Publications by authors named "Yannakoulia M"

Introduction: Adjustable lifestyle factors, such as diet, are associated with cognitive functions, structural and functional brain measures, but the association between the functional connectivity (FC) and the Mediterranean Diet (Medicine) in population without dementia is yet to be explored.

Methods: The association between MeDi and brain FC in 105 individuals without dementia aged 63 (SD ± 8.72) years old who underwent brain MRI including resting-state (rs) functional MRI (fMRI) was examined.

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Background & Aims: The ingestion of macronutrients triggers the release of several incretin peptides from the gastrointestinal system, which have both insulinotropic and satiety-inducing properties. The effect of the meal's macronutrient content on the secretion of these peptides has not been adequately studied, particularly concerning the secretion of the newly characterized proglucagon-derived peptides (PGDPs). We aimed to examine the effect of a meal's macronutrient content, specifically its protein versus carbohydrate content, on postprandial PGDPs responses in healthy men.

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Diet is a modifiable lifestyle factor with a proven role in cardiovascular disease risk reduction that might also play an important part in cognitive health. Evidence from observational studies has linked certain healthy dietary patterns to cognitive benefits. However, clinical trials of diet interventions have demonstrated either null or, at best, small effects on cognitive outcomes.

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The prevalence of food insecurity in Cyprus and the socio-demographic factors that are related to this public health problem are unknown. Data used in this cross-sectional study were collected between 1 June 2022 and 21 May 2023 using a self-reported method. Food insecurity was evaluated using the Greek version of Adult Food Security Survey Module.

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Childhood overweight/obesity (OV/OB) is a major public health problem in Western countries, often accompanied with comorbidities (e.g., hypertension and insulin resistance) (i.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CMM) and depression affect cognitive function in older adults, aiming to understand their individual and combined impacts.
  • It harmonizes data from 14 international cohort studies and utilizes various scales to assess CMM and depression among participants who did not have dementia at the start of the study.
  • Findings include the analysis of over 30,000 older adults, revealing that both CMM and depression are linked to cognitive decline, with further validation through additional studies across different settings.
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Fermented dairy products have recently gained popularity due to their purported health benefits, nevertheless, their role in ageing remains uncertain. This narrative review aims to evaluate evidence from observational (prospective) and interventional studies on the potential benefits of fermented dairy product consumption for musculoskeletal and mental health in older adults. Additionally, it seeks to determine whether any observed benefits surpass those of non-fermented dairy products and to identify directions for future research.

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Background: Sleep patterns often shift as people age, a phenomenon frequently associated with the onset of neurodegenerative conditions. Additionally, distinct alterations occur in brain structure as individuals grow older, particularly within the hippocampus, a region known for its role in cognition and sleep regulation. Yet, how exactly do changes in sleep relate to specific subfields within the hippocampus is still unclear.

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(1) Background: Many studies link food intake with clinical cognitive outcomes, but evidence for brain biomarkers, such as memory-related limbic white matter (WM) tracts, is limited. We examined the association between food groups, limbic WM tracts integrity, and memory performance in community-dwelling individuals. (2) Methods: We included 117 non-demented individuals (ALBION study).

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Article Synopsis
  • Previous studies suggest that using antihypertensive medication in older adults may lower the overall risk of dementia, but the effects on different types of dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease (AD), are still uncertain.
  • This research analyzed data from over 31,000 participants across multiple countries, focusing on how history of hypertension and blood pressure levels impact the risk of developing AD and non-AD types of dementia.
  • The findings indicated that untreated hypertension significantly increases the risk of developing AD and non-AD dementia compared to healthy individuals, while treated hypertension showed a similar risk for non-AD but not a significant difference between treated and untreated groups.
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Estrogen exposure during menstrual years has been associated with late-life neuroprotection. We explored the presence of an age-sensitive menarche window for cognition in old age and the impact of socioeconomic status and education. We compared neuropsychological performance of 1082 older women [Mean = 72.

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Background: Adoption of allergen avoidance diets may increase the risk of nutritional deficiencies and affect growth in children with food allergy (FA). How these dietary restrictions have an impact on diet diversity, a health-promoting eating behavior, remains unclear.

Objective: To evaluate diet diversity, dietary intake, and weight status of children with FA.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explores the link between eating habits (frequency and timing) and cognitive performance in middle-aged and older adults, particularly focusing on those at risk for cognitive decline.
  • Data from the ALBION study revealed that participants averaged 5.3 eating episodes per day, with higher eating frequency associated with better cognitive skills, even after adjusting for various factors.
  • There was no significant correlation found between eating patterns and Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid.
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The possible relationship between Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) and dementia needs further investigation. In the present study, we explored the association between specific biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), amyloid-beta 42 (Aβ) and Tau with the odds of SCD using data from two ongoing studies. In total, 849 cognitively normal (CN) individuals were included in our analyses.

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  • A study involving 7,801 older adults examined the connection between fruit and vegetable consumption and the development of depression, finding that higher fruit intake was linked to a lower risk of depression.
  • Over a follow-up period of 3 to 9 years, 21% of participants developed depression, with fruit intake showing a significant protective effect, while vegetable intake did not show a notable association.
  • The authors noted limitations due to varied measurement methods and the relatively modest sample size, suggesting further research is needed on fruit and vegetable consumption in larger, more standardized studies among older adults in low- and middle-income countries.
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Background & Aims: Low-grade systemic inflammation (LGSI) is critical to developing many chronic diseases. In turn, it has been shown that the diet can modulate favorably or unfavorably the inflammatory status. Thus, evaluating the diet from appropriate approaches is fundamental; to do so, there are different proposals for dietary indexes.

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Our study aimed to explore whether physical condition might affect the association between genetic predisposition for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and AD incidence. The sample of participants consisted of 561 community-dwelling adults over 64 years old, without baseline dementia (508 cognitively normal and 53 with mild cognitive impairment), deriving from the HELIAD, an ongoing longitudinal study with follow-up evaluations every 3 years. Physical condition was assessed at baseline through walking time (WT), while a Polygenic Risk Score for late onset AD (PRS-AD) was used to estimate genetic predisposition.

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The Mediterranean dietary pattern (MPD) has shown promise in preventing low-grade systemic inflammation (LGSI). This study tested if a high adherence to the MDP by younger and older Brazilian adults is associated with lower LGSI and investigated which Mediterranean food components may contribute to these associations. We performed a secondary study on 2015 ISA-Nutrition (290 younger adults (20-59 years old) and 293 older adults (≥60 years old)), a cross-sectional population-based study in São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

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Introduction: The LIfestyle for BRAin Health (LIBRA) index yields a dementia risk score based on modifiable lifestyle factors and is validated in Western samples. We investigated whether the association between LIBRA scores and incident dementia is moderated by geographical location or sociodemographic characteristics.

Methods: We combined data from 21 prospective cohorts across six continents (N = 31,680) and conducted cohort-specific Cox proportional hazard regression analyses in a two-step individual participant data meta-analysis.

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: Restless legs syndrome/Willis-Ekbom disease (RLS/WED) has occasionally but not consistently been associated with cognitive and most notably language and executive impairment. The present study was conducted to investigate the cognitive trajectories of older individuals with RLS/WED. : Participants were drawn from the randomly selected, older (>64 years), population-based HELIAD cohort.

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Objective: Normative data for older adults may be tainted by inadvertent inclusion of undiagnosed individuals at the very early stage of a neurodegenerative process. To avoid this pitfall, we developed norms for a cohort of older adults without MCI/dementia at 3-year follow-up.

Methods: A randomly selected sample of 1041 community-dwelling individuals (age ≥ 65) received a full neurological and neuropsychological examination on two occasions [mean interval = 3.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study explored how genetic predisposition for white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) relates to developing amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) or Alzheimer's disease (AD) in 537 individuals without these conditions at the start.
  • - Results showed that a higher genetic risk score for WMHs increased the likelihood of developing aMCI/AD by 47.2%, especially in older adults, who had a 3.4-fold higher risk.
  • - The findings suggest that cognitive reserve (measured by education) affects this relationship, with lower cognitive reserve linked to a greater risk of aMCI/AD associated with genetic predisposition for WMHs.
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