Alzheimer's Risk May Not Improve With Exercise, Healthy Food, Panel Says
Exercising or following the Mediterranean diet may not slow memory loss or lower a person’s chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease, an analysis of research found.
Combined data from 275 studies found weak evidence of a benefit, not enough to warrant government recommendations that people change their habits to lessen the risk for the illness, a panel advising the National Institutes of Health said in a statement. The findings accompanied an analysis of research on cognitive decline today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Brenda Plassman, lead author of the study and part of the team that prepared the evidence report for the NIH panel, said she had hoped to identify actions that people could change to preserve their cognitive health. Instead, the analysis found evidence of increased risks linked to a genetic factor, ApoE, and to smoking, diabetes and depression. Future studies may yet show that exercise and certain diets are beneficial, she said.
“It makes sense I would say for individuals to continue to choose a very active lifestyle and to choose a heart-healthy diet given the other benefits to the heart and body,” said Plassman, an associate research professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. “The information is not sufficient to recommend any single activity to protect against cognitive decline,” she said in a June 11 telephone interview.
Available Evidence
Today’s findings assessed the available scientific evidence on the link among behaviors that people may change, such as diet and exercise, and cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.
People with cognitive decline, which can occur as a normal course of aging, have an increased likelihood of progressing to mild cognitive impairment of language and memory, and dementia, the researchers said. More than 5.1 million in the U.S. may have Alzheimer’s disease and many more have mild cognitive impairment, the scientists said.
“We get questions all the time about what people can do to prevent Alzheimer’s disease or cognitive decline and we weren’t sure there was really sufficient evidence to make any kinds of recommendations,” said Neil Buckholtz, chief of the National Institute on Aging’s Dementias of Aging Branch, in a June 11 telephone interview. “We wanted to assess this in a more formal way.”
Panel Members
The panel members were health professionals, epidemiologists and public representatives who don’t specialize in the field and have no financial or research interest in the topic, Buckholtz said.
They found that exercise and dietary factors were “probably” associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline and delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The beneficial foods included the Mediterranean diet, rich in fish, fruits and vegetables and meals high in omega-3 fatty acids. The quality of the evidence was low, so no recommendations could be made, the panel said.
A review of studies showed there were no consistent findings of increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline in people who are obese or who have high blood pressure, they wrote.
“Unfortunately there’s nothing that can be recommended at the present time that will absolutely prevent people from getting Alzheimer’s disease or cognitive decline,” Buckholtz said. “There are a number of different hints that things may be useful, but we really need to do more studies.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Ostrow in New York at nostrow1@bloomberg.net.
Rate this Page