Study: Diet boosts memory performance in old age
For the first time, scientists have succeeded, the advantage of a "brain-protective diet" to prove in a study of elderly people. The researchers of the Department of Neurology reduced (Director: Prof. Dr. Dr. Erich Bernd Ringelstein) at the University Hospital Münster (UKM) in a subset of study participants three months the daily Nahrungsmengeauf up to two thirds of the usual number of calories ( "caloric food restriction" ). The research group led by associate professor Dr. Agnes Flöel was able to first prove that the learning performance by caloric restriction increases by 20 percent compared to the control group. The intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids without concomitant caloric restriction now had no positive effect in the future.
The work was published now in the prestigious American journal PNAS ( "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America", USA). PNAS is one of the most prestigious scientific journals worldwide.
Even before it was known from animal experiments that a reduction in the daily amount of food can lead to better memory performance and space orientation aged. Also it was known from observational epidemiological studies have shown that increased intake of mono- or polyunsaturated fatty acids (olive oil, fish oil) and low-calorie, Mediterranean diet brings a relative protection against neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer's disease and mental age degradation with it. Now, these findings were confirmed in an interventional study with the elderly. beneficial effects are to be expected for the aging brain.
The study was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF) Faculty of Medicine, University of Münster, the funding program "Innovative Medical Research" (Münster) and supports the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
It is the first time that evidence of an advantage of this "brain-protective diet" has been furnished in a study of elderly people. The study was carried out in cooperation with the Department of Internal Medicine B at UKM (private lecturer Dr. Reinhold Gellner) and Dr. Manfred Fobker (Laboratory Medicine). Clinic Director Prof. Dr. Erich Bernd Ringelstein: "We thank all participants who were willing to participate in this study, we hope and wish that this study contributes to initiate rethinking our lifestyle of all ages, so that mental alertness and well-being. can be a long time. "
The study is also against the background of overweight children many important: they show but that the lowering of insulin levels is accompanied by an improvement in cognitive function - and the increase results in the opposite. Prof. Ringelstein:. "The overweight children will be as adults not only much sicker than the previous generation, their cognitive performance will increasingly suffer from the obesity and the increased insulin levels in peripheral blood insulin-dependent metabolic pathways of the brain are responsible for the stabilization of the significant long-term memory and for the adjustment of the brain to changing requirements. "
Following on from these results are now repeating in a larger group of people, as well as more detailed investigation of the underlying mechanisms, inter alia, by measuring the gray matter with the magnetic resonance imaging, planned.
Source: Münster [ukm]
