Diet plays a major role in causing Alzheimer's

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Evidence that diet plays a major role in causing Alzheimer's disease was released yesterday after scientists found that African Americans were more than twice as likely to suffer from the condition as people of similar age in Nigeria.

US and Nigerian scientists have spent more than eight years studying thousands of elderly people in two communities - Indianapolis, in Indiana, and Ibadan, in Nigeria. In a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers said that the incidence of Alzheimer's in the 65-plus age group among African Americans was 2.5%. Among the Yoruba people of Ibadan of that age, it was 1.15%. When the scientists looked at all types of dementia, they found an even sharper difference - 3.24% in the US and 1.35% in Nigeria.

One possible conclusion is that the mainly vegetarian diet of the Yoruba, compared with the fatty diet of many Americans, offers protection against Alzheimer's as well as against cardiovascular disease, the biggest killer in the rich world. Hugh Henrie, who led the research at Indiana University, said: "To our knowledge, this is the first report of incidence rate differences for Alzheimer's and dementia between populations in developed and developing countries in studies that used identical methods and groups of investigators."

One possible explanation, they said, was the major difference in risk factors for cardiovascular disease between African Americans and Yoruba. The Nigerians, on average, are leaner, have lower cholesterol levels, and suffer less from high blood pressure and diabetes. "Vascular disease may contribute both to dementia and to the development, progression, and clinical severity of Alzheimer's," the report said. Other studies have already hinted at a link between cardiovascular illness and Alzheimer's. However, there has never been enough evidence before to bracket Alzheimer's disease together with heart disease in public warnings about unhealthy eating. http://www.guardian.co.uk

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