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Alzheimer's risk linked to diet

 

James Meek

Saturday February 17, 2001

The Guardian

 

Evidence that diet plays a major role in causing Alzheimer's disease was

released yesterday after scientists found that African Americans were more than

twice as likely to suffer from the condition as people of similar age in

Nigeria.

US and Nigerian scientists have spent more than eight years studying

thousands of elderly people in two communities - Indianapolis, in Indiana, and

Ibadan, in Nigeria.

 

In a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association,

researchers said that the incidence of Alzheimer's in the 65-plus age group

among African Americans was 2.5%. Among the Yoruba people of Ibadan of that age,

it was 1.15%. When the scientists looked at all types of dementia, they found an

even sharper difference - 3.24% in the US and 1.35% in Nigeria.

 

One possible conclusion is that the mainly vegetarian diet of the Yoruba,

compared with the fatty diet of many Americans, offers protection against

Alzheimer's as well as against cardiovascular disease, the biggest killer in the

rich world.

 

Hugh Henrie, who led the research at Indiana University, said: " To our

knowledge, this is the first report of incidence rate differences for

Alzheimer's and dementia between populations in developed and developing

countries in studies that used identical methods and groups of investigators. "

 

One possible explanation, they said, was the major difference in risk

factors for cardiovascular disease between African Americans and Yoruba. The

Nigerians, on average, are leaner, have lower cholesterol levels, and suffer

less from high blood pressure and diabetes.

 

" Vascular disease may contribute both to dementia and to the development,

progression, and clinical severity of Alzheimer's, " the report said.

 

Other studies have already hinted at a link between cardiovascular illness

and Alzheimer's. However, there has never been enough evidence before to bracket

Alzheimer's disease together with heart disease in public warnings about

unhealthy eating.