Diet Hack HALTS Alzheimer’s In Its Tracks?!

The program proven to slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients 

When it comes to Alzheimer’s disease, your best bet is to never get it in the first place. 

There are plenty of ways to reduce your risk — and, if you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I often tell you about them in these articles. 

But what if you already have it? 

Well I have good news. 

There’s hope for you, too! 

It turns out that the same diet program that’s been proven to lower your risk of Alzheimer’s disease can also slow cognitive decline in people who already have it. 

 

When it comes to brain-healthy diets, it doesn’t get much better than the MIND diet. 

It’s essentially a combination of Mediterranean and DASH diet – two diets that have already been proven to lower the risk of heart disease, heart failure, and stroke.  

And now, you can add “protection for Alzheimer’s patients” to its list of benefits.  

Specifically, it helps provide you with something called “cognitive resilience.” 

See, Alzheimer’s patients have a buildup of protein deposits in their brains called beta-amyloid plaque and neurofibrillary tangles that damage brain cells. 

The thing is, some people who have these harmful deposits don’t experience cognitive decline. 

Cognitive resilience is the ability to maintain healthy brain function even in the midst of these harmful substances. 

It turns out that following the MIND diet can give Alzheimer’s patients that coveted cognitive resilience. 

This study is unique because in addition to evaluating the dietary habits of the 550 people in the study, the researchers conducted post-mortem analysis to identify brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. 

They found that having a higher MIND diet score correlated with better cognitive function a slower rate of cognitive decline. 

But post-mortem analysis showed that those with a higher MIND diet score had a slower rate of cognitive decline regardless of the level of Alzheimer’s disease pathologies in the brain. 

In other words, the diet reduced the harmful effect of beta-amyloid plaques on cognitive function. 

It provided cognitive resilience. 

A previous study, published in The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, found that there was a 53 percent decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease in people who rigorously followed the diet, and a 35 percent decreased risk in those that moderately followed it. 

Just as exciting, those who strictly followed the diet had cognitive function that was similar to someone 7.5 years younger! 

That should make you interested in following this diet whether you have Alzheimer’s or not! 

Here’s what you need to know about this brain-protective plan. 

Eat lots of green leafy vegetables, berries, nuts, beans, wine, whole grains, fish, poultry, and olive oil. And avoid fried food, pastries and sweets, butter and margarine, cheese, and red meat. 

I’m on board with everything except for the red meat and dairy. You can have plenty of butter and red meat – just make sure it comes from organic, grass-fed cows.