
Eating a healthy diet that dampens inflammation in the body could lower your odds for dementia, especially if you already have heart risk factors, a new Swedish study shows. So-called anti-inflammatory diets focus on foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish and beans and include heart-healthy regimens such as the Mediterranean diet. In a study involving more than 84,000 older adults tracked for more than 12 years, those who adhered to an anti-inflammatory diet had a 21% lower odds of developing dementia, compared to people who ate an unhealthy pro-inflammatory diet rich in red meats, eggs, dairy and processed foods. When looking specifically at older adults with ailments such as heart disease or diabetes, the risk of dementia fell by 31% when they stuck to an anti-inflammatory diet, reported a team led by Abigail Dove. She’s an investigator at the Aging Research Center at the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm. MRI brain scans of a subset of more than 9,000 of the participants also showed neurological benefits linked to the healthier diet. There were “positive changes within the brain,” noted Dr. Liron Sinvani, director of geriatric hospital services for North Shore University Hospital, in Manhasset, N.Y. “Larger gray matter volume — gray matter is good — and lower burden of ‘white matter hyperintensities’ was seen among those who ate an anti-inflammatory diet, said Sinvani, who wasn’t… read on > read on >