What do avocado, nuts and olive oil have in common? All of them are sources of unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) or ‘good cholesterol’ and are bad cholesterol-busters. But could these healthy foods be linked to Alzheimer’s? Yes and no. An international research team with scientists from King’s College, London, and the National Institute on Ageing, US, analysed how fatty acid metabolites in the brain tissue behaved in healthy seniors who participated in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Ageing. The participants were assessed cognitively in the year prior to their deaths, and their brains were tested for neuropathologies via an autopsy. The findings were startling: six UFAs found in the brain tissue correlated with Alzheimer’s and affected the participants’ cognitive abilities. Wait a minute, aren’t UFAs supposed to be healthy? The research team explains that it is not UFAs per se but dysregulation in their metabolism that contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s. The study was published in PLOS Medicine.

Photo: 123RF.com
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
May 2017