How can the cognitive health protect?

The diet seems to affect the fluency in the middle ages, which in turn is regarded as an important measure of mental performance (cognitive). In order to protect the cognition, it is important to take sufficient vegetables, fruits, nuts, and legumes to.

In a study with the participation of the University of Toronto has found that a healthy diet helps to maintain the verbal fluency, what can be a better mental performance close. The results were published in the English journal “the Journal of Nutrition Health and Aging”.

Data of over 8,500 people were analyzed

In the current study, a sample of 8.574 Anglophone (English-speaking) living in Canada, people aged 45 to 85 years, were language to your verbal dexterity investigated, and in parallel, the nutritional behavior of the subjects analyzed. Of the examined persons of 1,126 people wandered in front of at least twenty years after Canada and no Participants suffered from at the beginning of the study period under dementia.

Mastery of language is an important indicator

The fluency is an important measure of cognitive function. In order to test it, the Participants were asked, in one Minute as many words from a particular category to list as you can. So the language and the Executive function can be evaluated, whereby it is possible to identify cognitive impairment.

Grip strength is also investigated

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If (older) people take too little healthy food or, in General, too little food, this can also lead to malnutrition. A study of grip strength was used to assess the sub-nutrition. Participants of the study, which thickness is a poor grip and/or high nutritional risk values had also a lower language skills, according to the research group. Previous studies had already shown that under-nutrition with a cognitive decline is associated.

Immigrant people showed higher fluency

Anglophone participants who had at least lived for twenty years in Canada, showed higher values in the language skills than canadian-born people of the same age. The researchers assume that this effect might partly be due to a better cognitive Reserve among the immigrant people.

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Previous research in a large British cohort of people born in the year 1946, have shown that those who had emigrated from the United Kingdom, had on average a five-points higher IQ than people of the same age, remained in the United Kingdom, according to the Team.

Bilingual people had greater language fluency

In addition, previous studies suggested that bilingual individuals have a lower incidence and a delayed onset of dementia. Most of the studies that found an advantage of bilingualism is not, however, have taken into account the migration status. The current results suggest that this is an important omission, because even immigrant people, whose mother language is English, had a significant Anglophone higher values of the language skills than canadian-born.

Protective effect of education

In Accordance with other studies, younger people showed values in comparison to the older people better cognitive function. The relationship between cognitive impairment and advanced age could be due to factors of cognitive Reserve, such as, for example, a high level of education, diminished. People aged 75 to 85 years with a higher education (High School degree) had a higher on fluency, which was the language with the fluency of ten years younger persons without a higher education degree comparable to that explained in the research group.

Other factors that influence the fluency

Of adults with hypertension stage 2, lower values of the linguistic competence. This also highlights the importance of blood pressure management to brain health in mid-life and beyond, the researchers say. In addition, both obesity as well as increased body be fat percentage with a poorer mastery of language is connected.

Fluency maintained?

Not the least part of the sections participating in the study who consumed more vegetables, fruit, nuts, and legumes (such as lentils and beans), in the case of the Tests carried out for the agility voice better. These results are consistent with other research results, in which it was found that a Mediterranean diet protects against cognitive decline, reports the researchers.

More helps more

Any increase in average daily fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with higher results in Tests for fluency. The best results were achieved by participants who took a daily basis for at least six servings of fruits and vegetables, so the research team.

The results show how important it is to develop guidelines and health care practices in order to improve the quality of nutrition and to combat obesity and high blood pressure among people in middle and older age, explains the research group. (as)

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