How Mediterranean diet, 300 minutes of exercise can delay dementia

People who took part in a world-first program that involved making changes in these four key areas experienced major benefits expected to delay dementia’s onset.

Up to 45 per cent of dementia cases are potentially preventable.

An online dementia-focused lifestyle program has “significantly” improved cognition of at-risk Australians over three years in a landmark trial.

This would delay dementia’s onset by about a year, researchers say, and the results from their study – the world’s largest online trial in this space – may underestimate the benefits.

The ‘Maintain Your Brain’ program targeted dementia lifestyle risks across key areas – physical activity, nutrition, brain training and mental health – via ten-week, personalised modules on each topic.

Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing UNSW’s Professor Henry Brodaty said many people were unaware up to 45 per cent of dementia cases were potentially preventable, and their project could be the “slip, slop, slap of brain health”.

Pouring olive oil on caprese salad, which is a healthy Mediterranean meal.

“(This) is the first in the world to actually show that online intervention can actually improve cognition, and we’re very excited by it,” he said.

“If we could roll this out nationally, this could have a major impact.”

He said because dementia was “largely a disease of late lives”, delaying onset by just one year would reduce its prevalence by 10 per cent.

“Considering there are 55 million people in the world with dementia, and over 400,000 people with dementia in Australia, 10 per cent of your cases is good news.”

The study tracked more than 6,000 Australians aged 55 and 77 who had at least two major dementia risk factors, half of whom did the online program.

The lifestyle changes included following a Mediterranean diet; daily balance training and 300 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week; computerised brain training sessions and a digital mental health program.

Daily balance training and 300 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week are among the lifestyle changes that have been shown to improve cognition.

The study’s results were published in Nature Medicine on Tuesday evening and showed the one-year program — which was followed by monthly “booster” sessions — led to “significantly better cognition” three-years later.

Prof Brodaty said their dementia program was unique because it gave personalised advice and addressed multiple risk factors, with participants only assigned the modules they needed.

The study’s control group was given publicly available information on dementia risk factors and — while not to the same extent as the Maintain Your Brain users — improved their cognition.

Prof Brodaty said this meant people could apply the online program’s general principles in the meantime, and its benefits were also likely understated.

“If we were able to compare the intervention with a control group that received no information at all, we would likely find out that the benefits of this trial would be even greater,” he said.

He said they needed funding for further trials — particularly in diverse populations — and to make the program available publicly.

Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing advisory committee chair Ita Buttrose said the project was “clear evidence to support a national dementia program”, warning the country had “dropped the ball” on preventing the disease.

“It is now time for Australia to think seriously about long term goals, to acknowledge the evidence and embrace the need for investment in prevention,” she said.

Originally published as How Mediterranean diet, 300 minutes of exercise can delay dementia