Good nutrition and cognitive function

Besides all of this being able to identify your friends, colleagues, and tell stories to your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren are important.

Moreover maintaining your health, which include good cognitive function as you get older and minimising one’s potential risk for age-related disorders are desired goals. Some studies indicate that dietary factors which include antioxidants, vitamins, polyphenols, and fish have been reported to reduce the potential risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Today’s article will focus on nutritional health and cognitive function; you should note that good nutrition is essential in contributing to quality of life, improving and/or maintaining mental and physical health, and prevention of disease.

Overview The National Center for Health Statistics reports documented the leading causes of death for person age 65 and older; these are heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes mellitus with a mortality distribution of 29 percent, 22 percent, 7 percent, 4 percent, and 3 percent, respectively.

You should keep in mind that these diseases may more than likely impact their ability to perform activities for daily living such as meal preparation, cleaning, grocery shopping, bathing, dressing and so on. When you consider, losing your ability to function and becoming dependent on others, it can be frightening. Sometimes memory loss may occur; significant loss of memory coupled with decline in cognitive function may be referred to as dementia.

Dementia can be described as a condition of “progressive cognitive decline that is characterised by impaired thinking, memory, problem solving, decision-making, and linguistic ability; it is not a disease but rather a set of symptoms associated with particular degenerative neurological conditions.” Alzheimer’s disease account for approximately 60 to 70 percent of dementia; other disorders which cause dementia include vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia and so on. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of ageing, and memory problems are usually one of the first signs of cognitive loss. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s.

Micronutrient deficiencies of vitamin B12 and folate promotes poor vascular health and cognitive decline, due to elevated levels of homocysteine (an amino acid) in the blood. An excessive amount of homocysteine in the brain tissue can contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease either through vascular mechanisms or as a neurotoxin.

What studies say Also, Fung et al. (2004), Hooijmans et al. (2007) and Studzinski et al. (2009) they documented that the Western diet comprising of red and processed meats, refined grains, high-fat foods, sweets and desserts may probably contribute to developing Alzheimer’s disease by impacting the amyloid beta- peptide and oxidative stress.

In taking a look at the traditional Japanese diet consisting of fish and plant foods (soybean products, seaweeds, vegetables and fruits) and lower dietary intakes of refined carbs and animal fats; in a longitudinal study, the researchers indicated that among the Japanese study participants who had a high intake of soybean and soybean products, vegetables, algae, milk and dairy products, and lesser amount of rice in the diet showed lower potential risk of Alzheimer’s disease (Ozawa et al.

2013). Similarly, in a large study conducted subjects who had the highest adherence to a healthy diet consisting of fruit, whole grains, fresh dairy products, vegetables, breakfast cereal, tea, vegetable fat, nuts and fish had better cognitive function (Kesse-Guyot et al. 2012).

In a randomised clinical trial they found that the participants who consumed the DAS H diet (comprise of a higher consumption of plant foods, fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, whole grains, lowfat dairy products, and nuts, with lower dietary intakes of red meat, concentrated sweets, and foods high in salt) showed greater neurocognitive improvements (Smith et al. 2010, Hanky, 2012).

The key, good nutrition Adequate intake of good sources of vitamin B12 (meats, liver, poultry, eggs, milk and milk products, and ready-to-eat cereals) and folate (fortified grain products, dark green leafy vegetables, broccoli, oranges, bananas, grapefruit, milk, cheese, yogurt, and dried beans) will be beneficial to improving health; for these two micronutrients are required to convert homocysteine to methionine.

The basic role of methionine is to aid in the synthesis of S-adenosylmethionine, which is distributed throughout the central nervous system for utilisation in methylation reactions such as in the case of vitamin B12 for the production of myelin (insulation cover on nerves) and folate for the DNA cycle (replication of cell). Aisen et al. (2008) stated that increased supplementation of vitamin B has decreased homocysteine levels, but did not decrease the progression of cognitive decline in persons diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Other essential B vitamins (eg thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin) are involved with energy metabolism (helping the body to use carbohydrates, protein, and fats), required for growth and maintenance of nerve and muscle tissues (thiamin), normal vision (riboflavin), and also help with proper functioning of the nervous system (specifically thiamin and niacin); the best sources include grains and grain products, milk, cheese, yogurt, liver, chicken, fish, eggs, dried beans and nuts (Brown, 2011).

Remember: Eating a balanced diet including foods from all the Caribbean Food Groups can probably aid in providing the essential nutrients that you need, as well as in meeting your daily nutritional requirements.

Claudette Mitchell, PhD, RD – Assistant Professor, University of the Southern Caribbean, School of Science, Technology, and Allied Health