Journal Article

Spicy food consumption is associated with cognition and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer disease

Xu Zhi-Qiang, Wang Zhen, Yu Jin-Tai, Chen Yang, Chen Dong-Wan, Zeng Gui-Hua, Shen Ying-Ying, Zhou Fa-Ying, Xu Wei, Wang Yan-Jiang, Wang Jun, Chen Li-Yong, Li Hui-Yun, Sun Bin-Lu, Yi Xu, Tian Ding-Yuan

2021

Overview

Background::Recent studies suggest that a healthy diet helps to prevent the development of Alzheimer disease (AD). This study aimed to investigate whether spicy food consumption is associated with cognition and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of AD in the Chinese population.Methods::We enrolled 55 AD patients and 55 age- and gender-matched cognitively normal (CN) subjects in a case-control study, as well as a cohort of 131 participants without subjective cognitive decline (non-AD) in a cross-sectional study. Spicy food consumption was assessed using the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Associations of FFQ scores with cognition and CSF biomarkers of AD were analyzed.Results::In the case-control study, spicy food consumption was lower in AD patients than that in CNs (4.0 [4.0-8.0] vs. 8.0 [4.5-10.0], P < 0.001); FFQ scores were positively associated with Mini-Mental Status Examination scores in the total sample ( r = 0.218, P = 0.014). In the cross-sectional study, the association between spicy food con

• Publisher: Department of Neurology and Clinical Center for Neuroscience, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400042, China%Department of Anesthesiology, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400042, China%Department of Neurology, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong 266011, China%Department of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200041, China