Enriching your gut in your 40s ‘the key to avoiding dementia’
Enriching your gut in middle age appears to play a bigger role than previously thought in preventing memory decline, a study suggests.
Sticking to a healthy diet in your forties could hold the key to staving off dementia in old age, research suggests.
Eating habits in middle age appear to play a bigger role than previously thought in preventing memory decline.
The study, involving 3,000 British adults, found that the quality of a person’s diet at the age of 43 could predict their risk of getting dementia later in life.
Those whose midlife diets involved lots of leafy vegetables and whole grains were found to have much sharper brains at the age of 69, when memory tests were carried out.
The study, presented at the American Society for Nutrition conference, looked at data from 3,059 UK adults who were born in 1946 and have been tracked for more than 75 years as part of a national research project.
They completed food diaries at different ages to provide snapshots of their diets, which were rated as “low”, “high” or “moderate” quality based on factors such as how many vegetables or sugary foods they ate. The participants also completed regular cognitive tests that measured their brain function and memory.
They were divided into four groups, based on how good their brain and memory was up until the age of 69. This revealed a strong link with diet.
Of the group with the worst performance on memory tests, 59 per cent had low-quality diets, whereas 7 per cent had high-quality diets. Of the group with the best memories, 36 per cent had a high-quality diet, whereas only 8 per cent had a low-quality diet.
The study confirms previous research showing a healthy diet plays a vital role in warding off dementia, and suggests “the links may start much earlier than previously recognised”. While previous research has focused on eating habits in people’s sixties and seventies, the latest study found that a person’s diet at the age of 43 was the strongest predictor of dementia risk in later life. “Our results suggest dietary patterns in midlife, before age 50, may be most predictive of cognitive trends up to age 69,” the study concluded.
Every small increase in diet quality at this age, such as from eating an extra portion of vegetables a day, was found to reduce the risk of scoring poorly in brain function tests by 4 per cent.
Dr Kelly Cara, from Tufts University in Massachusetts, author of the study, said: “Dietary patterns that are high in whole or less processed plant-food groups including leafy green vegetables, beans, whole fruits and whole grains may be most protective.
“Adjusting one’s dietary intake at any age to incorporate more of these foods and to align more closely with current dietary recommendations is likely to improve our health in many ways, including our cognitive health.
“Our findings also provide new evidence suggesting that improvements to dietary patterns up to midlife may influence cognitive performance and help mitigate, or lessen, cognitive decline in later years.”
A healthy diet containing lots of antioxidants found in fruit and vegetables can support brain health by reducing inflammation in the body, and improving blood flow to the brain, helping to protect against damage to brain cells linked to dementia.
Antioxidants are chemicals that neutralise toxic oxygen-based molecules that contribute to brain ageing and diseases like Alzheimer’s. Our bodies naturally make antioxidants, but we can also get them from foods, particularly fruit and vegetables.
Nearly one million people in the UK have dementia, and about 40 per cent of cases could be prevented with lifestyle changes such as drinking less alcohol, quitting smoking or eating healthily. Adopting healthy habits during the midlife period, between the ages of 40 and 65, has been shown to be crucial in lowering the risk of dementia.
The study used data from the 1946 British Birth Cohort, who were enrolled in a study called National Survey of Health and Development, providing information on their health via questionnaires and tests over the course of more than 75 years.
Diet tips to lower the risk of dementia:
• Load up on vegetables of all types and colours
• Consume lots of lentils, beans and pulses
• Try to stick to whole grains such as oats and rice
• Oily fish, which is high in omega-3, can boost brain health
• Limit processed and red meat
• Don’t drink too much alcohol
• Avoid foods and drinks with added sugars
The Times
