Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s can be difficult and overwhelming. Dealing with repeated questions can be a challenge and disruption throughout the day. Many caregivers are so focused on the tasks of care giving that they do not recognize the losses in their own life.
In a finding sure to fuel the debate over the harms of saturated fat, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital published a study Friday suggesting that saturated fats — found in red meat and full-fat dairy products — causes the brain to age more rapidly than other kinds of fat. Olive oil, avocado, and other monounsaturated fats appear to slow brain aging.
If nuts can help stave off Alzheimer’s, what else is good for your mind. Here are some ways to boost your brain.
It is the ticking time-bomb that will affect 1.7 million of us in just 40 years. But can you stave off Alzheimer’s with a healthy diet. This week scientists said eating chicken, oily fish and nuts may help stop it developing. So what do the experts say about the other claimed methods of beating the disease.
Scientists in the US who looked at 65 health elderly people, whose average age was 76, found those who did so tended to lower amounts of a destructive protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, than those who were less mentally active.
The researchers at the University of California’s Berkeley campus found they had less beta-amyloid, which are thought to cause Alzheimer’s when they accumulate in sufficient quantities to fold into tangles plaques.
US researchers linked to Harvard University found older women who ate lots of food high in saturated fats had worse memories than others.
By contrast, those who ate more monounsaturated fats – found in olive oil, sunflower oil, seeds, nuts and avocados – had better memories.
Dr Oliva Okereke, from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., which is affiliated to Harvard Medical School, said: “When looking at changes in cognitive function, what we found is that the total amount of fat intake did not really matter, but the type of fat did.”