The risk of Alzheimer’s disease is a specter that looms over a graying America. Researchers have been trying to test strategies for prevention, and one such study was reported in the JAMA this week.
A Study of Factors Raising the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease:
The Memory and Aging Project of Rush University Medical Center recruited older volunteers from retirement communities and housing projects around Chicago. Those with a gene called APOE-e4 are at especially high risk of Alzheimer’s disease as they age.
Autopsies Revealed Fewer Plaques in the Brains of Fish Eaters:
During the study people answered detailed questions about their dietary habits. Autopsies of 286 individuals who died during the study showed that those who ate at least one seafood meal a week were less likely to have the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s disease if they were positive for APOE-e4. Those who did not have this genetic predisposition for Alzheimer’s disease did not appear to get significant benefit from eating fish or shellfish, but neither were they harmed.
Is There a Problem with Mercury?
One reason many people are a bit reluctant to eat fish frequently is that they have been warned they could be exposed to excessive levels of mercury. The investigators examined this question carefully. They found that the brains of regular fish eaters did contain more mercury, but there was no correlation between mercury levels and brain pathology.
Preventing Alzheimer’s disease is almost certainly more complicated than just following the custom of eating fish on Friday. (Still, these findings lend some credence to the old wives’ tale insisting that fish is brain food.)
Last year we conducted a fascinating interview with a scientist who has found that a personalized approach to reducing the many risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease can have significant effects. The benefits can be seen in the reversal of dementia while people are alive. That is even more exciting than these promising results from brain tissue at autopsy. To learn how this doctor is reversing Alzheimer’s, you may wish to listen to our interview with Dr. Dale Bredesen.
