Dementia Incidence Linked to Inflammatory Meals

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Examine assessed weight loss plan at three time factors over 10 years

by
Judy George, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Immediately
December 13, 2024

Diets larger in inflammatory meals had been tied to an elevated incidence of dementia in older adults, longitudinal information from the Framingham Coronary heart Examine Offspring cohort confirmed.

Over 13 years of follow-up, larger Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) scores averaged throughout three time factors had been linearly related to an elevated incidence of all-cause dementia (HR 1.21, 95% CI 1.10-1.33, P<0.001), reported Debora Melo van Lent, PhD, of UT Well being San Antonio in Texas, and co-authors.

Equally, larger DII scores had been linearly related to a rise in Alzheimer’s illness dementia (HR 1.20, 95% CI 1.07-1.34, P=0.002), the researchers reported in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Findings had been adjusted for demographic, life-style, and medical covariates.

“Though these promising findings should be replicated and additional validated, our outcomes recommend that diets that correlate with low DII scores could forestall late-life dementia,” van Lent and colleagues famous.

Earlier cross-sectional research from the Framingham Coronary heart Examine Offspring cohort confirmed that larger DII scores — indicating extra pro-inflammatory meals consumed — correlated with smaller complete mind and grey matter volumes and bigger lateral ventricular quantity.

Different cohort research, together with a 3-year study in Greece, tied diets with excessive inflammatory potential to an elevated threat of incident dementia. And medical trial information confirmed the MIND diet — a hybrid of the Mediterranean weight loss plan and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Cease Hypertension) weight loss plan that’s wealthy in anti-inflammatory meals — had the same impact on cognition and mind MRI outcomes as gentle caloric restriction over 3 years, presumably as a result of excessive adherence of the management group to life-style recommendation.

Nonetheless, there’s restricted details about the long-term relationship between diet-driven irritation and incident dementia, van Lent and co-authors famous.

The researchers evaluated 1,487 contributors within the Framingham Heart Study Offspring research who had been age 60 or older at baseline with no prevalent dementia. Greater than half (53%) had been ladies, and imply baseline age was 69. About 22% carried an APOE4 allele.

DII scores had been calculated utilizing the 126-item Harvard semi-quantitative meals frequency questionnaire, which was administered at three factors over 10 years from 1991 to 2001.

The DII used within the evaluation consisted of 36 dietary parts together with vitamins, entire meals, and caffeine from meals consumption. Parts had been categorized as anti-inflammatory or pro-inflammatory.

Anti-inflammatory parts included alcohol, beta-carotene, caffeine, dietary fiber, folic acid, magnesium, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, zinc, monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, omega-3 fats, omega-6 fats, selenium, flavan-3-ol, flavones, flavonols, flavanones, anthocyanidins, inexperienced or black tea, pepper, garlic, and nutritional vitamins B6, A, C, D, and E.

Professional-inflammatory parts included vitamin B12, iron, carbohydrates, ldl cholesterol, complete power consumption, protein, saturated fats, and complete fats.

The imply DII rating was -0.30, indicating that contributors’ diets had been anti-inflammatory, on common. DII scores had been grouped into quartiles. Training, physique mass index, complete power consumption, and smoking standing assorted throughout the 4 teams.

Observe-up was a most of twenty-two.3 years and a imply of 12.8 years. In that span, 246 contributors developed all-cause dementia, principally Alzheimer’s dementia (187 folks). There have been no vital interactions between DII scores and APOE4, intercourse, hypertension, sort 2 diabetes, or heart problems in relation to incident all-cause and Alzheimer’s dementia, the researchers famous.

“Essentially the most pro-inflammatory parts of the DII (i.e., saturated fats, trans fat, and complete power consumption) are current within the pro-inflammatory ‘Western weight loss plan’ — a abstract time period for dietary patterns consumed in Western societies — which has proven an affiliation with elevated concentrations of biomarkers of systemic irritation and threat elements of all-cause and Alzheimer’s illness dementia, and likewise with neurodegenerative disease-related outcomes,” they wrote. “Western diets having inflammatory potential particularly recognized to be pro-inflammatory could have monumental implications for preventive dietary interventions.”

The research had a number of limitations, van Lent and colleagues acknowledged. Its design was observational and the research can’t present causality. The findings relied on meals frequency questionnaire information that will have measurement error or recall bias. Within the Framingham Coronary heart Examine Offspring research, solely 36 of 45 doable DII parts may very well be assessed.

The DII was created primarily based on research of micro- and macronutrients and bioactive compounds in relation to inflammatory markers, not particular illness outcomes. “A limitation of this strategy is that some particular person DII parts could have an reverse impact on the well being final result below research,” the researchers identified. “For instance, vitamin B12 is taken into account pro-inflammatory within the DII rating, however the vitamin has been hypothesized to be protecting for dementia threat.”