A Mediterranean diet may prolong the lives of Alzheimer's patients

The Mediterranean diet includes a high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, grains, fish, and unsaturated fats and a low intake of saturated fat, dairy products, meat, and poultry.

A Mediterranean diet may help extend the lives of Alzheimer's patients compared to patients eating a traditional Western diet.

The study followed 192 Alzheimer's patients in New York for an average of four and a half years. During the period, 85 of the patients died. The researchers found that the patients who adhered to a Mediterranean diet were 76% less likely to die during the study period than patients who did not adhere to this diet.

"The more faithfully the patient followed the Mediterranean diet, the less likely he was to die," said the author of the study, Nikos Skramas, MD, MD, PhD from Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "For example, Alzheimer's patients who followed the diet to a moderate extent lived an average of 1.3 years longer than patients who followed the diet to a small extent. And the patients who followed the diet most religiously, lived on average about 4 years longer."

A previous study by Scarmas and his associates showed that healthy people who eat a Mediterranean diet lower their chances of getting Alzheimer's. Studies have also shown that healthy people who consume a Mediterranean diet live longer than people who eat a Western diet, in which there is a higher level of saturated fats and meat and less vegetables and fruits.

"New benefits for this type of diet are emerging all the time," Skramas says. "Further research is needed to check whether the Mediterranean diet also helps in slowing cognitive decline, maintaining the patients' daily abilities and improving their quality of life."

The Mediterranean diet includes a high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, grains, fish, and unsaturated fats, while a low intake of saturated fat, dairy products, meat, and poultry. It also includes moderate alcohol consumption.

The new study was published this month in "Neurology", the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
For the announcement of the American Academy of Neurology