AHAO Health Conversation

By Dr. Seema Misra Thakur and Zahraa Hameed

The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in the majority of us being confined in our homes during lockdown, giving us time to pay more attention to our daily eating habits and their impact on our overall health. It is during these times that many of us will re-evaluate the benefits of our dietary patterns and aim to explore options that are healthier for us. Through this Health Conversation, the Australian Healthy Aging Organisation (AHAO) focuses on the impact diet has on our mental, physical and overall health and aims to discuss the significance of a healthy dietary pattern.

Unhealthy eating has become a major health concern in the 21st century with many people relying on ‘junk’ and processed food for nutrition. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies spanning several years and involving thousands of older participants have concluded that there is a strong correlation between the diet we eat and its long-term effects. Poor dietary patterns lead to a number of medical conditions including depression, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), cognitive decline, obesity, cardiovascular disease and many more. Diet is a modifiable risk factor that we can easily control in order to prevent long term health burdens for all Australia, but more notably in older Australians.

Depression has become a global issue affecting our lives as well as the lives of so many others around us. According to the department of Health and Human services Victoria (DHHS.Vic), 1 in 5 Australians suffer from a mental illness or disorder and 10-15% of older adults experience depression (Beyond Blue Australia). While relying on antidepressants has become a common way of treatment, research conducted suggest that 50% of these patients do not respond effectively to these initial treatments or experience side effects as a result. While we try to combat this burden through different pharmacological approaches, we tend to forget the central role diet plays in positively contributing to our health.

Studies in the past few decades have agreed that adherence to a ‘healthy’ dietary pattern can act as alternative to medications to reduce the risk of depression in late life. However, many of us will wonder what defines a ‘healthy’ dietary pattern? Recent studies have found that the Mediterranean diet which consists of: high intakes of olive oil, vegetables, fresh fruit, nuts, legumes and whole grain cereals; moderate intake of poultry, seafood, eggs and dairy; and minimal intake of meat, refined carbohydrates and sweets represents a great example of a healthy diet that has the potential to reduce depressive symptoms (figure 1). A systematic review analysing several studies has stated that:

“The Mediterranean dietary pattern offers a potential alternative or useful impact adjunct to current treatments in place for depression”

A different study from the Women’s Healthy Aging Project has concluded that “women adhering to the Mediterranean dietary pattern displayed signiﬁcantly higher cognitive scores than the other dietary groups”. On the other hand, a high consumption of processed food has been found to ultimately increase the risk of depressive symptoms.

Figure 1: Evidence suggests the Mediterranean Dietary pattern results in decreases depressive symptoms. Image source: Unsplash (Anna Pelzer)

However, a healthy diet, especially the Mediterranean diet, does much more than reduce depressive symptoms and cognitive decline. Recent studies have concluded that there is a strong correlation between eating a Mediterranean diet and the risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Dementia has become a major health concern within aging populations with 43.8 million people living with this burden in 2016, according to a Global Burden of Disease study. As the leading cause for dementia, AD results in memory loss and a significant increase in cognitive decline (Figure 2). A systematic review and meta-analysis found that adhering to a Mediterranean diet has the potential to reduce AD biomarkers and reduce the risk of AD in late life. In addition to that, a study by the Women’s Healthy Aging Project has found that “adhering to junk food was a significant predictor of cerebral Beta-amyloid (Aβ) disposition”.

Figure 2: Alzheimer’s disease degenerates brain cells which causes memory loss and disruption to brain functions. Image source: Unsplash (Clément Falize).

Evidence from a different study indicated low intake of fruits and vegetables was considered one of the leading causes of vascular disease in aging women . While consumption of red and processed meat has been found to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) within Australian women with processed meat posing a higher risk.

The above research studies demonstrate that to live a healthier life, we must take the first steps TODAY. We need to start eating HEALTHY. We need to prioritise our dietary patterns in order to live longer and age better.

References:

Altun, A., Brown, H., Szoeke, C., & Goodwill, A. M. (2019). “The Mediterranean dietary pattern and depression risk: A systematic review.” Neurology, Psychiatry and Brain Research, 33, 1-10.

Bovalino, S., Charleson, G., & Szoeke, C. (2016). “The impact of red and processed meat consumption on cardiovascular disease risk in women.” Nutrition, 32(3), 349-354.

Campbell, K. E., Gorelik, A., Szoeke, C. E., & Dennerstein, L. (2020). “Mid-life predictors of late-life depressive symptoms; determining risk factors spanning two decades in the Women's Heathy Ageing Project.” Women's midlife health, 6, 2.

Gardener, S. L., S. R. Rainey-Smith, M. Barnes, H. R. Sohrabi, M. Weinborn, Y. Y. Lim, K. Harrington, K. Taddei, Y. Gu and A. Rembach (2015). "Dietary patterns and cognitive decline in an Australian study of ageing." Molecular psychiatry 20(7), 860-866.

Hill, E., Clifton, P., Goodwill, A. M., Dennerstein, L., Campbell, S., & Szoeke, C. (2018). “Dietary patterns and β-amyloid deposition in aging Australian women.” Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.), 4, 535–541.

Hill, E., Goodwill, A. M., Gorelik, A., & Szoeke, C. (2019). “Diet and biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Neurobiology of aging, 76, 45–52.

Hill, E., Hodge, A., Clifton, P., Shivappa, N., Hebert, J. R., Dennerstein, L., Campbell, S., & Szoeke, C. (2019). “Longitudinal nutritional changes in aging Australian women.” Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition, 28(1), 139–149.

Nichols, E., Szoeke, C. E., Vollset, S. E., Abbasi, N., Abd-Allah, F., Abdela, J., ... & Awasthi, A. (2019). “Global, regional, and national burden of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016.” The Lancet Neurology, 18(1), 88-106.

Szoeke C, Dang C, Lehert P, Hickey M, Morris ME, et al. (2017). “Correction: Unhealthy habits persist: The ongoing presence of modifiable risk factors for disease in women.” PLOS ONE, 12(7): e0181287