High Fat Diet and Alzheimer’s Disease

Author:

Institution:

Date:

Introduction

Alzheimer is a very devastating disease that carries away the mind slowly by slowly over a period. It starts as a simple odd memory gaps and later erodes one’s life to the point where a patient requires total care. If the disease becomes severe, one can easily wonder off and later get lost. This disease may affect an individual to the point where a parent cannot identify a son/daughter. The disease was little known in the 1960s. However, the disease is widely known and precautionary measures have been layed and implemeted to help curb the disease.

Several researchers have investigated the effects associated with dietary on development of Alzheimer disease. This study is carried out to determine the relationship between consumption of specific types of fats and Alzheimer diseases. The study is conducted in a biracial community and the main question it tries to answer whether high fat diets increase the likelihood of Alzheimer disease.

Hypothesis

A diet with high fat increases the concentration of proteins in the brain. This is one risk that is related to the Alzheimer’s disease. However, this might not be the sole cause. It is worth noting that dietary fats and in particular saturated fats are quite unhealthy both to parents and children. Most people do not question why fats are bad. They assume that the researchers who have made the studies must have done their work thus they trust these results (Meester et al., 2010).

Several diseases are related, in one way or the other with intake of high fat levels. It is continuously advised that, to lead a healthy life, one should practice to maintain total fat intake to 20% or below of total calories consumed. Though this sometimes becomes hard to be achieved, it can help reduce chances of getting several diseases including Alzheimer. In addition, people are advised to take good kinds of fat as much as they can. Fortunately, people are now embracing the idea and records states that it is working well. People are now taking omega-3 fats as they are healthier than other fats. It is also evident that most trans fats are unhealthy and are associated to a number of diseases including heart failure.

Docosahexaenoic is an example of omega-3 fat that comes in large quantities in the brain. It is advised for healthy brain development, especially in children. These fats can be found in eggs, fish and dairy products. On the other hand, trans fats are produced by high temperature process where polyunsaturated fats are hydrolyzed into a more stable configuration. This process increases their shelf life but makes them be so unnatural such that they can no longer be called food. It is worth noting that trans fats are extremely dangerous both to the brain and the heart. A high consumption of trans fats raises the risk of getting Alzheimer’s. Trans fats are mostly found in highly processed foods especially in foods where fats are converted to powdered foods.

Literature Review

Many studies have been made concerning the effects of taking foods with high fats and their connection to Alzheimer. Most of these studies have shown that many persons who suffer from this disease have high connections to foods that are rich in fats. Though this is the case, it was found out those high fats levels are not the sole cause of Alzheimer. Another cause includes high sugar levels and depression.

In one study that was published online in Jama Neurology, it was found out that diets that are saturated with fats significantly reduce levels of apolipoprotein E in the body. These are also called ApoE and are responsible for removing amyloid beta proteins from the brain. Importantly, people who take foods that have high fat levels portrayed several changes in their ApoE, such that the ApoE levels were much lower thus unable to clear the amyloid. ApoE4 status is highly connected with high risks related to cognitive decline together with elevated brain amyloid that was deposited. According to this research, different forms of ApoE (2, 3 and 4) seem to regulate how beta-amyloid is removed from the brain where they do that with varying efficiencies. (Zacharias, 2012). Additionally, ApoE4 is seen to be the slowest in the removal of beta-amyloid out of the brain. This might be the reason it is connected with a high risk of genetic risk.

According to Lu & Bludau (2011) in their previous diet intervention publications, a diet with high fat levels and high glycemic index makes the condition of cerebrospinal fluid insulin levels worse. This might worsen certain aspects of how the memory functions. In contrast, diet low in fats and one with low glycemic index have quite opposing results. In a study that was found out that 20 senior adults who had normal cognition and other 20 who had mild cognition impairment. This is a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. This group was critically analyzed and deductions recorded(Montmayeur & Coutre, 2010). All individuals in the sample were randomly delegated to different diets that contained the same quantities of calories but either with high or low fat levels. Those with high fat diets contained 45% of all the energy that came from fat and more than a quarter of all fat came from foods from saturated fats. In diets that had low fat concentration, more than 25% of energy came from fat, where concentrated fat contributed less than 7% to total fat.

One month later, the diets were noticed to have caused many changes in the gross amount of amyloid beta ApoE in the subject spinal fluid in such a way that there was a high level of beta-amyloid for those with high levels of fat concentrations. This data is related to another that was made at an earlier date showing a high link between higher levels of amyloid in the brain of different parents with ApoE4 where diets with high fat concentration increasing risks of developing Alzheimer’s. From this study, there are high chances of elucidation of this mechanism at play, meaning that saturated fats decrease levels of ApoE’s ability to get rid of beta-amyloid out of the brain (McDonald, 2010). This leads to its levels going high which is quite risky for the brain functionality. Additionally, this action may also lead to increase in levels of spinal fluids that bathe the brain.

Methods

Statistical Analyses

Data will be expressed as means ± SE. In testing the behavior, the statistical analysis will be performed using Statistica 7.1 software, also known as Statsoft. The impacts of conditioning will be analyzed by the use of two-way factorial analysis with the Diet. That will be high fat/low fat versus development of Alzheimer. If it will be necessary, post-hoc test will be carried out using the Bonferroni test for all individuals in the sample. It is expected that different performances from one Y-maze session to another will be assessed using Chi2 test.

Also, the study will employ will employ one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) which will be used to determine effects of diet with fats and CN treatment on mRNA. After determining significant intergroup differences, the Tukey’s test will be carried out. Various superscripts will indicate significant differences from one individual to the other.

Results

After a close follows up, it was deducted that more 100 persons developed Alzheimer disease from taking foods with high fat concentration. Intake of these foods and other trans-unsaturated fat was found to be directly proportional with risks of Alzheimer disease. In addition, intake of foods such as Omega-6 polyunsaturated fat together with monounsaturated fat was inversely proportion. All individuals who were in the upper fifth that contained saturated fat intake had more than 2.2 times the risk of getting Alzheimer disease in comparison to individuals in the lowest fifth. This was done in a multivariable model that was adjusted for sex, age, education, race, and status of apolipoprotein E epsilon4 allele. The confidence interval was found to be 95%, ranging from 1.1 to 4.7 (Newport, 2011).

The risk of getting this disease is also increases through consumption of trans-unsaturated fats. Starting with the second fifth of the intake, the relative risk related to Alzheimer’s disease was found to be 2.4 compared to that of the lower fifth. This recorded a confidence interval of 95%, 1.1 to 5.3. Additionally, there was an inverse proportionality between Alzheimer disease and vegetable fat (P = 0.002). There were further adjustments that were recorded for other types of fats and significant relations where intake of omega-6 polyunsaturated fat (P=10) and monounsaturated fat (P=10). Consumption of total fat, dietary cholesterol and animal fat was not connected to Alzheimer disease.

In conclusion, high intake of saturated fats may increase chances of getting Alzheimer’s disease. It is thus advised, that one should consume unsaturated and un-hydrogenated fats to reduce the risk. Additionally, taking fats from such foods as fish and dairies contributes to healthy living that is free from Alzheimer. This is because these foods are not highly processed like other canned foods.

References

Lu, L. C., & Bludau, J. (2011). Alzheimer’s disease. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood.

McDonald, P. (2010). The perfect gene diet: use your body’s own Apo E gene and an integrative-medicine approach to treat high cholesterol, weight problems, heart disease, Alzheimer’s– and more. Carlsbad, Calif.: Hay House.

Meester, F. D., Zibadi, S., & Watson, R. R. (2010). Modern dietary fat intakes in disease promotion. Totowa, N.J.: Humana.

Montmayeur, J., & Coutre, J. (2010). Fat detection: taste, texture, and post ingestive effects. Boca Raton: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis.

Newport, M. T. (2011). Alzheimer’s disease, what if there was a cure?: the story of ketones. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications.

Zacharias, E. (2012). The Mediterranean diet a clinician’s guide for patient care. New York: Springer.