A photo of foods associated with the anti-inflammatory diet including pineapple, salmon, blueberries, broccoli, and avocado. An anti-inflammatory diet was tied to a lower risk for dementia in people ages 60 and older with cardiometabolic diseases, U.K. Biobank data showed.
Among people with cardiometabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, or stroke, those who were on an anti-inflammatory diet had a 31% lower risk for dementia compared with those on a pro-inflammatory diet (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.55-0.88, P =0.003), reported Abigail Dove, MSc, of the Aging Research Center at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
In a joint effect analysis, the hazard ratio for dementia among people with cardiometabolic disease was 1.65 (95% CI 1.36-2.00) with an anti-inflammatory diet, 1.91 (95% CI 1.57-2.32) with a neutral diet, and 2.38 (95% CI 1.93-2.93) with a pro-inflammatory diet over 12 years of follow-up.
Those on an anti-inflammatory diet had larger gray matter volume and a lower burden of white matter hyperintensities on MRI than those who had more pro-inflammatory foods, the researchers wrote in JAMA Network Open opens in a new tab or window .
As the population ages, cardiometabolic diseases are becoming more prevalent, Dove observed.
"A relevant question is how to reduce dementia risk among the growing number of older adults with cardiometabolic diseases," she told MedPage Today . This study draws attention to diet as a modifiable lifestyle factor that may promote brain and cognitive health, she noted.
"Chronic low-grade inflammation is a key feature of cardiometabolic diseases and has been implicated in the development of dementia," Dove pointed out.
"We hypothesize that having an anti-inflammatory diet dampens levels of systemic inflammation in the body, thereby slowing the progression of neurodegenerative damage and vascular injury in the brain and making it less likely for an individual to experience cognitive impairment and, eventually, dementia," she added.
The findings dovetail with other research about brain health and inflammatory diets. In the Framingham Heart Study Offspringopens in a new tab or window cohort, for example, a pro-inflammatory diet was associated with smaller total brain volume. And a study in Greece showed that older adults with the highest inflammatory […]
Dementia Risk Dropped With Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Certain Patients
