Women with Alzheimer's show reduced levels of healthy unsaturated fats

[Sly Saint]

Analysis of lipids – fat molecules that perform many essential functions in the body – in the blood found there was a noticeable loss of unsaturated fats, such as those that contain omega fatty acids, in the blood of women with Alzheimer's disease compared to healthy women.

Scientists found no significant difference in the same lipid molecule composition in men with Alzheimer's disease compared to healthy men, which suggests that those lipids have a different role in the disease according to sex. Fats perform important roles in maintaining a healthy brain, so this study could indicate why more women are diagnosed with the disease.

The study, published today in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association by scientists from King's College London and Queen Mary University London, is the first to reveal the important role lipids could have in the risk for Alzheimer's between the sexes.

Women are disproportionately impacted by Alzheimer's Disease and are more often diagnosed with the disease than men after the age of 80. One of the most surprising things we saw when looking at the different sexes was that there was no difference in these lipids in healthy and cognitively impaired men, but for women this picture was completely different. The study reveals that Alzheimer's lipid biology is different between the sexes, opening new avenues for research."

Dr. Cristina Legido-Quigley, Senior Author, King's College London

Women with Alzheimer's show reduced levels of healthy unsaturated fats

Omega fatty acids could protect against Alzheimer's disease in women, new research has found.

www.news-medical.net

 

[Arnie Pye]

Could there be a historical reason for the differences being found in men and women?

For a large part of my life many, many women have believed that a low fat diet is the best diet for health. And men have been less interested in restrictive diets like the low-fat diet than women. I am under the impression that low-fat foods are becoming less popular than they used to be.

I spent several years using skimmed milk in cooking and drinks. At some point I decided to switch to full fat milk and haven't regretted it. (I can't remember when this happened or what prompted the change.)

Perhaps the years eating less fat than I do now has increased my risk of Alzheimer's.

 

[perchance dreamer]

In the U.S., low-fat diet recommendations were like a religion for years. We were told that saturated fats increased cholesterol, which increased risk of heart disease. The U.S. food pyramid had 6-11 servings of grains at the bottom of the pyramid, meaning grains should comprise most of someone's diet. Since then, we learned that the USDA recommendations were influenced by grain-farmer lobbyists. Also, studies from that time showing saturated fats cause heart disease have been largely discredited now.

I think the reason the low-fat recommendations were so successful in the U.S. is that we still have a strong ascetic streak, viewing many forms of pleasure as suspect. The low-and-nonfat products that replaced full-fat foods weren't as tasty, which appealed to something perverse in our nature.

@Arnie Pye, I've gone back to full-fat products, too. I don't eat that many, but a little coconut cream in my coffee is much more satisfying than a larger amount of low-fat or non-fat milk, and full-fat butter tastes so much better than, god forbid, margarine.

 

[Mij]

My Mother had AD, she ate fish 3x/week for most of her life.

It is very difficult to find full fat milk and yogurt in the grocery stores in the last 20 yrs. I can only find it at the health food store.

There are good fats and bad fats.