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17 January 2005
Cutting Carbs Slows Alzheimer's 
A low carbohydrate diet that reduced total caloric intake by 30% prevented the development of a fundamental feature of Alzheimer's disease in mice says research in FASEB Journal Express. The diet eliminated amyloid plaque development, which is the underlying pathology in Alzheimer's disease and demonstrated that a change in diet can slow and possibly prevent Alzheimer's diseases. "While it is far too early for us to make specific recommendations for human diets," said primary investigator Giulio Maria Pasinetti, "these findings provide the first solid evidence that dietary changes may provide a new approach to treatment and prevention of this devastating disease." Pasinetti and his colleagues found that mice did not develop the physiological markers of the disease when they were fed a reduced carbohydrate diet that provided 70% of the calories eaten by similar mice who were allowed to eat without restriction. The strain of mice used in the study was genetically engineered to produce what are known as amyloidogenic a-amyloid peptides in the brain, resulting in the formation of amyloid plaques which are known to be the root problem in Alzheimer' disease. Of the mice fed without restriction, 100% developed these plaques. No plaque development was detected in the mice fed a carbohydrate and calorie restricted diet. The investigators found that anti-amyloidogenic activities were increased in mice fed the restricted diet. In other words, the calorie restricted diet activated pathways that break down amyloidogenic a-amyloid peptides in the brain before they form the plaques characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. "Since the diet only reduced calories by 30%, (based on carbohydrate) the mice developed normally," said Pasinetti. "While they did not gain weight like the mice in the control group, they did not loose weight either and remained within the boundaries considered a healthy weight. Nonetheless, this rather mild change in diet resulted in a remarkable measure of disease prevention. There is epidemiological evidence that humans who consume reduced calorie diets have a lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease. Our investigation provides a possible rational for this observation and possible mechanisms through which caloric reduction may provide protection in Alzheimer's disease."
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