Diet may improve Alzheimer's

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A new study suggests that a high fat, low carbohydrate diet can help improve Alzheimer's disease in mice.
It's been previously suggested that a high fat diet may predispose the brain to Alzheimer's disease, perhaps by clogging up the arteries. Now researchers in Colorado seem to be suggesting the opposite - at least from animal studies.

They have been looking at a group of mice with the equivalent of Alzheimer's disease. Giving the animals a diet that is high in fat, low in carbohydrate, reduces the amount of beta-amyloid, the brain protein deposits which are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. The researchers explain their results suggesting that insulin and insulin-related growth factor may be involved. In this kind of diet, insulin seems to be able to break up the amyloid deposits. Other studies have looked at fat in the presence of high carbohydrate. When the carbohydrates are reduced, insulin may behave in a more positive way.

Source
Nutrition and Metabolism

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