A new study suggests a diet laden with fish, olive oil, veggies and other foods common in Mediterranean-style cuisine may help ward off mild cognitive impairment, sometimes called borderline dementia. The study also suggests this diet reduces the chance of transitioning from mild cognitive decline to Alzheimer's disease.
"We know from previous research that a healthy diet like this is protective for cardiovascular risk factors like cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes. Now this current study shows it may help brain function too," says Nikolaos Scarmeas, assistant professor of clinical neurology at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center[/QUOTE





And what about those driving statistics? - katyzzz comment.




[QUOTE]People with early Alzheimer's disease, though often very functional in many areas of life, may not be as competent behind the wheel of a car as those without the memory-damaging disease.
"Our research indicates that even among people who have early, mild cases of cognitive decline, there is an immediate drop-off in driving skills," says study author Jeffrey Dawson, an associate professor of biostatistics at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City.

This month's Archives of Neurology, reports that over an average of 4½ years of follow-up, 275 of the 1,393 study participants who did not have mild cognitive impairment developed the condition. Those who had the highest adherence to a Mediterranean diet — a menu rich in vegetables, legumes and fish, low in fat, meat and dairy, and high in monounsaturated fats like those in olive oil — had a 28% lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairment than the one-third of participants who had the lowest scores for Mediterranean diet adherence. The middle one-third group had a 17% lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairment than those who ate the fewest Mediterranean foods.