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Every row of the evidence table
One row per finding: what was tested, which way the result went, and how the study was built. The answer by area, and where the studies disagree, are on the main page.
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Showing 23 of 382 rows. One row per study per exposure: a study that tested two different things appears twice, once for each.
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| Exposure | Question | Direction | Outcome measured | Design | People | Effect size, as the source reported it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee, tea and flavonoid-rich foods Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyThe association was strongest at moderate intake rather than the highest. |
Incident dementia over a median 36.8 years | cohort study | 131,821 | HR 0.82 (95% CI 0.76-0.89) for highest vs lowest quartile of caffeinated coffee |
JAMA
2026 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 41661604 |
| Coffee, tea and flavonoid-rich foods Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
why882 cases across five quintiles and several interaction strata, so the subgroup estimates rest on small numbers. |
Incident dementia over a mean 9.2 years | cohort study | 121,986 | AHR 0.72 (95% CI 0.57-0.89) for highest vs lowest flavodiet quintile |
JAMA Network Open
2024 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 39292460 |
| Dietary pattern (general) Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyThe association is reported in people who already have elevated Alzheimer's blood markers, which is the point of the study. |
Incident dementia over a mean 8.4 years | cohort study | 1,865 | Dementia HR 0.71 (95% CI 0.58-0.88) per SD of anti-inflammatory diet adherence among participants with elevated p-tau217 |
JAMA Network Open
2026 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 42348207 |
| Dietary pattern (general) Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyDirection is for a healthier plant-based diet: higher overall and healthful plant-based diet scores were associated with lower dementia risk, while a higher unhealthful plant-based diet score was associated with higher risk (pooled HR 1.42). |
Incident dementia by plant-based diet index (overall, healthful and unhealthful) | meta-analysis | 207,981 | higher scores in PDI and hPDI were associated with lower risk of dementia (highest vs. lowest tertile: pooled HR for PDI = 0.70, 95% CI, 0.53-0.92, p for trend <0.001; pooled HR for hPDI = 0.71, 0.48-1.06, p for trend = 0.03) ... higher uPDI was associated with higher dementia risk (highest vs. lowest tertile: pooled HR = 1.42, 1.19-1.70, p for trend <0.001). In the meta-analysis, individuals in the highest hPDI tertile had 21% lower dementia risk, and those in the highest uPDI tertile had 24% higher risk |
The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease
2026 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 41564649 |
| Dietary pattern (general) Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyIndependent of overall diet quality. Substituting olive oil for margarine or mayonnaise was also associated with lower risk; substituting for butter or other vegetable oils was not. |
Dementia-related death over 28 years | cohort study | 92,383 | HR 0.72 (95% CI 0.64-0.81) for dementia-related death with ≥7 g/day olive oil vs never/rarely |
JAMA Network Open
2024 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 38709531 |
| Dietary pattern (general) Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyPooled observational studies only. |
Dementia and Alzheimer's disease | meta-analysis | 65,955 | Pooled OR 0.89 (95% CI 0.84-0.94) for dementia; cohort HR 0.84 (0.76-0.94); Alzheimer's OR 0.73 (0.62-0.85) |
Aging Clinical and Experimental Research
2024 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 38519775 |
| Dietary pattern (general) Diet and supplements | Prevention |
No effect
whyThe control arm also received diet counselling and mild caloric restriction, so this is MIND against another active diet, not against usual eating. It is the only randomised test of the MIND diet here and it disagrees with the cohort evidence. |
Global cognition at 3 years | randomised trial | 604 | Global cognition mean difference 0.035 standardised units (95% CI -0.022 to 0.092; P=0.23) |
New England Journal of Medicine
2023 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 37466280 |
| Dietary pattern (general) Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyObservational. Points the opposite way to the randomised MIND diet trial. |
Incident dementia | meta-analysis | 224,049 | HR 0.83 per 3-point MIND-score increment (95% CI 0.72-0.95); highest vs lowest tertile HR 0.83 (0.76-0.90) |
JAMA Psychiatry
2023 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 37133875 |
| Dietary pattern (general) Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whySignificant on one adherence score (MEDAS, HR 0.77) but not the other (PYRAMID, HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.73-1.02). |
Incident dementia over a mean 9.1 years | cohort study | 60,298 | HR 0.77 (95% CI 0.65-0.91) for highest vs lowest MEDAS tertile |
BMC Medicine
2023 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 36915130 |
| Dietary pattern (general) Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyControls declined while the olive-oil arm held steady; the nut arm fell between the two. Cognitive follow-up was available for 334 of 447 enrolled. |
Global cognition composite at median 4.1 years | randomised trial | 447 | Global cognition composite: +0.05 (95% CI -0.11 to 0.21) olive-oil arm vs -0.38 (-0.57 to -0.18) control; P=0.005 |
JAMA Internal Medicine
2015 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 25961184 |
| Ginkgo biloba Diet and supplements | Treatment |
Mixed
whyIn dementia there may be small-to-moderate benefits at six months (low-certainty evidence, I2 88-96%); in MCI ginkgo probably has little or no effect (moderate certainty); in subjective cognitive complaints the effect is very uncertain. Adverse events were similar to placebo. |
Global clinical status, cognition and activities of daily living at 6 months in dementia and in MCI; adverse events | meta-analysis | 10,613 | Dementia Thirteen studies (3288 participants) compared ginkgo with placebo for dementia. At six months, low-certainty evidence suggests that people taking ginkgo may have better global clinical status on a six-point Likert scale (lower is better; MD -0.06, 95% CI -1.00 to -0.20; I² = 88%; 5 studies, 1359 participants), better cognition measured by decreases on a short cognitive performance test (Syndrom-Kurztest; MD -1.86, 95% CI -3.48 to -0.24; I² = 96%; 9 studies, 2801 participants) ... Mild cognitive impairment ... moderate-certainty evidence suggests that ginkgo probably has little to no effect on global clinical status measured on the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (MD -0.03, 95% CI -0.06 to 0.01; 3 studies, 631 participants; I² = 0%) |
The Cochrane database of systematic reviews
2026 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 41641880 |
| MIND diet Diet and supplements | Prevention |
No effect
whyThe control arm also received diet counselling and mild caloric restriction, so this is MIND against another active diet, not against usual eating. It is the only randomised test of the MIND diet here and it disagrees with the cohort evidence. |
Global cognition at 3 years | randomised trial | 604 | Global cognition mean difference 0.035 standardised units (95% CI -0.022 to 0.092; P=0.23) |
New England Journal of Medicine
2023 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 37466280 |
| MIND diet Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyObservational. Points the opposite way to the randomised MIND diet trial. |
Incident dementia | meta-analysis | 224,049 | HR 0.83 per 3-point MIND-score increment (95% CI 0.72-0.95); highest vs lowest tertile HR 0.83 (0.76-0.90) |
JAMA Psychiatry
2023 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 37133875 |
| Mediterranean diet Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyPooled observational studies only. |
Dementia and Alzheimer's disease | meta-analysis | 65,955 | Pooled OR 0.89 (95% CI 0.84-0.94) for dementia; cohort HR 0.84 (0.76-0.94); Alzheimer's OR 0.73 (0.62-0.85) |
Aging Clinical and Experimental Research
2024 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 38519775 |
| Mediterranean diet Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whySignificant on one adherence score (MEDAS, HR 0.77) but not the other (PYRAMID, HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.73-1.02). |
Incident dementia over a mean 9.1 years | cohort study | 60,298 | HR 0.77 (95% CI 0.65-0.91) for highest vs lowest MEDAS tertile |
BMC Medicine
2023 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 36915130 |
| Mediterranean diet Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyControls declined while the olive-oil arm held steady; the nut arm fell between the two. Cognitive follow-up was available for 334 of 447 enrolled. |
Global cognition composite at median 4.1 years | randomised trial | 447 | Global cognition composite: +0.05 (95% CI -0.11 to 0.21) olive-oil arm vs -0.38 (-0.57 to -0.18) control; P=0.005 |
JAMA Internal Medicine
2015 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 25961184 |
| Omega-3 / fish and fish oil Diet and supplements | Prevention |
No effect
whyRisk ratios close to one across every intake strategy, including substituting fish for meat. This is the one study here that emulates a trial rather than comparing eaters with non-eaters, and it disagrees with the pooled cohorts. |
21-year Alzheimer's disease risk | cohort study | 2,012 | 21-year Alzheimer's risk 10.33% (no fish) vs 9.98% (3+ servings/week); risk ratios near 1 |
American Journal of Epidemiology
2026 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 42506897 |
| Omega-3 / fish and fish oil Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Mixed
whyThe biochemical primary outcome was met (DHA raised the CSF DHA-to-arachidonic-acid ratio versus placebo), but there was no difference in cognition or brain volume over 24 months. The authors recommend against further supplementation trials of this kind. |
CSF DHA/AA ratio at 6 months (primary, target engagement); cognition and brain volumes at 24 months | phase 2 trial | 365 | DHA supplementation increased CSF DHA/AA ratio at 6 months vs placebo (0.17 [95% CI 0.15-0.18] vs -0.02 [95% CI -0.04 to -0.0004]; difference 0.19 [95% CI 0.16-0.21]; p < 0.0001), independent of APOE ε4 status (interaction p = 0.71). Dropout was 38%, mainly due to COVID-19. No treatment differences were observed in brain volumes or cognitive performance over 24 months |
EBioMedicine
2026 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 42315445 |
| Omega-3 / fish and fish oil Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Benefit
whyDietary intake and blood levels, pooled from observational cohorts. The much larger supplement estimate (HR 0.36) comes from one cohort's self-selected supplement users, not from a trial. |
All-cause dementia or cognitive decline | meta-analysis | 103,651 | Dietary DHA intake RR 0.82 for dementia or cognitive decline; ADNI supplement users HR 0.36 (95% CI 0.18-0.72) for Alzheimer's |
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
2023 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 37028557 |
| Ultra-processed food Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Harm
whyThe dementia-only estimate barely cleared significance (HR 1.58, 95% CI 1.003-2.48) and its test for trend did not (P=0.50). |
Cognitive impairment or dementia | cohort study | 5,370 | Cognitive impairment or dementia HR 1.47 (95% CI 1.16-1.87) for highest vs lowest quintile of ultra-processed food |
American Journal of Public Health
2026 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 42233196 |
| Ultra-processed food Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Harm
whyHeterogeneity was extreme (I-squared 97%), so the pooled figure hides large differences between the 10 studies. |
Dementia | meta-analysis | 867,316 | Pooled RR 1.44 (95% CI 1.09-1.90) for high vs low ultra-processed food intake |
Journal of Neurology
2024 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 37831127 |
| Ultra-processed food Diet and supplements | Prevention | Harm | Rate of global cognitive decline over a median 8 years | cohort study | 10,775 | 28% faster global cognitive decline above the lowest quartile (beta -0.004; 95% CI -0.006 to -0.001) |
JAMA Neurology
2023 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 36469335 |
| Ultra-processed food Diet and supplements | Prevention |
Harm
why518 cases. Replacing 10% of ultra-processed food with minimally processed food was associated with 19% lower risk. |
Incident dementia over a median 10 years | cohort study | 72,083 | HR 1.25 per 10% increase in ultra-processed food share (95% CI 1.14-1.37) |
Neurology
2022 ✓ Peer-reviewed PMID 36219796 |