Here’s Today’s Feel-Good Story:
A study over 10 years in the making shows that a healthy lifestyle, including a nutritious diet, can slow down memory decline in older people.
The benefits also affect the gene that makes them susceptible to Alzheimer’s.
The research team says that memory declines continuously with age, but that existing evidence was insufficient in assessing how a healthy lifestyle affects the speed of the decline.
“A healthy diet had the strongest effect on slowing memory decline, followed by cognitive activity and then physical exercise,” said study lead author Professor Jianping Jia.
“Compared with the group that had unfavorable lifestyles, memory decline in the favorable lifestyle group was 0.28 points slower over 10 years based on a standardized score of the AVLT, and memory decline in the average lifestyle group was 0.16 points slower. Participants with the APOE gene with favorable and average lifestyles also experienced a slower rate of memory decline than those with an unfavorable lifestyle.”
“What’s more, those with favorable and average lifestyles were almost 90 percent and almost 30 percent less likely to develop dementia or mild cognitive impairment relative to those with an unfavorable lifestyle—and the APOE group had similar results.”
