Tag: neurodegenerative diseases

Categories : Ageing Diet and Nutrition Mental HealthTags :

Mediterranean-type Diets Protect Against Parkinson’s Disease

On By ModernMedia

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have shown that the Mediterranean diet and another diet based on it, have a strong link in protecting against Parkinson’s disease (PD). 

These two diets had previously been shown that they could protect against other neurodegenerative diseases. The Mediterranean‐DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet combines aspects of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet which protects against hypertension. The MIND diet emphasises consumption of berries, as research shows that they protect against mental decline, eating leafy greens and poultry. The MIND diet also mostly does away with potato, milk and fruit (excluding berries).

Senior author Dr Silke Appel-Cresswell said, “There is a lack of medications to prevent or delay Parkinson’s disease yet we are optimistic that this new evidence suggests nutrition could potentially delay onset of the disease.”
Following the diets delayed the average onset of PD by 17.4 years in women, and 8.4 years in men.

Since PD already has a notable sex difference, with 60% of sufferers being men, despite their shorter average lifespan, the sex difference in response to the diets opens new avenues of research
“It drives home the connection between the gut and the brain for this disease,” Dr Brett Finlay said. “It also shows it’s not just one disease that healthy eating can affect, but several of these cognitive diseases.”

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Avril Metcalfe‐Roach et al, MIND and Mediterranean Diets Associated with Later Onset of Parkinson’s Disease, Movement Disorders (2021). DOI: 10.1002/mds.28464

Categories : Gastrointestinal Neurodegenerative DiseasesTags :

Gut Immune Cells Protect The Brain in MS Flare-ups

On By ModernMedia

Scientists from the University of California, San Francisco, have observed gut immune cells moving up out of the gastrointestinal tract to the brain during multiple sclerosis (MS) flareups, where they seem to exert some protective effects.

In MS, other immune cells attack the myelin sheath, resulting in flare-ups, where they experience memory problems, vision loss, pain and other problems. These flare-ups subside after some days, but it is not known why the disease switches back and forth between flare-up and remission.

The new research revealed that the flare-ups were brought under control with the unlikely assistance of gut immune cells, which produce Immunoglobulin-A (IgA) and act as the immune system’s first line of defence in the GI tract. Some of these cells actually leave the gut and migrate to the brain, where it appears they reduce inflammation.

“It was a very new idea,” said lead author, Sergio Baranzini, PhD, neurology professor at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, . “Nobody thought to look for this type of immune cell.”

The gut immune cells were found only in cerebrospinal fluid of MS sufferers when they experienced a flare-up, and not in remission. Recent research indicated that an unhealthy GI microbiome was involved in MS, and the researchers determined that these immune cells only attacked potentially damaging bacteria, not the myelin sheath.

It is anticipated that this discovery may bring insights into new therapies to treat the disease. 

Source: Medical Xpress