Everybody wants a cure for Alzheimer’s. 

The medical industry has spent around $100 billion searching for one and so far, come up relatively empty-handed with over thirty failed drug trials. The focus has been on drugs that lower two of the chemical compounds associated with Alzheimer’s and dementia in general – amyloid and p-tau, a pair of messed up proteins that can lead to plaques in the brain and tangled nerves. There is a third compound – an amino acid called homocysteine – that becomes toxic if you have too much, that the drug industry and the Alzheimer charities don’t talk about, for reasons that will become clear.

The actual clinical measures that are used to diagnose Alzheimer’s are a decline in cognitive function and shrinkage of the central area of the brain called the medial temporal lobe. Both changes in cognitive function and brain shrinkage can be picked up thirty years before a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is made.  

So now a £10 million study is underway to see if a blood test for p-tau, or amyloid, will ‘predict’ if you are more likely to develop the disease and there are plans for a major programme to identify those at risk so they can be treated as early as possible.  This sounds sensible but there are serious drawbacks. To begin with not everyone with raised p-tau or amyloid go on to develop Alzheimer’s. 

This means, as a recent article in the New York Times entitled, ‘Apparently healthy but diagnosed with Alzheimer’s,’ pointed out, people without a diagnosis or no brain scan showing shrinkage, could well be offered new drug treatments that are so far, only marginally better than placebos but can have awful adverse effects. 

These include brain bleeding or swelling which has occurred in more than one in four in the last two drug trials and resulted in seven deaths. Medical agencies in the US, EU and UK are reluctant to licence their use but are under a lot of pressure to do so. 

So thousands of desperate people with early stage Alzheimer’s or cognitive decline, hoping for a cure, are queuing up to join these drug trials because they perceive these drugs, that so far come with little or no benefit plus highly unpalatable side effects, are a better alternative than doing nothing.

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There are alternatives – you just haven’t been told about them!

But are there really no alternatives? Well, none that patients are routinely told about. They involve changes in diet and lifestyle that are very likely to improve your overall health, including that of your brain, and very unlikely to cause damaging side effects. 

Almost all money for research, pledged by governments and raised by Alzheimer’s charities, is going in the direction of drug treatments. Alzheimer’s Research UK’s (ARUK) website says “we exist for a cure”. Most of the money is going toward amyloid and p-tau related research, neither of which have been established as causal. In other words, high levels may just be a consequence of the disease process.

The same is not true for raised blood levels of homocysteine. If levels rise in the brain, it shrinks faster and cognitive abilities decline. If it goes down, they improve, and brain shrinkage slows. This means that it is causing the damage and so would logically be a target for treatment. The only way to do it, however, is with high dose B vitamins (B6, B12 and folate). Several gold standard, placebo-controlled trials have found this to be very safe and effective. But this approach is not patentable and so yields nothing like a drug profit.

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This is a much better biomarker than p-tau

But the benefits of treating homocysteine don’t stop there. It is a much better biomarker of risk for Alzheimer’s than plaque and p-tau both because it is more easily measured and more safely lowered. And when it is lowered, unlike those two, it actually improves cognitive function and slows brain shrinkage by as much as two thirds. It also helps to stop p-tau formation.

Routinely checking homocysteine levels could prevent thousands of cases. Just doing this “could save costs to the UK economy of approximately £60 million per year,” says Dr Apostolos Tsiachristas, Associate Professor in Health Economics at the University of Oxford. His research also estimated it would promote healthy longevity, adding 14 years to life expectancy. 

About half of people over 65 have a homocysteine level above 11 mcmol/l, which is where it starts to become damaging. In one study a third of those treated ended the study with no clinical dementia rating, meaning they could no longer be diagnosed with cognitive impairment. Those with sufficient omega-3 DHA, which is the most important structural fat in the brain, had 73% less brain shrinkage compared to placebo when given the B vitamin treatment. In contrast, in the last anti-amyloid treatment trial, brain shrinkage accelerated by about a fifth in those getting the drug, compared to placebo and not one person achieved a clinical dementia rating of zero.

It should be clear by now, after decades of scientific research that amyloid plaque is not a cause of Alzheimer’s, but a consequence. The same is likely to be true for p-tau tangles.

As an analogy, consider your teeth. Is plaque the cause of tooth decay?  Sure, flossing your teeth and getting the plaque scraped off by the dental hygienist helps, but what causes the plaque? The answer is a bad diet – in this case, one high in sugar and low in fibre. Despite fifty years of research, there is no ‘cure’ for tooth decay, but it can be prevented. The same concept applies to Alzheimer’s, which is as preventable as tooth decay with the right diet and nutrition and lifestyle – which also happens to include less sugar and more fibre.

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Alzheimer’s Prevention

How preventable is Alzheimer’s? It accounts for two thirds of dementia cases. The most conservative figure is 40% . More optimistic estimates say around 80%. Since only one in a hundred cases is caused by genes Alzheimer’s may be entirely preventable in those 99% who do not have the rare causative genes and act early enough to optimise all diet and lifestyle factors. It is not an inevitable consequence of the ageing process as evidenced by the fact that the majority of people don’t get it.

Why the difference in figures? It’s all to do with what is or isn’t included in prevention studies. The most widely used review for dementia prevention in the UK is the 2020 report of the Lancet Commission, authored by Professor Gill Livingston. Both this and the first edition in 2017 failed to even mention homocysteine, despite being repeatedly sent all the evidence of the undeniable beneficial effects of homocysteine-lowering B vitamins by the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing (OPTIMA) at the University, headed by former Deputy Head of Medical Science, Professor David Smith.

This is a major and damaging error and has led to the widespread belief that B vitamin supplements are not part of the usual list of preventive actions. But it should be corrected, especially considering that a US National Institutes of Health study attributes 22% of the risk of Alzheimer’s to raised homocysteine. Also, the best study of all, looking at 396 studies in total, published in 2020, concluded: ‘Homocysteine-lowering treatment seems the most promising intervention for Alzheimer’s disease prevention.’

Other prevention studies you may have read are possibly based on data from the UK Biobank. This major research data bank also ignores homocysteine, not for any malevolent reason but simply because it wasn’t measured when it was enrolling people. So, one of the single biggest risk factors and arguably the simplest to change, is repeatedly ignored.

Given that a conservative half of Alzheimer’s cases could be prevented, shouldn’t half the available research money be spent on prevention? 

This certainly doesn’t happen at the moment. Of the three leading charities, two spend nothing on prevention. ARUK claims to spend 5% but none of this goes towards B vitamins or other brain-friendly nutrients such as omega-3 or vitamin D. They, too, ignore homocysteine, and the beneficial effects of lowering it with B vitamins, as first shown in a 2010 Oxford University study they actually helped fund!

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1+1=3

Prevention studies are almost always going to underestimate (never overestimate) the power of prevention due to excluding risk factors, but also because they largely ignore the ‘1+1=3’ compounding impact of interactive risk factors. B vitamins, for example, don’t work without sufficient omega-3 and omega-3 fish oils don’t work in people with raised homocysteine, because of a lack of B vitamins. This has been shown in four trials – in the UK, Holland, Sweden and China. The combination of B vitamins given to people sufficient in omega-3 DHA improved the reduction in brain shrinkage from 53% to 73%. 

Pollution exposure is a risk factor but, in those with lower homocysteine, this effect is much reduced. Poor sleep is a risk factor, but less so in those who exercise. 

For the past five years leading UK researchers, led by neurologist Professor Peter Garrard, who is the Director of the dementia research group in the St George’s, University of London Neuroscience Research Section, have tried to get funding to test the most promising combination – B vitamins and omega-3 – to no avail. Such a trial is badly needed and would cost a fraction of that being spent on amyloid or p-tau.

So. What if a person does everything right – enough B vitamins to keep homocysteine low, sufficient omega-3, low sugar, high fibre diet, enough vitamin D (Alzheimer’s is four times less likely in those with sufficient vitamin D), and an active physical, intellectual and social lifestyle, plus good sleep and not too much stress? 

The only ongoing study and database that assesses all these risk factors as well as including blood tests of four critical biomarkers, homocysteine, omega-3 index, vitamin D and HbA1c, which measures glucose control, is our COGNITION Biobank. We describe it as ‘citizen science’ because anyone can get involved doing a free online Cognitive Function Test, filling in a questionnaire about their diet, lifestyle and medical history, and sending in a blood sample from our home test kit available for purchase. 

So far, over 400,000 people have done our test. But, unlike the £10 million trial, funded by the People’s Lottery, the Gates Foundation, ARUK and the Alzheimer’s Society, it gets no funding. It is literally funded by our citizen scientists who chip in £50 a year and pay for their own tests. Their message is simple: prevention is better than cure – don’t jump.

Action:

Take the FREE Cognitive Function Test here
Order your at-home blood tests here
Support our research and become a FRIEND here
Participate in Alzheimer’s Prevention Day

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A world-class group of Alzheimer’s prevention experts are launching Alzheimer’s Prevention Day on May 15^th. See alzheimersprevention.info.

(The 3-minute Alzheimer’s Prevention Check goes live on May 1^st).

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Thank you for reading!

Food for the Brain is a non-for-profit educational and research charity that offers a free Cognitive Function Test and assesses your Dementia Risk Index to be able to advise you on how to dementia-proof your diet and lifestyle.

By completing the Cognitive Function Test you are joining our grassroots research initiative to find out what really works for preventing cognitive decline. We share our ongoing research results with you to help you make brain-friendly choices.

Please support our research by becoming a Friend of Food for the Brain.

References & Info

These are key papers regarding stated facts in this article.

New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/04/health/alzheimers-amyloid-diagnosis.html

Homocysteine and p-tau: https://foodforthebrain.org/the-p-tau-delusion/

Donanemab review in the British medical Journal: BMJ 2023;382:p1852 

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p1852; 

Telegraph reports 7 deaths and brain shrinkage: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/19/alzheimers-drugs-shrink-brain-scientists-warn/

Health economics of B vitamins: Tsiachristas A, Smith AD. B-vitamins are potentially a cost-effective population health strategy to tackle dementia: Too good to be true? Alzheimers Dement (N Y). 2016 Aug 11;2(3):156-161. doi: 10.1016/j.trci.2016.07.002. PMID: 29067302; PMCID: PMC5651357.

Omega-3 and B vitamin interactions and studies: Smith AD, Jernerén F, Refsum H. ω-3 fatty acids and their interactions. Am J Clin Nutr. 2021 Apr 6;113(4):775-778. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqab013. PMID: 33711096.

Less brain shrinkage and cognitive decline with B vitamins and sufficient omega-3: Jernerén F, Elshorbagy AK, Oulhaj A, Smith SM, Refsum H, Smith AD. Brain atrophy in cognitively impaired elderly: the importance of long-chain ω-3 fatty acids and B vitamin status in a randomized controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Jul;102(1):215-21. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.114.103283. Epub 2015 Apr 15. PMID: 25877495; see also  Oulhaj A, Jernerén F, Refsum H, Smith AD, de Jager CA. Omega-3 Fatty Acid Status Enhances the Prevention of Cognitive Decline by B Vitamins in Mild Cognitive Impairment. J Alzheimers Dis. 2016;50(2):547-57. doi: 10.3233/JAD-150777. PMID: 26757190; PMCID: PMC4927899.

NIH Alzheimer’s prevention review: Beydoun MA, Beydoun HA, Gamaldo AA, Teel A, Zonderman AB, Wang Y. Epidemiologic studies of modifiable factors associated with cognition and dementia: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health. 2014 Jun 24;14:643. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-643. PMID: 24962204; PMCID: PMC4099157.

Meta-analysis of 396 studies favouring homocysteine-lowering B vitamin treatment: Prof Yu study Yu JT, Xu W, Tan CC, Andrieu S, Suckling J, Evangelou E, Pan A, Zhang C, Jia J, Feng L, Kua EH, Wang YJ, Wang HF, Tan MS, Li JQ, Hou XH, Wan Y, Tan L, Mok V, Tan L, Dong Q, Touchon J, Gauthier S, Aisen PS, Vellas B. Evidence-based prevention of Alzheimer’s disease: systematic review and meta-analysis of 243 observational prospective studies and 153 randomised controlled trials. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2020 Nov;91(11):1201-1209. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2019-321913. Epub 2020 Jul 20. PMID: 32690803; PMCID: PMC7569385.

World expert think tank declares a mental health meltdown as rates of mental illness soar.

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We are facing a new pandemic.

Not the result of a return of Covid or bird flu but caused by something much closer to home that affects us every day. The food we eat. It is damaging our brain.

A report just published in the Lancet, found that neurological diseases, from autism to Alzheimer’s, are affecting 43% of the world’s population. The Federation of European Neuroscientists have declared a ‘brain health emergency’. The Times reports that two thirds of benefit claims are for mental health. Diagnoses of autism and ADHD are steadily increasing.

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What are we doing about it?

The good news is that a fightback is beginning. Yesterday, a virtual “Upgrade Your Brain” conference,organised by the charitable foodforthebrain.org, brought together leading neuroscientists –  psychiatrists, nutritionists and neurologists from around the world –  to brainstorm the cause and a solution. They identified the four ‘horsemen of the mental health apocalypse’ lurking in our diet. 

Standard healthy eating advice rarely warns about them at all. They are: 

A lack of brain fats, notably omega-3 from seafood but also vitamin D; 
Increased intake of sugar and ultra-processed foods; 
A lack of the many antioxidants and polyphenols (micronutrients) found in spices, vegetables and fruits, especially berries;
Lack of B vitamins, notably B12, producing homocysteine, a brain toxic amino acid.

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The toll exacted by the horsemen is vast. Mental illness is now costing considerably more than all cancer and heart disease combined. “The Children’s Society recently reported a tripling in NHS referrals for mental ill-health in the last three years.” says Professor Michael Crawford, at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Campus of Imperial College.

According to Professor Crawford, the damage begins in pregnancy. Lack of B12 and folate in the mother increases later behavioural problems in their children. Fewer than 5 percent of children get the basic recommendation of seafood rich in omega-3 and many eat none at all. “Special schools are bursting at the seams,” says Dr Rona Tutt, former president of the National Association of Head Teachers.

“High sugar and ultra-processed foods are having a devastating impact on mental health and play a major part in the increase in both ADHD, depression and dementia.” says Professor Robert Lustig from the University of California. Dr Georgia Ede, a psychiatrist from Harvard, reports low carb diets are reversing mental illness.

According to the NHS one in five adults in England are on anti-depressants and last year one million teenagers were prescribed them. This year prescriptions are expected to exceed 100 million. Independent researchers have been warning about their lack of effectiveness and damaging side-effects.

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It’s not just about food and nutrients…

But it is not just nutritional deficiencies that are threatening our brains. The way we live can contribute to the damage. “The combination of poor diet, lack of exercise, less intellectual and social stimulation, stress and insomnia creates a ‘perfect storm’ for the brain,” says neuroscientist Dr Tommy Wood at the University of Washington. 

Dr Wood is leading research for us as we keep developing a defensive strategy to protect the brain with nutritional and lifestyle changes. It starts by finding out just how well your brain is doing via a FREE online Cognitive Function Test followed up by personalised advice on how to reduce your dementia risk.

The fourth horseman, high homocysteine (a consequence of a lack of B vitamins) is linked to all of the mental problems that are on the rise because it damages nerves and brain cells as well as arteries, the supply chain for the brain. If your homocysteine is high, which it is in half of those over 65, your memory is declining. Lowering it reduces brain shrinkage in those with pre-dementia by two thirds according to Oxford University research. GPs rarely test it. 

Testing and lowering homocysteine is a key part of our prevention plan.

You can join our research and order a home test kit to measure blood levels of omega-3, homocysteine, HBA1c for sugar balance and vitamin D, lack of which is another contributor to dementia and depression. The charity aims to reach a million people in the largest ever ‘citizen science’ project and have tested 420,000 so far.

The idea that Alzheimer’s can be prevented is gaining support. The US National Institutes of Health have attributed 22% of the risk of Alzheimer’s to raised blood homocysteine and 22% to a lack of seafood and omega-3 fats.

A recent study using UK Biobank data concluded that up to 72% of dementia cases could be prevented if all risk factors were targeted. “Even this is probably under-estimating the power of prevention.” says Professor David Smith from the University of Oxford, one of the study authors. “The number of preventable cases could be higher if a person’s omega-3 and B vitamin status, measured by a blood test for homocysteine (not measured by the UK Biobank) were taken into account.” China’s leading prevention expert, Professor Jin-Tai Yu from Shanghai’s Fudan University, a co-author of this study, agrees. “Homocysteine-lowering treatment with vitamins, especially B12, is one of the most promising interventions for dementia prevention.”

“The same diet changes that reduce the risk for dementia also help everything from ADHD to depression,” says our founder Patrick Holford, author of Upgrade Your Brain, out today. He is visiting 30 cities in the UK and Ireland over the next month to kick start a nationwide ‘Upgrade Your Brain’ campaign. “We need to engage with millions of people, get nutrition education happening in school, and most of all get health authorities and governments around the world to take the mental health meltdown seriously and put brain health at the top of the health agenda.” 

Professor Crawford says “Today’s diet bears no resemblance to the wild foods we ate during our species’ evolution to which our genome is adapted. As a consequence our brain size is shrinking. If we don’t prioritise brain health and nutrition, the continued escalation of mental ill health, starting in the 1950s, can only end in disaster.”

The group is launching Alzheimer’s Prevention Day on May 15th with a free 3-minute online Alzheimer’s Prevention Check to motivate people to make the eight brain-friendly diet and lifestyle changes (see below). “You are the architect of your own brain’s future health.” says neurologist Dr David Perlmutter, another member of the group.

Join us in our brain health revolution:

Attend a Upgrade Your Brain UK & Irish Tour here
Take the FREE Cognitive Function Test here
If you are health practitioner then watch the Conference replays here
Participate in Alzheimer’s Prevention Day

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Thank you for reading!

Food for the Brain is a non-for-profit educational and research charity that offers a free Cognitive Function Test and assesses your Dementia Risk Index to be able to advise you on how to dementia-proof your diet and lifestyle.

By completing the Cognitive Function Test you are joining our grassroots research initiative to find out what really works for preventing cognitive decline. We share our ongoing research results with you to help you make brain-friendly choices.

Please support our research by becoming a Friend of Food for the Brain.

To celebrate the launch of the Upgrade Your Brain Cookery Recipe App we want to give you a taste of all the brain-friendly recipes that are to come.

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At Food for the Brain, we know that the food you eat impacts your brain health so we want to help you eat the right things to reclaim and upgrade your brain. Also we want to make sure you are eating delicious things, too – our Nutritionist, head chef and recipe developer, Kim Close has been working hard to create delicious AND nutritious recipes!

The Upgrade Your Brain CookApp lets you choose your dietary preferences (e.g dairy-free, gluten-free, plant-based etc), then shows you the best recipes that are both delicious and nutritious. You can then choose recipes that are GL counted for weight loss or maintenance and score for brain fats, B vitamins and antioxidants.

Think of it as a recipe book in your pocket and as an added benefit, you will get NEW recipes each week so that you never get bored or feel uninspired.

Here is just a sample of what recipes you can expect:

Here are some main meal examples:

Grilled Salmon with Quinoa and Spinach Salad
Walnut-Crusted Chicken with Steamed Broccoli
Baked Cod with Tomato and Olive Tapenade
Lentil and Mushroom Stuffed Bell Peppers
Cauliflower Rice Stir-Fry with Shrimp and Mixed Vegetables
Baked Trout with Walnut and Herb Crust
Zucchini/Courgetti Noodles with Pesto and Cherry Tomatoes
Stuffed Aubergines with Ground Turkey and Pine Nuts
Spicy Salmon Burgers with Coleslaw and Sweet Potato Fries
Lemon and Herb Roasted Chicken with Asparagus
Plus many more

You can become one of our ‘angels’ but by pre ordering the app for just £30 a year so that you are the first to get access to it when it launches soon and you will get a FREE additional 3-months of membership as a thank you.

 Preorder the Upgrade Your Brain Recipe App here

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Two FREE Upgrade Your Brain Recipes:

Turkey Chilli with Black Beans and Sweet Corn (serves 4)

Ingredients:

500g minced turkey
400g canned black beans, drained and rinsed
200g canned sweet corn, drained
1 large onion, diced
2 large handfuls of baby spinach, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
400g canned diced tomatoes
2 TBSP milled flaxseeds
1 tbsp chilli powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh coriander, chopped, for garnish
200ml stock – veggie or chicken

Instructions:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until softened.
Add the minced turkey to the pot and saute until browned, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks.
Stir in the chili powder and cumin and cook for another minute until fragrant.
Add the diced tomatoes, black beans, sweet corn, and water or chicken broth. Season with salt and pepper.
Bring to a simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the milled flaxseed
Serve the chili garnished with fresh cilantro

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Zingy Chickpea Chaat Masala Salad (serves 6–8, feel free to halve)

Ingredients:

2 tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 medium ripe avocado, diced
1 medium cucumber, diced
2 medium-sized tomatoes, deseeded and diced
1 medium carrot, finely grated
1 red onion, finely chopped
A handful of fresh coriander/cilantro, chopped
Small handful of fresh mint, chopped
2 tablespoons flaxseed, ground
2 tablespoons chia seeds
60g walnuts, roughly chopped
Juice of 2 lemons
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder (adjust to taste)
1/2 teaspoon black salt (or regular salt, to taste)
1 teaspoon chaat masala (you can also use garum masala)
4 tbsp pomegranate seeds for garnish

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, diced avocados, cucumber, tomatoes, carrot, red onion, cilantro, and mint.
Add the ground flaxseed, chia seeds, and chopped walnuts to the bowl. These ingredients are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and will add a nice crunch to your salad.
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, ground cumin, ground coriander, red chili powder, black salt, and chaat masala. Adjust the seasonings to your taste.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently until everything is well coated with the dressing. The lemon juice not only adds flavour but also helps in keeping the avocados green.
Let the salad sit for about 10-15 minutes before serving, allowing the flavours to meld together.
Serve the salad in bowls, garnished with pomegranate seeds for a burst of colour and additional antioxidants.

Preorder the Upgrade Your Brain Recipe App here

Thank you for reading!

Food for the Brain is a non-for-profit educational and research charity that offers a free Cognitive Function Test and assesses your Dementia Risk Index to be able to advise you on how to dementia-proof your diet and lifestyle.

By completing the Cognitive Function Test you are joining our grassroots research initiative to find out what really works for preventing cognitive decline. We share our ongoing research results with you to help you make brain-friendly choices.

Please support our research by becoming a Friend of Food for the Brain.

At Food for the Brain, we take food seriously – from the soil to your Sunday lunch.

Quality matters, that is why we have two new developments to ensure your brain gets the right food on its plate. First, start with the soil…

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It begins with the soil…

This June we are delighted to invite Dan Kittredge, founder of the BioNutrient Institute, to teach you how to grow the most nutritious food for mind, body & spirit, in a hands-on two day workshop at Fforest Barn Retreat in the beautiful Black Mountains of Wales  – 2.5 hours from London or Manchester.

Arrive on Tuesday 18^th June for this two day workshop on 19^th & 20^th June. Whether you are an enthusiast, amateur or commercial gardener, grower or farmer, nobody knows more about what really makes plants optimise their nutrition than Dan Kittredge because he measures it.

This hands-on practical workshop provides an overview of six principles and practices of biological farming that increase the health of your soil and crops for greater yields, healthier produce and better marketability.

It all happens in that first six inches of soil, which we will learn how to turn into a hotbed of life. Thousands of growers have attended his courses since 2010.

Find out more here – but don’t wait too long. Places are limited.

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It ends with your plate

The Upgrade Your Brain Cookery Recipe App is coming soon!

Nutritionist, chef and recipe developer, Kim Close and Fiona McDonald Joyce (nutritionist, cook and author) have been working away to create a delicious way to select the right recipes for your brain and body. Kim and Fiona firmly believe that food can, and should, always be delicious AND nutritious!

The Upgrade Your Brain CookApp lets you choose your dietary preferences (e.g dairy-free, gluten-free, plant-based etc), then shows you the best recipes that are both delicious and nutritious. You can then choose recipes that are GL counted for weight loss or maintenance and scored for brain fats, B vitamins and antioxidants.

There will be a wide selection of breakfasts, main meals, soups, salads, snacks and desserts.

New recipes will be added to the app weekly so you can continue to expand your repertoire. The recipes will include preparation and cooking tips, tricks and hacks.

Be the first to access this brand new app!

If you’d like to be one of the first to try our CookApp and the recipes, sign up now for just £30 a year.

Your year will run from the date it launches (June) – and we’ll give you 3 months free at the end of this date for helping us fund this vital CookApp to put Food for the Brain’s principles into action.

Please help us build this amazing, interactive, recipe library by signing up now. We need 200 ‘angels’ to do this, to fund and complete the development. 

Thank you for reading!

Food for the Brain is a non-for-profit educational and research charity that offers a free Cognitive Function Test and assesses your Dementia Risk Index to be able to advise you on how to dementia-proof your diet and lifestyle.

By completing the Cognitive Function Test you are joining our grassroots research initiative to find out what really works for preventing cognitive decline. We share our ongoing research results with you to help you make brain-friendly choices.

Please support our research by becoming a Friend of Food for the Brain.

In our quest for a healthier brain and optimal cognitive function, one nutrient consistently commands the spotlight — vitamin D, often hailed as the sunshine vitamin. While many of us know its role in maintaining strong bones and a robust immune system, vitamin D is equally crucial for the brain. It facilitates ease of neurotransmission and protects against inflammation and oxidative stress, both vital for safeguarding overall cognitive health. As a consequence, 

Cognitive decline is 19 times more likely if low vitamin D.
Dementia is associated with low vitamin D levels.
Elderly cognition gets worse as the elderly vitamin D levels get even lower.
Alzheimer’s Disease is 4 times less likely if high vitamin D.
Those who supplement vitamin D have a third less risk.

Read on to find out more about why getting your vitamin D intake, and blood level, up to optimal is a brain essential.

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Vitamin D and Dementia

Low vitamin D levels are significantly linked to a higher risk of dementia and cognitive decline. [1,2,3] One notable study carried out in France highlights an astonishing finding: older women with vitamin D deficiency were approximately 19 times more likely to develop dementia within seven years compared to those without vitamin D deficiency. [4] This research backs up several previous studies, including one that tracked 1,658 elderly adults for over five and a half years [5], concluding:

“Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a substantially increased risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.”

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Vitamin D Study: Our New Research

With more than 50 million people around the world affected by dementia, a figure forecast to triple by 2050, [6]) research into prevention is something that Food for the Brain takes seriously. Our Research Team is currently undertaking an independent study, commissioned by Dr William Grant, led by Tommy Wood, Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, and supported by Simona Brucoli, data statistician. This research aims to contribute to the growing knowledge of the importance of Vitamin D in preserving brain health and staving off cognitive decline. More on this later in the year!

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Understanding the Impact of vitamin D on overall health

The impact of Vitamin D deficiency is a significant one, with links to not only dementia but also conditions such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, schizophrenia, psychosis, and autism [7], as well as behavioural problems in adolescents [8] and children with ADHD (9). Read more on how deficiency in Vitamin D impacts our overall health in our article here.  

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How to Sustain Optimal Vitamin D Levels

Of course, we can get vitamin D from our diet: oily fish, including salmon, mackerel, sardines, egg yolks, red meat, and liver, are all excellent sources. However, our bodies struggle to produce and maintain optimal vitamin D levels as we age, even with a good diet. 

Our reliance on the sun, our natural provider of Vitamin D, is also compromised, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, as we begin to emerge from the long winter months and not, as yet, fully into the bright embrace of summer. It’s no wonder that our bodies are left vulnerable to notable decreases in vitamin D.  

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What exactly is Vitamin D deficiency?

Deficiency is defined as serum 25(OH)D concentrations of less than 50 nmol/L. Our vitamin D expert, Dr William Grant, says:

“All the evidence regarding cardio-metabolic diseases, cancer, diabetes, infectious diseases, and pregnancy outcomes shows that you need a blood level of vitamin D above 75 nmol/L to be healthy, and the same is proving true for the brain.” 

This optimal level is impossible to achieve without supplementation in the winter. I recommend every adult and teenager supplements themselves with at least 1000 to 3000iu per day from October to March in line with a recent review by 35 vitamin D researchers. [10] The degree of obesity [11], darker skin colour [12] and living further North [13] increases need.

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Supplementation: a shield against risk?

According to recent research, turning to vitamin D supplements could reduce the risk of dementia.   Researchers at the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute in Canada and the University of Exeter in the UK explored the relationship between vitamin D supplementation and dementia in 12,388 participants with a mean age of 71.  They were dementia-free when they signed up. Of the group, 37 percent (4,637) took vitamin D supplements. In the study, the team found that taking vitamin D was associated with living dementia-free for longer, and they also found 40 percent fewer dementia diagnoses in the group who took supplements. [10] 

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But how do you know if you’re getting enough Vitamin D?

The answer lies in taking a proactive step: testing your vitamin D levels. 

Here at Food for the Brain, we don’t believe in guesswork. We champion the idea that we are all the architects of our own brain health and well-being. We embody the spirit of Citizen Scientists, where action on an individual level drives collective progress, both within our Food for the Brain community and society as a whole.  

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Test Your Vitamin D Level: Knowledge is Power

Awareness is the first step toward meaningful change. Discovering your vitamin D level is more than just informative; it’s a critical step toward optimising your cognitive and physical health. 

We encourage you to use our easy and accessible vitamin D testing service. It’s a straightforward way to gain valuable insights into your health, enabling you to make informed decisions. With your results, you’ll be more than well-equipped to make diet and lifestyle adjustments or consider supplementation if necessary. 

As we navigate and share our understanding and ground-breaking research, vitamin D is undoubtedly a potent ally. Maintaining vitamin D levels could be one of the simplest, most effective strategies for preserving cognitive health and warding off dementia.

Thank you for reading!

Food for the Brain is a non-for-profit educational and research charity that offers a free Cognitive Function Test and assesses your Dementia Risk Index to be able to advise you on how to dementia-proof your diet and lifestyle.

By completing the Cognitive Function Test you are joining our grassroots research initiative to find out what really works for preventing cognitive decline. We share our ongoing research results with you to help you make brain-friendly choices.

Please support our research by becoming a Friend of Food for the Brain.

References

Jayedi A, Rashidy-Pour A, Shab-Bidar S. Vitamin D status and risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease: A dose-response meta-analysis. Nutr Neurosci. 2019 Nov;22(11):750-9. doi: 10.1080/1028415X.2018.1436639.
Chai B, Gao F, Wu R, Dong T, Gu C, Lin Q, et al. Vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease: an updated meta-analysis. BMC Neurol. 2019 Nov 13;19(1):284. doi: 10.1186/s12883-019-1500-6.
Melo van Lent D, Egert S, Wolfsgruber S, Kleineidam L, Weinhold L, Wagner-Thelen H, et al. Low Serum Vitamin D Status Is Associated with Incident Alzheimer’s Dementia in the Oldest Old. Nutrients. 2023;15(1):61. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15010061
Annweiler C, Rolland Y, Schott AM, Blain H, Vellas B, Beauchet O. Serum vitamin D deficiency as a predictor of incident non-Alzheimer dementias: a 7-year longitudinal study. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2011;32(4):273-8. doi: 10.1159/000334944.
Littlejohns TJ, Henley WE, Lang IA, Annweiler C, Beauchet O, Chaves PH, et al. Vitamin D and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Neurology. 2014 Sep 2;83(10):920-8. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000000755.
Gauthier S, Rosa-Neto P, Morais JA, Webster C. World Alzheimer Report 2021: Journey Through the Diagnosis of Dementia. Alzheimer’s Disease International; 2021.
Anjum I, Jaffery SS, Fayyaz M, Samoo Z, Anjum S. The Role of Vitamin D in Brain Health: A Mini Literature Review. Cureus. 2018 Jul 10;10(7):e2960. doi: 10.7759/cureus.2960.
Robinson SL, Marín C, Oliveros H, Mora-Plazas M, Lozoff B, Villamor E. Vitamin D Deficiency in Middle Childhood Is Related to Behavior Problems in Adolescence. J Nutr. 2020;150(1):140-8. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxz185.
Hemamy M, Pahlavani N, Amanollahi A, Islam SMS, McVicar J, Askari G, et al. The effect of vitamin D and magnesium supplementation on the mental health status of attention-deficit hyperactive children: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Pediatr. 2021 Apr 17;21(1):178. doi: 10.1186/s12887-021-02631-1.
Ghahremani M, Smith EE, Chen HY, Creese B, Goodarzi Z, Ismail Z. Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia: Effects of sex, APOE, and baseline cognitive status. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2023 Mar 1;15(1):e12404. doi: 10.1002/dad2.12404. PMID: 36874594; PMCID: PMC9976297.
Ekwaru JP et al The importance of body weight for the dose response relationship of oral vitamin D supplementation and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in healthy volunteers. PLoS One. 2014 Nov 5;9(11):e111265. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111265. PMID: 25372709; PMCID: PMC4220998.
Ames BN, Grant WB, Willett WC. Does the High Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency in African Americans Contribute to Health Disparities? Nutrients. 2021 Feb 3;13(2):499. doi: 10.3390/nu13020499. PMID: 33546262; PMCID: PMC7913332.
Engelsen O. The relationship between ultraviolet radiation exposure and vitamin D status. Nutrients. 2010 May;2(5):482-95. doi: 10.3390/nu2050482. Epub 2010 May 4. PMID: 22254036; PMCID: PMC3257661.

Tau is a structural protein that helps build the skeleton, much like pipes, through which nutrients and nerve signals are delivered to different parts of the brain. Our brains contain a balance of tau protein and phosphorylated-tau, abbreviated to p-tau. An abnormal accumulation of p-tau makes these tubular channels tangled and dysfunctional and triggers brain-cell death.¹

Too much p-tau also messes up the mitochondria, the cells’ energy factories, potentially leading to brain fatigue. The more p-tau accumulates, the greater the risk of cognitive problems and Alzheimer’s dementia. Also, those with memory decline have been shown to have relatively more p-tau to tau protein.

The next target for dementia drugs is reducing p-tau. Consequently, drugs are being developed and tested that block the kinase enzyme and activate the phosphatase enzyme,² which is exactly what the homocysteine-lowering B vitamins do. But so far, there are no human clinical trials reporting significant benefit.

The critical prevention question is what stops too much of the tau protein from turning into the potentially harmful p-tau in the first place and what helps restore p-tau to normal tau protein.

The answer is remarkably simple – a lack of B vitamins raises the blood levels of homocysteine, which activates an enzyme, Cdk5 kinase, which adds the bad ‘p’ to tau and blocks another enzyme, protein phosphatase A2, which removes the dangerous ‘p’.^3,4 High homocysteine levels also damage the tiny blood vessels in the brain, leading to ‘mini strokes’ or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), which further raise the levels of p-tau. Homocysteine not only raises the levels of the dangerous p-tau,⁵ but can also bind to tau,⁶ further generating the neurofibrillary tangles that then trigger brain-cell death.

So, the simplest way to stop the formation of p-tau, and neurofibrillary tangles, and keep your brain healthy, is to keep your plasma homocysteine level below 10mcmol/l. Half of those above 65 have a homocysteine level higher than this.

By now you’re surely wondering why, if these natural approaches are at least as good, if not better, than drug treatments, and without adverse effects, why this isn’t common knowledge and common practice, especially if the cost is a fraction of the drug treatments. For example, supplementing B vitamins and omega-3 fish oils might cost you £100 a year while anti-amyloid drugs are pitched at around £20,000 a year.

I’m convinced that it is exactly this last point that explains the anomaly. Naturally occurring nutrients cannot be patented; only a man-made invention, such as a drug, can be. Holding a patent means only the company making that product can sell it, and they can determine the price. The price of a drug will include a hefty margin for marketing the drug and creating all the hype to get you, the media and the medical profession to buy into it. Once the patent expires, the price plummets. The price of a leading branded statin dropped by 93 per cent, from close to £30 down to just over £2 a month,⁷ That’s a lot of margin for marketing. By then, the manufacturers are on to the next ‘new’ patented drug. Up to 2022 $45 billion⁸ has been spent so far developing the latest ineffective dementia drugs, but the real cost, including the most recent trials and marketing, could be double this. That’s a lot of money to recoup. The first stage is to develop a test that convinces you and your doctor that you ‘need’ the drug. That’s what these tests in the £10 million trial are all about. If you test high, instead of taking an ineffective drug why not do prevention? That’s what the free Cognitive Function Test at foodforthebrain.org is all about.

Extract, used with permission, from Patrick Holford’s Upgrade Your Brain (Thorsons 2024)

REFERENCES

1. Balasu S et al. Science14 Sep 2023 Vol 381, Issue 6663 pp. 1176-1182 DOI: 10.1126/science.abp9556

2. Xia, Y., Prokop, S. & Giasson, B.I. “Don’t Phos Over Tau”: recent developments in clinical biomarkers and therapies targeting tau phosphorylation in Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies. Mol Neurodegeneration 16, 37 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13024-021-00460-5.

3. Smith AD, Refsum H. Homocysteine, B Vitamins, and Cognitive Impairment. Annu Rev Nutr. 2016 Jul 17;36:211-39. doi: 10.1146/annurev-nutr-071715-050947. PMID: 27431367.

4. LiJ-G,ChuJ,BarreroC,MeraliS,Pratico`D.2014.Homocysteine exacerbatesβ-amyloid, tau pathology, and cognitive deficit in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease with plaques and tangles. Ann. Neurol. 75:851–63.

5. Shirafuji N et al Homocysteine Increases Tau Phosphorylation, Truncation and Oligomerization. Int J Mol Sci. 2018 Mar 17;19(3):891. doi: 10.3390/ijms19030891. PMID: 29562600; PMCID: PMC5877752.

6. Bossenmeyer-Pourié C et al. N-homocysteinylation of tau and MAP1 is increased in autopsy specimens of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. J Pathol. 2019 Jul;248(3):291-303. doi: 10.1002/path.5254. Epub 2019 Mar 19. PMID: 307349

7. https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinical-areas/cardiovascular/price-of-atorvastatin-plummets-93-as-patent-ends/

8. Cummings JL, Goldman DP, Simmons-Stern NR, Ponton E. The costs of developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease: A retrospective exploration. Alzheimers Dement. 2022 Mar;18(3):469-477. doi: 10.1002/alz.12450. Epub 2021 Sep 28. PMID: 34581499; PMCID: PMC8940715.

We often get asked if supplements are necessary, usually in relation to some expert or opinion leader saying they are a waste of money or have no evidence of effect.

Anyone actively discouraging supplementation of vitamin B, C, D or omega-3, or claiming there is no scientific evidence to support their use, are both scientifically inaccurate and, perhaps inadvertently, driving more people towards dementia and Alzheimer’s by increasing their risk of cognitive decline. 

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Here is why

B vitamin supplements – Two in five people over 60 in the UK and more than half in the US have raised homocysteine levels and accelerated brain shrinkage as a result and need to supplement high dose B12 (500mcg) to reduce the rate of brain shrinkage. This may be due to poor absorption and is not achievable by diet alone. Find out more about this here.

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Omega-3 fish oil supplements – Those with higher omega-3 intake, both from food and supplements, have substantially reduced risk from UK BioBank data. Those with higher omega-3 index levels, which we test at Food for the Brain, have more brain mass, and even healthy, young people supplementing omega-3 have cognitive improvements. You can see the published scientific evidence for this here.

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Check your B vitamin, Omega-3 and vitamin D status with our DRIfT pinprick test kit & research project. Order yours here

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Vitamin D supplements – Those who have higher vitamin D levels or supplement vitamin D also have substantially reduced risk of cognitive decline. Find out more here but also we’ll be publishing a full report on vitamin D and dementia in the next two weeks.

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Vitamin C and E supplements – according to the most comprehensive review of studies relating to Alzheimer’s prevention ‘‘either a high vitamin E or C intake showed a trend of attenuating risk by about 26 per cent’, making these nutrients ‘grade 1’ top level prevention’. Inadequate vitamin C status in otherwise healthy young adults is related to a low level of mental vitality. In a randomised controlled trial vitamin C supplementation effectively increased work motivation and attentional focus and contributed to better performance on cognitive tasks requiring sustained attention. These brain-friendly effects of vitamin C relate to the supplementation of 1 gram or more a day. See the scientific aevidence for antioxidants here.

In addition to exploring the links to the evidence above, these articles further explain the role of B vitamins, Omega-3, Vitamin D, Vitamin C, E and other antioxidants.

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Other resources: 

The H Factor – Why lowering homocysteine with B vitamins is key
Are Omega-3 & B Vitamins the Dynamic Duo for Dementia Prevention?
Keep your Brain Young with Antioxidants
Is Vitamin D deficiency driving Dementia

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So are supplements a waste of money?

At Food for the Brain, where prevention is better than cure, we report the science, based on the research, which tells us the opposite.

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Thank you for reading!

Food for the Brain is a non-for-profit educational and research charity that offers a free Cognitive Function Test and assesses your Dementia Risk Index to be able to advise you on how to dementia-proof your diet and lifestyle.

By completing the Cognitive Function Test you are joining our grassroots research initiative to find out what really works for preventing cognitive decline. We share our ongoing research results with you to help you make brain-friendly choices.

Please support our research by becoming a Friend of Food for the Brain.

The Upgrade Your Brain book will be out soon!

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So if you want to learn the 8 steps to optimise your brain for better mood, memory, sleep and stress resilience and dementia proof your diet and lifestyle then here is a free sample of the book, written by our CEO & founder Patrick Holford.

The book is released on April 25th 2024.

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Upgrade Your Brain Book – FREE Sample
(Book extract, to be released on 15th April 2024)

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Introduction 

Do you often feel gelatinously exhausted? Enthusiastically negative? Do you spend your days feeling tired and wired? Your evenings with a drink in hand? Your nights restlessly searching for sleep? Do you wake up anxious and stressed and in need of a coffee to get going? Do you forget what you were doing, forget people’s names, forget where you put things? 

In 2010, I did a survey of over 55,000 people who had completed my online ‘100% Health Check’ at patrickholford.com.

These are the results: 

82 per cent become impatient quickly
81 per cent have low energy level
76 per cent have less energy than they used to
67 per cent feel they have too much to do
66 per cent become anxious or tense easily
63 per cent need more than eight hours sleep
63 per cent have PMS/PMT (women only)
55 per cent easily become angry
48 per cent suffer from depression

47 per cent have difficulty concentrating or easily become confused 
39 per cent have poor memory or difficulty learning
39 per cent feel generally nervous or hyperactive 

Does this sound like anyone you know?

Something depressing is happening to humanity, and possibly you. The very thing that makes us human, that is our brain and intelligence, is in rapid decline.

We are fundamentally different from chimpanzees, with a brain size of under 0.4kg, despite sharing 98.5 per cent of the same genes, precisely because of our intelligence, directly reflected in our larger brain size. This gradual increase in brain size, driven by a brain-friendly diet, not genes, over 6 million years, is the unique hallmark of Homo sapiens. But both brain size and intelligence are decreasing – in the case of IQ, by an estimated 7 per cent a generation! Our average brain size, which peaked at 1.6 to 1.7kg 30,000 years ago, is now averaging less than 1.35kg. That means we’ve literally lost 20 per cent of our brain in the last 30,000 years and the signs are that this brain degeneration is speeding up. 

This parallels a worrying increase in mental illness across the world. Diagnoses of anxiety, depression, dementia, ADHD and autism are all increasing at an alarming rate. One in six children are classified as ‘neurodivergent’, with autism rates alone seeing a four- fold increase in 20 years, while one in four over 80 have mild cogni- tive impairment (MCI), sometimes called pre-dementia. Even more worrying is the evidence of brain shrinkage in adolescents and memory decline in those in their thirties. It is the greatest health threat we face, according to the World Health Organization. 

Indeed, this is a global phenomenon that is accelerating at an alarming scale. Depression is the leading cause of disability, and in the UK alone, one in six adults were prescribed anti-depressants last year. Yesterday, again in the UK, more than nine double-decker buses worth – about 800 – people were diagnosed with dementia. What on Earth is going wrong and what can we do about it? 

‘We are heading for an idiocracy,’ says Professor Michael Crawford, director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry, whose research at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital can predict which pregnant women are going to have pre-term babies with a higher risk of developmental problems. If nothing changes, by 2080 half of all children are likely to have a degree of neurodevelopmental impairment. 

It is scary stuff, because our humanity is in decline, which can be seen manifesting in hate speech, extremism, mass shootings and suicides, which have become, globally, a greater killer than all wars and murders combined. Clearly, modern man, Homo sapiens, is neither wise nor happy. We are literally losing our higher brain intelligence – emotional control, sense of connection, sharp cognition, purpose and innate happiness. Yet intelligence is something we need more of, not less, as we face the challenges of over-population, climate change and pollution. We need to work together in an intelligent fashion, not stagger from war to war, depleting finite resources. 

This is not just my opinion, but the opinion of a worldwide group of scientists, most eminent professors and experts in their field, whose interviews in this book are key to unravelling why our mental health is in decline, and what we can do to reverse this trend. 

Fortunately, there are things we can do, individually and collectively, to reclaim our brains – to upgrade them. 

Your brain upgrade may be experienced as a rapid improvement in your mood, as Gabrielle, a former depressive, found. ‘I’ve been trying to feel like this for 25 years – I’m over the moon!’ she said. Or a reduction in stress, as retail manager Andrew reported: ‘‘My energy is through the roof, I don’t feel stressed and I have no problem sleeping.’ Or regaining the ability to think straight, as Stephanie, a lawyer, related: ‘After a week, the brain fog and tiredness were significantly better.’ Or even the reversal of serious mental illness, as Liz, a former schizophrenic, found: ‘I’ve been fine.’ You’ll hear their stories, and what made the difference, in Parts 2 and 3. They are all ordinary people, like you or me, whose lives were made unbearable by changes in brain function, and put back together again by taking steps to regain brain health. 

My interest in this field started back in the 1970s, when I became fascinated by the human condition. As a teenager, I read Jung and Freud and thought psychotherapy might be my career path. I went to university to study it and became fascinated by the brain, how it works and what goes wrong with it. I have been studying intelligence and mental illness ever since. 

In the 1980s, I founded the Institute for Optimum Nutrition (ION) with Professor Derek Bryce-Smith, the UK chemist who campaigned to get lead out of petrol because it was lowering children’s IQ, and twice Nobel Prize winner Dr Linus Pauling as patrons. This has since trained several thousand nutritional therapists in what is now a degree-accredited profession. 

In 1968, Dr Linus Pauling, together with Dr Abram Hoffer, wrote, in a seminal paper in Science journal, that ‘The provision for the individual person of the optimum concentrations of important normal constituents (nutrients) of the brain may be the preferred treatment for many mentally ill patients.’ He coined the phrase ‘orthomolecular psychiatry’. I call this approach ‘optimum nutrition’ and others call it ‘functional medicine’. Dr Pauling spent the last 38 years of his life researching vitamin C and its effects on mental health, addiction, viral infection, cancer and heart disease, and putting nutrition centre-stage in healthcare. If only he and others had been taken seriously, then we might not be facing this terrible cerebral tsunami. ‘Brain health conditions have become a global health emergency,’ said the Federation of European Neuro- science Societies last year.

Back in 1985, when I was supervising one of my first students, Gwillym Roberts, the headmaster of a secondary school, we wondered if giving an optimal intake of vitamins and minerals might improve IQ. We designed a study and enrolled a sceptic, Professor David Benton from the University of Swansea, to run the trial and also invited the BBC documentary series Horizon to film it. Thirty children in Gwillym Roberts’s school were given a multivitamin and mineral, thirty a dummy placebo pill and thirty nothing at all. The study found that non-verbal IQ increased by 7 per cent (roughly the average decline per generation, according to Scandinavian researchers; more on this in Chapter 3) in the children taking the multivitamin and mineral. As well as being the subject of a Horizon documentary, this study was published in the Lancet, and hit the headlines of national newspapers, firing up interest in nutrition and mental health. If we had known then what we know now, I am sure even these positive improvements could have been enhanced. 

In the 1990s, I set up the Brain Bio Centre in London, at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, to treat people suffering from a wide variety of mental health concerns. 

Across these past 40 years, I’ve had the chance to study under the leading lights in mental health, from the late Dr Abram Hoffer, the Director of Psychiatric Research in Canada who successfully treated over 6,000 schizophrenic patients, to David Smith, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford, and Helga Refsum, Professor of Nutrition at the University of Oslo, whose impeccable studies of nutritional treatment have shown up to 73 per cent reduction in shrinkage of the Alzheimer’s areas of the brain in a year, compared to placebo, and effectively no further memory loss in people with pre-Alzheimer’s, which is leagues ahead of any anti-amyloid drug treatments. 

You’ll meet many other world-class experts in other fields that impact the brain health, such as Dr Robert Lustig, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology and a member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, who has unravelled how junk and ultra-processed food, clever marketing and tech have got us hooked on their products by manipulating the brain’s antiquated ‘reward system’, with the insidious downside of a spiral into depression and anxiety and hopelessness; also, Associate Professor Tommy Wood at the University of Washington, who’s an expert on how to ‘exercise’ your brain for more power. I’ve interviewed many more, such as Associate Professor David Vazour, expert on the gut-microbiome–brain super- highway; Dr Simon Dyall and Professor Michael Crawford, experts on omega-3 and the importance of the right brain fats; Professor Jeremy Spencer, who knows the foods, high in polyphenols, that help the brain to work; also, Professor Stephen Cunnane, an expert on ‘ketotherapeutics’ – how ketones, made from fat, can be used for a brain energy boost. These, and other leading lights, are part of our Scientific Advisory Board at the charitable Food for the Brain Foundation, which I founded in 2006. 

Each of these highly intelligent, focused, pioneering professors has a piece of why our brain function and mental health are in sharp decline, and a piece of the solution. This book is about putting those pieces together until it becomes obvious what you need to do to upgrade your brain and become part of the solution, not part of the problem. 

Psychologists, often unaware of the driving force of nutrition in brain health, may tell you mental health issues are all down to psychological factors, and psychiatrists may extol the virtues of the latest anti-depressant drug or sleeping pill, while sociologists may say it’s all to do with the pressures that ensue from the digital and industrial age we live in, but clearly this global decline in mental health is not happening because of a breakdown in social connection or a lack of drugs, and although you will see how the combination of junk food, junk media and tech addiction are contributing to a general dumbing down, that’s not the whole story either. 

In this book you will discover what has created the perfect storm that is hitting the brain right now: 

In Part 1 you’ll discover why this brain drain is happening – and why you’re not being told the whole truth. 

In Part 2 you’ll learn the eight steps you need to take to upgrade your brain and restore full brain function. 

In Part 3 there are specific ‘action’ chapters that will help you improve your mood, end anxiety and insomnia, build stress resilience, break free from addiction, sharpen your mind and memory, and ultimately reconnect to your sense of meaning and purpose.

There’s also a chapter on how to maximise your child’s attention, focus, creativity, intelligence and potential. If you want to jump to these chapters and get started, please do, but do take the time to read the eight steps, as these apply to all, and because that will also motivate you to make the necessary changes to your diet and lifestyle. 

Finally, in Part 4, I show you how to go from victim to change agent – to not only change yourself, but also help support the paradigm shift that has to happen, putting nutrition for the brain at the top of the health agenda and finding a healthy way to live in this fast-changing digital age. 

With all we know now, it is not only possible to prevent cognitive decline, but to enhance brain function, intelligence, memory, concentration and mood. Take heart. 

Wishing you the best of health and happiness, Patrick Holford 

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Thank you for reading!

Food for the Brain is a non-for-profit educational and research charity that offers a free Cognitive Function Test and assesses your Dementia Risk Index to be able to advise you on how to dementia-proof your diet and lifestyle.

By completing the Cognitive Function Test you are joining our grassroots research initiative to find out what really works for preventing cognitive decline. We share our ongoing research results with you to help you make brain-friendly choices.

Please support our research by becoming a Friend of Food for the Brain.

by Patrick Holford

Easter is meant to follow on from Lent – 40 days of fasting. There lies the problem.

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‘We’ are the product of natural selection – survival of the fattest. 

Those of us who can readily store carbs as fat through periods of famine have survived and become dominant. Now, there are no periods of famine, no ‘lent’ up, it’s just carbs all the way. 

With one in six over 40 diabetic, the question is, are you heading in that direction? 

Even raised glucose, but within the ‘normal’ range, in mid life increases Alzheimer’s risk by 14.5%. 

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Why not find out? 

We have a simple pinprick blood test to help you do just that. It measures the percentage of your red blood cells that are sugar-damaged or ‘glycosylated’. It’s called glycosylated haemoglobin, or HbA1c. This simple pinprick blood test is, in effect, measuring the total blood sugar spikes you experienced over the past three months (red blood cells, called haemoglobin, live for three months).

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What should you be aiming for?

Ideally, it should be 5% (31mmol/mol) or less. That’s healthy.

Above 5.4% (36) and in studies you can already pick up brain shrinkage and cognitive decline.

Above 6% (42) is considered pre-diabetic.

6.5% (48) or higher is considered diabetic.

For both brain and body health you certainly want it to be below 5.4%

(It’s measured slightly differently in the UK, in mmol/mol, which is the number shown in brackets.)

A recent study in Denmark of 20,000 people in their 60’s, published in the British Medical Journal [1], found that one in nine with an HbA1c of 6-6.1% developed diabetes in the next three years and one in five in the next five years. One in ten died. 

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How to lower your score?

It is easy to lower, if you need to. But first, you need to know where you are starting from. Then you can retest three months later and find out if what you’ve done has worked.

There are several approaches. 

A low GL diet (read Patrick Holford’s Low GL Diet Cookbook). 
An intermittent fasting approach, doing all your eating in a six hour window with dinner at eg 7pm then lunch at 1pm. 
Going ‘keto’, which Dr Georgia Ede explained in our recent webinar which you can watch here.
There are even supplements that can help – chromium, HCA (Hydroxycitric acid) found in a type of tamarind and glucomannan fibre. 

You will learn about all these and more if you’ve signed up for the COGNITION programme by becoming a FRIEND and select the ‘Low carbs and GL’ section. Jill, a retired teacher, lost almost a stone following this advice. 

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But first, we suggest you measure your baseline HbA1c.

It’s more predictive of your blood sugar control than just your weight or waist circumference. In fact, it is the single most important measure of your glucose balance ‘resilience’ which is why it’s one of the four ‘essentials’ in our DRIfT test – the others being vitamin D, omega-3 and homocysteine (B vitamins).

We want to wish you a Healthy Easter by giving you £10 off your HBA1c test when you buy before Easter. 

So that’s £39.95, not £49.95. 

Also, if you book a repeat test in 3 months, which is how long it takes to ‘renew’ all your red blood cells, hopefully no longer sugar-coated, you’ll save a further 6%, bringing the cost down to £37.55, saving you £12.40 now and in 3 months time. That’s £24.80 in total. This offer ends on April 10th 2024.

Use the coupon code: easter at check out to save

(Discount applies to the HBa1c test only.)

Remember every test kit you order will not only help you upgrade your brain it will also help us in our vital research – you will become a part of our ‘Citizen Science’ team and be donating to our wider charitable work and research.

Thank you!

Thank you for reading!

Food for the Brain is a non-for-profit educational and research charity that offers a free Cognitive Function Test and assesses your Dementia Risk Index to be able to advise you on how to dementia-proof your diet and lifestyle.

By completing the Cognitive Function Test you are joining our grassroots research initiative to find out what really works for preventing cognitive decline. We share our ongoing research results with you to help you make brain-friendly choices.

Please support our research by becoming a Friend of Food for the Brain.

References:

1 http://dx.doi. org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2022- 002946

By Patrick Holford

In 2000 I wrote a book, The H Factor, with a byline ‘the biggest health breakthrough of the century’. It was the year 2000 so there wasn’t so much competition! However, it is now 2024 and this statement is even more true now than then. 

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Your blood homocysteine level predicts your risk for over 100 diseases.

No other blood biomarker does this.

Not glucose, not cholesterol, not even a gene test.

“The commonest associations are with cardiovascular diseases and diseases of the central nervous system (eg. your brain and nerves), but a large number of developmental and age-related conditions are also associated.” Says Professor Helga Refsum who, more than any other, put homocysteine on the map.

Those conditions that affect the brain include age-related cognitive decline to Alzheimer’s; depression to anxiety; bipolar to schizophrenia; and migraines to macular degeneration. Macular degeneration affects the eyes, not the brain but the eyes are the outwards extension of the brain – literally the visual interface between the world and your brain. Hearing loss is another disease predicted by raised blood (plasma) homocysteine. Then there are strokes affecting the blood’s circulation in your brain. Children with autism have higher levels. It also predicts problems in pregnancy. (Read more about this here)

 “Five diseases can at least in part be prevented by lowering total homocysteine: neural tube defects, impaired childhood cognition, macular degeneration, primary stroke, and cognitive impairment (which means dementia and Alzheimer’s) in the elderly,” conservatively conclude Professors Refsum and David Smith, our ‘homocysteine and B vitamin’ expert on our Scientific Advisory Board.

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The brain health imperative…

Two studies illustrate the predictive power of homocysteine; one showed that 2/3rd of heart attacks and strokes in older people could be predicted, not by cholesterol, but by homocysteine (1). The other is that you can predict a child’s school grades by knowing their homocysteine level, according to a study in a Swedish school, averaging a child’s school grades and comparing them to both homocysteine and B vitamin status (2).

But there are two other reasons why knowing your homocysteine level is a brain health imperative. 

The first is that you can’t ‘see’ it or predict it just by knowing a person’s diet or lifestyle.

The second is that it is easily lowered with B vitamins.

More important than your APOE4 status

A lot of people want to know if they have the ApoE4 gene. Statistically, it increases your risk of developing Alzheimer’s by about 5 per cent. While you can mitigate its effects by improving your diet and lifestyle you can’t change the fact that you’ve got it. 

The extent to which a raised homocysteine level (above 11mcmol/l) increases your risk of cognitive decline is illustrated by two studies. One shows that having a high level raises risk by 10 times (3). Another shows double the rate of brain shrinkage between those in the top quarter of homocysteine versus the bottom quarter (4). Different studies show different ‘predictive power’ but it is certainly more important than your ApoE4 status. 

The other reason it is important to know your level is illustrated by the story of a mother and daughter who attended one of my lectures. Hearing about the strong link to strokes, which the mother had had, the daughter said “Mum, I really think you should have the test.” In fact they both did. The mother’s result was a healthy 6 mcmol/l while the daughter’s was extremely raised, above 20 mcmol/l. She had chronic fatigue. A month later, having taken a homocysteine-lowering supplement, her level was normal – and her chronic fatigue had gone.

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Homocysteine is not just about what you eat

So, you can’t just assume your level is OK.

In fact, about half of those over 65 (my age) have a raised homocysteine level. Why? This is not an easy answer because there are many ‘lifestyle’ associations – from smoking to stress. Vegans who don’t supplement vitamin B12 would also be at risk. Since vitamin B6, folate and B12 are key to lowering homocysteine one’s intake of these nutrients, eg. from foods such as greens, beans and fish, is also very relevant but…it isn’t just a dietary marker.

The big unknown is that some people, especially as they age, absorb vitamin B12 poorly. This requires stomach secretions. Some people inherit this deficit and are diagnosed with pernicious anaemia, others acquire it with age. Either way, the net result is only ‘clinically’ shown by measuring homocysteine.

Homocysteine is called a ‘functional’ test because it indicates whether or not a person can do ‘methylation’. Methylation is a vital second-by-second chemical balancing act that the body and brain use to micro-adjust everything from making insulin, serotonin, and adrenalin or turning gene expression up or down, to repairing DNA and detoxifying all sorts of things in the liver, from histamine to mercury. Knowing your B12, folate or B6 status isn’t as good as knowing if you are or aren’t a healthy ‘methylator’. Homocysteine is the gold standard test for this.

An analogy here is a single-pin prick glucose test will only show you if, in that moment, your blood sugar level is too high. However, HbA1c (glycosylated haemoglobin) shows you both whether your blood sugar levels are damaging cells and gives you an ‘average’ of 3 month’s worth of glucose levels. Thus, we also call HbA1c a ‘functional’ test.

Knowing your levels of these is so important which is why we have created DRIfT  (Dementia Risk Index functional Test) so that you know exactly where you are at and how to reduce your risk of not just dementia but over 100 other diseases.

This is one of the most important brain health tests you can do (and thankfully due to new technology you can do it accurately and easily with a simple pinprick at-home test)

Homocysteine test options:

Buy a single Homocysteine test here
Buy the DRIfT 4 in 1 test to check your homocysteine, Vitamin D, HbA1c (sugar) and Omega-3 status and for the biggest savings.

Remember every test kit you order will not only help you upgrade your brain it will also help us in our vital research – you will become a part of our ‘Citizen Science’ team and be donating to our wider charitable work and research.
Thank you!

Thank you for reading!

Food for the Brain is a non-for-profit educational and research charity that offers a free Cognitive Function Test and assesses your Dementia Risk Index to be able to advise you on how to dementia-proof your diet and lifestyle.

By completing the Cognitive Function Test you are joining our grassroots research initiative to find out what really works for preventing cognitive decline. We share our ongoing research results with you to help you make brain-friendly choices.

Please support our research by becoming a Friend of Food for the Brain.

REFERENCES

To read more on the science behind ‘Homocysteine – from disease biomarker to disease prevention’ read this review by Professors Helga Refsum and David Smith.

1 W. de Ruijter, et al., ‘Use of Framingham risk score and new biomarkers  to predict cardiovascular mortality in older people: Population based observational cohort study’, British Medical Journal, 2009 Jan;338:a3083 

2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21746721/

3 10.3389/fnagi.2022.868777 

4 Smith AD, Smith SM, de Jager CA, Whitbread P, Johnston C, Agacinski G, Oulhaj A, Bradley KM, Jacoby R, Refsum H. Homocysteine-lowering by B vitamins slows the rate of accelerated brain atrophy in mild cognitive impairment: a randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2010 Sep 8;5(9):e12244. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012244. PMID: 20838622; PMCID: PMC2935890.