Strawberries and 34% lower risk of AD in Rush Memory Cohort
Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2019 1:18 pm
This Dec. 2019 article may be of interest to those wondering whether berries have an independent association with reduced risk of Alzheimer's. Here's a bit of background and a description of the study participants, a subset of the long-studied Rush Memory and Aging Project in Chicago, provided by the authors of the article Association of Strawberries and Anthocyanidin Intake with Alzheimer’s Dementia Risk:
And here's the results:
The Nurses’ Health Study...reported slower cognitive decline among older women who consumed strawberries more than two times per week when compared to those consuming less than once a week [17]. In the present analysis, we investigated the association between strawberry consumption and the risk of Alzheimer’s dementia in a community cohort of older adults...
The analytical sample of 925 participants was on average 81 (±7.2) years of age, 75% female, 98% White, had a mean educational level of 15 (±3) years, and 21.5% had an APOE-e4 allele. A total of 245 participants developed Alzheimer’s dementia over the mean follow-up of 6.7 (±3.6) years. Strawberry intake ranged from 0 to 2 servings/week (mean intake of the population: 0.64 servings/week)...
The baseline characteristics of participants consuming strawberries more than once a week were similar
to those consuming strawberries rarely or a few times/month (Table 1). Strawberry consumption was
weakly correlated with the consumption of other healthy foods, including other fruits, leafy green
vegetables, seafood, beans/legumes, olive oil, and nuts...
And here's the results:
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/12/3060we controlled for other foods that reported to be associated with better cognition, including leafy green vegetables and seafood... we further adjusted for presence of hypertension, diabetes, myocardial infarction, and stroke but there was little change in the effect estimates (HR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.60, 0.95), indicating that the association is not mediated by cardiovascular conditions. We also assessed any confounding by total vitamin E intake and found no difference in the association (Table 2). Overall, participants consuming one or more servings of strawberries per week had a 34% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia when compared to those consuming none or less than once per month