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Comment by HappySweeney | Hacker News Reader

For those of us genetically predisposed to this disease, what dietary changes would theoretically result in a reduction of risk?

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One option is to eat less of everything. This may sound dumb but in the current stone age understanding of nutrition and health, it is a reasonable option.

The only foods which are ‘definitely safe’ are leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables. Could probably add berries to that in moderation. Not saying that is all one should eat, what I mean is to eat less of everything else than baseline, to some caloric deficit. This excludes the few people who are underweight for whatever reason, and those with certain diseases.

"leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables" Aren't these covered in pesticides? If you are looking for reasons to not eat: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/health/nutrition/31agin.h...

https://www.kxan.com/news/simplehealth/dirty-dozen-which-fru...

If you where in a constant state of caloric deficit you would constantly loose weight.

At every calorie level above starvation, there is an equilibrium weight associated.

(Metabolism (which drops with less weight) + Exercise - Intake) -> over time -> equilibrium weight.

So assuming you pick a low calorie diet for now, eventually you'd maintain at a skinny weight.. and maybe live longer. Maybe.

Doesn’t this just introduce a different risk that you lose a nutrient your body needs to prevent/fight against various health problems?

Can you give an example of such a nutrient? I think a reduced intake diet without excluding large categories of food is very unlikely to result in nutrient deficiency.

We are surrounded by food that has very high nutritional value. A steak or a piece of salmon or contemporary vegetarian/vegan equivalents are all calorie and micronutrient parties. Most of human evolution took place with much more limited access to nutrition.

Most of human evolution wasn't concerned with trying to live past your 40s. ;)

> The only foods which are ‘definitely safe’ are leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables

If you have kidney disease, or are at risk for kidney stones, oxalates from excessive leafy greens can make either condition worse.

There is no universal advice, correct, hence my qualifying statement at the end.

I am not a liver expert, but it seems like those kinds of compounds might be created by a malfunctioning liver, rather than specifically diet induced.

why is the liver malfunctioning? perhaps its a malfunction induced by diet?

Yeah or it could be a hormone producing organ like they hypothalamus, thyroid generating not enough/too much of a chemical, or unhealthy kidneys not pulling enough salt out of the blood causing the liver to become stressed, or, or or....

I'm sure if you do five whys on liver malfunction, you'll always be able to find that diet impacts structurally deficient organs eventually, but wether or not it is a significant contributor is always up for debate.

Consumption of alcohol and sugar stresses the liver, at least, to my understanding. Chronic stress eventually causes malfunction. But I'm no expert here.

It's hard to say right now. It might be one possibility if this line of research pans out.

This is a potential mechanism that they've experimentally built and triggered. There's no guarantee this happens in situ exactly as they've set up. There's also the chance that Alzheimer's is caused by various contributing factors.

This paper does look promising though, because they've triggered the disease from the liver using lipoproteins that have been observed.

I'd love for domain experts to weigh in.

It doesn't seem like they draw any correlation to food intake since the mice were genetically modified to just emit the proteins from their livers.

My guess is healthy diet and exercise go a long way. Don't drink and avoid sugar (diabetes) both of which are damaging to the liver.

High blood pressure too.

Minimally processed plant-based diets. People keep fighting it, but it always comes back as the optimal diet to healhty longevity.

"Minimally processed" is a weasel word. "Processed" means "unhealthy things are done to it".

It is an intuitive way to say that you should always prefer food that looks like the ingredients in the form they were harvested.

I’ll be sure to remember not to chop my onions then.

You can't identify onions looking at chopped onions?

Coffee and exercise have been shown to have protective effect (not sure how robust those studies are) which seems consistent with liver health/fat metabolism action…

Do you know if it's the caffeine in coffee, or something else? (i.e. does decaf work?)

It is not the caffeine, it is the polyphenols. Yes, decaf works.

Also nicotine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1670208/

There are many dietary changes that can be implemented to decrease the odds of the disease occurring in those who are genetically predisposed. Look into a nutrition program that specializes in Alzheimer’s prevention.

For example: https://amosinstitute.com/cognitive-health-program/

Keep your vitamin D and choline intake high:

https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/study-reveals-how-apoe4-gene-ma...

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3753932/

some would say saturated fat is the cause

the mechanism could be atherosclerosis https://youtu.be/t-noCw4LsY4?t=168

linear correlation by country https://youtu.be/Gel4vlG4Jbk?t=68

personally, i think something close to wfpb diet is the best for all things (except gaining weight).

What seems to be hinted at through this and other research out in the past 12 month:

Reduce fat intake.

It's not the cause, but the carrier of toxins across the blood-brain carrier. Reducing fat would reduce the rate of toxin build up. It's not a cure, nor does it tackle the genetic component, but way to prolong lifestyle.

Bad news for the Keto dieters.

I don't think that fits. Someone following a strict keto or low-carb diet is typically going to have healthier levels of fat in their blood e.g. lower cholesterol. Add to that a greatly reduced risk of diabetes and if these findings prove true it may end up being another reason to adopt such a diet.

Thats opposite to the advice of Dale Bredesen who wrote "The End of Alzheimers" (excellent book).

Not sure what evidence you've been looking at; from what I've read the opposite is true: Keto diet can be an effective treatment for Alzheimer's.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jK6-r1zWOI0

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1140705/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29701155/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65908-y

But can't say I've been following Youtube videos or Reddit on the matter.

Edit: I didn't know who the youtube video you linked is, but a cursory google bring up that he is accused of quackery. Also, the source on that video is... his own website hosting his own work. Not exactly peer review is it?

Your first link seems to be in support of a keto diet, your second link is a correlational study, and your third link is a mouse study.

You can check my other comment above for a bunch of other sources/studies on keto diets reversing Alzheimer's symptoms if you'd like.

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