Consensus statement on exploring the Nexus between nutrition, brain health and dementia prevention

Johnstone, Alexandra M., Albanese, Emiliano, Crabtree, Daniel R., Dalile, Boushra, Grabrucker, Stefanie, Gregory, Jenna M., Grosso, Giuseppe, Holliday, Adrian, Hughes, Catherine, Itsiopoulos, Catherine, Mamo, John, McEvoy, Claire, Myint, Phyo Kyaw, Pereira, Leticia Radin, Vauzour, David and Siervo, Mario (2025) Consensus statement on exploring the Nexus between nutrition, brain health and dementia prevention. Nutrition & Metabolism, 22. ISSN 1743-7075

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Abstract

An international expert panel convened to evaluate nutrition-based approaches to brain health and dementia prevention. This consensus statement integrates perspectives from lived experiences, mechanistic evidence, epidemiology, and clinical interventions. Nutrition plays a crucial role in brain health throughout life and in cognitive decline pathogenesis, particularly through the food-gut-brain axis. Intervention effectiveness varies across the health promotion, prevention, treatment, and maintenance spectrum due to methodological differences and individual responses to nutritional interventions. The Mediterranean and MIND dietary patterns show promise for maintaining cognitive function across studies. Multi-domain interventions like FINGER effectively combine dietary modifications with lifestyle changes to delay dementia onset in at-risk older adults. These findings align with mechanistic evidence on the food-gut-brain axis in maintaining optimal brain health by preventing neurodegeneration. Key mechanisms include gut microbiota composition and function, blood-brain barrier integrity, endothelial and mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and inflammatory processes. Research priorities include standardizing cognitive assessment methodologies, developing early intervention strategies, and implementing integrated precision nutrition and lifestyle approaches. Incorporating patients’ and caregivers’ lived experiences in research co-production was identified as essential to support those with lived experience. The panel concluded that future directions should combine population and individual-level preventive approaches while addressing challenges in sustaining healthy behavioral changes and understanding the complex interplay between diet, lifestyle, and genetic factors in brain health and dementia prevention. Experts emphasized the need for both standardized methodologies and personalized interventions to account for individual variability in nutritional responses and facilitate effective prevention strategies across diverse populations.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: ageing,diet,nutrition,co-production,mechanisms,, brain health,dementia prevention,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Norwich Institute for Healthy Aging
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Metabolic Health
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Nutrition and Preventive Medicine
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 06 Aug 2025 15:30
Last Modified: 06 Aug 2025 15:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100081
DOI: 10.1186/s12986-025-00981-6

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