Scientists from University Medical Center found eating the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet is linked to a lower risk of dementia, but the effect decreases gradually.
The Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, or MIND diet, targets the health of the aging brain.
Dementia is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, driving many people to search for ways to prevent cognitive decline.
In 2015, Dr. Martha Clare Morris and colleagues at Rush University Medical Center and the Harvard Chan School of Public Health published two papers introducing the MIND diet.
If you eat on a MIND diet, choose fish, poultry, beans, and nuts; limit red meat and cheese; avoid bacon, cold cuts, and other processed meats.
Eat a variety of whole grains (like whole-wheat bread, whole-grain pasta, and brown rice). Limit refined grains (like white rice and white bread).
Adherence to the MIND diet has been linked to a decreased risk of dementia, but some lifestyle factors may partly account for this link.
In the current study, researchers aimed to examine the link between the MIND diet and dementia risk cumulative time periods.
They used data from more than 8000 people, whose dietary intake was assessed using food frequency questionnaires between.
The team calculated the MIND diet score and studied its association with the risk of all-cause dementia.
They found during a follow-up of 15.6 years, 1188 people out of 5375 (group 1) developed dementia.
The team found a higher MIND diet score was associated with a lower risk of dementia over the first 7 years of follow-up, but associations disappeared over a longer follow-up period.
In another follow-up of 6 years, 248 participants out of 2861 people (group 2) developed dementia.
The team found a higher MIND diet score was linked to a lower risk of dementia over every follow-up interval, but associations slightly attenuated over time.
The researchers suggest that better adherence to the MIND diet is linked to a decreased risk of dementia within the first years of follow-up, but this may in part be explained by other factors.
Further research is needed to unravel to which extent the MIND diet may affect the risk of dementia.
The research was published in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy and conducted by Tosca O E de Crom et al.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies about the best time to take vitamins to prevent heart disease, and the MIND diet could slow down cognitive decline after stroke.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about antioxidants that could help reduce the risk of dementia, and how vitamin supplementation may affect the dementia risk.
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