Mental Decline Does Not Have to be Inevitable
Please note that this section contains my personal notes from my readings on this topic.
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By the time this book hits the shelves, I will be 70 years old. I recently went to my high school’s fiftieth reunion, where I learned that many of my classmates had died. I receive the AARP magazine, get discounts on various products for being advanced in age and receive social security checks every month. Some euphemists might call me a “mature adult.” I just say old. What does it mean to be old? I still run every morning, sometimes six or more miles a day. I still have an active work life, perhaps more active than ever. I still enjoy all the same leisure activities, whether visiting grandchildren, dining with friends, gardening, traveling, golfing, lecturing or making outdoor improvements like building fences or tinkering with this or that as I used to do on the farm. Some things have changed, though. Clearly there is a difference between the 70 year old me and the 20 year old me. I am slower, not as strong, work fewer hours every day and am prone to taking naps more frequently that I used to.
We all know that getting old brings with it diminished capacities compared with our younger days. But there is good science to show that thinking clearly well into our later years is not something we need to give up. Memory loss, disorientation and confusion are not inevitable parts of aging, but problems linked to that all-important lifestyle factor: diet.
– The China Study by Dr. Campbell; 2006; page 218
Two chief conditions referring to mental decline:
- On the modest side, there is “cognitive impairment” or “cognitive dysfunction.” This condition describes the declining ability to remember and think as well as one once did.
- Then there are mental dysfunctions that become serious, even life threatening. These are called dementia, of which there are two main types:
- Vascular dementia. Vascular dementia is primarily caused by multiple little strokes resulting from broken blood vessels in the brain. It is common for elderly people to have “silent” strokes in their later years. A stroke is considered silent if it goes undetected and undiagnosed. Each little stroke incapacitates part of the brain.
- Alzheimer’s occurs when a protein substance called beta-amyloid accumulates in critical areas of the brain as plaque, rather like the cholesterol-laden plaque that builds up in cardiovascular diseases. It is said that 1% of people at age 65 have evidence of Alzheimer’s, a figure that doubles every five years thereafter.
It has been estimated that 10-12% of individuals with mild cognitive impairment progress to the more serious types of dementia, whereas only 1-2% of individuals without cognitive impairment acquire these diseases. This means that people with cognitive impairment have about a tenfold risk of Alzheimer’s.
Not only does cognitive impairment often lead to more serious dementia, it is also associated with cardiovascular disease, stroke and adult-onset Type 2 diabetes. All of these diseases cluster in the same populations, oftentimes in the same people. This clustering means that they share some of the same risk factors. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is one factor, another is high blood cholesterol. Both of these, of course, can be controlled by diet.
A third risk factor is the amount of those nasty free radicals, which wreak havoc on brain function in our later years. Because free radical damage is so important to the process of cognitive dysfunction and dementia, researchers believe that consuming dietary antioxidants can shield our brains from this damage, as in other diseases. Animal-based foods lack antioxidant shields and tend to activate free radical production and cell damage, while plant-based foods, with their abundant antioxidants, tend to prevent such damage…
Of course, genetics plays a role, and specific genes have been identified that may increase the risk of cognitive decline. But environmental factors also play a key role, most probably the dominant one…
… A recent study compared Alzheimer’s rates to dietary variables across eleven different countries and found that populations with a high fat intake and low cereal and grain intake had higher rates of the disease… Clearly, diet has an important voice in determining how well we think in our later years.
– The China Study by Dr. Campbell; 2006; pages 218 – 219
In a publication from the famous Framingham Study, researchers conclude that for every three additional servings of fruits and vegetables a day, the risk of stroke will be reduced by 22%. Three servings of fruits and vegetables is less than you might think. The following examples count as one serving in this study: 1/2 cup peaches, 1/4 cup tomato sauce, 1/2 cup broccoli or one potato… If every three servings lower the risk by 22%, the benefits add up fast (risk reduction approaches but cannot exceed 100%).
This study provides evidence that health of the arteries and vessels that transport blood to and from your brain is dependent on how well you eat. By extension, it is logical to assume that eating fruits and vegetables will protect against dementia caused by poor vascular health… They found that the people who consumed the most total fat and saturated fat had the highest risk of dementia due to vascular problems.
Alzheimer’s disease is also related to diet and is often found in conjunction with heart disease, which suggests that they share the same causes. We know what causes heart disease, and we know what offers the best hope of reversing heart disease: diet. Experimental animal studies have convincingly shown that a high-cholesterol diet will promote the production of the beta-amyloid common to Alzheimer’s. In confirming these experimental animal results, a study of more than 5,000 people found that greater dietary fat and cholesterol intake tended to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease specifically, and all dementia in general.
In another study on Alzheimer’s, the risk of getting the disease was 3.3 times greater among people whose blood folic acid levels were in the lowest one-third range and 4.5 times greater when blood homocysteine levels were in the highest one-third. What are folic acid and homocysteine? Folic acid is a compound derived exclusively from plant-based foods such as green and leafy vegetables. Homocysteine is an amino acid that is derived primarily from animal protein… In other words, the combination of a diet high in animal-based foods and low in plant-based foods raises the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
– The China Study by Dr. Campbell; 2006; page 220 – 221
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The information contained throughout this blog / website should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician / physician.