A recent research study found that age related decline could start as early as 45. The good news is that a number of encouraging research avenues indicate that risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s could be reduced in the early stages by a comprehensive optimum nutrition approach. The strongest evidence to date relates to raised homocysteine levels, which both predicts risk and can cause the kind of brain damage seen in Alzheimer’s, caused by lack of B vitamins, especially B12 which is increasingly poorly absorbed with age.
Other nutritional solutions which research suggest can affect cognitive decline or Alzheimer’s risk include omega 3s (DHA), antioxidants such as Vitamin E (due to the inflammatory nature of AD) and acetylcholine which is a key part of memory function (which is often deficient in Alzheimer’s cases).
AD is a complex disease without a single cause, but with many contributors. Many researchers are now converging on the understanding that it is a degenerative inflammatory disease that damages a particular part of the brain called the Medial Temporal Lobe. This may be largely due to the long-term consequence of faulty nutrition plus certain negative lifestyle factors, much like cardiovascular disease, and that any long-term solution must involve fundamental changes to a person’s diet.