by Caroline Petvin
(Health Secrets) Eating a high calorie diet can increase your risk of developing memory loss and dementia in old age according to research from the Mayo Clinic. The results of the study, which were presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, support the overall view that a healthy diet and lifestyle can be major factors in reducing the onset of dementia.
What Did the Study Show?
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The study looked at the incidence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and whether it was associated with the amount of calories eaten on a daily basis. Mild cognitive impairment has become an interesting condition for medical researchers as it is an early sign of dementia and can be used to predict who is likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer’s.
The Mayo Clinic study looked at 1,233 participants between the ages of 70 and 89. None of the participants had been diagnosed with dementia, but 163 of them had been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. The participants were divided into three groups according to the number of calories they typically consumed each day.
The groups were:
*The low group (600-1526 calories)
*The medium group (1526-2143 calories)
*The high group (2143-6000 calories)
The results showed that the participants in the high group, who ate the most calories each day, were more than twice as likely to have mild cognitive impairment as the participants in the other two groups. Although this does not prove that high calorie intake causes dementia or MCI, it does suggest a link between diet and the risk of these conditions.