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Objective To examine associations between consumption of foods typical of Mediterranean versus Western diets with positive and negative affect. Nutrients influence mental states yet few studies have examined whether foods protective or deleterious for cardiovascular disease affect mood. Methods Participants were 9255 Adventist church attendees in North America who completed a validated food frequency questionnaire in 2002–6. Scores for affect were obtained from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule questionnaire in 2006–7. Multiple linear regression models controlled for age, gender, ethnicity, BMI, education, sleep, sleep squared (to account for high or low amounts), exercise, total caloric intake, alcohol and time between the questionnaires. Results Intake of vegetables (β=0.124 [95% CI 0.101, 0.147]), fruit (β=0.066 [95% CI 0.046, 0.085]), olive oil (β=0.070 [95% CI 0.029, 0.111]), nuts (β=0.054 [95% CI 0.026, 0.082]), and legumes (β=0.055 [95% CI 0.032, 0.077]) were associated with positive affect while sweets/desserts (β=−0.066 [95% CI −0.086, −0.046]), soda (β=−0.025 [95% CI −0.037, −0.013]) and fast food frequency (β=−0.046 [95% CI −0.062, −0.030]) were inversely associated with positive affect. Intake of sweets/desserts (β=0.058 [95% CI 0.037, 0.078]) and fast food frequency (β=0.052 [95% CI 0.036, 0.068]) were associated with negative affect while intake of vegetables (β=−0.076 [95% CI −0.099, −0.052]), fruit (β=−0.033 [95% CI −0.053, −0.014]) and nuts (β=−0.088 [95% CI −0.116, −0.060]) were inversely associated with negative affect. Gender interacted with red meat intake (P<.001) and fast food frequency (P<.001) such that these foods were associated with negative affect in females only. Conclusions Foods typical of Mediterranean diets were associated with positive affect as well as lower negative affect while Western foods were associated with low positive affect in general and negative affect in women.

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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and currently affects over 5 million Americans and 30 million individuals worldwide. Unfortunately, the current approach to treating AD provides nothing more than a marginal, unsustained, symptomatic effect, with little or no effect on disease progression itself. To attain effective improvements in AD, one must determine risk factors, address the underlying causes, and focus on a combination of functional and lifestyle medicine strategies that provide a comprehensive, programmatic, and network-based approach that is sufficient to achieve epigenetic transformation and neurologic healing through its multiple and necessary synergistic components. Rather than normalizing metabolic parameters, the focus is on optimization of each metabolic parameter. Papers published by research neurologist, Dr Dale Bredesen have documented that symptoms of mild cognitive impairment and early AD may often be reversed within 6 months after initiating a comprehensive, functional and lifestyle medicine-focused program. The purpose of this article are as follows: 1. Shed light on a promising clinical protocol that focuses on a comprehensive functional and lifestyle medicine approach to treating mild cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease; 2. Identify the Bredesen Protocol testing, diagnostic and treatment guidelines; 3. Review several case studies and discuss the promising results of the program. Although published case studies such as those reported here are relatively few, clinicians applying these comprehensive strategies have reason to expect improvement in their patients. Lifestyle medicine can be a source of greatly needed hope for those suffering with cognitive decline.