Finally - MIND Diet Trial Results

In Beating the Dementia Monster, we talked very positively about the MIND diet.  In the book, we noted that a major, hopefully definitive, trial was under way, and we anticipated that we would see results by April 2021.  But then came covid.  I stopped hearing about the trial, and updates to the trial's official web site stopped.  As you can see here, even today, the trial web site stands frozen in time, as though the trial is just getting under way.  (Be sure to click on "Study Progress.")  The FDA's clinical trials web site (which I checked periodically) showed no progress after assembling a study population.  I figured that the covid had major impact on execution of the study, and maybe it had just died.

While I was vigilant (I thought), they did actually complete the study and publish the results.  Yes, covid challenged completion of the study, but also, the results were pretty underwhelming.  So they didn't get much media buzz.  And, of course, they said nothing on their web site. 

The results were published in July 2023 (two years later than expected) in the New England Journal of Medicine.  But I only stumbled on this today.

Long story short, there was very little meaningful difference in outcomes for the two groups studied.  The study population consisted of two cohorts of about 300, cognitively normal, somewhat overweight, older people with family histories of dementia and initially poor dietary habits.  They were not trying to treat Alzheimer's, but simply measure how much decline occurred in populations with normal cognition.  They tried to keep one cohort on the MIND diet, while members of the other group were only supposed to change their eating habits to reduce their intake of calories.  For three years...

The researchers concluded, "Among cognitively unimpaired participants with a family history of dementia, changes in cognition and brain MRI outcomes from baseline to year 3 did not differ significantly between those who followed the MIND diet and those who followed the control diet with mild caloric restriction."

But the study design has its critics.  For one thing, there was some social mingling between the two groups, and some in the control group may have gotten some clues about what their diet should look like from the study group.

Some critics also said the groups were too small for statistically significant results.  Also, covid interfered with conduct of the study, and control by researchers needed to relax to telephone conversations.  And covid caused a significant number of participants to drop out.

So that was the "definitive" study.  Fortunately, there have been other studies with more positive results for the MIND diet.  We've reported on some of them, including this one.  And here's another, more recent one.  An interesting finding is that the MIND diet is more effective for brain health in women than in men.  Why?  Who knows.

So I'm staying with the MIND diet and intermittent fasting.  It's all working for me.  Why rock the boat?