In a new study, researchers found that following a certain type of diet affects the gut microbiome—the good and bad bacteria that live in the gastrointestinal tract—in ways that decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
They found a modified Mediterranean-ketogenic diet produced changes in the gut microbiome and its metabolites that linked to reduced levels of Alzheimer’s markers.
The research was conducted by a team at Wake Forest School of Medicine.
In a small study, the researchers tested 17 older adults, 11 with diagnosed mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and six with normal cognition.
They found several distinct gut microbiome signatures—the chemicals produced by bacteria—in study participants with MCI but not in the people with normal cognition.
They also found that these bacterial signatures linked to higher levels of markers of Alzheimer’s disease in the cerebrospinal fluid of the participants with MCI.
Through cross-group dietary intervention, the study also showed that in the members of both study groups, a modified Mediterranean-ketogenic diet was linked to reduced levels of Alzheimer’s markers in both groups.
The findings suggest that Alzheimer’s disease is associated with specific changes in gut bacteria and that a type of ketogenic Mediterranean diet can affect the microbiome in ways that could impact the development of dementia.
The study provides important information that future interventional and clinical studies can be based on.
Determining the specific role these gut microbiome signatures have in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease could lead to novel nutritional and therapeutic approaches that would be effective against the disease.
The lead author of the study is Hariom Yadav, Ph.D., an assistant professor of molecular medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine.
The study is published in EBioMedicine.
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