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Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia among older people. Dementia is a brain disorder that seriously affects a person's ability to carry out daily activities.
Alzheimer's disease begins slowly. It first involves the parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language. People with Alzheimer's disease may have trouble remembering things that happened recently or names of people they know. A related problem, mild cognitive impairment, causes more memory problems than normal for people of the same age. Many, but not all, people with MCI will develop Alzheimer's disease.
In Alzheimer's disease, over time, symptoms get worse. People may not recognize family members or have trouble speaking, reading or writing. They may forget how to brush their teeth or comb their hair. Later on, they may become anxious or aggressive, or wander away from home. Eventually, they need total care. This can cause great stress for family members who must care for them.
Alzheimer's disease usually begins after age 60. The risk goes up as you get older. Your risk is also higher if a family member has had the disease.

Nutrition for Alzheimer's Disease

By surveying approximately 6,000 people initially unaffected by Alzheimer's disease on Chicago's South Side, the researchers at Rush University Medical Center gathered data about dietary habits. They then regularly evaluated a subgroup for signs of Alzheimer's disease.
First, they found that foods rich in vitamin E were associated with a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Those foods include oil-based salad dressings, fortified cereals, green leafy vegetables, cantaloupe, seeds and nuts.
They also found that people who eat fish at least once a week were 60 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than those who rarely or never ate fish. The key ingredient, the Rush team believes, is the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in fish. From these data, the team made an association between high intakes of saturated and trans-unsaturated fats and Alzheimer's disease. That means it's better to limit fatty meats, full-fat dairy products like butter and milk and vegetable shortening, which is often found in crackers and cookies.
Although the exact cause (or causes) of Alzheimer's is unknown, research indicates that oxidation of the brain over time does cause mental deterioration. Vitamin E, as an antioxidant, may combat that process. The n-3 fatty acids found in fish share chemical similarities to substances found in the brain's gray matter. These substances help transmit signals to the brain, allowing for learning and memory storage. As for the "bad fats," these culprits are associated with high cholesterol, and high cholesterol has been shown to be bad for both the heart and the brain.

Foods That Fight Alzheimer's Disease

A low-fat diet with a lot of salad dressing, nuts, poultry, and certain fruits and vegetables may help prevent Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study.
Researchers say evidence is mounting on which foods may prevent Alzheimer's disease. In a study, published in the Archives of Neurology, researchers analyzed the dietary patterns of 2,148 people aged 65 and older living in New York. The participants gave information about their diets and were evaluated for signs of Alzheimer's disease and dementia every year and a half over a four-year period. Researchers analyzed dietary intake for seven nutrients that have been shown in previous studies to be associated with dementia risk: saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 fatty acids, omega-6 fatty acids, vitamin E, vitamin B12, and folate. By the end of the study, 253 participants developed Alzheimer's disease.
In particular, the study showed one particular dietary pattern was associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease. The diet included low amounts of high-fat dairy products, red meat, organ meat, and butter. Foods in this diet that appeared to fight Alzheimer's disease were salad dressing, nuts, fish, poultry, tomatoes, fruits, and cruciferous and dark and green vegetables.

Recommended Resources for Use with this Alzheimer's Nutrition Database

• Stop Alzheimer's Now!: How to Prevent & Reverse Dementia, Parkinson's, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis & Other Neurodegenerative Disorders
• The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People with Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementias, and Memory Loss in Later Life, 4th Edition
• A Caregiver's Guide to Alzheimer's Disease: 300 Tips for Making Life Easier
• Learning to Speak Alzheimer's: A Groundbreaking Approach for Everyone Dealing with the Disease

How to use the DietGrail food database for optimal Alzheimer's nutrition

This Alzheimer's disease food database provides the nutrient contents of approximately 7,000 food items.
A food's mineral and vitamin contents are displayed in charts to allow easy evaluation of its nutrition. You can use these vitamin and mineral charts to choose the most nutrient-dense foods and avoid foods with empty calories.
In addition, the calorie pie chart shows the contribution of fat, carb and protein to the food's total calorie. If you wish to choose low-fat foods, you can sort foods by their fat contents, or review the calorie chart and choose those where fat's contribution to total calorie value is lowest.
Foods can be searched by name and sorted by nutrient contents to help you find the most appropriate foods for an optimal Alzheimer's diet. Just click on the nutrient's name to sort or reverse sort order.

Usage Note

• Nutrients in table are calculated per 100g of food.
• Saturated Fat and Monounsaturated Fat are in grams.
• Vitamin E is in mg.
• Folate and Vitamin B12 are in mcg.
• Click on column header to sort foods by name or by a nutrient's content.
• Pie chart shows relative contributions to total calories from carbohydrate, protein and fat (and alcohol, if exists).
• The mineral and vitamin charts show the relative contents of minerals and vitamins of each food. The higher the bubble, the higher mineral or vitamin content a food has relative to other foods. The larger the bubble, the greater the mineral or vitamin content relative to the Recommended Daily Allowances.