Dietary Balance in Alzheimer's Patients vs. Healthy People

Abstract

Background: Alzheimer's is a type of dementia for which treatment and cure are yet to be discovered. However, by modifying lifestyle, daily food consumption, and drinking habit, it is possible to lower the risk of development and severity of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Earlier studies on finding the impact of food consumption on AD development mainly focused on comparing the intake of each type of food between two groups. This study aims to view the patterns of food taken by AD patients and healthy people from an angle of food balance. Results: This study performed a multiple-factor analysis (MFA), an extension of principal component analysis (PCA). The result showed that wine intake of the AD cohort contributed to the factors (components) in the same way as red meat but in the opposite direction in the components found with the healthy control (HC) cohort. There were more types of food included in the factors for HC than they were in the factors for AD. The amount (gram/day) of meat and processed food consumed by AD patients are highly correlated (RV=0.73). However, no high correlation was found between any groups of food consumed by HC individuals. Conclusion: This study revealed a new angle on analyzing food patterns associated with diseases. It has been observed that the AD cohort consumed more processed food and red meat but less wine than the healthy group. MFA analysis indicated that the variety or balance of food intake might be the key associated with AD development. More comprehensive and extensive analysis of the impact of food balance on health is strongly encouraged.