Diet and biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

While the evidence shows that adherence to the Mediterranean diet is linked with lower prevalences of Alzheimer’s Disease, Hill et al. (2019) conducts the first systematic review and meta-analysis to inspect the relationship between Mediterranean-style diet adherence and the hallmark AD biomarkers that appear many years before clinical symptomatology. Several databases were systematically searched for articles that investigated diet and AD biomarkers in the past 2 decades. Of the 15 studies that met the inclusion criteria, 13 found a significant relationship: 4 studies discovered a correlation between high glycaemic load with elevated AD biomarker levels; while six studies indicated that adherence to a Mediterranean or “AD-protective” dietary pattern resulted in a lower AD biomarker burden. The meta-analysis revealed that diet had a small but significant effect on AD biomarkers. While there is a lack of efficacious pharmacological options for Alzheimer’s disease, this review suggests that diet and nutrition have potential use cases in the prevention of AD in a non-pharmacological way. [NPIDs: aging, elderly, cognitive decline, neurodegenerative disorders, dementia, cognition, Alzheimer’s disease, Alzheimer’s, AD]

Year: 2019

Reference: Hill, E., Goodwill, A. M., Gorelik, A., & Szoeke, C. (2019). Diet and biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Neurobiology of aging, 76, 45–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2018.12.008