2024-03-09 06:40:38
Some are eager to solve Sudokus, others are still learning a musical instrument in old age: many seniors are worried about developing dementia and they try to combat it with various means. In view of the constantly increasing life expectancy, this is not without reason: it is estimated that almost a million people in Germany are currently suffering from Alzheimer’s alone, the most common form of dementia – and the trend is rising.
“We are facing a huge problem,” says the President of the German Society for Neurology (DGN), Lars Timmermann. “We expect 1.5 million people to be affected by the year 2050.” If the disease could be delayed, that would not only be a great benefit for the individual, but also in terms of health economics.
Now a research team claims one Study, certain dietary supplements could delay the decline in mental performance by two years. “Cognitive decline is one of the biggest health concerns for most older people,” lead author Chirag Vyas from Harvard Medical School in Boston is quoted as saying in a statement from his university. “Daily multivitamin supplementation has the potential to be an attractive and accessible approach to slowing cognitive aging.”
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His colleague and study director Olivia Okereke is convinced that the result will attract attention among seniors. Experts are also paying attention to the result – especially because previous studies have found no protective effect through nutritional supplements, regardless of whether they were multivitamin preparations, minerals or a combination of both.
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An analysis of eight studies in 2018 found no evidence that such preparations could delay dementia. This was reported by a team led by Naji Tabet from the Brighton and Sussex Medical School in the “Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews“.
“So far everything has been negative,” says Timmermann, who heads the neurology clinic at Marburg University Hospital. “There was no evidence that such preparations were effective.” This is also emphasized by Dorothee Volkert from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. “There have been a lot of supplementation studies with a wide variety of nutrients and nutrient combinations,” says the professor of clinical nutrition in old age. “All the results were disappointing. It is difficult to say why an effect was found here of all places.”
Memory ages two years later
In the current participants aged 60 and over either dummy preparations or pills that contained micronutrients such as vitamins, among others. Over the course of two years, almost 500 of them completed cognitive tests. In the end, the team found a slightly smaller decline in so-called episodic memory in those people who also received multivitamins. It stores memories from your own life such as dates. “This part of memory is highly relevant to everyday life,” explains Timmermann.
Other cognitive abilities such as attention did not benefit, as the team writes in the renowned “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition”. Nevertheless, it is said that the effect corresponds to a delay in the aging of memory by two years.
The team emphasizes that this is now the third study to demonstrate the benefit of dietary supplements in protecting against dementia. However, the other two results also result from two sub-arms of the Cosmos study. And it was financed, among other things, by the food company Mars Incorporated – a manufacturer of such preparations.
In each of the other two sub-arms, more than 2,000 people were surveyed about their development either online (Cosmos-Web) or by telephone (Cosmos-Mind) – with generally similar results. The special thing about the Cosmos Clinic study now presented is that it is based on clinical tests, not on unreliable surveys via the Internet or telephone.
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The group emphasizes that the evaluation of a total of more than 5,000 people in all three sub-arms clearly shows that memory and mental strength could benefit from dietary supplements. Vyas added: “The meta-analysis of three separate studies provides strong and consistent evidence that daily multivitamins consisting of more than 20 essential micronutrients help to impede memory loss and slow cognitive decline.”
René Thyrian from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Greifswald views this statement with skepticism: “A statistically significant effect was found in the study,” says the dementia expert. “But it is questionable whether this has any meaning in everyday life for those affected.” In particular, the claim that the effect corresponds to a slowdown of two years gives Thyrian a “stomach ache”: “In my opinion, that is not supported by the data .”
Timmermann is also skeptical: “The test procedures were correct,” says the DGN president, “but the number of participants was very low to determine such mild effects.” The cause of the observed effect is unclear. “It’s an interesting observation, but nothing more,” the expert concluded. Based on this result, nutrition expert Volkert would also not recommend taking multivitamin preparations: “Based on a single study, I would not recommend it.”
The group around Vyas, on the other hand, is convinced that the result is plausible. A lack of nutrients can increase the risk of cognitive loss in seniors, but conversely they could benefit from combinations of vitamins and minerals.
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Researchers have been searching for the cause of dementia for decades. One circumstance in particular makes the search extremely difficult: the damage to the brain initially goes unnoticed for many years. At Alzheimer, by far the most common form of dementia, the brain contains noticeable deposits of two proteins: Amyloid beta (Abeta), a fragment of a protein that is widespread in the animal kingdom, has accumulated between the nerve cells. In addition, the protein tau has accumulated in the nerve cells.
Even if the exact connections to the disease have not yet been conclusively clarified, people can minimize their individual risk, as Thyrian emphasizes: in a balanced way Nutrition, little alcohol, no smoking, exercise and have any high blood pressure controlled. And hearing loss should be compensated for with a hearing aid, not only to avoid social isolation, but also to be able to register acoustic stimuli from the environment: “If possible, you should live with all your senses.”
Timmermann also emphasizes: “If we did more for prevention, we could delay 40 percent of dementia cases.” He also advocates eating a balanced diet, exercising and controlling risk factors. If there are signs of dementia, you should always check neurologically to see whether there is a treatable cause, he says, pointing to Lyme disease or thyroid problems as examples.
The expert advises against taking dietary supplements on your own. You should first clarify with your family doctor whether there is actually a nutrient deficiency. “You have to be very careful with too much vitamin,” emphasizes Timmermann. “You can cause yourself significant harm.”
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