Brain health closely linked to nutrition

A new study goes deeper in understanding the connection between good nutrition and a healthy brain. Previous studies have linked individual vitamin deficiencies to cognitive decline. But new research looks at a wider range of vitamins, and even better, it uses biomarkers in the blood to correlate vitamins with brain health, both good and bad.

The current study looked at biomarkers in the blood to measure the vitamin levels in 104 participants. Participants also took tests to measure thinking and memory function, and 42 participants had MRI scans to measure their brain volume.

The researchers found some striking connections between nutrition and brain health. People who had higher levels of B family vitamins, as well as vitamins C, D, and E had higher scores on cognitive tests than people with lower levels. The same positive relationship was found for omega-3 fatty acids, which have previously been linked to better brain health.

On the flipside, people with higher levels of trans fats in their blood had poorer performance in thinking and memory tests.

Read more on The Connection Between Good Nutrition and Good Cognition in The Atlantic.