Plant flavonols significantly reduce Alzheimer’s risk

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antimatter37
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Dietary Flavonols

Post by antimatter37 »

A new paper in the journal Neurology looks at the multi-year effects of dietary flavonols on Alzheimer's.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000008981

In this study, 921 participants with no initial dementia were followed over several years, with 220 of those persons ultimately developing dementia by the end of the study. The group was categorized into 5 groups based on total dietary flavonol intake. Flavonols studied were kaempferol, quercetin, myricetin, and isorhamnetin. Some results and observations:

1. Participants in the highest vs lowest groups of total flavonol intake had a 48% lower rate of developing AD over the 6.1 year study period.

2. Dietary flavonol benefits included those participants who were APOE4 positive.

3. Participants with high educational attainment tended to have the highest flavonol intake (I find this result interesting, as education has been known as a positive factor overall in AD progression).

4. Isorhamnetin, kaempferol, and myricetin were each associated with a reduction in the rate of incident AD, with reductions of 38%,
50%, and 38%, respectively, for persons in the fifth vs first quintiles of intake. Quercetin was not associated with incident AD in this study, although the authors note that it has been mentioned as having positive effects in other studies.

5. The authors also looked to see if intake of other AD-related nutrients might explain these flavonol results, including vitamin E, saturated fat, folate, lutein, and omega-3 fatty acids, There was no material change in results when these were accounted for.

6. in this cohort, the top food item contributors to the individual flavonols were kale, beans, tea, spinach, and broccoli for kaempferol; tomatoes, kale, apples, and tea for quercetin; tea, wine, kale, oranges, and tomatoes for myricetin; and pears, olive oil, wine, and tomato sauce for isorhamnetin.

As a carbo-fiend and carnivore myself, I guess I need to hold out for injectable kale.
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Jmac
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Plant flavonols significantly reduce Alzheimer’s risk

Post by Jmac »

This is an article ABOUT the study. The link to the study is posted twice below. Good that I am already doing all that is mentioned, except I really can't stand kale so it is out. :-)

"A new study published in the journal Neurology in January 2020 concludes that increasing the intake of plant flavonols steeply reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) by up to a half. In other words, AD could be prevented in many people simply by regularly eating and drinking more foods containing these compounds such as tea, oranges and broccoli."
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200 ... -risk.aspx

Journal reference:
Dietary flavonols and risk of Alzheimer dementia Thomas M. Holland, Puja Agarwal, Yamin Wang, Sue E. Leurgans, David A. Bennett, Sarah L. Booth, Martha Clare Morris Neurology Jan 2020, 10.1212/WNL.0000000000008981; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000008981, https://n.neurology.org/content/early/2 ... 0000008981

The study:
Dietary flavonols and risk of Alzheimer dementia

Abstract

Objective To determine whether dietary intake of flavonols is associated with Alzheimer dementia.

Methods The study was conducted among 921 participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP), an ongoing community-based, prospective cohort. Participants completed annual neurologic evaluations and dietary assessments using a validated food frequency questionnaire.

Results Among 921 MAP participants who initially had no dementia in the analyzed sample, 220 developed Alzheimer dementia. The mean age of the sample was 81.2 years (SD 7.2), with the majority (n = 691, 75%) being female... https://n.neurology.org/content/early/2 ... 0000008981
Emily C
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Re: Plant flavonols significantly reduce Alzheimer’s risk

Post by Emily C »

This is exciting news! Thanks for sharing!

Emily
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Re: Plant flavonols significantly reduce Alzheimer’s risk

Post by Fiver »

I love plant polyphenols and I'm not surprised that they reduce risk.

They found reduced risk associated with kaempferol, myricetin, and isorhamnetin. They state they found not risk reduction associated with quercetin but their data kind of suggests that a larger study might detect that as well.

I'm not exactly sure how they untangled all of the other plant products present in these foods but it's promising and consistent with other studies. Good news!
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Jmac
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Re: Plant flavonols significantly reduce Alzheimer’s risk

Post by Jmac »

Fiver wrote:They state they found not risk reduction associated with quercetin but their data kind of suggests that a larger study might detect that as well.
I add quercetin powder to my smoothies. It came up when I was researching things to help my mom with her bladder issues. Seems it has some "stop-pee-powers" :-). I have no clue whether it is helping but I added whatever I could to the things mom puts in her daily smoothie to counter health issues affecting her sleep. I decided to try. I THINK it is helping but it's a guess.
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Re: Plant flavonols significantly reduce Alzheimer’s risk

Post by NewRon »

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=6948

Is this the same study?
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antimatter37
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Re: Plant flavonols significantly reduce Alzheimer’s risk

Post by antimatter37 »

Yes. I'll copy the text over to here so folks can have a look.

A new paper in the journal Neurology looks at the multi-year effects of dietary flavonols on Alzheimer's.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000008981

In this study, 921 participants with no initial dementia were followed over several years, with 220 of those persons ultimately developing dementia by the end of the study. The group was categorized into 5 groups based on total dietary flavonol intake. Flavonols studied were kaempferol, quercetin, myricetin, and isorhamnetin. Some results and observations:

1. Participants in the highest vs lowest groups of total flavonol intake had a 48% lower rate of developing AD over the 6.1 year study period.

2. Dietary flavonol benefits included those participants who were APOE4 positive.

3. Participants with high educational attainment tended to have the highest flavonol intake (I find this result interesting, as education has been known as a positive factor overall in AD progression).

4. Isorhamnetin, kaempferol, and myricetin were each associated with a reduction in the rate of incident AD, with reductions of 38%,
50%, and 38%, respectively, for persons in the fifth vs first quintiles of intake. Quercetin was not associated with incident AD in this study, although the authors note that it has been mentioned as having positive effects in other studies.

5. The authors also looked to see if intake of other AD-related nutrients might explain these flavonol results, including vitamin E, saturated fat, folate, lutein, and omega-3 fatty acids, There was no material change in results when these were accounted for.

6. in this cohort, the top food item contributors to the individual flavonols were kale, beans, tea, spinach, and broccoli for kaempferol; tomatoes, kale, apples, and tea for quercetin; tea, wine, kale, oranges, and tomatoes for myricetin; and pears, olive oil, wine, and tomato sauce for isorhamnetin.
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Re: Plant flavonols significantly reduce Alzheimer’s risk

Post by noatakgirl »

Respectfully, there is not much science in this study. First, it is based upon notoriously unreliable FFQ, here done on only an annual basis. Second, if anything, the study reflects the healthy user bias, as the study notes these women (most in the study were women 75%) consuming the most of these foods had the highest education and activity levels. Third, the HR is low, not really showing a strong signal. Many researchers will say if your HR not over 2, then showing nothing, no signal. Finally, even if there is a signal, this is at most an association which would need further study to demonstrate causation.

I am not saying there is anything wrong with eating these foods, but I don't buy the micronutrient superfood hypothesis as the answer for the APOE4 problem.
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Re: Dietary Flavonols

Post by Tongass »

Here is another article on this topic:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/well ... -risk.html
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