Healthy diet could cut risk of Alzheimer's disease

ConclusionThe study found people who ate a healthy diet – with plenty of green vegetables, wholegrains, legumes and less red meat – may be less likely to get Alzheimer's disease. However, we should be wary of saying that their diet actually protected them from Alzheimer's, as it is a complex disease with many potential causes.The main limitation is that observational studies cannot prove causation, even when researchers take care, as they did here, to include factors that we know affect disease risk. It's also notable that the researchers excluded dementia, other than Alzheimer's disease, from their calculations. It would be interesting to see the effect of these diets on other types of dementia, too, especially as the DASH diet protects against hypertension, which can be a cause of vascular dementia. This was not taken into consideration when the authors concluded that low dairy and salt may not be needed for brain health (though they still remain part of a healthy, balanced diet).Another limitation is that the food frequency questionnaire may not have completely captured people's adherence to the three diets. For example, people were asked about how often they ate strawberries, not about other types of berries. This could underestimate the effect of berry consumption in the diet. Experts already think a healthy lifestyle can help lower the risk of getting dementia. Recommendations include eating a healthy diet, keeping to a healthy weight, exercising regularly, not smok...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Neurology Source Type: news