Mediterranean Diet May Prolong Life of Alzheimer's Patients
The study followed 192 people with Alzheimer’s disease in New York for an average of four and a half years. During that time, 85 of the people died. Researchers found that those who most closely followed a Mediterranean diet were 76% less likely to die during the study period than those who followed the diet the least.
"The more closely people followed the Mediterranean diet, the more they reduced their mortality," said study author Nikos Scarmeas, MD, MSc, of Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and member of the American Academy of Neurology. “For example, Alzheimer’s patients who adhered to the diet to a moderate degree lived an average 1.3 years longer than those people who least adhered to the diet. And those Alzheimer’s patients who followed the diet very religiously lived an average four years longer.”