Salon – The role of Nutrition in Dementia

A weekly webinar to discuss careers and research topics. These sessions combine livestreams, guest speakers, and group online chat to exchange ideas, challenge, influence, inspire, and educate. In this session Dr Raysa El Zein from University of Westminster and Dr Vanessa De la Cruz-Góngora a GBHI Fellow and academic and the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico discuss the role ‘The role of nutrition in dementia‘.

We often think of dementia research in terms of genetics, imaging, or molecular pathways—but what about what’s on our plates? Nutrition plays a critical, yet sometimes overlooked, role in brain health across the lifespan. How do specific diets, nutrients, or deficiencies influence cognitive decline? Can what we eat slow, or even prevent, the onset of dementia? And how do we untangle the science from the trends to inform meaningful research and interventions? Today, we’ll explore the growing evidence around nutrition and brain health, and the opportunities it presents for dementia researchers to rethink prevention and care.

Speakers

Dr Vanessa De la Cruz-Góngora is a GBHI Fellow and researcher focused on nutrition in population at the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico. She is Professor of “Nutrition and Aging” course in the Master and Doctorate on Sciences in Nutrition program of the School of Public Health of Mexico. Her research interests on nutrition in population, focuses on the epidemiology of micronutrient deficiencies and anemia; iron absorption and metabolism; nutrition and aging; nutrition and cognitive function in older adults; and the burden of chronic disease in populations (diabetes and stroke).

Dr Raysa El Zein is a Nutrition & Dementia researcher at University of Westminster with a focus on dietary ketosis and age related memory loss, she is also a Public Health Nutritionist and Nutrition lecturer. Raysa believes in the power of food in disease prevention and maintenance of good quality of life.

Programme