Rates of dementia are 11 times lower in Amazonian tribe with ‘healthiest hearts ever studied’
A remote Amazonian tribe that has amazed scientists for decades may have clues to strike demintens.
Experts have found that rates of memory-disturbing disorder are up to 11 times lower among the native Tsimane community, compared to Westerners.
University of Southern California researchers believe that the 16,000-strong group’s ‘pre-industrial lifestyle for existence’ could explain the difference.
The Tsimane, who are said to have the healthiest hearts they have ever studied, live deep in the Bolivian jungle and traditionally hunt and feed for food, using poisonous vines and arrows and bows. Their diet is low in levels of fat and sugar.
The hunter-gatherer Tsimane and Mosetian communities in the Bolivian Amazon have dementia rates that are 11 times lower than in the US, a study claimed today
The tribe of more than 16,000 is extremely active in their daily lives with hunting and fishing, and eating a diet low in fat and sugars. Photo: A Tsimane child climbs into a tree in search of a coconut
The farming community Tsimane (pictured) from lowland Bolivia was once said to have the ‘healthiest hearts ever studied’
The Tsimane is a tribe of about 16,000 people who live along the banks of the Maniqui River in the Bolivian Amazon.
Scientists analyzed dementia rates in the 1960s in the Tsimane community and neighboring Moset tribe – just along the Maniqui River.
They used CT brain scans and neurological tests to see if any of the volunteers had dementia or another sign of brain decay.
Researchers also provided stem cell questionnaires, facilitated by translators, to determine how cognitive impairment could affect their lives.
Just five of the 435 Tsimane people and one of the 169 Mosetics group had dementia.
This was equal to a rate of about one percent, the team wrote Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
By comparison, as many as 11 percent of 65-plus people have the syndrome in the US. Rates are slightly lower in the UK at around seven per cent.
Lead author Professor Margaret Gatz, an expert on aging and preventive medicine at USC, said: ‘Something about the pre-industrial lifestyle for subsistence seems to protect older Tsimane and Mosetics against dementia.’
But the team also found up to 10 percent of Tsimane and Mosetic people had mild cognitive impairment – with some memory, language or spatial awareness loss.
These were similar rates to those found in the West, the authors said.
They could not explain why MCI rates were normal while dementia was so low, but found that those who had both conditions were more likely to have calcium deposits in the arteries that supply the first part of the brain.
Calcification can occur due to rare genetic disorders like inflammation and are different from plaque buildup caused by high cholesterol diets that are common in the West.
While they were higher in those with MCI, calcification remained high across the entire Tsimane tribe, with experts saying further research would be needed to investigate the levels.
More than 70 percent of the Tsimane diet consists of high-fiber carbohydrates, including rice, plantain, yuca, corn, nuts and fruits.
The strains eat on average only 38g of fat per day, 11g of saturated fat and no trans fats.
Co-author Professor Hillard Kaplan, an anthropologist who has studied the Tsimane for 20 years, said the findings could help with strategies to deal with the growing problem of dementia.
Rates are expected to triple by 2050, with 150 million predicted to live up to the condition then.
Experts blame the aging population, air pollution and sedentary lifestyle for the increase.
Professor Kaplan said: ‘We are in a race for solutions to the growing prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
‘Looking at these different populations expands and accelerates our understanding of these diseases and generates new insights.’
Co-author Professor Benjamin Trumble, an evolutionary biologist at Arizona State University, suggested that abandoning Western sedentary lifestyles could help prevent dementia.
He said: ‘By working with populations like the Tsimane, we can get a better understanding of what human health was like in different environments before industrialization.
‘What we do know is that sedentary, urban, industrial life is fairly new compared to how our ancestors lived more than 99 percent of humanity’s existence.’
Dementia is one of the leading causes of death in the UK, contributing to 17 per cent of deaths from 2011 to 2018, with the proportion expected to continue to increase in the coming years.
Exercising and eating a healthy diet can help prevent the onset by slowing down shrinkage in the hippocampus – the part of the brain that deals with memory.
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