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- Previous research on the extent to which the Mediterranean diet protects cognitive health has been inconclusive, in part because many studies rely on self-reports of diet..
- By tracking metabolites in the blood, scientists can gain a more accurate understanding of the food a person ingests because it does not rely on self-reporting, which is often inaccurate in nutritional studies.
- Now, a new prospective study, based on an analysis of participants’ metabolomes, has found more definitive evidence that consuming a Mediterranean diet promotes a slowing of cognitive decline in the elderly.
A solid link between a Mediterranean diet and cognitive health has remained somewhat elusive. This is likely because so many studies rely on participants’ self-reporting of their nutritional intake, a notoriously unreliable way to collect data.
A new study takes a different approach to measuring diet and selecting cases and controls. The research was conducted in two French regions; one was the discovery cohort and the other was used to validate the findings. The researchers used a nested case-control study design in each city to reduce bias between cases and controls.
In both cases, people with cognitive decline at twelve years of follow-up and the control subjects, those without cognitive decline at follow-up, were selected from the same regional cohort (the ‘nest’).
The authors overcame inaccuracies in diet recall by using biomarkers in blood samples taken at baseline to measure how much different components of a Mediterranean diet had reached participants’ bloodstreams.
Using blood serum biomarkers instead of participants’ memories, the new study found that people who follow a Mediterranean diet are less likely to experience age-related cognitive decline.
The study authors developed a scoring system that measures adherence to the Mediterranean diet. They call their system MDMS, which stands for ‘Mediterranean Diet Metabolomic Score’.
The researchers analyzed the participants’ blood serum for the presence of metabolites resulting from the cellular processing of certain foods, resulting in an MDMS score.
Data from the
None of the individuals had dementia at the start of the 3C study in 1999-2000, when cognitive tests were administered. The participants were tested repeatedly every two to three years over a period of twelve years to record the development of dementia.
At the start of the 3C study, researchers took blood samples from participants to measure 72 metabolites of interest.
The new research shows that individuals from the Bordeaux region, whose MDMS test results most closely followed the Mediterranean diet, were 10% less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment than those with lower test scores. In the Dijon region the chance of this happening was 9% smaller.
The research has been published in the journal
“Metabolites, products of various cellular processes, can provide insight into an individual’s physiological state,” says Dr. Menka Gupta, functional medicine physician at Nutranourish, who was not involved in the study.
“[The] The breakdown and metabolism of consumed foods and nutrients generate various metabolites. By measuring food intake biomarkers, researchers can indirectly infer the resulting metabolites in the body. This helps us identify the promise of certain foods when investigating cognitive decline,” explains Dr. Gupta out.
Metabolomics – the study of a person’s metabolites – provides a greater degree of certainty about the food a research participant consumes.
Michelle Routhenstein, preventive cardiology dietitian at EntirelyNourished.com, who was also not involved in the study, said: “Tracking food consumption in Mediterranean diet studies typically relies on food frequency questionnaires, which may not be be accurate due to subjective memory recall and reporting.”
“This study is one of the first to assess the benefits of cognitive health and a Mediterranean diet via metabolomic signatures.”
–Michelle Routhenstein
According to Dr. Austin Perlmutter, internist and physician New York Times bestselling author, the metabolites tracked in this study are proxies for the key components of the Mediterranean diet. These include “polyphenols and omega-3 fatty acids, including DHA and EPA, all of which have been linked to better cognitive health.”
He noted that “a diet rich in polyphenols, including quercetin and kaempferol in particular, has been associated with slower cognitive decline, while consuming more omega-3 fatty acids is supported as a preventive strategy for Alzheimer’s disease .”
“One of the plant food biomarkers looked at was enterolactone,” Routhenstein said, “which is produced as a metabolite from lignan consumption, specifically flaxseed and sesame seeds. Lignans have been shown to be neuroprotective and improve cognitive memory.”
Routhenstein also pointed out that the analysis included monounsaturated fatty acids, “the heart-healthy fat found in the Mediterranean diet.”
“Studies show that oleic acid may have a beneficial effect on cognitive decline by improving memory functioning,” she said.
The
“The link between diet and cognitive decline has been examined in a large number of studies and is of increasing importance as the world’s population ages,” said Dr. Perlmutter, emphasizing that the most important threat to long-term cognition is Alzheimer’s disease.
“With the expectation that it will be over
Dr. Citing research published earlier this year reporting a link between diet and Alzheimer’s disease, Perlmutter said: “The researchers found that individuals who reported adhering to a MIND or Mediterranean diet were less likely to develop the disease showed Alzheimer’s-related brain markers even after taking into account reported levels of physical activity and smoking habits.”
The MIND diet is a combination of the Mediterranean and DASH diets.
Dr. Perlmutter noted that the Mediterranean diet has also been linked to better memory and less brain atrophy in older people.
Dr. Gupta pointed out another point