From: Doug Skrecky (oberon@vcn.bc.ca)
Date: Mon Aug 02 1999 - 02:01:36 MDT
>From LOWCARB Digest - 28 Jul 1999 to 29 Jul 1999 (#1999-175)
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 18:54:16 -0400
From: Dean Esmay <esmay@SYNDICOMM.COM>
Subject: Fat & dementia
Low-Fat Diet, Dementia Linked
Low-Fat Diet, Dementia Linked
By JEAN CHRISTENSEN
Associated Press Writer
HONOLULU (AP) _ Researchers studying dementia say they have
uncovered a possible health benefit to the relatively fatty Western
diet, but they caution against changing eating habits based on the
finding.
A study funded by the National Institute on Aging and the
Department of Veterans Affairs found that a diet high in animal fat
and protein may protect against the onset of dementia in people who
have suffered a stroke. The study was published in the July 22
issue of the journal Neurology.
The findings are the latest from an ongoing study of
cardiovascular disease that began in 1965 and initially involved
more than 8,000 Japanese-American men living in Hawaii.
Fewer than half the participants of the Honolulu Heart Program
are still living. The Honolulu-Asia Aging Study, begun in 1991, is
a part of the program that deals with dementia.
Researchers compared the dietary preferences of 68 study
participants who had developed dementia as a result of a stroke
with the preferences of 106 participants who had had a stroke but
were not suffering from dementia, and 3,335 participants who had
had neither a stroke nor dementia.
They found that those who preferred a Western diet _ higher in
animal fat and protein and lower in complex carbohydrates than a
traditional Asian diet _ were roughly 57 percent less likely to
develop dementia after a stroke. They also found a lower incidence
of stroke-related dementia in people who took vitamin E
supplements.
Study participants, born between 1900 and 1919, answered
questions about their food preferences when the study began in
1965.
``This shouldn't be interpreted as advice to go and get in line
at the Burger King or McDonald's,'' said Dr. G. Webster Ross,
co-principal investigator of the aging study and a neurologist with
the Honolulu VA Medical Center.
He said the study did not determine exactly what foods and
nutrients in the Western diet may be most important in preventing
dementia after a stroke. Future research will attempt to do that,
he said.
But Ross said studies in animals suggest that higher amounts of
animal fat and protein in the diet may contribute to better
stability of blood vessel walls in the brain.
Stroke-related, or vascular, dementia is the nation's
second-leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, which
afflicts about 4 million people in the United States. An estimated
1 million to 2 million people in the United States suffer from
vascular dementia, a deterioration of emotional and cognitive
abilities that can affect memory, language, reasoning and
personality traits.
Dr. Helen Petrovitch, co-principal investigator of the Honolulu
aging study, said the study accounted for previously known factors
related to dementia such as age and education.
The highest prevalence of dementia was found in the oldest study
participants. The study also found that controlling hypertension,
diabetes and other risk factors could help prevent strokes and
vascular dementia.
Ross said that by studying the same group of first- and
second-generation Japanese-Americans over three decades,
researchers have been able to compare environmental and cultural
differences between the United States and Japan while keeping
genetic factors constant.
Dr. James Mortimer, director of the Institute on Aging at the
University of South Florida in Tampa, called the Honolulu findings
``very interesting.''
``As far as I know it's the first time that anyone has looked at
the issue this way. People have looked at diet and stroke, but no
one has looked at diet and (stroke-related) dementia,'' he said.
Mortimer said the findings may be related to the fact that the
relatively high-salt Japanese diet is associated with an increased
stroke risk. High salt consumption is related to hypertension, a
common factor in strokes.
University of South Florida epidemiology professor Amy
Borenstein Graves, who is married to Mortimer, said the study adds
an intriguing twist to her own finding that the general Japanese
lifestyle is associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline. She
said she hasn't studied the impact of diet, specifically.
Borenstein Graves has collaborated with the Honolulu-Asia Aging
Study as co-principal investigator of the Ni-Hon-Sea Project, a
broader dementia research effort involving Japanese and
Japanese-American populations in Seattle, Honolulu and Hiroshima,
Japan.
``This is an exciting study because it's one of several new
studies showing an association between dementia and Japanese
lifestyle,'' Borenstein Graves said.
But she said until more is known, people with low-fat diets
should not eat more fat based on the findings because they could
increase their risk of heart disease.
Additional note from reposter:
Monosaturated and omega-3 fats have also been linked to a reduced
risk of cognitive decline.
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