The findings of a recent study conducted on middle to early-old age participants indicated that including more dietary magnesium (Mg) can lead to better brain health and keeps dementia at bay. The results of the study were published in the journal, Neuroscience News.
This study was conducted in the United Kingdom among 6000 cognitively healthy participants who were aged between 40-73 years. The participants were divided based on gender and it was found that dietary magnesium benefits women more than men, especially post-menopausal women. An online 24h recall questionnaire was used to measure dietary Mg intake. The results were based on latent class analysis and hierarchical linear regression models to find the link between baseline dietary Mg, Mg trajectories, brain volumes, and white matter lesions (WMLs).
Higher baseline dietary Mg was associated with larger brain volumes in both the genders. Latent class analysis showed three classes: high-decreasing (men=3.2%, women=1.9%), low-increasing (men=1.09%, women=1.62%), and stable normal (men=95.71%, women=96.51%). Among these classes, post-menopausal women from the “high-decreasing” class showed neuroprotective effect due to higher dietary Mg intake.
Thus, it may be concluded that higher dietary Mg intake from magnesium-rich foods such as spinach and nuts, can lead to better brain health in the general population, especially in women.
Source: A higher dose of dementia each day keeps dementia at bay. Neuroscience News. 23 March, 2023.
https://neurosciencenews.com/magnesium-dementia-22853/
