Monday, February 13, 2012

High calorie diet and memory

I just heard about the latest research connecting memory loss with a high calorie diet and thought I’d check it out. An abstract of the scientific work was presented at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting on February 12, 2012. The team, led by Dr. Yonas Geda, evaluated the dietary intake and cognitive status of over 1200 70 - 89 year old patients over 1 year. No participants had dementia at the onset of the study. Based on their total caloric intake per day, patients were divided into one of three groups - low, middle, or high calorie diets. Those in the high calorie intake group (>2143 to 6000 calories per day) had doubled their chances of developing Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a pre-dementia condition. To see the abstract, visit http://www.aan.com/globals/axon/assets/9279.pdf. It will be interesting to read the full paper when it is published.