10/13/2025
New Study:
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Healthy Diets May Reduce Brain Vessel Disease Risk in High-Risk Older Adults
A recent study in Neurology (Cherian et al., 2025) examined the relationship between dietary habits and intracranial atherosclerosis disease (ICAD)—a major cause of stroke and cognitive decline—among older adults. While a healthy diet wasn’t directly linked to less ICAD in the general population, the findings showed something important: in people with hypertension or a history of heart attack, following a Mediterranean or MIND diet significantly lowered the odds of severe ICAD.
Key takeaways:
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- Healthy diets didn’t lower brain vessel disease risk in everyone, but did help those already at high vascular risk (such as with hypertension or previous MI).
- Nutrition may be most effective as a targeted intervention for those who stand to benefit the most.
- The authors call for further long-term studies to understand how diet impacts the brain in people with vascular risk factors.
Bottom line:
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Precision nutrition could make a real difference for stroke and dementia prevention—especially for patients already facing heart or blood vessel risk.
Do these findings change how you approach dietary advice in high-risk patients? How can we make individual nutrition strategies part of routine brain health care?
Let’s discuss below!
