The study, published recently in Nature Scientific Reports, measured the amount of two amyloid-beta peptides in the bloodstream of participants at the beginning and end of a four-week intervention. Elevated levels of these peptides in the brain are believed to trigger the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and are often associated with excessive stress or sleep deprivation.

To measure the impact of behavioral changes on peptide buildup, the researchers randomly divided 108 healthy adults into two groups and instructed them to practice one of two stress-reduction techniques for 20-40 minutes, twice a day, for four weeks. Each participant wore a heart rate monitor that was attached to a biofeedback machine so they could see their heart rate displayed on a laptop. One group was asked to think of soothing imagery and try to maintain a steady heart rate for the duration of their sessions. The other group was told to match their breathing to an on-screen pacer graphic that guided them to slowly inhale and exhale for matching counts based on the breathing pattern that induced the greatest heart rate variability for each participant.

At the end of the study, researchers discovered the group who participated in timed breathing had significantly lower levels of both peptides in their blood than when the research began. The decrease was consistent among participants in the timed breathing group irrespective of age, which may indicate that behavior-based Alzheimer’s prevention techniques can be effective at any stage of life.

The Head and the Heart

So why might slow, timed breathing have such a profound effect on peptide buildup? Researchers posit that strong heart rate variability—that is, the small fluctuations in time between each heart beat—is crucial for maintaining a healthy body and mind as you age.

Let’s break it down: Your autonomic nervous system is constantly adjusting your heart rate and breathing patterns based on what is going on around you (e.g., if you’re hiking and see a bear, your heart rate picks up so your body is primed to flee danger). Two branches of the autonomic nervous system, known as sympathetic and parasympathetic, are associated with distinct heart rate and breathing patterns. When your sympathetic nervous system is engaged (aka fight-or-flight mode) the time between your heartbeats remains relatively constant and you breathe more rapidly. When the parasympathetic nervous system is switched on (aka rest-and-digest mode) the time between your heart beats fluctuates, getting shorter as you inhale and longer when you exhale. Long deep breaths induce greater heart rate variability and signal to your brain that you’re safe, which allows your nervous system to slide in the parasympathetic state more easily.

The study authors point out that as you age your heart rate variability weakens, which means it’s harder to access the restorative state of your parasympathetic nervous system. In fact, a 2020 study that analyzed smart watch data found heart rate variation drops by up to 80% between the ages of 20 and 60.

“We know the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems influence the production and clearance of Alzheimer’s-related peptides and proteins,” says lead study author Mara Mather, who directs the Emotion & Cognition Lab at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. “Nevertheless, there’s been very little research on how these physiological changes in aging might be contributing to the factors that make it conducive for someone to develop Alzheimer’s disease or not.”

Maintaining access to your parasympathetic nervous system, and thus heart rate variability, may be key when it comes to having a healthy brain as you get older. And just as doing bicep curls builds up the muscles in your arms, practicing conscious breathing can help increase heart rate variability so your nervous system remains capable of downregulating.

Exercise: Breathe for Better Health

Curious to try the breathing exercise from the study? While this isn’t the exact graphic used by the research participants, the video below follows the same breathing pattern outlined by the researchers and can provide a good bite-size starting point for your own routine.

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For the study, published in the July 2022 issue of Neurology, researchers at the Tianjin Medical University in China compiled data from more than 72,000 people in the UK Biobank database who were 55 or older, dementia-free at baseline, and had completed at least two 24-hour dietary assessments. The assessments were examined through the NOVA framework to break down the food they consumed into four categories: unprocessed, minimally processed, processed, or ultra-processed. Participants were then segmented into four groups based on the amount of ultra-processed food they ate, and researchers looked at the number of participants in each group who developed dementia over the course of the study.

While the starkest difference was seen between people on opposite sides of the spectrum—with those who ate the most ultra-processed foods seeing a more than 50% increase in risk compared with those who ate the least—even a 10% increase in ultra-processed foods in a participant’s diet corresponded with a 25% greater chance of developing dementia. These results took into account other lifestyle factors such as age, sex, family history of dementia, and baseline BMI.

The Culprit Behind Cognitive Decline

Ultra-processed foods consist primarily of extracted or synthesized ingredients—in other words, ingredients that have been stripped down from their whole form and modified with added salt, sugar, or oil (e.g., white bread versus whole grain bread). These items often contain very little fiber and typically have a long list of chemically-altered ingredients, which makes their nutritional quality extremely poor. Salty snacks, fast food, white bread, margarine, and sweetened beverages are all classic examples of ultra-processed food.

“These foods may also contain food additives or molecules from packaging or produced during heating, all of which have been shown in other studies to have negative effects on thinking and memory skills,” study co-author Huiping Li, PhD, said in a statement.

Days after this study was published, new research from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil was presented at the 2022 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference that corroborated the link between ultra-processed food and poor brain health. CNN reports that the research—which is yet to be published—found that people who eat the most ultra-processed food have a 28% faster rate of global cognitive decline and a 25% faster rate of executive function decline compared with people who eat the least amount of ultra-processed food.

Defending Your Brain Against Dementia

The Neurology study authors put forth a few possible explanations for the connection between ultra-processed foods and cognitive decline: “High sodium diets can cause hypertension which can be accompanied by a decrease in cerebral blood flow,” they wrote. They also suggested that diets high in ultra-processed foods “may promote low-grade systemic inflammation, thereby accelerating the progression of neurodegeneration and vascular pathology in the brain.”

If making a large shift in your diet is difficult, the study provided evidence that even small changes can have a significant impact.

“Our results also show increasing unprocessed or minimally processed foods by only 50 grams a day, which is equivalent to half an apple, a serving of corn, or a bowl of bran cereal, and simultaneously decreasing ultra-processed foods by 50 grams a day, equivalent to a chocolate bar or a serving of fish sticks, is associated with 3% decreased risk of dementia,” Li explained.

Ultra-processed foods have previously been linked to cancer, obesity, and a host of other major health risks. Consuming more foods in their whole form (i.e., fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains) offers your body the entire spectrum of nutrients and minerals it needs to thrive without packing in empty calories. Cooking your own meals so you know exactly which ingredients are going into your body—and therefore, your brain—is a great way to lessen the risk of dementia as you age.

To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer. For meal-planning support, check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.

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We know you’ve heard this before. Breaking news: exercise is good for you! But the thing is, it really, really is. And not just for cardiovascular health, although that’s true, or mental health, although that’s also true, but very specifically for brain health. Regular exercise reduces inflammation and oxidative processes, so that if you eat an unhealthy meal, exercise will help you create an environment that reduces the damage caused by that meal. Now this doesn’t mean you should go out and eat a bunch of processed food and think that if you run a mile afterward you’ve done your brain any favors. You haven’t. You’ve just made the processed food a little less damaging. 

Exercise—which we define as both aerobic exercise and strength training—has an enormous impact on brain health, automatically boosting cognitive function by increasing blood flow and combating clogged arteries, vascular stiffness, insulin resistance, and high cholesterol. Long periods of inactivity mean less blood makes its way to your brain. 

Imagine a conversation with a co-worker about a project you’re working on. The deadline is approaching, and you ask your co-worker how to do a specific task. That person explains it to you, and you even watch over his or her shoulder to see how it’s done. You feel like you’ve got it, and so you say thank you and head back to your desk. But on your way, you stop and get some water, take a quick personal call, and by the time you’re sitting back at your computer, you’ve completely forgotten everything your co-worker told you. How do I do that task, again? 

We’ve all had this experience. As our brains age, we lose neurons and the connections between them, and short-term memories like these become harder to hold on to. Exercise can slow that loss and enhance that connectivity, no matter how old you are. Those connections are particularly important for the medial temporal lobe, the part of your brain responsible for short-term memory and its conversion to long-term memory. Aerobic and strength activities boost both the number and viability of those connections, providing stronger, more plentiful hooks to hang that memory on. Exercise also helps the various parts of the brain communicate with each other because it improves the integrity of the white matter tracts of the brain. Best of all, with regular exercise, you can grow millions of new brain connections, even late in life. 

The good news is that you don’t need to run a marathon to have a healthy brain. Something as simple as a daily brisk walk and a few squats can lower your risk of Alzheimer’s by 40 percent. Exercise doesn’t have to be a burden. 

Excerpted fromThe 30-Day Alzheimer’s Solution by Dean Sherzai, MD, PhD and Ayesha Sherzai, MD and reprinted with permission from HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Copyright 2021.

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The number of people with Alzheimer’s disease is expected to jump from 5.7 million in 2018 to 14 million by 2050. There is no known cure. Although there is much research to be done on this disease, studies have shown that certain foods are beneficial to the brain and may offer some protection against Alzheimer’s.

Harmful Foods

Saturated fats, trans fats, and excess metals are the biggest threats to brain health. Saturated fats are found in all animal products and seem to encourage the production of plaques within the brain. The Chicago Health and Aging Study reported in the Archives of Neurology in 2003 that individuals with the most saturated fat in their diets had more than triple the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease when compared with those who generally avoided these fats. Trans fats are another fatty substance that has been shown to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease more than fivefold. These fats appear to increase the production of the beta-amyloid protein that collects in plaques at the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Excess metals in the body, such as iron, copper, and aluminum, build up in the brain, which may lead to Alzheimer’s disease. Excess iron promotes the production of damaging free radicals, while too much copper can impair cognition and stick to the plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Buildup of aluminum has also been found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, and because of this, it is recommended to avoid uncoated aluminum cookware and to read labels when purchasing baking powder, antacids, and processed foods.

Brain-Friendly Foods

Good news! There are many ways to help strengthen your brain and protect yourself against Alzheimer’s disease. Vitamin E is bountiful in nuts and seeds, and it has been shown to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, pecans, pistachios, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and flaxseed are all high in vitamin E, and you don’t need to eat mass quantities of these little gems to get the benefits. Have a small handful each day to get your dose of brain-boosting vitamin E.

The beautiful coloring of grapes and blueberries isn’t just for show; it means that these fruits are packed with anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants that help improve learning and recall. Sweet potatoes get their orange hue from another powerful antioxidant called beta-carotene. Antioxidants are important in fighting harmful free radicals.

Eating green leafy vegetables, beans, and legumes daily will ensure that you are getting adequate folate and B6, two very important brain-protecting vitamins. Another B vitamin, B12, is difficult for people to absorb through foods, which is why it is recommended to take a B12 supplement to ensure you are getting the trio of brain-protecting power: folate, B6, and B12.

Exercise for the Body and Brain

Physical exercise has long been recognized as a means to improve longevity and heart health, but it is also beneficial for brain health. Studies have shown that aerobic exercise can help reduce brain atrophy, and it can also improve memory and other cognitive functions. Aim to get at least 120 minutes of aerobic exercise each week.

Learn more about brain health in the Physicians Committee’s Dietary Guidelines for Alzheimer’s Prevention.

Ready to get started? Check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.

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