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Mediterranean Diet Found To Benefit Sufferers of Alzheimer's Disease
According to the latest research findings, adhering to a Mediterranean diet could allow sufferers of Alzheimer's disease to live longer than patients who eat a more traditional Western diet. The findings are the latest in a string of health benefits linked to the eating plan of the people of southern Europe, which has in the past also been associated with the prevention of Alzheimers disease.
New benefits linked to a Mediterranean diet are constantly emerging
Published in the latest issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, the new findings were based on researchers' observations of 192 Alzheimer sufferers for four and a half years.
During that time, 85 of the people died. Researchers found that those patients 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.
Lead researcher Nikos Scarmeas of Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and member of the American Academy of Neurology, said: 'The more closely people followed the Mediterranean diet, the more they reduced their mortality.'
'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 published last year found that greater adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet could cut the risk of healthy people developing Alzheimer's disease by 68 percent.
Another study by the same researchers, published earlier last year in the Annals of Neurology reported that elderly individuals whose diet closely resembled the Mediterranean diet had a 40 per cent lower risk of Alzheimer's than those who adhered the least to the diet.
Looking to the future, Scarmeas said: '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.'
The Med diet is rich in cereals, wine, fruits, nuts, legumes and whole grains, fish and olive oil. Its main nutritional components include beta-carotene, vitamin C, tocopherols, polyphenols, and essential minerals. It is these antioxidants and polyphenols that appear to offer protection, suggested the researchers.
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