Mediterranean Diet Lowers Alzheimer's Risk In American Cohort
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The "Mediterranean diet" may reduce the risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. Researchers in New York examined over 2000 subjects, interviewing them about dietary habits and testing their cognitive ability over time. Those who ate a Mediterranean diet--high in vegetables, grain, and unsaturated fats, and low in meat and dairy--were less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. Obesity in midlife may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers in California. Health records from 1964 and the present were examined for almost 9,000 middle-aged individuals, correlating past obesity to the risk for a current diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Individuals in the top 20 percent of obesity measures in 1964 were two to three times as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease as those in the bottom 20 percent. Cognitive decline is also increased with lower blood levels of the hormone leptin, which affects both appetite and brain development. In a study of almost 3,000 healthy elderly followed over five years, those with the lowest leptin levels had a greater decline in their cognitive ability than those with the highest levels. Sex hormones may also play a role in the risk for cognitive decline. In a study of almost 800 men and women, those women with the lowest levels of estradiol (a type of estrogen) declined fastest, compared to those women with the highest levels. This correlation was seen in both black and white women. No effect of estradiol was seen in men, and no effect was seen for the hormone testosterone in either sex.
These findings are published in the April issue of Annals of Neurology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons. Experts theorize that diet may play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease but epidemiological data on diet and Alzheimer's is conflicting and while individual foods and nutrients have been previously studied, general dietary patterns have not. To address this paucity of data, researchers led by Nikolaos Scarmeas of Columbia University Medical Center, designed a prospective community-based study of 2,258 non-demented people in New York City. The study was funded by the NIH/NIA. The article is also available online via Wiley Interscience (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/).

Having close friends and staying in contact with family members offers a protective effect against the damaging effects of Alzheimer's disease according to research by physicians at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Click link to read more.
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