A healthy diet cuts Alzheimer's risk by 40 percent

(NaturalNews) A recent study conducted by researchers at Columbia University in New York has found that people who eat a diet rich in olive oil, fish, nuts, poultry, and fruits and vegetables, lower their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by 40 percent.

Dr. Yian Gu, one of the researchers involved in the study, commented on what most in the natural health community already know. "Diet is probably the easiest way to modify disease risk," she explained concerning the research.

In comparison to other Alzheimer's studies that focus on isolated nutrients, this study focused on food groups that are commonly associated with lowering Alzheimer's disease risk. These include brain-boosting foods that are rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, B vitamins, folate and vitamin E.

"People who adhered mostly to this dietary pattern compared to others have about a 40 percent reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease," explained Gu in a Reuters interview.

The team evaluated more than 2,100 people over the age of 65 for about four years. Every 18 months, they checked patients for Alzheimer's disease, and they discovered that those who ate best were least likely to have developed the illness.

People in the healthier category ate less red meat and dairy products, and more fruits, nuts, fish, cruciferous vegetables, and dark, leafy greens.

The researchers determined that a heart-healthy diet protects the brain from strokes, which in turn protect people from developing Alzheimer's disease. The isolated nutrients also work to promote brain health and protect it from degenerative disease.

The researchers did insist the diet only works preventatively and that there is no cure for Alzheimer's, however other research seems to indicate that high doses of certain nutrients and foods may actually reverse the serious form of dementia that afflicts more than 26 million people around the world.

Some of the things that are commonly attributed to causing Alzheimer's include aluminum in anti-perspirant deodorants, artificial nitrates and nitrites added to meat, food additives and preservatives like MSG, and foods in general that are high in bad fats and processed sugars.

Eating a Mediterranean diet like the one evaluated in the study is a good start, but there are additional ways to help ensure that you never get Alzheimer's disease. Some examples include juicing fresh, organic fruits and vegetables everyday and supplementing your diet with a wide variety of antioxidant-rich superfoods.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS...

Magnesium found to boost learning and memory

(NaturalNews) Magnesium, as NaturalNews has reported through the years, is an essential nutrient that benefits health in many important ways. For example, research has shown it helps to prevent heart disease (http://www.naturalnews.com/027392_m...), slashes the risk of cerebral palsy (http://www.naturalnews.com/025350_m...), and can even treat age-related hearing loss (http://www.naturalnews.com/026834_h...). Now a study by Chinese scientists, published in the in the January 28th issue of the journal Neuron, shows magnesium could have a powerful impact on the brain, too -- and boost learning and memory.

In a statement to the media, the researchers noted that diet can affect cognitive capacity. Because learning and memory tend to decline with age and disease, they decided to search for dietary factors that could prevent these changes by having a positive influence on the sites of communication between brain cells (neurons) called synapses. Professor Guosong Liu, Director of the Center for Learning and Memory at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, led the new study to see whether supplementing the diet with magnesium could boost brain power in this way.

The results suggest increasing magnesium intake could be a successful, drug-free way to improve brain function. It also supports the idea that too-low levels of magnesium could result in increased deterioration of memory in aging humans.

"Magnesium is essential for the proper functioning of many tissues in the body, including the brain and, in an earlier study, we demonstrated that magnesium promoted synaptic plasticity in cultured brain cells," Dr. Liu explained in the press statement. "Therefore it was tempting to take our studies a step further and investigate whether an increase in brain magnesium levels enhanced cognitive function in animals."

Using a new magnesium compound dubbed magnesium-L-threonate (MgT) that can significantly increase magnesium in the brain when used as a dietary supplement, the research team gave magnesium to lab rats of different ages along with their regular diet. Then the scientists checked the animals for behavioral and cellular changes associated with memory.

"We found that increased brain magnesium enhanced many different forms of learning and memory in both young and aged rats," stated Dr. Liu. In fact, the research revealed an increase in the number of functional synapses and enhancement of a host of processes in the brain that are necessary for learning and memory.

"Our findings suggest that elevating brain magnesium content via increasing magnesium intake might be a useful new strategy to enhance cognitive abilities," Dr. Liu concluded in the media statement. "Moreover, half the population of industrialized countries has a magnesium deficit, which increases with aging. This may very well contribute to age-dependent memory decline; increasing magnesium intake might prevent or reduce such decline."

Editor's note: NaturalNews is opposed to the use of animals in medical experiments that expose them to harm. We present these findings in protest of the way in which they were acquired.

For more information:
http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext...
http://www.naturalnews.com/magnesiu...