This is the 62nd instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers, and stories of hope.
What you eat affects your brain.
Food affects cardiovascular health, blood sugar levels and blood pressure. All of these can influence brain health since the gut is connected to the brain via the gut-brain axis.
For some time, it has been accepted that gut health may affect mental health, but increasingly doctors believe it could play a significant role in brain health, too.
Millions of microbes – bacteria, fungi, viruses – live in our gastrointestinal tract, forming our gut microbiome, which plays a key role in many facets of health – including immunity.
An out-of-balance microbiome can lead to a variety of diseases.
Professor Simon Carding, who leads the Food, Microbiome and Health Research Programme at the Quadram Institute Bioscience in Norfolk in the UK, says that understanding more about the link between our gut and our brains could help prevent diseases like dementia.