Seeds For Brain Health
When many Alzheimers patients were fed seeds, there was a significant improvement in their brain health, proving that they may be essential for brain health. Examples of seeds are flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds.
They contain all nutrients and antioxidants and are essential for lowering the risk of cognitive decline or impairment. So, you can sprinkle them in your salad. Also, you can make muffins or puddings or eat them as snacks every day.
Foods That Can Help Fight Dementia
Two Canadian doctors explain their idea for a Brain Health Food Guide which gives top billing to some staples of the Mediterranean diet.
Cara RosenbloomUpdatedDecember 28, 2016
Studies have linked eating certain foods with a reduced risk of dementia, but Canadian researchers are taking this notion one step further: Matthew Parrott, a scientist at the PERFORM research centre at Concordia University in Montreal, and Carol Greenwood, a senior scientist at Baycrests Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, are examining which combination of foods provides the best protection against cognitive decline. They are working on a Brain Health Food Guide that gives top billing to some staples of the Mediterranean diet, which has been linked to a 35 percent lower risk of Alzheimers disease.
Studies show that adults aged 50 plus who followed a similar eating plan for four years did not experience any memory loss, Parrott says. There are short-term gains, too. After only four months on this type of eating plan, adults performed as if they were nine years younger on reading and writing speed tests, says Greenwood.
The key, they say, is to eat certain quantities of all of these foods as often as possible, while limiting your intake of red meat, processed products and baked goods. Here are the foods that made the cut:
1) Raw leafy greensDarker greens, such as spinach, kale and romaine, have more brain-boosting antioxidants and vitamin K. Try to eat one cup daily.
9) Low-fat dairy
What About Vitamins And Supplements
Observational studies and clinical trials have looked at many over-the-counter vitamins and dietary supplements, including vitamins B and E and gingko biloba, to prevent Alzheimers disease or cognitive decline. The idea is that these dietary add-ons might attack oxidative damage or inflammation, protect nerve cells, or influence other biological processes involved in Alzheimers.
Despite early findings of possible benefits for brain health, no vitamin or supplement has been proven to work in people. Overall, evidence is weak as many studies were too small or too short to be conclusive.
Take DHA for example. Studies in mice showed that this omega-3 fatty acid, found in salmon and certain other fish, reduced beta-amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimers. However, clinical trials in humans have had mixed results. In a study of 485 older adults with age-related cognitive decline, those who took a DHA supplement daily for 24 weeks showed improved learning and memory, compared to those who took a placebo. Another study of 4,000 older adults conducted primarily to study eye disease concluded that taking omega-3 supplements, alone or with other supplements, did not slow cognitive decline.
For more information, visit the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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Simply Put Brain Health Kitchen Is An Entirely New Way To Think About How We Eat
Since 2015 I have taught hundreds of motivated students throughout the U.S. and abroad how to cook and eat to reduce their risk of dementia.
Cooking for brain health is both an art and a science. I am constantly scouring the scientific literature for evidence that certain foods have a positive impact on the aging brain. Brain Health Kitchen recipes are created to include as many nutrient-dense ingredients as possible. We swap out inflammatory foods for anti-inflammatory ones. My students learn cooking techniques that maintain the brain healthy integrity of the foods, such as how to cook with olive oil, increase cruciferous vegetables, and replace dairy products with luscious nut milks, creams, and cheese.
I put my culinary experience to work to create beautiful, crave-worthy recipes that will be a cinch for you to make at home. Together we use modern techniques and tweaks to pack brain healthy nutrient density into every bite. Over time, we build up a repertoire of recipes that are meant to be shared and enjoyed.
Eating more brain healthy foods lengthens brainspan, the number of years the brain functions at a high level.
Is Alzheimers Linked To Diet
According to research, Alzheimers disease is strongly linked to inflammation throughout the body. Consuming an inflammatory dietone thats full of fried foods, refined starches, sugars, saturated or trans fats, and red or processed meatsmay increase your chances of developing the disease as well as many other serious health conditions.
On the flip side, eating certain foods may decrease your risk of cognitive decline, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institute on Aging. One study found that eating a Mediterranean diet consisting of foods like salad dressing, nuts, fish, tomatoes, poultry, cruciferous vegetables, fruits, and dark and green leafy vegetables may decrease a persons risk of developing Alzheimers disease.
Although diet can be protective against Alzheimers, it cannot reverse the disease, says
Kristian Morey, RD, LDN, a clinical dietitian with the Nutrition and Diabetes Education program at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland.
However, a recent Temple University School of Medicine study of mice showed that switching to a healthier diet reversed the cognitive impairment that was associated with their previous diet. While this cannot be considered a therapy or cure, it may demonstrate that dietary changes can improve some cognitive impairment, Morey says.
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Worried About Your Brain
Why am I so worried about your brain? Brain health is an incredibly important issue because of a simple fact: We are living longer than ever before. The baby boomer generationthose born between 1946 and 1964is maturing into older age in record numbers. As these baby boomers get into their 60s, 70s, and 80s, they will create an epidemic of Alzheimers disease. By 2025, one in nine 65-year olds will be diagnosed with Alzheimers disease. Half of all 85-year olds will have dementia. And women are especially vulnerable to a diagnosis of Alzheimers: Two-thirds of all Alzheimers victims are female, as are two-thirds of dementia caregivers.
Does A Person With Dementia Know They Are Confused
In the earlier stages, memory loss and confusion may be mild. The person with dementia may be aware of and frustrated by the changes taking place, such as difficulty recalling recent events, making decisions or processing what was said by others. In the later stages, memory loss becomes far more severe.
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Helpful Tips Tricks & Equipment
- I didn’t list amounts for the salad greens, berries, or nuts in the recipe below. Start with a whole bunch of greens, then add more or less toppings to your liking. I usually just layer the ingredients in individual bowls for each person eating, and then dress and toss one salad at a time.
- Extra vinaigrette should be stored in the refrigerator. That being said, the extra-virgin olive oil will most likely thicken and solidify once chilled. So you’ll want to allow the dressing to come to room temperature before using it again.
- Extra-virgin olive oil is the best oil for your brain, but grapeseed oil is another brain healthy option. So if you’d like to swap out half of the olive oil for half grapeseed oil, the resulting vinaigrette may thicken a bit in the fridge but shouldn’t solidify. A good shake and it will be ready to enjoy .
- You can shake up the dressing in any jar, bottle, or Mason jar. Or, if you want to measure ingredients straight into a container or if you want to make a big double batch, you can get all fancy with a salad shaker like this.
- Feel free to add cooked salmon to this salad to turn it into a main course that boasts yet another brain healthy ingredient!
Foods That Prevent Alzheimers
Lugavere discovered a variety of different factors that can either add to or minimize the risk of developing dementia or Alzheimers, but perhaps the most powerful one is diet. In his research, Lugavere learned that doctors arent nutrition experts they get minimal nutrition training, and what they do receive is often outdated and not fully evidence-based. Likewise, national dietary guidelines are based on flimsy, financially motivated evidence. Because of this, he believes that each of us should become nutrition experts in our own right, learning how different foods are harming or protecting our brain health.
To improve brain health through diet, Lugavere says, its important to move away from a diet based on grains, refined carbs, and processed foods. Junk foods in particular, he says, should be completely avoided, because theyre designed to be addictive and thus cant be consumed in moderation. I think removing the processed junk foods from your diet is probably the most important step, he says.
Unsurprisingly, avocados are one of the ten genius foods that Lugavere writes about in his book. The other nine are:
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Wild salmon
- Almonds
There are other foods that prevent Alzheimers besides these ten, of course. He also calls out water with mineral salt , kombucha, lean meats , and sardines.
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Eat More Colorful Food
Flavonoids come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, but experts can agree that this nutrient helps stave off brain degeneration. If you want to naturally get more of this compound in your life, you can’t go wrong by loading up on colorful fruits and vegetables. A 2021 study found in Neurology followed 77,000 participants over 20 years to study their diets and found that those who ate high concentrations of flavonoids had better neurological health as they age.
Colorful fruits and vegetables naturally contain large amounts of this nutrient, but one particular type of fruit might rank better than many other foods when it comes to protecting you against dementia.
Consider Primehealths Prevention Program
We stand behind Dr. Dale Bredesens revolutionary KetoFLEX 12/3 diet program for patients with cognitive decline. We have seen it work wonders, particularly in combination with other beneficial lifestyle changes.
As more research is published on the KetoFLEX 12/3 diet, we cant wait for more professionals to hear about this super effective diet plan.
How can you reverse dementia naturally? You can reverse dementia naturally with simple lifestyle and dietary changes. This mainly works in the very early stages of dementia and cognitive decline.
Let PrimeHealth create a plan to put that knowledge into practice. With our Prevention Program, we will work side-by-side to create an individualized plan for slowing and reversing cognitive decline.
Schedule a free phone consultation with us to learn more.
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Eat This: The Best Foods For Your Brain
Feeling blah, struggling to be up-beat and not sure where your happy side has gone? Youre not alone. Feeling unmotivated, wondering where your memory has gone, and that includes your mental health. What do you need less of and a lot more of to help the blues?
That low, blah mood, mental health issues of depression and anxiety, feeling the blues, that inability to focus, feeling unmotivated in your day and actually remembering that your memory is not recalling as well as it once did, all add to the overwhelm of uncertain times that we are living in right now. Sure having a sore knee, back ache or pain can be debilitating in many ways, but when you cant quite string that thought, remember a word or feel so blue that you want to hide under the duvet for days, thats a different level of debilitating and its time to move past the hope that it will just get better. Then theres the concern of cognitive decline that we see in our aging parents and loved ones. Maybe we dont consider that it could be me one day, so focusing on eating for brain health doesnt rank as high. What if the conversation and view of how our mind is functioning, like really looking at brain and mental health, was taken as seriously as preventing a heart attack and cardiovascular disease? We talk about that all the time, right? Well its time to bring more attention to what we are eating and our mental health.
Ok lets get down to it.
Eat Well To Prevent Alzheimers Disease
While its not possible to prevent Alzheimers disease in every case, you give yourself a fighting chance with a healthy lifestyle that contains all the right omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants for good brain health.
Overhauling your diet might just save you and your family from the difficulties that dementia brings.
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Superfoods To Help Prevent Alzheimers Or Dementia Separating Myth From Fact
There is still no definite answer as to what causes Alzheimers disease, and Alzheimers disease and its risk factors are not completely understood but researchers have found links between compounds in the foods we eat, and a decreased rate of Alzheimers and other types of dementia. In fact, some researchers believe that food and nutrition should be a key focus in the investigation of ways to prevent and treat the disease.
While there is no solid proof that maintaining a certain diet will prevent Alzheimers, many experts in the field believe that maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and incorporating what is known as superfoods may help you avoid type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol both conditions that have been linked to Alzheimers and dementia. But unfortunately, superfoods cannot prevent Alzheimers from developing in an individual.
Unicity Healthcare would like to share information about the myths and facts surrounding superfoods and the ways they may impact those who are at risk for developing Alzheimers or related dementias.
Alzheimers Diet: 16 Foods To Fight Dementia + What To Avoid
The best Alzheimers diet is Dr. Dale Bredesens KetoFLEX 12/3 diet. This slightly-flexible ketogenic diet can lower your risk of developing Alzheimers disease or dementia, especially in the earliest stages of cognitive decline.
This revolutionary diet also encourages 12-hour fasting periods so the body has more time to repair cell damage. Make sure to not eat within 3 hours of going to bed either.
By eating foods such as green leafy vegetables, fish, nuts, and even an occasional glass of red wine, you can reduce your chances of developing Alzheimers.
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The Mediterranean And Mind Diets And Alzheimers
One diet that shows some promising evidence is the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fish, and other seafood unsaturated fats such as olive oils and low amounts of red meat, eggs, and sweets. A variation of this, called MIND incorporates the DASH diet, which has been shown to lower high blood pressure, a risk factor for Alzheimers disease.
Mediterranean Diets And Dementia Risk
A recent study pulled together all the existing evidence about the Mediterranean diet relating to problems with memory and thinking and dementia, to assess the potential benefits. This type of study is called a systematic review. A systematic review is a good tool for evaluating existing evidence and understanding where a consensus lies, if there is one. A lot of research was not included in this study because it was not stringent enough or it did not look at the diet as a whole. The studies that remained seem to show an association between the Mediterranean diet and lower levels of memory and thinking problems.
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Top 16 Foods That Lower Your Risk Of Dementia
One of the easiest ways to reduce your risk of Alzheimers and dementia is to change your diet. Sometimes called an Alzheimers diet, eating brain-healthy food can prevent the disease. In the earliest stages, it may even reverse cognitive decline.
What is the best diet for Alzheimers? The best diet for Alzheimers is Dr. Bredesens KetoFLEX diet. This diet encourages a mild version of the keto diet combined with metabolic flexibility. It also promotes 12-hour fasting periods every day, including at least 3 hours fasting before bedtime.
Research has also shown the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay diet reduces the risk of Alzheimers and dementia. This diet is a hybrid between the Mediterranean diet and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension .
Can Alzheimers be reversed with diet? In the earliest stages of cognitive decline, adhering to an Alzheimers diet may reverse cognitive decline. Unfortunately, theres no surefire Alzheimers cure. However, we have personally observed patients whose cognitive decline was reversed after making lifestyle changes, including changing their diet.
Can dementia be reversed with diet? Advanced dementia cannot be reversed with diet. However, the KetoFLEX 12/3 diet shows promise in slowing cognitive decline and early stages of dementia. Avoid most carbohydrates and focus on healthy fats and non-starchy veggies.
- Watercress
- Bok choy
A Crash Course On Brain Health And Ways To Prevent Dementia
Max Lugavere was a newly minted journalist living in Los Angeles when he started noticing signs of memory loss in his mother. She was only 56 years old, so Lugavere didnt think it could be dementia but then it kept getting worse. After dozens of doctors appointments, they eventually got the devastating diagnosis of Lewy Body Dementia, a rare form of dementia in which protein deposits in the brain prevent normal brain function.
After the diagnosis, Lugavere started traveling the country with his mom, visiting various neurology departments in search of the most effective treatments. Eventually, he became unable to focus on anything but trying to understand how diet and lifestyle might have contributed to what he was seeing develop in his mother. At that point, he put his career on hold, moved from Los Angeles back to New York, and fully immersed himself in researching brain health.
He read study after study, learning everything he could about dementia and its various forms, as well as other neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinsons. Through this research, he became interested in an idea that nobody seemed to be talking about: ways to prevent dementia.
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