ProHealth blog post, by Dr Richard Podell, 23 June 2016: Can the “MIND Diet” Reduce “Brain Fog” Due to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia?

The short answer is we don’t know, because research on “brainfog” has been extremely limited–to say the least. (For specifics, see research by Anthony Ocon.)

Therefore, I hope our readers will be encouraged to learn that a relatively simple diet change is probably effective for reducing or delaying another currently “untreatable” form of brain fog-that due to Alzheimer’s Disease.

Diet fads versus Diet Science

For many decades we’ve faced an army of dietary fads. Each has claimed the ability to improve health. But, almost all claims are based mainly on anecdotes. Scientific studies have largely been absent. Fortunately, that’s changing.

Mediterranean Diet

The best research has focused on the “Mediterranean Diet” as a preventive treatment for heart disease and stroke. For this study, researchers recruited more than 7,000 Spanish men and women who were at high risk for heart disease or stroke. Each person was assigned to follow either the “Mediterranean Diet” plan (high in unsaturated fats such as olive oil and/or nuts, high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, but low in saturated fat) or the “control” diet (the standard low fat diet such as the American Heart Association might advise).

The results showed that the Mediterranean Diet:

• Had 30% fewer heart attacks and strokes compared to those on a low fat diet.
• Is practical. People were able to follow it for more than 5 years.
• Can help significantly within only 5 years.
• These researches continued the study and applied neuro cognitive testing to 522 persons from within the main study. After six years, results further showed that the group on the Mediterranean Diet scored significantly higher in the cognitive testing compared to those in the low fat diet even after adjusting for risk factors.

Findings

The Mediterranean Diet, not only prevents heart attacks and stroke, but also helps maintain cognitive skills leading to the possibility of delaying or preventing the onset of Alzheimer’s dementia. But, since baseline cognitive scores were not measured, a true controlled study was still needed.

In 2015, Valls-Pedret and the Mediterranean Diet study group reported the results of a small controlled study that used 447 60+ year old Spanish volunteers who followed either a Mediterranean-style Diet or a low-fat diet. After 4.1 years, the results showed:

• The Mediterranean Diet can reduce cognitive decline
• Cognitive test and memory scores were higher for the Mediterranean Diet group compared to the low fat diet group
• Further work on diet and Alzheimer’s comes from Martha Morris, Ph.D. and her research team at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Morris’ team may be the world’s leading experts on the effects of nutrition on cognitive decline due to aging. She modified the Mediterranean diet to take into account other research on dementia and named it the MIND Diet. This was used in a study of 923 Chicago men and women, age 58 to 98. Each person did not have Alzheimer’s at the start of the study and their current eating pattern was scored against the key principles of the MIND Diet.

After 4.5 years, the following was found:

• 144 of 923 (16%) were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
• Participants whose MIND Diet compliance scores were initially in the top third were only 47% as likely to develop Alzheimer’s compared to those in the bottom third
• Those in the middle third did better than those in the lowest third, but not as well as those in the upper third
• The Mediterranean Diet pattern also predicted a low Alzheimer’s rate but not quite as well as did high scores for the MIND Diet
• A separate paper by Dr. Morris’s group reported the difference in cognitive skills between the top third on the MIND Diet and those in the bottom third were equivalent to the top third being “7.5 years younger in age” compared to the bottom third”-although chronologically in fact their average age was the same.

Take Home Thoughts

Evidence is increasing that the Mediterranean Diet, not only prevents heart attacks and stroke, but likely also helps maintain cognitive skills. We are not certain if the Mediterranean Diet would also help patients with brain fog due to ME/CFS or FM but we can probably reject as outdated the long-held “cliché it must be a “placebo effect” when people report that symptoms improve after a change in diet.

The strength of the MIND DIET study was that the statistical analysis was controlled for life style behaviors, illnesses and genetic risks for Alzheimer’s. However, researchers did not actively assign subjects to each diet. They simply scored how closely each subject’s self-chosen diet compared to the MIND Diet ideal. So, we can’t be sure whether high adherence to the MIND Diet caused the lower rate of Alzheimer’s or whether other factors might have been at work.

So, which diet should one follow if we have brain fog due to Fibromyalgia (FMS) or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)? At this time, we have no easy answer. Ideally, someone would fund a study where patients with CFS or Fibromyalgia would take a cognitive test, then go on either the MIND Diet (or Mediterranean Diet) or their usual way of eating. (Readers who have major wealth, might consider this project!) Aside from this, people who adopt the MIND Diet or the Mediterranean on their own, can report their experience to their doctors to our blog and/or to a widely read health support website such as Prohealth.com.

For those interested in the Mediterranean Diet, consider a book by Nick Nigro and Bay Ewald, Living the Mediterranean Diet: Proven Principles and Modern Recipes for Staying Healthy. See links for a brief summary of the MIND Diet and a more detailed summary in pdf format.

For either diet, plan on a minimum 3 to 6 month trial before judging it’s effects.
We welcome comments from any patient or doctor who has useful information to share about diets in this context.

Dr. Richard Podell Richard Podell, M.D., MPH, is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He has been treating patients with ME-CFS and Fibromyalgia for more than 20 years. A clinical professor at New Jersey’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Dr. Podell see patients at his Summit, NJ and Somerset, NJ offices. His website is DrPodell.org