Perhaps you’re familiar with Mediterranean diet.

It’s a diet consisting primarily of vegetables, olive oil, and is low in dairy and meat.

The Mediterranean diet was one of the first diets to be shown scientifically to help reduce the incidence and the risk of heart disease.

And now, new research has shown it can also work to help fight Alzheimer’s disease.

Spanish researchers recently had their findings published in the Journal of American Medicine Association (JAMA).

Dr. Emilio Ros of the Institut d’Investigacions Biomediques at Hospital Clinic, Barcelona was able to show the Mediterranean diet acted as a neuro-protectant as much as it worked to reduce the risk of heart disease.

He said “Our results suggest that, in an older population, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil or nuts may counter-act age-related cognitive decline.”

To find these results, they assembled a group of 447 volunteers who had already been determined to have a high risk for heart disease.

The split the volunteers into three groups.

Two of the groups (already following a Mediterranean diet) were advised to continue their diet and one group to add more nuts and the other group up to five tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to their diet.

The other group was simply to follow a low-fat diet.

Their findings were astonishing.

As NBC News wrote:

The volunteers, who had an average age of 67, were tested from time to time on memory skills. The group who ate the extra nuts did better in terms of memory and the group given extra virgin olive oil performed better on tests that required quick thinking, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Internal Medicine.

Just over 13 percent of those who got extra olive oil were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, which may or may not lead to Alzheimer’s disease. Just 7 percent of those who got nuts were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, while around 13 percent of those who got neither developed memory loss.

But many of the patients actually saw their memories get better over the four years. On average, those in the low-fat-only group lost some memory and thinking skills, but those who got extra nuts had their memory skills improve on average, while those who got olive oil had improvements in problem-solving and planning skills.

“Our results suggest that in an older population a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil or nuts may counter-act age-related cognitive decline,” Dr. Emilio Ros of the Institut d’Investigacions Biomediques at Hospital Clinic, Barcelona and colleagues wrote.

One of the things that might also contribute to the lower risk of heart disease is Vitamin K-2 in the diet.

Most Americans are deficient in Vitamin K-2 because of inadequate dietary intake.

Vitamin K-2 works in harmony with vitamin-D along with calcium and magnesium to help improve blood flow and reduce arterial blockage.

It’s quickly being dubbed one of the most important vitamins for total health.

Vitamin K-2 is typically made with allergy inducing soy.

There are a few non-soy vitamin K-2 products on the market presently.

If you want to reduce your risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s Vitamin K-2 can help.

Talk soon,     

Dr. Wiggy
www.HealthAsItOughtToBe.com