It’s well known that what we eat can increase our risk for developing illnesses such as heart disease, high blood pressure and some kinds of cancer. Dr. Carol Greenwood and her colleagues have recently added cognitive decline to that list.

For more than a decade, Dr. Greenwood – interim director of Baycrest’s Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied and Evaluative Research Unit (KLAERU) – has explored the impact of lifelong dietary patterns on the risk of cognitive decline with aging.

For example, she found that people over age 60 diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes (non-insulin dependent) showed brief decreases in cognitive function after eating. For the past four years, Dr. Greenwood has been collaborating with nutritional researchers in Quebec to learn more about what role obesity-related illnesses like Type 2 diabetes might play in the development of dementia.

“We’ve already made an association between food ingestion and brief cognitive decline,” she says. “Now with the help of colleagues at the Rotman Research Institute, we’re using brain imaging technology to more fully describe and understand this connection.”

The ultimate goal is to understand the biological factors that connect diet to dementia and to identify food strategies that might minimize this decline. “We also hope our findings will help younger people – those now in their 40s and 50s – to start taking control of their diets and their weight so they might avoid cognitive decline later in life,” she adds.

A second area of research has been the eating patterns and nutritional status of older adults in long-term care facilities, including those with advanced Alzheimer Disease.

“The goal is to better understand how this illness influences eating behaviour and whether eating behaviours change as the disease progresses,” Dr. Greenwood explains. “This has led to the development and testing of specific interventions and strategies that may increase food intake among these patients in the institutional setting.”

Meanwhile, another Baycrest scientist, Dr. Nicole Anderson, is looking at how specific interventions help healthy older adults, those with mild cognitive impairment, and people recovering from stroke. The goal is to understand why certain interventions work and then use that information to improve the intervention.

In 2010, she continued her work on the BRAVO study – a unique research project that is exploring the benefits of volunteering at Baycrest. BRAVO stands for “Baycrest Research About Volunteering among Older adults”.

“Volunteering provides the opportunity for physical, cognitive and psychosocial activity,” Dr. Anderson explains, “and research has demonstrated that it has a positive effect on brain fitness. This may serve as a buffer against the onset of dementia among those who take part in regular volunteer activities.”

She and her colleagues want to learn whether specific volunteer placements and activities are more protective than others: that is, do volunteer positions that challenge people more confer greater protection?