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Income, Diet, Alzheimer’s. Update

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Alzheimer’s disease begins decads before first symptoms appear. There is no cure for this devastating neurodegenerative disease. In such situation modification of modifiable risk factors many years before disease begins is only rational strategy for reducing the impact of this disease on society. The question appears what can be modified? It is clear now that in order to slow down the course of disease three types of activity: mental, physical and social along with healthy diet are necessary. How early should we start prophylaxis? In our paper entitled “Correlation of Alzheimer’s disease death rates with historical per capita personal income in the USA” authored by Stępkowski D., Woźniak G., Studnicki M. PLOS One 2015 (on the blog) we found that early periods of life are the most important for the susceptibility to this disease in late age. The susceptibility depends on per capita income, a rough measure of healthiness of a life style. We found that people in higher income groups are less sensitive to this disease. It can be explained by better life style and diet. It means that these social groups are more likely to adapt all the mentioned activities and they also most probably have higher educational attainment and build “cognitive reserve” not mention healthier diet. In our second paper by Studnicki M., Woźniak G., Stępkowski D. entitled “The Calculator of Anti-Alzheimer’s Diet. Macronutrients” PLOS One 2016, “Correction:The Calculator of Anti-Alzheimer’s Diet. Macronutrients” PLOS One 2018 (also present on the blog) we calculated the macronutrient content of a diet which would be a prophylactic solution for Alzheimer’s. Specifically we predict for late age higher protein intake than the American population have eaten. For exact values I refer the reader to the original paper and Correction. One can ask what can be the effect of shifting the consumption to these predicted diets. It has been calculated that modifiable risk factors account for about one third of Alzheimer’s Disease cases. So we can expect that effect of diet will be contained in these 33%. With 5 million cases of Alzheimer’s in the USA reducing new cases by one third would have very important positive impact on the society.
Dariusz Stępkowski

16 commandements of healthy diet

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16 recommendations of healthy nutrition in the prevention of the Alzheimer’s disease, other dementias, obesity, cancers, diabetes, ischaemic illness of the heart

1. Buying food, diverse as possible and from different suppliers, lowering in this way the risk of the accumulation of one type of harmful substances in the body, is recommended.

2. Least processed products, and self-preparation of meals are recommended.

3. Avoidance of the excess of sugar and salt is recommended.

4. Avoidance of the excess of cold cooked meats due to the large content of chemical additives is recommended. For enthusiasts of cold cooked meats a preparation of roasted meat by oneself is a good custom.

5. Avoidance of the excess of meat especially fatty one is recommended. We apply the great changeability of kinds of the meat and suppliers. Eating only a poultry is an infringement of 1st recommendation. The meat can contain harmful amounts of antibiotics – especially poultry is suspicious.

6. We are trying to replace the meat with fish – wild living saltwater fishes are most valuable.

7. Eating several servings of raw vegetables a day is recommended taking a 1st recommendation into account.

8. Eating several servings of fresh fruits is recommended taking a 1st recommendation into account.

9. We are eating slowly in order to let our body to take time for sending information about satiating its needs to the brain.

10. We should generally eat less of the food than we want to eat.

11. We apply small portions of different kinds of dishes clubbing together for the meal.

12. We are serving meals in an aesthetic way, eating slowly what allows for enjoyment of the taste and the appearance of dishes.

13. The dinner will go well with moderate amount of alcohol (equivalent of 25g of pure ethanol ? one glass of wine or one beer or one standard drink).

14. Drinking of one or two cups of the green tea and coffee per day is recommended.

15. Turmeric – spice well-known for Indian cuisine (a component of curry) in combination with the black pepper or hot red peppers should appear on our table.

16. Preparations of fish oil containing Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D3 are the only supplements of the diet worth recommendation, taking a 1st recommendation into account.

Assoc. Prof. Dariusz Stępkowski PhD,DSc
Last revised 2014.05.31