A Poor Diet, Plus Alzheimer’s Gene, Leads To Greater Risk, According To New Study
A diet high in cholesterol, fat and sugar may influence the development of Alzheimer’s disease in people who carry the ApoE4 gene, a leading risk factor for the memory-erasing disease, a new USC study indicates
The same foods that are making Americans obese may also cause them to develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study published in the journal eNeuro, the latest to explore the relationship between weight and memory loss.
Researchers at the University of Southern California Davis School of Gerontology studied the effects of a poor diet on mice. They found that a diet high in cholesterol, fat and sugar may increase likelihood of Alzheimer’s onset for those with a genetic risk.
“What happens to you in life is a combination of the genes that you have, the environment and behaviors, such as diet,” said Christian Pike, the lead author of the study and a USC Davis professor, in a press release. “Our thinking is that the risk of Alzheimer’s associated with obesity is going to be regulated to some degree by the genes that we have.”