Rules for Brain Health

Nothing in life is guaranteed — neither a long life nor one free of the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

But as researches are learning, there are positive lifestyle changes you can adopt to cut your dementia risks substantially.

“It was once thought you couldn’t do anything to prevent Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia, but we know now that this is not the case,” says Dr. Robert Keith, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System nutrition and health specialist and Auburn University professor of nutrition and food science.

Keith shared his views about the role positive lifestyle practices can play in reducing dementia with members of the Capital City Kiwanis Club in Montgomery, Monday, August 27.

The first thing to bear in mind is that as we age, our chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia increase. Some of these risks can’t be avoided. They’re a fact of life associated with aging.

On the other hand, research has shown that some of this risk is influenced by our lifestyle habits. And just as lifestyle can be changed, so can some of the risks associated with mental degeneration later in life.

Smoking

At the top of the list is smoking.

Cigarette smoking is strongly linked with lung cancer and other lung-related disorders, such as emphysema, and with other types of cancer, such as pancreatic cancer. But what many people don’t know is that smoking also increases your likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Toxins associated with smoking are a big factor, some of which are directly harmful to the brain.

“If you smoke a lot, you’re going to get those toxins entering into and damaging your brain,” Keith says.

But these toxins are damaging in other ways. They also cause artery damage, which, over time, may impede blood flow to the brain.

Smoking also increases blood pressure, which ultimately can cause TIAs, or transient ischemic attacks — ministrokes in the brain.

Also, when you smoke, you inhale carbon monoxide, which replaces oxygen in red blood cells.

“Your brain ends up getting less oxygen than it should,” Keith says.
Simply put, the cumulative effect of years of smoking can be costly in terms of brain health.

“If you are a regular smoker, you add up all of this over a period of years, and you face a greatly increased risk of developing dementia,” Keith says.

Chronic Diseases

Any kind of vascular disease that undermines blood vessel function — elevated cholesterol and hypertension, for example — contributes to Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Likewise, anything you can do to enhance your cardiovascular function helps your brain and reduces these risks.

“We know now that just as we can put you on a heart-healthy diet, we also can put you on a brain-healthy diet,” Keith says.

The important thing to bear in mind is that if you have high blood cholesterol, hypertension and excess body fat, particularly abdominal fat, you not only face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease but also a greater risk of mental degeneration later in life.

“By treating these conditions to prevent cardiovascular disease, you’re also helping your brain,” Keith says.

Type-2 diabetes is another factor that not only affects cardiovascular health but also brain function.

“If you have type-2 diabetes and you’re secreting a lot of insulin over a period of years, this insulin has been shown to be detrimental to the brain,” Keith says.

Nutrition

Scientists are learning that there also are a lot of nutritional factors associated with brain health.

Diets high in B vitamins, for example — especially B-12, B-6, choline and folic acid — have been shown to reduce the chances of developing dementia.
B vitamins appear to help lower blood levels of a substance known as homocysteine, which causes inflammation and is especially toxic to blood vessels and, ultimately, to the brain.

Another helpful B vitamin is niacin, though it appears to have a different association with mental degeneration than other B-complex vitamins. Niacin deficiency appears to contribute directly to dementia — a fact that has led researchers to conclude that Americans need to consume more of this essential B vitamin, Keith says.

Diets, such as the Mediterranean diet, which emphasize eating lots of fruits and vegetables, also appear to contribute to brain health.

“People who follow these sorts of fruit- and vegetable-rich diets get a lot of what we call antioxidants,” Keith says.

These substances, which fruits and vegetables contain in the thousands, are considered potent chemical safeguards against degenerative mental diseases.
Keith recommends 5 servings or more a day of fruits and vegetables.

Fish oil also is now believed to be a possible safeguard against dementia.
Keith recommends consuming about three servings of fish a week, though he adds that substituting fish oil supplements, roughly 1000 milligrams a day, also appears to be helpful.

“There is no solid recommendation about how much fish to eat, but we do know that people who eat more fish get less dementia,” Keith says.

Coffee and Tea

In terms of its perceived health benefits, coffee’s fortunes have risen and fallen for decades.

Now, though, researchers are discovering that people who drink more coffee and tea may be deriving big benefits — at least, in terms of preventing dementia.

“There are various substances in those beverages that may be helping brain function,” Keith says.

Researchers are not sure what in these beverages is providing these benefits, though they suspect caffeine, among other substances, may be play a role.
“We don’t want people to overdo it with coffee and tea, but now we are telling them that if they are drinking these beverages, they should continue,” Keith says.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at August 29, 2007 03:46 PM