A major international research initiative has launched in a bid to curb the rising tide of Alzheimer’s disease – not with expensive drugs, but with everyday lifestyle changes.
The UK-based Alzheimer’s prevention charity Food for the Brain is behind the ambitious project, which aims to test over 20 million people worldwide to determine which combinations of diet and lifestyle factors have the most powerful effect on reducing the risk of dementia. The launch follows the charity’s testing of more than 200,000 people in the UK and comes amid mounting evidence that more than 80% of Alzheimer’s cases could be prevented through simple, non-pharmaceutical interventions.
According to studies cited by the charity, maintaining good levels of vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, and B vitamins – nutrients commonly found in oily fish, sunlight exposure, and whole foods – can cut the risk of dementia by more than three quarters. Regular exercise, reducing sugar intake, and staying mentally active have also been shown to contribute significantly to brain health.
“Less than one in a hundred cases of Alzheimer’s is caused by genes. That means that, potentially, 99% of cases of Alzheimer’s are preventable,” said Patrick Holford, founder of Food for the Brain and author of the new book Alzheimer’s: Prevention is the Cure.
The initiative is spearheaded by Dr Tommy Wood, an Oxford-trained neuroscientist and Associate Professor at the University of Washington, and is being rolled out across the UK, US, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Poland, Japan and China – home to the world’s largest elderly population.
In China, where over 300 million people are aged 60 or older, the project is being supported by the China National Health Association and former Minister of Health Gao Qiang, who said: “We must popularise prevention. With 300 million people over 60, this has to be our focus. Foodforthebrain’s initiative is the way forward. It is something everyone can do, right now for themselves.”
Professor Jin-Tai Yu, a leading dementia prevention expert from Fudan University in Shanghai, believes that targeting known risk factors – especially raised homocysteine levels, which B vitamins can help reduce – could prevent up to 80% of cases. His findings are supported by research from Professor David Smith of Oxford University, who has shown up to 73% of cases may be preventable even before accounting for the impact of B vitamins and omega-3s.
“Our research at Oxford found almost nine times less shrinkage in the Alzheimer’s associated areas of the brain in those taking B vitamin supplements who had raised homocysteine3, which is common among over 60+ year olds, and in early signs of dementia,” said Professor Smith.
The citizen science project invites individuals to take a free online Cognitive Function Test at foodforthebrain.org. Available in multiple languages, the test also offers the option to order a home blood test kit to assess key biomarkers such as vitamin D, omega-3, B vitamins, antioxidants, and blood sugar levels.
Participants will receive personalised advice based on their results, and anonymised data will be shared with researchers worldwide to further the search for effective prevention strategies.
“The purpose of this global campaign is to collect diet, lifestyle, biomarker, and cognitive function data on an unprecedented scale,” said Dr Wood. “With these data, we hope to discover which lifestyle changes have the maximum likelihood of preventing cognitive decline early enough to minimise an individual’s dementia risk in the future.”
In countries including the UK, Brazil, and Japan, over 10,000 doctors are being trained to enrol patients in the programme. The initiative is entirely funded by individuals and charitable donations, with no backing from pharmaceutical companies.
With dementia diagnoses rising every three seconds globally, the charity hopes this project will shift the focus from expensive treatments to accessible, science-backed prevention.
