How daily spoonful of olive oil may drastically curb fatal dementia: study

A spoonful of olive oil makes the dementia go down.

New findings have shown that adding more olive oil to your diet may decrease your risk of dying from dementia.

The study, presented by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is said to be among the first to draw a link between diet and death from dementia.

Researchers looked at health records, including dietary questionnaires and death records, collected over the course of 30 years from more than 90,000 Americans. Among the people studied, 4,749 died from dementia.

Those who consumed more than half a tablespoon of olive oil a day were 28% less likely to suffer a dementia-related death compared to those who rarely or never consumed olive oil, the findings showed.

The inquiry also revealed that swapping out a teaspoon of margarine or mayonnaise for olive oil daily led to an 8% to 14% lower risk of fatal dementia.

“Our study reinforces dietary guidelines recommending vegetable oils such as olive oil and suggests that these recommendations not only support heart health but potentially brain health, as well,” Anne-Julie Tessier, R.D., Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Ivy League institution, said in a media release.

Research suggests that regularly using olive oil in your diet rather than animal or processed fats tends to have an overall healthier diet.

“Opting for olive oil, a natural product, instead of fats such as margarine and commercial mayonnaise is a safe choice and may reduce the risk of fatal dementia,” Tessier added.

But for this study in particular, the relationship between olive oil and mortality was independent of cohort members’ overall diet, implying that olive oil contains ingredients that are themselves beneficial for health.

“Some antioxidant compounds in olive oil can cross the blood-brain barrier, potentially having a direct effect on the brain,” Tessier said. “It is also possible that olive oil has an indirect effect on brain health by benefiting cardiovascular health.”

Dementia is currently the seventh leading cause of death, according to the World Health Organization.

The condition is the only major cause of death without a treatment to prevent it from developing or to slow or stop it, according to Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Dementia Statistics Hub. In 2019, it accounted for 1.8 million deaths worldwide.

The study gives an optimistic outlook that a healthier lifestyle and diet can help prevent or slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Adding more olive oil into your diet can mean using it as a base for cooking or as an ingredient in foods like dips or salads.

However, Tessier explains, the findings don’t establish olive oil as the sole cause of a lower risk of fatal dementia. Further research, including randomized controlled trials, is required to determine the exact amount of olive oil people have to consume to experience its health benefits.

The study findings were presented in Boston at Nutrition 2023, an annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.

Previous studies have shown that higher consumption of olive oil can reduce the risk of heart disease. Olive oil is also a major element of the Mediterranean diet, shown to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease by 24% — 25% lower for coronary heart disease specifically — and the risk of death from any cause by 23%.

An earlier study from Harvard University said the Mediterranean diet was one of four common healthy eating patterns that can help reduce the risk of early death by up to 20%.