Diet and the Overall Picture of Dementia and Alzheimer's

Tangui, Coline, Lucille, 2TSA

Some vocabulary...

• Behavior = comportement
• Habits = habitudes
• Underlying = fondamentale
• Ongoing = en cours
• Healthy food = nourriture saine
• Illness = maladie
• Merge = fusionner
• Regimen = régime de vie
• Highly motivated = très motivé
• Mild cognitive impaiment = trouble cognitif léger

This interview deals with the link between diet and dementia in some diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Martha Clare Morris who works at the Rush University Medical Center highlights the importance and the role of such diet.

What role can this play in dementia prevention overall?

There is not any research that has been done concerning this role but only concerning vitamin supplements. New ones have to be done.

How do you explain the importance of diet for patients?

Martha is persuaded that a healthy diet with physical activity underlies almost every chronic disease. However we benefit from a healthy diet and a healthy life at any age, including cognitivity, for the present but also for our future.

What can be done to ensure compliance?

Behavior change is difficult. Stressful situations in our lives can encourage us to eat unhealthily and not to exercise, and then we have to manage ourselves to face this stress.

Is the goal to stop or slow Alzheimer’s disease development?

The real goal of researchers is to find a solution to stop this disease, improving diet can just prevent and slow down the disease but can’t stop it.

What is the future of your research?

They are going to study the changes on 600 patients, who have a family history of dementia and a poor diet and are also overweight but not cognitively impaired yet.

How will you measure success with these studies?

During a three-year period researchers will follow a sample of patients, half of whom have a healthy diet and the other half who have a regular diet. With a MRI, they will compare their brain images to find if there are differences.    

Vocabulary

Debate

In your opinion, can we prevent cognitive impairment with healthy food?

What is for you a healthy diet?

Do you think that in the future Alzheimer will be curable?