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Every three seconds, someone in the world develops dementia and the rate is increasing.
Billions of dollars have been spent on the search for a drug that can block the damaging build-up of plaque in the brain that’s thought to be central to the disease. But the results are not impressive and the side effects include bleeding into the brain.
Now, that gloomy picture is being transformed in a remarkable and surprising way. Rather than pinning our hopes on another new, powerful and expensive drug, mounting evidence suggests that such seemingly old-fashioned approaches as changes in diet, lifestyle, and environment, could dramatically reduce the number of Alzheimer’s cases.
An international Alzheimer’s Prevention Expert Team has calculated that over 80 per cent of cases could be prevented in this way. A study in Holland last year found that good levels of vitamin D, omega-3 (found in oily fish), and B vitamins reduced the risk of dementia to less than a quarter of the average(1). Other beneficial changes include regular exercise, staying mentally active, and reducing sugar intake. Reducing sugar intake is especially effective, as people with diabetes have twice the risk of cognitive decline.
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The next big challenge is to discover which combination of changes has the most impact. This is what our research is focused on.
That is why we are hosting the Global Alzheimer’s Prevention Day next week and continuing with our research project to discover the hardest hitting combinations of prevention steps. We have already tested over 200,000 participants in the UK.
We are now inviting people around the world to complete a free, online diet and lifestyle questionnaire and a cognitive function test.
The project, led by Oxford University–trained neuroscientist Dr. Tommy Wood, Associate Professor at the University of Washington, aims to test over 20 million people worldwide. This includes one million participants each from the UK, Germany, and Poland; a similar number from the US, Canada, Brazil, and Japan; and 10 million from China, which has the world’s highest prevalence of dementia.
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In China, the project is supported by the China National Health Association and former Minister of Health, Gao Qiang. “We must popularise prevention,” he says. “With 300 million people over 60, this has to be our focus. Food for the Brain’s initiative is the way forward. It’s something everyone can do, right now, for themselves.”
China’s leading prevention expert, Professor Jin-Tai Yu from Fudan University in Shanghai, adds: “It may be possible to prevent up to 80% of dementia cases if all known risk factors are targeted.” He highlights the particular importance of B vitamins, which reduce levels of a toxic amino acid found in the brain called homocysteine. High homocysteine levels can damage both brain cells and blood vessels. (Test your homocysteine levels at home here)
His research, along with findings from Oxford University’s leading prevention expert, Professor David Smith – who has been analysing data from the – has already shown that up to 73% of dementia cases may be preventable, even without factoring in the benefits of B vitamins and omega-3.
“Our research at Oxford found almost nine times less shrinkage in the Alzheimer’s associated areas of the brain in those taking B vitamin supplements, who had raised homocysteine (3), which is common among over 60+ year olds, and in early signs of dementia.” says Professor Smith.
Wu YingPing, President of the China National Health Association, believes it is the combination of diet, nutritional supplementation, and lifestyle that can significantly influence dementia prevention in the ‘silver-haired’ community. “It is education, rather than medication, that we need, and Food for the Brain’s global campaign is something we fully support to help achieve this.”
In the UK, Japan, and Brazil, a task force of over 10,000 doctors is being trained to enrol their patients in the ‘citizen science’ charitable project, which is funded by individuals rather than vested-interest companies.
In the UK, a group of GPs, part of the Public Health Collaboration, have joined the task force to help drive the project to hundreds of thousands of patients across the UK. Former GP and Chair of the Public Health Collaboration, Dr David Jehring, says: “personalised digital health education such as this is the way forward. No drug treatment has yet produced a clinically meaningful effect, without awful adverse effects. We have to face the reality that dementia can only be prevented by tackling that ‘perfect storm’ of 21st-century diet and lifestyle that creates cognitive decline in the first place. It is not likely to be solvable by medication.”
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In the US, Dr Mark Hyman, who is part of our group of prevention experts, is supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly appointed Secretary of Health, in the campaign to ‘Make America Healthy Again’, with prevention at its core.
“Our healthcare system is failing because it treats symptoms rather than addressing the root causes of disease. I fully support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s commitment to investigating the underlying drivers of chronic illness and ensuring that prevention – not just treatment – is at the core of our national health strategy. The science is clear: food is the most powerful medicine we have to prevent, reverse, and even treat conditions like dementia, autoimmune diseases, and metabolic disorders. If we truly want to make America healthy again, we must shift our focus from managing disease to creating health,” says Dr Hyman
As part of our ‘Going Global’ campaign, we’ve created a shorter, 3-minute version of our Cognitive Function Test – the Alzheimer’s Prevention Check!
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Get personalised insight into your brain health in just a few minutes. Take the 3-minute brain test here.
Professor Peter Garrard, Director of the Dementia Research Group at St George’s, University of London, says: “It is vital that functional biomarkers such as homocysteine and omega-3 are measured in this research because these can be changed with nutritional interventions and are associated with reducing risk.”
“The purpose of this global campaign is to collect diet, lifestyle, biomarker, and cognitive function data on an unprecedented scale. With this data, we hope to discover which lifestyle changes have the maximum likelihood of preventing cognitive decline early enough to minimise an individual’s dementia risk in the future.” says Dr Tommy Wood, who is leading the research.
Anyone can take part and become a ‘citizen scientist’ by completing our free online Alzheimer’s Prevention Check, which then provides personalised advice on changes you can make to help reduce your future risk.
All data collected is anonymised for research purposes and will be made available to prevention researchers around the world.
Our aim at Food for the Brain is to discover the simplest changes that have the greatest impact on cognitive function in preventing this devastating disease, and then share that information with the public and the public health experts who advise governments around the world.
Fewer than one in a hundred cases of Alzheimer’s is caused by genetics. This means that, potentially, 99% of cases could be preventable.
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Food for the Brain is a not-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 Roigé-Castellví J, Murphy M, Fernández-Ballart J, Canals J. Moderately elevated preconception fasting plasma total homocysteine is a risk factor for psychological problems in childhood. Public Health Nutr. 2019 Jun;22(9):1615-1623. doi: 10.1017/S1368980018003610. Epub 2019 Jan 14. PMID: 30636652; PMCID: PMC10261079.
2 Kara İS, Peker NA, Dolğun İ, Mertoğlu C. Vitamin B12 Level in Children. J Curr Pediatr. 2023 Aug;21(2):127-134. doi:10.4274/jcp.2023.75688.
3 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4440679/
