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The diet that may help Alzheimer’s patients live longer
Pile up your plate with zingy fruit and veg – yet more evidence has emerged for the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet
The diets of people living around the Mediterranean typically include plenty of veg, pulses, grains, fish and fruit but much smaller quantities of animal fats, meat, poultry and alcohol.
It is already well known to have a protective effect against heart disease, but now research is building up for its brain benefits.
Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center in New York, writing in the journal Neurology, tracked the diets of Alzheimer's disease patients and found that Mediterranean diet adherents were less likely to die.
The study followed 192 people with Alzheimer’s disease in New York for an average of four and a half years. During that time, 85 of the people died.
The researchers found that those who most closely followed a Mediterranean diet were 76 percent less likely to die during the study period than those who followed the diet the least.
“The more closely people followed the Mediterranean diet, the more they reduced their mortality,” said author Professor Nikos Scarmeas of Columbia University Medical Center in New York.
“For example, Alzheimer’s patients who adhered to the diet to a moderate degree lived an average 1.3 years longer than those people who least adhered to the diet. And those Alzheimer’s patients who followed the diet very religiously lived an average four years longer.”
Previous research by Scarmeas and his colleagues showed that healthy people who eat a Mediterranean diet lower their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
“New benefits of this diet keep coming out,” said Scarmeas. “We need to do more research to determine whether eating a Mediterranean diet also helps Alzheimer’s patients have slower rates of cognitive decline, maintain their daily living skills, and have a better quality of life.”
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