Unhealthy gut leading to Alzheimer’s, say experts

Hyderabad: With various studies pointing to a strong correlation between Alzheimer’s disease and gut health, neurologists back home are recommending diet changes to their patients to keep the disease at bay. Just like poor gut health affects functions of the heart, kidney and liver, it also has an impact on the brain, say doctors.

Hence, neurologists treating patients for Alzheimer's are increasingly recommending going back to the grandma's diet — basic food that the body doesn’t perceive as foreign.

Reason: Doctors explain that with newer foods that one might not have had as a child, the body ends up creating an inflammatory reaction lowering cognitive health along with general health. “One reason for rapid increase in cases of Alzeihmer’s is the increase in consumption of non-native and brain-unfriendly food like fried items, alcohol and food with high carbohydrate content. Whatever we did not eat traditionally is perceived by the body as a foreign to which it reacts by creating inflammation.

If the inflammatory markers remaine high for a substantial time, it leads to the onset of cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s, dementia and even Parkinson’s. This happens because the brain too fights the inflammation and gets overworked in the process, resulting in decreased capacity,” said Dr Dushyanth Jasti, consultant neurologist adding that he has been getting at least 30 to 35 cases at his centre every month.

Alzeihmer’s is a neurological disorder most commonly manifesting as a visuospatial disorientation — meaning the patient is unable to navigate common geographies like the house, usual road and often have disturbances in understanding these places. Forgetfulness is also a common sign.

“Patients may find it difficult to locate the toilet or kitchen in their own homes or may not be able to locate a kirana store or friend’s home that they frequented earlier. They may have difficulty in identifying objects or understanding their functions despite having normal vision,” said Dr Sudhir Kumar, senior consultant neurologist.

The fact that inflammatory conditions like diabetes, hypertension and obesity is on the rise has also contributed to the jump in numbers.

“Since nutrition and level of physical activity has a correlation between brain function, we recommend a healthy balanced diet to our patients. The Alzheimer’s Association and World Dementia Council has found strong evidence to conclude that a healthy diet and lifelong learning can reduce the risk of decline in brain function,” said Dr M Jayasree, a consultant neurologist.