A recent Columbia University study discovered a connection between eating better meals and a delayed aging process and a decreased chance of dementia. Improved nutrition has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of dementia and slow down the aging process. The relevance of a balanced diet in preventing dementia is made clearer by this study, but more research is needed to fully understand the mechanism.
A prominent scholar and associate professor of epidemiology at the Columbia Aging Center and Columbia School of Public Health, Daniel Belsky, PhD, said that “Much attention to nutrition in dementia research focuses on the way specific nutrients affect the brain.”
The Offspring Cohort, or second generation of the Framingham Heart Study, provided data for the study. Beginning in 1971, participants in this study had to be 60 years of age or older and free from dementia. Participants in this study, which commenced in 1971, had to be dementia-free and 60 years of age or older.
In addition, the subjects’ nutrition, follow-up, and epigenetics were disclosed. The Offspring Cohort underwent nine exams over a period of time that ranged from four to seven years. Every time a patient saw the researcher, a variety of information was gathered, such as blood samples, lifestyle surveys, physical examinations, and, beginning in 1991, brain function testing.
Among the 1,644 individuals in the analysis, 140 had dementia. The researchers utilized the tool DunedinPACE, developed by Belsky and colleagues, to measure the pace of individual aging. This device shows the body’s aging process at a glance, much to a speedometer.
Columbia University’s Yian Gu, PhD, stated, ” We’ve found strong evidence that eating healthy can help prevent dementia. However, we still need to figure out exactly how this protection works. Previous studies have shown that both diet and dementia risk are linked to how quickly our bodies age.”
To gain more insight into this relationship, the researchers looked at how aging affected different diets. DunedinPACE reports that they found that following a Mediterranean-Dash Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay Diet (MIND) reduced the rate of aging.
This also lessened the likelihood of dying and developing dementia. Slowing down with age could account for 27% of the link between diet and dementia and 57% of the correlation between diet and mortality.
According to Columbia University’s Aline Thomas, Ph.D., “Our research indicates that eating a healthy diet may slow down aging and reduce the risk of dementia. This suggests that tracking how quickly we age could help prevent dementia. “
There is still more to learn about the connection between diet and dementia. To identify the particular pathways via which nutrients affect brain aging, more research is needed. In the fight against dementia, monitoring biological aging might be a useful tactic if the findings hold true for other populations as well.
This study shows that nutrition has a major impact on both the rate of aging and the chance of dementia. Therefore, keeping an eye on how quickly our bodies age may help avoid dementia.
Still, additional research is required to understand the connection between food, aging, and dementia. This suggests that more research is needed, especially to look at how different diets affect the aging brain.
