PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Eating away at cognitive decline

MIND diet may slow brain from aging by 7.5 years

2015-08-04
(Press-News.org) While cognitive abilities naturally diminish as part of the normal aging process, it may be possible to take a bite out of this expected decline.

Eating a group of specific foods known as the MIND diet may slow cognitive decline among aging adults, even when the person is not at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at Rush University Medical Center. This finding is in addition to a previous study by the research team that found that the MIND diet may reduce a person's risk in developing Alzheimer's disease. The recent study shows that older adults who followed the MIND diet more rigorously showed an equivalent of being 7.5 years younger cognitively than those who followed the diet least. The results of the study recently were published online in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Mediterranean, with a DASH of other ingredients

The National Institute of Aging funded study evaluated cognitive change over a period of 4.7 years among 960 older adults who were free of dementia on enrollment. Averaging 81.4 years in age, the study participants also were part of the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a study of residents of more than 40 retirement communities and senior public housing units in the Chicago area.

During the course of the study, they received annual, standardized testing for cognitive ability in five areas - episodic memory, working memory, semantic memory, visuospatial ability, and perceptual speed. The study group also completed annual food frequency questionnaires, allowing the researchers to compare participants' reported adherence to the MIND diet with changes in their cognitive abilities as measured by the tests.

Martha Clare Morris, ScD, a nutritional epidemiologist, and colleagues developed the diet, whose full name is the Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. As the name suggests, the MIND diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets. Both diets have been found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular conditions, like hypertension, heart attack and stroke.

"Everyone experiences decline with aging; and Alzheimer's disease is now the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., which accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. Therefore, prevention of cognitive decline, the defining feature of dementia, is now more important than ever," Morris says. "Delaying dementia's onset by just five years can reduce the cost and prevalence by nearly half."

A wine and no cheese party

The MIND diet has 15 dietary components, including 10 "brain-healthy food groups" and five unhealthy groups - red meat, butter and stick margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried or fast food.

To adhere to and benefit from the MIND diet, a person would need to eat at least three servings of whole grains, a green leafy vegetable and one other vegetable every day -- along with a glass of wine -- snack most days on nuts, have beans every other day or so, eat poultry and berries at least twice a week and fish at least once a week. In addition, the study found that to have a real shot at avoiding the devastating effects of cognitive decline, he or she must limit intake of the designated unhealthy foods, especially butter (less than 1 tablespoon a day), sweets and pastries, whole fat cheese, and fried or fast food (less than a serving a week for any of the three).

Berries are the only fruit specifically to be included in the MIND diet. "Blueberries are one of the more potent foods in terms of protecting the brain," Morris says, and strawberries also have performed well in past studies of the effect of food on cognitive function.

"The MIND diet modifies the Mediterranean and DASH diets to highlight the foods and nutrients shown through the scientific literature to be associated with dementia prevention." Morris explains. "There is still a great deal of study we need to do in this area, and I expect that we'll make further modifications as the science on diet and the brain advances."

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Latest update to TASC II is published in the Journal of Endovascular Therapy

2015-08-04
Los Angeles, CA (August 4, 2015) The Journal of Endovascular Therapy (JEVT), official publication of the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF ENDOVASCULAR SPECIALISTS (ISES), announces that is it today publishing the latest update of the Inter-Society Consensus for the Management of Peripheral Arterial Disease (TASC II),1 an internationally recognized set of guidelines for the management of patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). JEVT is a SAGE journal. Originally published in 2000, the TASC document represents the collaboration of international vascular specialties involved ...

Pathogen grows on cold smoked salmon by using alternative metabolic pathways

2015-08-04
Washington, DC - August 4, 2015 - The pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes grows on refrigerated smoked salmon by way of different metabolic pathways from those it uses when growing on laboratory media. The research could lead to reduced incidences of food-borne illness and death, said principal investigator Teresa Bergholz, PhD. The research appears July 24 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. In the study, the investigators showed that L. monocytogenes grows on cold smoked salmon by using different metabolic pathways ...

Cures for PTSD often remain elusive for war veterans

2015-08-04
Our nation's veterans continue to suffer emotional and psychological effects of war--some for decades. And while there has been greater attention directed recently toward post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and more veterans are seeking help, current psychotherapy treatments are less than optimal, according to a new narrative review published in the August 4, 2015 issue of JAMA. In a review of medical literature over a 35-year period, researchers from the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Post-Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury -- a program in the Department ...

CU researcher calls for improved firearm safety counseling by physicians

2015-08-04
AURORA, Colo. (Aug. 4, 2015) - Physicians should improve the way they discuss firearm safety with patients by showing more respect for the viewpoints of gun owners, according to an article by a University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty member published in the Aug. 4 issue of JAMA. Marian "Emmy" Betz, MD, MPH, associate professor of emergency medicine, and Garen J. Wintemute, MD, MPH, professor of emergency medicine at the University of California Davis, write that physician counseling about gun safety is a key component of preventing firearm injury and death. ...

Mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy decreases PTSD symptom severity among veterans

2015-08-04
In a randomized trial that included veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), those who received mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy showed greater improvement in self-reported PTSD symptom severity, although the average improvement appears to have been modest, according to a study in the August 4 issue of JAMA, a violence/human rights theme issue. Posttraumatic stress disorder affects 23 percent of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. Left untreated, PTSD is associated with high rates of other disorders, disability, and poor quality of life. ...

Progress has been made in reducing rates of violence in US; overall numbers remain high

2015-08-04
Even though homicide and assault rates have decreased in the U.S. in recent years, the number of these and other types of violent acts remains high, according to a report in the August 4 issue of JAMA, a violence/human rights theme issue. The authors write that multiple strategies exist to improve interpersonal violence prevention efforts, and health care providers are an important part of this solution. Interpersonal violence is a pervasive public health, social, and developmental threat that affects millions of U.S. residents each year. It is a leading cause of death ...

Emergency department intervention does not reduce heavy drinking or partner violence

2015-08-04
A brief motivational intervention delivered during an emergency department visit did not improve outcomes for women with heavy drinking involved in abusive relationships, according to a study in the August 4 issue of JAMA, a violence/human rights theme issue. There is a strong and reciprocal association between two highly prevalent public health problems: intimate partner violence (IPV) and heavy drinking. Each risk individually represents major costs to individuals, families, and society. The emergency department (ED) visit is conceptualized as a sensitive period or ...

Intervention to screen women for partner violence does not improve health outcomes

2015-08-04
Screening women for partner violence and providing a resource list did not influence the number of hospitalizations, emergency department, or outpatient care visits compared with women only receiving a resource list or receiving no intervention over 3 years, according to a study in the August 4 issue of JAMA, a violence/human rights theme issue. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends women of reproductive age be screened for partner violence. However, others, such as the World Health Organization conclude there is insufficient evidence for this recommendation. ...

One-fourth of female sex workers in northern Mexican cities enter sex trade as minors

2015-08-04
More than 1 in 4 female sex workers in the northern Mexico cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez reported entering the sex trade as minors, and entering the sex trade as an adolescent vs as an adult was associated with a greater risk for HIV infection, according to a study in the August 4 issue of JAMA, a violence/human rights theme issue. Adolescents migrating from Central America and Mexico to the United States are at risk for being trafficked into the sex industry in Mexico's northern border cities. Research from other regions indicates that those entering the sex trade ...

High rates of violence, HIV infection for adolescents in sex trade on US-Mexico border

2015-08-04
Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that more than one in four female sex workers in two Mexican cities on the U.S. border entered the sex trade younger than age 18; one in eight before their 16th birthday. These women were more than three times more likely to become infected with HIV than those who started sex work as adults. They were also three times more likely to be violently coerced to engage in sex with male clients and seven times less likely to use a condom during their first month in the sex trade. The study is published ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from drug and device makers between 2013-2022

Discovery suggests new strategy against follicular lymphoma

Making the future too bright: how wishful thinking can point us in the wrong direction

Ochsner Health named to Newsweek’s America’s Greatest Workplaces 2024 for Job Starters

Three-year study of young stars with NASA’s Hubble enters new chapter

North Carolina takes the lead in PFAs research with Collaboratory’s $3 million investment to expand the state’s research capacity

Is it the school, or the students?

Exploring the relationship between HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and the incidence of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis – findings from Denmark

Music: Song lyrics have become simpler and more repetitive since 1980

Environment: More than half of Colorado River’s water used to irrigate crops

When inequality is more than “skin-deep”: Social status leaves traces in the epigenome of spotted hyenas in Tanzania

Study explores the future of at-home cancer treatment

First performance standards published to measure the effectiveness of lifestyle medicine treatments

To keep volunteers, connect them

Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity, study shows

Older brain cells linger unexpectedly before their death

Clear shift in arterial diseases in diabetes

Celebrating half a century of pioneering excellence: EBMT marks its 50th anniversary

Ancient DNA reveals the appearance of a 6th century Chinese emperor

DNA study IDs descendants of George Washington from unmarked remains, findings to aid service member IDs going back to World War II

Familial Alzheimer’s disease transferred via bone marrow transplant in mice

Perspectives of oncologists on the ethical implications of using AI for cancer care

Industry payments to US physicians by specialty and product type

Andrew E. Place, MD, PhD appointed as Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center Vice President, Pediatric Chief Medical Officer

COVID-19 antibody discovery could explain long COVID

Wild plants face viral surprise

Storing electrons from hydrogen for clean chemical reactions

Unlocking how to use mRNA to target Alzheimer’s disease

Kessler Foundation secures $770,000 in grants to advance leading-edge spinal cord research

Going ‘back to the future’ to forecast the fate of a dead Florida coral reef

[Press-News.org] Eating away at cognitive decline
MIND diet may slow brain from aging by 7.5 years