Study: a healthy diet can slow progression of Alzheimers disease

We hear all the time about the benefits of a healthy diet, but learning it can help prevent cognitive impairmentor Alzheimers disease is good news. In fact it can be slowed or even reversed.

Researchers found that switching patients in the early stages of Alzheimers to a healthier diet slowed or even stopped the progression of Alzheimers.



This follows previous research at Temple University, in a project led by Domenico, an associate professor of pharmacology at Temple University’s School of Medicine, that demonstrated a diet rich in methionine cold increase the risk of Alzheimers. Methionine is one that has a lot of red meats, fish, beans, eggs, garlic, lentils, onions, and yogurt.



Patients in the early to moderate stages of Alzheimer’s Disease could have their cognitive impairment slowed or even reversed by switching to a healthier diet, according to researchers at Temple University..



“The question we asked now as a follow-up is if, for whatever reason, you had made bad choices in your diet, is there a chance you can slow down or even reverse the disease or is it too late — that there is nothing you could do,” said Praticò.



As in the previous study, the researchers fed one group of mice a diet high in methionine and another group a regular, healthy diet. After three months, they split the group receiving the methionine-rich diet into two, with one group continuing the amino-heavy diet while the second switched to the healthy diet for an additional two months.





“At the end of the study, when we looked at these mice, what we found — very surprisingly — was that switching to a more healthy diet reversed the cognitive impairment that had built up over the first three months of eating the methionine-rich diet,” said Praticò. “This improvement was associated with less amyloid plaques — another sign of the disease — in their brains.





Pratico reports the cognitive impairment that had been observed in the mice after three months on the methionine-rich diet was completely reversed after two months on the healthier diet, and they were now able to function normally.





“We believe this finding shows that, even if you suffer from the early effects of MCI or Alzheimer’s, switching to a healthier diet that is lower in methionine could be helpful in that memory capacity could be improved,” he said.





Pratico emphasizes strongly this does not substitute for drug therapy but does demonstrate that a lifestyle change can improve some of the impairments already found in the brain.





“What it tells us is that the brain has this plasticity to reverse a lot of the bad things that have occurred; the ability to recoup a lot of things such as memory that were apparently lost, but obviously not totally lost,” he said.





Researchers also make clear that switching to a healthy diet is vital but so is a regiment of physical as well as mental exercises.







“This combination won’t cure you, but we believe, as we saw in this study, that it will be able to slow down or even possibly reverse the effects on the cognitive impairment,” he said.





















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