For this round, the volunteers filled out a food diary and then many of them agreed to have a series of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of their brains.

Mediterranean Foods STUDIO BOX / Getty Images

The study took them from age 70 to around 76 and the MRIs allowed the researchers to see just when and how their brains changed as they moved from late middle age into early old age. About 400 of the volunteers made it through two MRIs over three years.
Those who ate more fruits, vegetables, olive oil and the like, and less fried food, red meat and cheese had less brain shrinkage, the team found. On average, their brains shrank at about half the rate that would normally be expected over three years for people this age, they said.
Related: Tasty Diet Cuts Heart Disease
"In our study, eating habits were measured before brain volume was, which suggests that the diet may be able to provide long-term protection to the brain," Luciano said in a statement. "Still, larger studies are needed to confirm these results."
People got points for light to moderate drinking-- in this case about a third of drink a day to no more than three drinks a day on average for men and two for women.
Dr. David Knopman, a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota who was not involved in the study, said this could translate to real-life benefits.
"Loss of brain volume is an inevitable part of the aging process," Knopman told NBC News.
Related: This Diet Helps You Live Longer
"A bigger brain is in general better for you because at least in late life, it makes a person more resistant to the effects of brain diseases," he added. "People who have bigger brains in general can tolerate more brain pathology, more brain disease, than those who have smaller brains. So the reduced loss in the people who adhered to the Mediterranean diet in general would be expected to protect them from developing dementia."

"We found that lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with greater three-year reduction in total brain volume."

Everyone who took part in the study was healthy and living independently, and the study was not designed to show whether healthier eating reduced the risk of dementia. But other studies have shown that good diets can prevent Alzheimer's and other types of dementia.
Related: Could a Mediterranean diet keep your brain from shrinking?
A 2015 study done at Columbia University also found that people who ate Mediterranean diets had bigger brains. But it also found this may have been caused in part because people who ate Mediterranean diets also are more fish and less of other types of meat.
The Edinburgh team didn't find any effect from eating meat or fish, and they found education did not seem to matter, either.
Previous research has linked a Mediterranean diet to a reduced risk of heart disease and some cancers, as well as stroke and to a longer life in general.
"People who eat healthy are often healthier in many other respects," Knopman pointed out.
"They're much less likely to be obese, they're much less likely to have diabetes, hypertension, much less likely to smoke, more likely to exercise. And they're probably more likely to adhere to good health behaviors in general."
Related: Mediterranean Diet May Slow Brain Aging
But a series of studies done in Spain finds the effects are clear even when people are already starting out with healthier diets. The team in Barcelona adds extra olive oil and nuts to the standard diets of Spaniards and finds the benefits on heart health and brain health are clear.
The Edinburgh study only asked people once - when they were 70 - what they ate. So it's not entirely clear if it takes a lifetime of eating better to help the brain

A wealth of research has documented the link between the Mediterranean diet and better heart health. Providing further evidence of this association, a new study suggests the diet could reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and death.

Researchers find greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet could lower CVD risk.

Lead author Dr. Nita Forouhi, of the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and colleagues report their findings in the journal BMC Medicine.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) refers to conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels, including stroke, heart attack, and heart disease.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, killing around 610,000 people annually. Heart attack affects around 735,000 Americans each year, while around 800,000 people are affected by stroke.
Adopting a healthy diet is considered key for reducing the risk of CVD, and numerous studies have suggested the Mediterranean diet fits the bill.
A study published in the European Heart Journal earlier this year, for example, found older adults who adhered to the Mediterranean diet were at lower risk of heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular death than those who followed a Western diet.
The Mediterranean diet is typically high in plant-based foods - such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts - and low in red meats and unhealthy fats. It also incorporates regular consumption of fish and poultry, and red wine is acceptable in moderation.
For their study, Dr. Forouhi and team set out to investigate how adhering to a Mediterranean diet affects the risk of developing CVD, as well as what proportion of CVD cases and deaths might be prevented in the U.K. as a result of adherence to the diet.

CVD risk up to 16 percent lower with the Mediterranean diet

The team analyzed data from 23,902 healthy adults who were a part of the EPIC-Norfolk Study - a multi-center cohort study of more than 30,000 British adults that mainly looks at the link between diet, lifestyle, and cancer.
As part of the study, participants completed food frequency questionnaires, which the researchers analyzed to determine adherence to the Mediterranean diet. They did so using a 15-point score based on guidelines from the Mediterranean Diet Foundation.
Over an average follow-up period of 12-17 years, the researchers identified 7,606 new cases of CVD among the participants, as well as 1,714 CVD deaths.
Compared with participants with low adherence to the Mediterranean diet, the researchers found that subjects with higher adherence to the diet were 6-16 percent less likely to develop CVD.
Applying their results to the U.K. population, the team estimated that if healthy Britons adhered to the Mediterranean diet, around 3.9 percent of new-onset CVD cases and 12.5 percent of CVD deaths could be prevented.
"If our findings are broadly representative of the overall U.K. population, then we can assume that higher level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet could have significant impact in lowering the cardiovascular disease burden in the U.K.," notes Dr. Forouhi.
But the researchers say their findings are not just applicable to the U.K.:

"These results add to the pool of evidence on the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet, even in a non-Mediterranean country where an optimal dietary pattern is unknown.
Our findings stimulate future population-based and clinical investigations into the efficacy and effectiveness of adhering to the Mediterranean diet in contemporary, non-Mediterranean populations."

Learn how the Mediterranean diet could help slow cognitive decline.

Written by Honor Whiteman