Dietary Patterns and Associations with Alzheimer Disease Pathology

The Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) and Mediterranean diets have been shown to decrease Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia risk. Researchers investigated whether the MIND and Mediterranean diets affected the postmortem burden of beta-amyloid load, phosphorylated tau tangles, and global AD pathology in 581 patients with a mean age of 84 years at first dietary assessment and a median age at death of 91 years; 73% were female. Patients completed annual food frequency questionnaires, from which the researchers calculated consumption of 14 food groups and MIND and Mediterranean diet scores. The authors used published criteria to assess AD pathology at autopsy.

Higher MIND and Mediterranean diet scores correlated wi…