Dementia
LipiDiet.org was founded 1999 by a group of European scientists who are deeply involved in dementia research, mainly Alzheimer’s disease, though the scope increased over time. What is dementia? Dementia is a group of diseases, which usually affect the elderly causing progressive decline in cognitive abilities. When one speaks about dementia most people would think primarily of Alzheimer’s disease, because this is by far the most common cause of dementia. The problem with dementia is that there is no cure available. There are some treatments, which are able to reduce the symptoms a bit, but the disease will continue and is eventually fatal.
The LipiDiet research project
In the year 2002 LipiDiet became an actual research project within the 5th research programme of the European Union. The main aim of the LipiDiet project was to evaluate whether treatment with lipids would change the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease, or whether such a treatment may reduce disease progression in those patients who already developed Alzheimer’s disease.
Indeed when the project eventually ended it had become clear that some lipids, especially some containing long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids of the omega-3 class, apparently reduce the risk for Alzheimer’s disease. However, questions remained unanswered and it became obvious that the research needed to continue.
The LipiDiDiet research project
Then in the year 2007 the follow-up LipiDiDiet project started. The European LipiDiDiet project addresses the Therapeutic and Preventive Impact of Nutritional Lipids on Neuronal and Cognitive Performance in Aging, Alzheimer’s disease and Vascular Dementia. The LipiDiDiet research project is based on the finding that lipid based treatment apparently reduces disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease. But the effect appear to be limited to those patients at a very early stage of the disease. The aim of LipiDiDiet is now to increase the effectiveness of the currently existing therapy of Alzheimer’s disease, especially when it comes to disease prevention and treatment of the very first stages of Alzheimer’s disease. But with LipiDiDiet we don’t stop at Alzheimer’s, we also develop dietary products that maximize the effect on supporting and preserving the cognitive function in healthy aging and to reduce cerebrovascular risks. In addition to dietary products we also develop diet and life-style based health care advice for the elderly.