A new study has suggested that a diet rich in anti-inflammatory nutrients may reduce bone loss in some women. “With age, people tend to lose bone mass, and postmenopausal women in particular are at a higher risk of osteoporosis and bone fracture. However, there are things we can do to prevent this. Orchard and team investigated data from the Women’s Health Initiative (WIH) study and compared levels of inflammatory nutrients in the diet with bone mineral density (BMD) levels and fracture incidence.” The WIH is the largest health study of postmenopausal women ever conducted in the US. Women were enrolled in the study between 1993 and 1998. The researchers used the dietary inflammatory index (DII) and correlated the measurements with the risk of hip, lower-arm and total fracture using data from the longitudinal study. The scientists found an association between highly inflammatory diets and fracture – but only in younger Caucasian women. Specificallly, higher scores on the DII correlated with an almost 50 percent higher risk of hip fracture in white women younger than 63 years old. By contrast, women with the least inflammatory diets lost less bone density during the six-year period than their high DII counterparts, even though they had overall lower bone mass when they enrolled in the study. As the authors note, these findings suggest that a high-quality, anti-inflammatory diet – which is typically rich in fruit, vegetables, fish, whole grains, and nuts – may be especially important for younger white women. Tonya Orchard said, “Our study suggests that as women age, healthy diets are impacting their bones. I think this gives us yet another reason to support the recommendations for a healthy diet in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” Rebecca Jackson, the study’s senior author and director of Ohio State’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science, adds that their findings confirm previous studies, which have shown inflammatory factors to increase osteoporosis risk. “By looking at the full diet rather than individual nutrients, these data provide a foundation for studying how components of the diet might interact to provide benefit and better inform women’s health and lifestyle choices,” Jackson said. However, it is worth noting that the study did not associate a more inflammatory diet with a higher risk of fracture overall. On the contrary, lower-arm and total fracture risk were found to be slightly lower among women with higher DII scores. Separately, a new research has examined whether engaging in mentally stimulating activities can reduce the risk of mild cognitive impairment. The research led by Dr Yonas E Geda, from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, examined the link between brain-stimulating activities and cognitive functioning in healthy adults aged 70 and over. The researchers also assessed the influence of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) e4 genotype. Researchers then clinically followed the participants for approximately fours years to see how many of them developed MCI. They performed neurocognitive assessments of the seniors at baseline and evaluated them every 15 months. In their statistical analysis, Dr Geda and team used Cox regression models and adjusted for sex, age, and education. The team also took blood tests from the participants to determine APOE e4 genotyping. The APOE e4 genotype is a variant in the APOE gene commonly associated with a high risk of late-onset dementia. Existing research has not yet uncovered the mechanism responsible for this association, but it has found links between the gene variant and the buildup of Alzheimer’s-related amyloid plaques. The researchers found that brain-stimulating activities significantly decreased the risk of new-onset MCI. Some of these activities included computer use, crafts, social activities, and playing games. The association between reading books and a decreased risk of MCI almost reached statistical significance. According to the authors, the findings mean that engaging in brain-stimulating activities even in later life can lower the chances of developing MCI. Researchers also noted the lowest risk of MCI in those participants who engaged in mentally stimulating activities, but who were not APOE e4 carriers. Conversely, they found participants who did not engage in cognitively stimulating activities, and who were also carriers of APOE e4, to have the highest risk of MCI. The authors point out that their study did not investigate the cause-and-effect mechanism behind the associations, as the study was observational. Dr Geda and team conclude: “Performing certain mentally stimulating activities may also lower the risk of incident MCI among APOE e4 carriers. Future research is needed to understand the mechanisms linking mentally stimulating activities and cognition in late life.”