One of the hallmarks of the Bredesen Protocol™ for Alzheimer’s disease is that most
of the treatment is lifestyle based.
There is a tendency to not think that lifestyle factors as simple as
what one eats could have such a profound effect on such a complex disease. A recent study of 1,068 older adults, the Rush Memory and Aging Project,
showed just how important a single dietary factor can have pronounced effects.
The subjects' diets were analyzed
specifically looking at how many servings of greens including spinach, kale, collards,
greens and lettuce/salad were consumed daily.
All subjects had annual cognitive testing over 5 years. Those consuming 1.5 or more servings daily
had cognitive
performance scores a striking 11 years younger than those with the
lowest consumption (<1 serving/week). The results remained valid after accounting
for other factors that could affect brain health, such as seafood and alcohol
consumption, smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, education level and amount
of physical and cognitive activities.
The suspected mechanism driving this relationship is likely that
greens are a major source of “methylation factors” in the diet. Methylation is a primary mechanism through
which our genes are regulated. This
includes both keeping genes that may increase our disease risk turned off and
activating those involved in reactions that tend to be disease
preventative. Methylation factors
include vitamin B12, B6, folate, the amino acid methionine and choline. Methylation reactions occur thousands of
times daily in all of our cells literally determining healthy function.
The methylation cycle involves
several enzyme reactions that use the above nutrients to activate. The end product of these reactions is a
methyl group which performs the gene regulation. The cycle also produces “waste products” such
as homocysteine which can increase brain cell degeneration if it is not
efficiently removed. This requires
adequate amounts of vitamin B6.
Many studies have found that the
brain is very sensitive to loss of proper gene methylation with age causing an
increased rate of memory decline.
Acceleration of this decline in gene methylation with age by inadequate
dietary provision of the needed nutrients appears to greatly accelerate this
process. Although the concept that just
eating multiple servings of greens daily seems too simple to be involved in
such a complex disease such as Alzheimer’s, appreciating the scientific concept
behind the relationship establishes the importance.
It is likely that some persons are
more susceptible to the level of nutrients involved in the methylation
cycle. Genetic variations called
polymorphisms can cause any single enzyme in the cycle to be weak
under-producing its reaction. For
example, the enzyme that converts dietary folate to the form used in the cycle,
5-methylated folate is variant in perhaps as many as 1 in 5 Westerners. As higher amounts of dietary folate have been
shown to help compensate for this gene variant, these individuals are very
sensitive to dietary amounts.
Eating greens by itself is not a
total solution to disease prevention and treatment. The Bredesen
Protocol™ derives its success from testing and treating many different
factors most of which are lifestyle related.
However, one part of this comprehensive protocol
does involve eating multiple servings of greens daily.
The study is to be published in the
journal Neurology later this year.
