Healthy diet associated with slower aging and decreased risk of dementia: Study

The study was published in the Journal Annals of Neurology.

Nutrient-rich foods provide antioxidants that combat oxidative stress, which contributes to aging and neurodegenerative diseases like dementia. Additionally, a balanced diet supports brain health by reducing inflammation, promoting proper blood flow, and supplying essential nutrients that aid cognitive function and neuronal repair.

“Much attention to nutrition in dementia research focuses on the way specific nutrients affect the brain” said Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at Columbia School of Public Health and the Columbia Aging Center, and a senior author of the study. “We tested the hypothesis that healthy diet protects against dementia by slowing down the body’s overall pace of biological aging.”

For the study, researchers analyzed 1,644 participants for nine examinations, approximately every 4 to 7 years. At each follow-up visit, data collection included a physical examination, lifestyle-related questionnaires, blood sampling, and neurocognitive testing.

Of all the participants included in the analyses, 140 of the participants developed dementia. To measure the pace of aging, the researchers used an epigenetic clock called Dunedin-PACE developed at Duke University and the University of Otago.

“We have some strong evidence that a healthy diet can protect against dementia,” said Yian Gu, PhD, associate professor of Neurological Sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the other senior author of the study, “But the mechanism of this protection is not well understood.” Past research linked both diet and dementia risk to an accelerated pace of biological aging.

The findings suggested that slower pace of aging mediated part of the relationship of healthy diet with reduced dementia risk, and therefore, monitoring pace of aging may inform dementia prevention. However, a portion of the diet-dementia association remains unexplained, therefore continued investigation of brain-specific mechanisms is in well-designed mediation studies is needed.

“We suggest that additional observational studies be conducted to investigate direct associations of nutrients with brain aging, and if our observations are also confirmed in more diverse populations, monitoring biological aging, may indeed, inform dementia prevention,” said Belsky.

Reference: Aline Thomas PhD, Calen P. Ryan PhD, Avshalom Caspi PhD, Zhonghua Liu PhD, Terrie E. Moffitt PhD, Karen Sugden PhD, Jiayi Zhou MPH, Daniel W. Belsky PhD, Yian Gu MD, PhD; Journal: Annals of Neurology; DOI: 10.1002/ana.26900