3 ms·
Even though this is a review, it still suffers from the fact that diet studies are not controlled, randomized, or blind. My mother has early onset dementia. He
by thrwaway98423 4y ago
Even though this is a review, it still suffers from the fact that diet studies are not controlled, randomized, or blind.
My mother has early onset dementia. Her habits were very healthy for 30+ years (quit drinking, quit smoking, daily exercise, lifetime healthy BMI, moderate diet) and otherwise physically she is in extremely good shape for her age. But one of the early, subtle signs of her cognitive decline was a reluctance to cook real meals. She now has progressed to a state where she can still use a smartphone or laptop for basic tasks, but isn't able to cook any sort of complex recipe from scratch, even one she previously did from memory. Seems pretty obvious to me that it's just as likely that cognitive decline causes an inability in older adults to plan and cook healthy meals, not the other way around.
- ac130kz 4y agoHigher chance of dementia might be caused by the genome or the lack of mental exercise, so it's not just food or unhealthy habits, rather an amalgamation of various factors.
- thrwaway98423 4y agoDementia is still not yet understood well enough to identify a single causal factor, even with correlated variables. Personally my money is on HSV (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8234998/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8234998/). We don't have a genetic predisposition / family history of early onset dementia. In her case, retirement and being unmarried/socially isolated during COVID lockdowns obviously contributed to a more rapid progression in decline. But you would never say that social isolation causes Alzheimer's. There are many other people with active social lives and happy marriages who get early dementia. The same is almost certainly true with diet.
- kulahan 4y agoUntil we're allowed to muzzle humans or lock study subjects in a room for 5 years straight and carefully monitor/manage everything someone eats, it will always be hard to study something like this.