Danone Nutricia protein drink and exercise may boost independence in dementia patients

A new diet and lifestyle study on Danone Nutricia Research nutritional drinks reveals that combining daily physical exercise and protein-rich beverages appears to offer “significant” health benefits for dementia patients. 

Participants in the study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet exhibited improvements in their physical ability and were able to manage more everyday tasks by themselves after three months of adopting these lifestyle changes.

Researchers highlight the importance of these findings, as people living in special housing often have an increased risk of malnutrition, muscle weakness, and frailty, which can impact health and quality of life.

“One possible explanation is that people in dementia units had better physical conditions for improving their functional ability and were therefore able to do more things themselves after the intervention,” says study lead Anders Wimo, a researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at Karolinska Institutet.

Gaining back autonomy

The study published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia retrospectively analyzed findings from a previous program involving 102 people from eight nursing homes in Stockholm, which found the regimen improves physical function and has positive effects on muscle mass and nutritional status.

For twelve weeks, the intervention group performed standing exercises several times a day and drank one to two nutritional drinks with extra protein. Danone Nutricia Research co-funded the research with the Gamla Tjänarinnor Foundation and provided the nutritional drinks but did not participate in the data collection or final analyses.

Among other benchmarks, the researchers monitored how much support the participants needed with tasks such as hygiene, dressing, and moving around. When the researchers assessed all the residents together, they did not find any apparent differences.

However, when breaking down the results by ward type, they noticed a different pattern. In the dementia wards, participants who had followed the program had improved to such an extent that they required less care time compared to the control group.

The researchers also point out that interviews from previous sub-studies indicate that improved function can affect how much support an elderly person needs. However, they stress that their results should be interpreted with caution, considering that these were secondary analyses.

Wimo believes that more studies are needed to assess the dietary and lifestyle intervention’s impact, while closely monitoring organizational factors, such as staffing levels and work routines.

Diet and dementia

In other dietary research on improving dementia outcomes, researchers recently found that higher omega-3 blood levels are linked to a reduced risk of early-onset dementia regardless of genetics.

A separate study found dementia may pose a greater risk for people with obesity and high blood pressure. This analysis was based on data from participants in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the UK.

Meanwhile, Danish researchers found that dietary nitrate from vegetables may lower dementia risk. However, they linked the same nutrient found in drinking water and in animal foods to a higher risk.