Diet Too Rich in Essential Amino Acid Can Lead to Alzheimer's

A diet rich in an amino acid commonly found in red meat, eggs and fish as well as some dairy products and vegetables, may increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to a Temple University research team.

The amino acid, called methionine, is an essential component for the human body and is found in many human dietary elements. In dairy products, it is found in yogurt, and elsewhere it turns up in beans, garlic, lentils and onions.

Temple researchers linked the amino acid using a mouse model that witnessed the increase of the amyloid-beta plaque, which is widely viewed as a catalyst for Alzheimer’s.

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Using a mouse model of the disease, they fed one group an eight-month diet of regular food and another group a diet high in methionine. The mice were then tested at 15 months of age -- the equivalent of a 70-year-old human.

“We found that the mice with the normal diet had normal homocysteine levels, but the mice with the high methionine diet had significantly increased levels of homocysteine, very similar to human subjects with hyperhomocysteinemia,” said Praticò. “The group with the high methionine diet also had up to 40% more amyloid plaque in their brains, which is a measurement of how much Alzheimer’s disease has developed.”

The researchers also examined capacity to learn a new task and found it diminished in the group with the diet high in methionine.

Still, Praticò emphasized, methionine is an essential amino acid for the human body and “stopping one’s intake of methionine won’t prevent Alzheimer’s. But people who have a diet high in red meat, for instance, could be more at risk because they are more likely to develop this high level of circulating homocysteine,” he said.

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