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Journal Article 1 Mention
MIND diet associated with reduced incidence of Alzheimer's disease
Martha Clare Morris2015
Christy TangneyYamin Wang
Top 5% · 95th percentile
1,125 citations · Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Open Access

TLDR

Eating a diet rich in certain healthy foods may help lower your chances of getting Alzheimer's disease, even if you don't follow the diet perfectly.

Summary

1 Study Aim

The main goal of this study is to find out if following the MIND diet (a combination of the Mediterranean diet and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH, diet) can lower the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. The researchers also compare the effects of the MIND diet to the Mediterranean and DASH diets to see which is most effective at reducing Alzheimer's risk. Simply put: The study wants to see if eating certain healthy foods can help prevent Alzheimer's disease.

2 Study Design

The researchers conducted a prospective study, which means they followed a group of people over time to see what happened. They studied 923 adults between the ages of 58 and 98 for an average of 4.5 years. Participants reported what they ate using a detailed food questionnaire. The researchers then grouped people based on how closely their eating habits matched the MIND, Mediterranean, or DASH diets. They tracked who developed Alzheimer's disease during the study period. Simply put: The study watched older adults for several years to see if those who ate certain foods were less likely to get Alzheimer's.

3 Findings

The study reveals that people who most closely followed the MIND diet had the lowest rates of Alzheimer's disease. Even those who moderately followed the MIND diet had a lower risk compared to those who followed it the least. For the Mediterranean and DASH diets, only those with the highest adherence saw a reduced risk. The authors suggest that eating in line with the MIND diet, even without perfect adherence, may help protect against Alzheimer's disease. They recommend considering the MIND diet as a practical way to lower Alzheimer's risk. Simply put: Eating more foods from the MIND diet, even if not perfectly, can help lower your risk of Alzheimer's.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In a previous study, higher concordance to the MIND diet, a hybrid Mediterranean-Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet, was associated with slower cognitive decline. In this study we related these three dietary patterns to incident Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS: We investigated the diet-AD relations in a prospective study of 923 participants, ages 58 to 98 years, followed on average 4.5 years. Diet was assessed by a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. RESULTS: In adjusted proportional hazards models, the second (hazards ratio or HR = 0.65, 95% confidence interval or CI 0.44, 0.98) and highest tertiles (HR = 0.47, 95% CI 0.26, 0.76) of MIND diet scores had lower rates of AD versus tertile 1, whereas only the third tertiles of the DASH (HR = 0.61, 95% CI 0.38, 0.97) and Mediterranean (HR = 0.46, 95% CI 0.26, 0.79) diets were associated with lower AD rates. DISCUSSION: High adherence to all three diets may reduce AD risk. Moderate adherence to the MIND diet may also decrease AD risk.

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