Multiple factors combined are currently recognized as contributors to cognitive decline. The main independent risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia is advanced age followed by other determinants such as genetic, socioeconomic, and environmental factors, including nutrition and physical activity. In the next decades, a rise in dementia cases is expected due largely to the aging of the world population. There are no hitherto effective pharmaceutical therapies to treat age-associated cognitive impairment and dementia, which underscores the crucial role of prevention. A relationship among diet, physical activity, and other lifestyle factors with cognitive function has been intensively studied with mounting evidence supporting the role of these determinants in the development of cognitive decline and dementia, which is a chief cause of disability globally. Several dietary patterns, foods, and nutrients have been investigated in this regard, with some encouraging and other disappointing results. This review presents the current evidence for the effects of dietary patterns, dietary components, some supplements, physical activity, sleep patterns, and social engagement on the prevention or delay of the onset of age-related cognitive decline and dementia.

Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Other Lifestyle Factors in the Prevention of Cognitive Decline and Dementia

Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between adherence to Mediterranean diet with physical performance and cognitive function in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Health authorities recommend educating diabetic patients and their families and initiating measures aimed at improving self-management, promoting a positive behavior change, and reducing the risk of complications. Social media could provide valid channel to intervene in and deliver diabetes education. However, it is not well known whether the use of these channels in such interventions can help improve the patients’ outcomes. Objective: The objective of our study was to review and describe the current existing evidence on the use of social media in interventions targeting people affected with diabetes. Methods: A search was conducted across 4 databases (PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library).The quality of the evidence of the included primary studies was graded according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation criteria, and the risk of bias of systematic reviews was assessed by drawing on AMSTAR (A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews) guidelines. The outcomes reported by these studies were extracted and analyzed. Results: We included 20 moderate- and high-quality studies in the review: 17 primary studies and 3 systematic reviews. Of the 16 publications evaluating the effect on glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) of the interventions using social media, 13 reported significant reductions in HbA1c values. The 5 studies that measured satisfaction with the interventions using social media found positive effects. We found mixed evidence regarding the effect of interventions using social media on health-related quality of life (2 publications found positive effects and 3 found no differences) and on diabetes knowledge or empowerment (2 studies reported improvements and 2 reported no significant changes). Conclusions: There is very little good-quality evidence on the use of social media in interventions aimed at helping people with diabetes. However, the use of these channels is mostly linked to benefits on patients’ outcomes. Public health institutions, clinicians, and other stakeholders who aim at improving the knowledge of diabetic patients could consider the use of social media in their interventions.

/pdf/social-media-use-in-interventions-for-diabetes-rapid-4nb3cprmfg.pdf

Social Media Use in Interventions for Diabetes: Rapid Evidence-Based Review.

Nut Consumption for Cognitive Performance: A Systematic Review.

Physical activity (PA) and nutrition are the essential components of a healthy lifestyle, as they can influence energy balance, promote functional ability of various systems and improve immunity. Infections and their associated symptoms are the common and frequent challenges to human health that are causing severe economic and social consequences around the world. During aging, human immune system undergoes dramatic aging-related changes/dysfunctions known as immunosenescence. Clinically, immunosenescence refers to the gradual deterioration of immune system that increases exposure to infections, and reduces vaccine efficacy. Such phenomenon is linked to impaired immune responses that lead to dysfunction of multiple organs, while lack of physical activity, progressive loss of muscle mass, and concomitant decline in muscle strength facilitate immunosenescence and inflammation. In the present review, we have discussed the role of nutrition and PA, which can boost the immune system alone and synergistically. Evidence suggests that long-term PA is beneficial in improving immune system and preventing various infections. We have further discussed several nutritional strategies for improving the immune system. Unfortunately, the available evidence shows conflicting results. In terms of interaction with food intake, PA does not tend to increase energy intake during a short time course. However, overcoming nutritional deficiencies appears to be the most practical recommendation. Through the balanced nutritious diet intake one can fulfill the bodily requirement of optimal nutrition that significantly impacts the immune system. Supplementation of a single nutrient as food is generally not advisable. Rather incorporating various fruits and vegetables, whole grains, proteins and probiotics may ensure adequate nutrient intake. Therefore, multi-nutrient supplements may benefit people having deficiency in spite of sufficient diet. Along with PA, supplementation of probiotics, bovine colostrum, plant-derived products and functional foods may provide additional benefits in improving the immune system.

/pdf/physical-activity-and-nutritional-influence-on-immune-3f2v0wzlrv.pdf

Physical Activity and Nutritional Influence on Immune Function: An Important Strategy to Improve Immunity and Health Status.

Eating behavior can change during aging due to physiological, psychological, and social changes. Modifications can occur at different levels: (1) in food choice, (2) in eating habits, and (3) in dietary intake. A good dietary behavior, like the Mediterranean dietary pattern, can be a protective factor for some aging related pathologies, such as dementia, while a worse eating behavior can lead to pathological conditions such as malnutrition. Changes in eating behavior can also be linked to the onset of dementia: for some types of dementia, such as frontotemporal dementia, dietary changes are one of the key clinical diagnostic feature, for others, like Alzheimer's disease, weight loss is a clinical reported feature. For these reasons, it is important to be able to assess eating behavior in a proper way, considering that there are normal age-related changes. An adequate assessment of dietary behavior can help to plan preventive intervention strategies for heathy aging or can help to identify abnormal behaviors that underline aging related-diseases. In this review, we have analyzed normal age-related and dementia-related changes and the tools that can be used to assess eating behavior. Thus, we make recommendations to screening and monitoring eating behavior in aging and dementia, and to adopt these tools in clinical practice.

/pdf/eating-behavior-in-aging-and-dementia-the-need-for-a-48lu83t3j6.pdf

Eating Behavior in Aging and Dementia: The Need for a Comprehensive Assessment

Objectives: There is increasing evidence for a protective role of nutritional factors on cognitive decline. Many studies have reported a preventive effect of specific dietary patterns, in particular of the Mediterranean diet (MD), on the risk of cognitive decline, but only limited evidence is available about its effects on neuropsychological performance. The aim of this work is to evaluate the relationship between nutrition and cognitive performance in a frail elderly population living in Northern Italy. Methods: In this study we have investigated the impact of the Mediterranean dietary pattern on cognitive performance in a frail elderly population (n = 140). Structural equation modeling was applied to highlight the interrelationship between three cognitive domains: i) Verbal Fluency; ii) Attention/executive function; iii) Memory, and two MD factors: i) Nutrition; ii) Anthropometric/physical activity. In addition, the Multiple Correspondence Analysis was performed to detect the food and nutrients with the highest association with MD and nutritional status. Results: In our sample, 54% of subjects have a medium-high adherence to MD and only 4% have a risk of malnutrition. The variable Nutrition was significantly associated (p < 0.001) with the cognitive domain Attention/executive function, with an increase in Nutrition directly associated with a better performance in Attention/executive function. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence of an association between good nutritional status, related to a high adherence to the MD, and cognitive performance in a non-clinical elderly population living in Northern Italy.

The Impact of Nutrition on Cognitive Performance in a Frail Elderly Population Living in Northern Italy.

Mediterranean dietary pattern is inversely related to visceral adipose tissue in subjects with impaired fasting glucose and excess weight

Objective: Few data are available on the Italian elderly population with regard to adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) and cognitive impairment. Our aim was to investigate adherence to the MD ...

Mediterranean Diet and Cognitive Status in Free-Living Elderly: A Cross-Sectional Study in Northern Italy

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

V. Giustizieri

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Eating Behavior in Aging and Dementia: The Need for a Comprehensive Assessment

The Impact of Nutrition on Cognitive Performance in a Frail Elderly Population Living in Northern Italy.

Mediterranean dietary pattern is inversely related to visceral adipose tissue in subjects with impaired fasting glucose and excess weight

Mediterranean Diet and Cognitive Status in Free-Living Elderly: A Cross-Sectional Study in Northern Italy