Could this easy food swap prevent Alzheimer’s?
Once we start creeping up in years — and getting a few extra candles on our birthday cakes — nothing is more frightening than the thought of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Every “senior moment” — like forgetting where you left your purse or parked your car — can leave us wondering whether we’re on a slippery slope.
One that could cost us our precious memories and even our independence.
But it turns out that you don’t need to wait around to see if you’re going to be the next Alzheimer’s statistic.
Because European researchers have found a simple way you can prevent memory loss and maybe even reverse Alzheimer’s damage to your brain.
And it all starts with some delicious foods you may have sworn off years ago.
But now we’re learning that there’s a whole lot more to the story.
New research out of Tufts University has found that at least 25 percent of Alzheimer’s cases may be due to lifestyle factors, like what you eat.
That means that more than 1 million Americans today are living with Alzheimer’s that could have been prevented.
That’s absolutely heartbreaking, but it looks like there’s finally some good news on the horizon. Because Danish scientists have discovered that one dietary change could make all the difference in whether you develop Alzheimer’s… or not.
All you have to do is make sure you’re loading up on lots of healthy fats.
That’s right, fats — like beef, eggs, butter, and all your other favorite foods the mainstream has been telling you to stay away from.
I’ve told you before how a diet rich in quality fats can help you prevent everything from heart disease to diabetes — and now it looks like it could keep you from ever getting an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
You see, the Danish research team– in partnership with the National Institutes of Health — found that our brains need fuel to stay healthy and ward off damage. And fat is our brains’ fuel of choice.
And your brain seems to get the most protection from medium-chain fatty acids, like you’d find in coconut oil.
What’s really interesting about this study is that the researchers weren’t looking for ways to prevent Alzheimer’s or dementia. That came later.
They were trying to find something to help kids with a very rare disease called Cockayne syndrome. That makes kids age rapidly and turn into “old” people before they’re even teenagers.
These poor children have a DNA defect that accelerates aging and damage to their cells — especially in their brains. And, believe it or not, it’s very similar to the damage you experience when you’re suffering from Alzheimer’s.
But researchers found that when they fed mice with the same DNA disorder a high-fat diet, they were actually able to slow the aging of cells. These cells literally stayed younger and functioned more effectively.
Even better, a high-fat diet seemed to kick their bodies’ natural cell repair processes into overdrive. That’s huge, because once you lose the ability to repair the damage to your brain cells, Alzheimer’s can set in and advance fast.
Professor Vihelm Bohr, who headed the study, said it’s clear that a high-fat diet may be able to “postpone aging processes,” and help patients with everything from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s.
I’d hope this latest finding would be enough to silence those low-fat fanatics once and for all.
But if not, at least we can be thankful that we know the truth.
Sources:
“High-fat diet postponing brain aging,” University of Copenhagen Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, healthsciences.ku.dk
