Eating an anti-inflammatory diet may help reduce dementia risk even in older adults who already show early biological signs of Alzheimer's disease. A 15-year Swedish study found that those with elevated Alzheimer's biomarkers who followed a lower-inflammatory dietary pattern had up to a 29% lower risk of developing dementia. Researchers caution the findings are observational, but call them "cautiously hopeful."
It's not too late to eat better — even for your brain. A large prospective study published in JAMA Network Open followed 1,865 older adults in Sweden for up to 15 years and found that adhering to a diet with lower inflammatory potential was associated with meaningfully reduced dementia risk — even among those who already had elevated blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and neurodegeneration.
The study is the first of its kind to examine whether diet quality modifies dementia risk across biological risk strata defined by blood biomarkers. Researchers tracked three dietary patterns — the Alternate Mediterranean Diet (AMED), Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), and the reversed Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Index (rEDII) — and found the anti-inflammatory rEDII pattern showed the most consistent protective associations in high-risk individuals. Notably, those with elevated Alzheimer's biomarkers who followed the rEDII pattern lived nearly one year longer without dementia over a 10-year period compared to those with lower adherence.
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Why it matters: As blood-based Alzheimer's diagnostics become more widely accessible, identifying modifiable lifestyle factors — like diet — that may still slow disease progression even after early pathology is detected is increasingly critical. While intervention trials are still needed, these findings offer a hopeful signal that healthy dietary habits could serve as a secondary prevention strategy in high-risk populations.
