Dietary flavonols and risk of Alzheimer dementia

Abstract

ObjectiveTo determine whether dietary intake of flavonols is associated with Alzheimer dementia.MethodsThe study was conducted among 921 participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP), an ongoing community-based, prospective cohort. Participants completed annual neurologic evaluations and dietary assessments using a validated food frequency questionnaire.ResultsAmong 921 MAP participants who initially had no dementia in the analyzed sample, 220 developed Alzheimer dementia. The mean age of the sample was 81.2 years (SD 7.2), with the majority (n = 691, 75%) being female. Participants with the highest intake of total flavonols had higher levels of education and more participation in physical and cognitive activities. In Cox proportional hazards models, dietary intakes of flavonols were inversely associated with incident Alzheimer dementia in models adjusted for age, sex, education, APOE ɛ4, and participation in cognitive and physical activities. Hazard ratios (HRs) for the fifth vs first quintiles of intake were as follows: for total flavonol, 0.52 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.33–0.84); for kaempferol, 0.49 (95% CI, 0.31–0.77); for myricetin, 0.62 (95% CI, 0.4–0.97); and for isorhamnetin, 0.62 (95% CI, 0.39–0.98). Quercetin was not associated with Alzheimer dementia (HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.43–1.09).ConclusionHigher dietary intakes of flavonols may be associated with reduced risk of developing Alzheimer dementia.

The Effect of (Poly)phenol-Rich Interventions on Cognitive Functions and Neuroprotective Measures in Healthy Aging Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Improvements in resting regional cerebral blood flow have also been reported following an acute ingestion of high-flavanol (494 mg) cocoa drink [30] and after daily ingestion of 387 mg anthocyanin-rich blueberry concentrate for 12 weeks [31]. More interestingly, an ongoing (1997-present) community-based, prospective cohort of 921 older persons showed that higher dietary intakes of flavanols may be associated with reduced risk of developing Alzheimer dementia [34]. However, other studies have reported nonsignificant effects or even unwanted effects of (poly)phenol-rich supplementation on certain cognitive functions, specifically executive functioning, working memory and verbal memory [35,36], or cerebral blood flow response [37].…”

“…These (poly)phenol compounds (i.e., flavones, flavonols, isoflavones, flavanones/flavanonols, flavanols, and anthocyanidins) are present in high amounts in fruits, vegetables, and natural products such as parsley, celery, onions, leeks, broccoli, soy, oregano herbs, green tea, red wine, citrus fruit, berry fruits, and dark chocolate [20,21]. Although research has historically focused on antioxidant properties [22][23][24][25], recent data from randomized placebo-controlled trials suggest (poly)phenols may also modulate neurological disorders, cerebral hypoperfusion, and neuroinflammation while simultaneously enhancing memory, learning, and cognitive performances in old-aged adults [19,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Mastroiacovo et al [26] demonstrated a daily consumption of 250 mL Cocoa drinks, with a high flavanol content (993 mg), for 8 weeks has the potential to improve psychomotor performance, verbal fluency performance, as well as the overall cognitive performance (i.e., z-score).…”

Metabolic and clinical responses to Bunium Persicum (black caraway) supplementation in overweight and obese patients with type 2 diabetes: a double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial

“…The reasons are likely to be the short time of intervention and the smaller sample size. Furthermore, Kaempferol is a natural flavonol, a type of flavonoid that can up-regulate the satiety gene NUCB-2/ nesfatin-1, which plays an essential role in controlling energy balance, reducing body weight, and increasing satiety [13,[46][47][48]. Nesfatin-1 can produce several activities, including suppressing inflammation, lipid mobilization activity, enhancement of antioxidant defense, and a regulatory role in glucose homeostasis, which can prevent and decrease the complications, development, and progression of T2DM [49][50][51].…”

Metabolic and Clinical responses to Bunium Persicum (Black Caraway) supplementation in overweight and obese patients with type 2 diabetes: a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial

“…The reasons are likely to be the short time of intervention and the lower sample size in the study. Furthermore, Kaempferol is a natural avonol, a type of avonoid that can up-regulate the satiety gene NUCB-2/nesfatin-1 which plays an important role in controlling energy balance, reducing body weight and increasing satiety (13,(45)(46)(47) . Nesfatin-1 can produce several activities including suppression of in ammation, lipid mobilization activity, enhancement of antioxidant defense, and a regulatory role in glucose homeostasis that may prevent and reduce the complications, development, and progression of T2DM (48)(49)(50) .…”