Studyveggies to sharper brains

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Study links veggies to sharper brains

Provided by Evansville Courier & Press on 7/20/2004

by MALCOLM RITTER AP science writer

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Here's another reason to eat your veggies: A new study

suggests certain vegetables like broccoli and spinach

may help older women keep their brains sharper.

Researchers found that women in their 60s who ate more

cruciferous and green leafy vegetables than other

women went on to show less overall decline over time

on a bundle of tests measuring memory, verbal ability

and attention.

 

Such foods include broccoli, cauliflower, romaine

lettuce and spinach.

 

The federally funded study didn't include men, but the

effect would probably appear in them too, said Jae Hee

Kang, an instructor at Harvard's Brigham and Women's

Hospital in Boston.

 

She spoke in a telephone interview before presenting

the work Monday in Philadelphia at the International

Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related

Disorders.

 

Other studies released Monday showed evidence that

obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure can

raise the risk of developing Alzheimer's or other

dementia later on, and that leisure activities with

mental, physical and social aspects may reduce the

risk of later dementia.

 

Kang's study and the other two " add to the growing

understanding that we may be able to reduce our risk

of Alzheimer's by changing our lifestyles - losing

weight, changing our diets and staying mentally and

socially active, " said Marilyn Albert, who chairs the

Alzheimer Association's Medical and Scientific

Advisory Council.

 

Kang stressed that her findings need to be confirmed

by further studies.

 

She and colleagues looked at 13,388 nurses

participating in a long-running health study. They

compared the participants' questionnaires on long-term

eating habits over a span of 10 years, when they were

in their 60s, to their performance in two test

sessions when they were in their 70s. Researchers

noted how much the scores declined in the two years

between sessions.

 

The tests included such tasks as remembering word

lists after 15 minutes, naming as many animals as

possible in one minute, and reciting a list of numbers

backward. A pronounced drop in performance on such

tests may foreshadow Alzheimer's.

 

While most women in the study showed some decline,

those who had habitually eaten the most of the green

leafy vegetables showed less decline than those who

ate the least, Kang said.

 

" It was almost like they were younger by one or two

years in terms of their cognitive declining, " Kang

said.

 

The contrasts appeared between those who ate about

eight servings versus three servings of green leafy

vegetables a week, and those who ate about five

servings versus two servings of cruciferous vegetables

a week.

 

One of the other new studies found evidence that

obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure in

middle age each added substantially to the risk of

developing Alzheimer's or other dementia later on.

Each problem roughly doubled the risk, and study

participants with all three traits ran six times the

risk of somebody without any of them, said researcher

Dr. Miia Kivipelto of the Karolinska Institute in

Stockholm.

 

©2003 The Evansville Courier Company