Dietary inflammatory index in patients with Alzheimer's dementia compared to controls

Abstract

Alzheimer's dementia (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease causing progressive memory loss, cognitive decline across numerous domains, and, eventually, loss of daily living activities. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a significant risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease and is believed to be the mildest endpoint on the spectrum of AD. However, not all patients with MCI progress to AD. Understanding individual, modifiable factors influencing differences between MCI and AD can help us understand why some patients progress and others do not. One such well-studied, modifiable factor is diet. The dietary inflammatory index (DII) evaluates various dietary components on how their pro-and anti-inflammatory properties and is a tool that enables us to analyze how pro-or anti-inflammatory an individual's diet is. We found that DII significantly differs between controls, patients with MCI, and patients with AD; controls have the most anti-inflammatory diet and patients with AD having the least anti-inflammatory diet. This evidence supports the crucial role of diet and chronic inflammation in the development and progression of AD.