Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress 2023 EHA Congress 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on sleep in brain health

LIVE: Thursday 2nd May 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)

Quality sleep is essential for health. But what happens to our brains when sleep patterns are disturbed? Join our experts to explore the interplay between sleep disruption and neurological diseases, and the questions that you need to be asking your patients to help you prevent the harmful effects of sleep deprivation.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
European Journal of Nutrition
Published in: European Journal of Nutrition 1/2016

01-02-2016 | Original Contribution

Effects of Brazil nut consumption on selenium status and cognitive performance in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a randomized controlled pilot trial

Authors: Bárbara Rita Cardoso, Daniel Apolinário, Verônica da Silva Bandeira, Alexandre Leopold Busse, Regina Miksian Magaldi, Wilson Jacob-Filho, Silvia Maria Franciscato Cozzolino

Published in: European Journal of Nutrition | Issue 1/2016

Login to get access

Abstract

Purpose

Oxidative stress is closely related to cognitive impairment, and the antioxidant system may be a potential therapeutic target to preserve cognitive function in older adults. Selenium plays an important antioxidant role through selenoproteins. This controlled trial aimed to investigate the antioxidant and cognitive effects of the consumption of Brazil nuts, the best selenium food source.

Methods

We enrolled 31 older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who were randomly assigned to ingestion of Brazil nuts or to the control group. Participants of the treatment group consumed one Brazil nut daily (estimated 288.75 µg/day) for 6 months. Blood selenium concentrations, erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, oxygen radical absorbance capacity, and malondialdehyde were evaluated. Cognitive functions were assessed with the CERAD neuropsychological battery.

Results

Eleven participants of the treated group and nine of the control group completed the trial. The mean age of the participants was 77.7 (±5.3) years, 70 % of whom were female. We observed increased selenium levels after the intervention, whereas the control group presented no change. Among the parameters related to the antioxidant system, only erythrocyte GPx activity change was significantly different between the groups (p = 0.006). After 6 months, improvements in verbal fluency (p = 0.007) and constructional praxis (p = 0.031) were significantly greater on the supplemented group when compared with the control group.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that the intake of Brazil nut restores selenium deficiency and provides preliminary evidence that Brazil nut consumption can have positive effects on some cognitive functions of older adults with MCI.
Literature
1.
Petersen RC, Smith GE, Waring SC et al (1999) Mild cognitive impairment: clinical characterization and outcome. Arch Neurol 56:303–308CrossRef
2.
Lopez OL, Jagust WJ, DeKosky ST et al (2003) Prevalence and classification of mild cognitive impairment in the Cardiovascular Health Study Cognition Study: part 1. Arch Neurol 60(10):1385–1389CrossRef
3.
Mitchell AJ, Shiri-Feshki M (2009) Rate of progression of mild cognitive impairment to dementia- meta-analysis of 41 robust inception cohort studies. Acta Psychiatr Scand 119(4):252–265CrossRef
4.
Zhu X, Lee H, Perry G et al (2007) Alzheimer disease, the two-hit hypothesis: an update. Biochim Biophys Acta 1772(4):494–502CrossRef
5.
Mariani E, Polidori MC, Cherubini A et al (2005) Oxidative stress in brain aging, neurodegenerative and vascular diseases: an overview. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci 827(1):65–75CrossRef
6.
Greenough MA, Camakaris J, Bush AI (2013) Metal dyshomeostasis and oxidative stress in Alzheimer’s disease. Neurochem Int 62(5):540–555CrossRef
7.
Cui K, Luo X, Xu K et al (2004) Role of oxidative stress in neurodegeneration: recent developments in assay methods for oxidative stress and nutraceutical antioxidants. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 28(5):771–799CrossRef
8.
Chauhan V, Chauhan A (2006) Oxidative stress in Alzheimer’s disease. Pathophysiology 13(3):195–208CrossRef
9.
Steinbrenner H, Sies H (2013) Selenium homeostasis and antioxidant selenoproteins in brain: implications for disorders in the central nervous system. Arch Biochem Biophys 536(2):152–157CrossRef
10.
Cardoso BR, Ong T, Jacob-Filho W et al (2010) Nutritional status of selenium in Alzheimer’s disease patients. Br J Nutr 103:803–806CrossRef
11.
Thomson CD, Chisholm A, McLachlan SK et al (2008) Brazil nuts: an effective way to improve selenium status. Am J Clin Nutr 87:379–384
12.
Cominetti C, de Bortoli MC, Garrido AB Jr et al (2012) Brazilian nut consumption improves selenium status and glutathione peroxidase activity and reduces atherogenic risk in obese women. Nutr Res 32:403–407CrossRef
13.
Berr C, Balansard B, Arnaud J et al (2000) Cognitive decline is associated with systemic oxidative stress: the EVA study. Etude du Vieillissement Artériel. J Am Geriatr Soc 48(10):1285–1291CrossRef
14.
Gao S, Jin Y, Hall KS et al (2007) selenium level and cognitive function in rural elderly Chinese. Am J Epidemiol 165(8):955–965CrossRef
15.
Leszek J, Inglot AD, Janusz M et al (1999) Colostrinin®: a proline-rich polypeptide (PRP) complex isolated from ovine colostrum for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. A double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Arch Immunol Ther Exp (Warsz) 47:377–384
16.
Scheltens P, Kamphuis PJ, Verhey FR et al (2010) Efficacy of a medical food in mild Alzheimer’s disease: a randomized, controlled trial. Alzheimers Dement 6:1–10CrossRef
17.
Kesse-Guyot E, Fezeu L, Jeandel C et al (2011) French adults’ cognitive performance after daily supplementation with antioxidant vitamins and minerals at nutritional doses: a post hoc analysis of the Supplementation in Vitamins and Mineral Antioxidants (SU.VI.MAX) trial. Am J Clin Nutr 94:892–899CrossRef
18.
Winblad B, Palmer K, Kivipelto M et al (2004) Mild cognitive impairment—beyond controversies, towards a consensus: report of the International Working Group on Mild Cognitive Impairment. J Intern Med 256(3):240–246CrossRef
19.
Welsh KA, Butters N, Mohs RC et al (1994) The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD). Part V. A normative study of the neuropsychological battery. Neurology 44(4):609–614CrossRef
20.
Bertolucci PHF, Okamoto IH, Brucki SMD et al (2001) Applicability of the CERAD neuropsychological battery to Brazilian elderly. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 59(3-A):532–536CrossRef
21.
Morris JC (1993) The Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR): current version and scoring rules. Neurology 43:2412–2414CrossRef
22.
Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) (1990) Official methods of analysis. AOAC, Washington
23.
Hao D, Xie G, Zhang Y et al (1996) Determination of serum selenium by hydride generation flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Talanta 43:595–600CrossRef
24.
Friedewald WT, Levy RI, Fredrickson DS (1972) Estimation of the concentration of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in plasma, without use of the preparative ultracentrifuge. Clin Chem 18(6):499–502
25.
Paglia DE, Valentine WN (1967) Studies on the quantitative and qualitative characterization of erythrocyte gluthatione peroxidase. J Lab Clin Med 70:158–169
26.
Prior RL, Hoang H, Liwei G et al (2003) Assays for hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidant capacity (oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORACFL)) of plasma and other biological and food samples. Agric Food Chem 51:3273–3279CrossRef
27.
Hong YL, Yeh SL, Chang CY et al (2000) Total plasma malondialdehyde levels in 16 Taiwanese college students determined by various thiobarbituric acid tests and an improved high-performance liquid chromatography-based method. Clin Biochem 33:619–625CrossRef
28.
Chandler MJ, Lacritz LH, Hynan LS et al (2005) A total score for the CERAD neuropsychological battery. Neurology 65(1):102–106CrossRef
29.
Cohen J (1988) Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences, 2nd edn. Erlbaum, Hillsdale
30.
Thomson CD (2004) Assessment of requirements for selenium and adequacy of selenium status: a review. Eur J Clin Nutr 58:391–402CrossRef
31.
Planas M, Conde M, Audivert S et al (2004) Micronutrient supplementation in mild Alzheimer disease patients. Clin Nutr 23:265–272CrossRef
32.
Arnaud J, Akbaralyc TN, Hininger I et al (2007) Factors associated with longitudinal plasma selenium decline in the elderly: the EVA Study. J Nutr Biochem 18:482–487CrossRef
33.
Letsiou S, Nomikos T, Panagiotakos D et al (2009) Serum total selenium status in Greek adults and its relation to age. The ATTICA study cohort. Biol Trace Elem Res 128:8–17CrossRef
34.
De la Monte SM, Tong M, Lester-Coll N et al (2006) Therapeutic rescue of neurodegeneration in experimental type 3 diabetes: relevance to Alzheimer’s disease. J Alzheimers Dis 10:89–109
35.
36.
Ceballos-Picot I, Merad-Boudia M, Nicole A et al (1996) Peripheral antioxidant enzyme activities and selenium in elderly subjects and in dementia of Alzheimer’s type-place of the extracellular glutathione peroxidase. Free Radic Biol Med 20:579–587CrossRef
37.
Knorpp T, Robinson SR, Crack PJ et al (2006) Glutathione peroxidase-1 contributes to the protection of glutamine synthetase in astrocytes during oxidative stress. J Neural Transm 113:1145–1155CrossRef
38.
Castaño A, Ayala A, Rodríguez-Gómez JA et al (1997) Low selenium diet increases the dopamine turnover in prefrontal cortex of the rat. Neurochem Int 30:549–555CrossRef
39.
Bellinger FP, He QP, Bellinger MT et al (2008) Association of selenoprotein P with Alzheimer’s pathology in human cortex. J Alzheimers Dis 15(3):465–472
40.
Takemoto AS, Berry MJ, Bellinger FP (2010) Role of selenoprotein P in Alzheimer’s disease. Ethn Dis 20(Suppl 1):92–95
41.
Garcia T, Esparza JL, Nogues MR et al (2009) Oxidative stress status and RNA expression in hippocampus of an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease after chronic exposure to aluminum. Hippocampus 20:218–225
42.
Zhang S, Rocourt C, Cheng W (2010) Selenoproteins and the aging brain. Mech Ageing Dev 131:253–260CrossRef
43.
Loef M, Schrauzer GN, Walach H (2011) Selenium and Alzheimer’s disease: a systematic review. J Alzheimers Dis 26:81–104
44.
Stockler-Pinto MB, Mafra D, Farage NE et al (2010) Effect of Brazil nut supplementation on the blood levels of selenium and glutathione peroxidase in hemodialysis patients. Nutrition 26(11–12):1065–1069CrossRef
45.
IOM - Institute of Medicine (2002) Dietary reference intakes for vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and carotenoids Washington. The National Academy Press, Washington
46.
Bodó ET, Stefánka Z, Ipolyi I et al (2003) Preparation, homogeneity and stability studies of a candidate LRM for Se speciation. Anal Bioanal Chem 377:32–38CrossRef
47.
da Silva EG, Mataveli LRV, Arruda MAZ (2013) Speciation analysis of selenium in plankton, Brazil nut and human urine samples by HPLC–ICP-MS. Talanta 110:53–57CrossRef
48.
Lemire M, Philibert A, Fillion M et al (2012) No evidence of selenosis from a selenium-rich diet in the Brazilian Amazon. Environ Int 40:128–136CrossRef
49.
Navarro-Alarcon M, Cabrera-Vique C (2008) Selenium in food and the human body: a review. Sci Total Environ 400(1–3):115–141CrossRef
50.
Dodge HH, Wang CN, Chang CC et al (2011) Terminal decline and practice effects in older adults without dementia: the MoVIES project. Neurology 77(8):722–730CrossRef
51.
Cooper DB, Lacritz LH, Weiner MF et al (2004) Category fluency in mild cognitive impairment: reduced effect of practice in test-retest conditions. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 18:120–122CrossRef
52.
Hodges JR, Erzinclioglu S, Patterson K (2006) Evolution of cognitive deficits and conversion to dementia in patients with mild cognitive impairment: a very-long-term follow-up study. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 21:380–391CrossRef
53.
Rinaldi P, Polidori MC, Metastasio A et al (2003) Plasma antioxidants are similarly depleted in mild cognitive impairment and in Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiol Aging 24:915–919CrossRef
54.
Pires LV, Silva AMDO, Alencar LL, Pimentel JA, Mancini-Filho J, Cozzolino SM (2011) Investigação da concentração de selênio e dos compostos fenólicos presentes na castanha-do-brasil (Bertholletia excelsa H.B.K.) e sua atividade antioxidante in vitro. Nutrire 36s:7s
55.
Hurst R, Collings R, Harvey LJ et al (2014) EURRECA—Estimating Selenium Requirements for Deriving Dietary Reference Values. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 53(10):1077–1096CrossRef
56.
Prior RL, Cao G (1999) In vivo total antioxidant capacity: comparison of different analytical methods. Free Radic Bio Med 27(11/12):1173–1181CrossRef
57.
Serafini M, Bugianesi R, Maiani G et al (2003) Plasma antioxidants from chocolate. Nature 424:1013CrossRef
58.
McKay DL, Chen C-YO, Yeum K et al (2010) Chronic and acute effects of walnuts on antioxidant capacity and nutritional status in humans: a randomized, cross-over pilot study. Nutr J 9:21–31CrossRef
59.
Haddad EH, Gaban-Chong N, Oda K et al (2014) Effect of a walnut meal on postprandial oxidative stress and antioxidants in healthy individuals. Nutr J 13:4–12CrossRef
60.
Serafini M, Del Rio DD (2004) Understanding the association between dietary antioxidants, redox status and disease: is the total antioxidant capacity the right tool? Redox Rep 9(3):145–152CrossRef
61.
Kolomvotsou AI, Rallidis LS, Mountzouris KC et al (2013) Adherence to Mediterranean diet and close dietetic supervision increase total dietary antioxidant intake and plasma antioxidant capacity in subjects with abdominal obesity. Eur J Nutr 52:37–48CrossRef
62.
Root MM, McGinn MC, Nieman DC et al (2012) Combined fruit and vegetable intake is correlated with improved inflammatory and oxidant status from a cross-sectional study in a community setting. Nutrients 4:29–41CrossRef
63.
Baldeiras I, Santana I, Proença MT et al (2008) Peripheral oxidative damage in mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer’s disease. J Alzheimer’s Dis 15:117–128
64.
Padurariu M, Ciobica A, Hritcu L et al (2010) Changes of some oxidative stress markers in the serum of patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Neurosci Lett 469:6–10CrossRef
65.
Torres LL, Quaglio NB, Souza GT et al (2011) Peripheral oxidative stress biomarkers in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. J Alzheimer’s Dis 26(1):59–68
66.
Ryan E, Galvin K, O’Connor TP et al (2006) Fatty acid profile, tocopherol, squalene and phytosterol content of brazil, pecan, pine, pistachio and cashew nuts. Int J Food Sci Nutr 57(3/4):219–228CrossRef
67.
Esterbauer H, Cheeseman KH (1990) Determination of aldehydic lipid peroxidation products: malondialdehyde and 4-hydroxynonenal. Methods Enzymol 186:407–413CrossRef
68.
Lu YF, Lu S (2002) Influence of dietary fat saturation on lipid peroxidation of serum and low density lipoprotein in rats. Nutr Res 22:463–472CrossRef
69.
Mel-S Haggag, Elsanhoty RM, Ramadan MF (2014) Impact of dietary oils and fats on lipid peroxidation in liver and blood of albino rats. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed 4(1):52–58CrossRef
70.
Charniot JC, Sutton A, Bonnefont-Rousselot D et al (2011) Manganese superoxide dismutase dimorphism relationship with severity and prognosis in cardiogenic shock due to dilated cardiomyopathy. Free Radic Res 45(4):379–388CrossRef
71.
Mutter J, Curth A, Naumann J et al (2010) Does inorganic mercury play a role in Alzheimer’s disease? A systematic review and an integrated molecular mechanism. Bouvé Fac Pub 22:357–374
Metadata
Title
Effects of Brazil nut consumption on selenium status and cognitive performance in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a randomized controlled pilot trial
Authors
Bárbara Rita Cardoso
Daniel Apolinário
Verônica da Silva Bandeira
Alexandre Leopold Busse
Regina Miksian Magaldi
Wilson Jacob-Filho
Silvia Maria Franciscato Cozzolino
Publication date
01-02-2016
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
European Journal of Nutrition / Issue 1/2016
Print ISSN: 1436-6207
Electronic ISSN: 1436-6215
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-014-0829-2

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

European Journal of Nutrition 1/2016 Go to the issue

Original Contribution

Consumption of soft drinks and juices and risk of liver and biliary tract cancers in a European cohort

Original Contribution

Nutritional adequacy according to carbohydrates and fat quality

Original Contribution

Low vitamin C values are linked with decreased physical performance and increased oxidative stress: reversal by vitamin C supplementation

Original Contribution

Skeletal muscles respond differently when piglets are offered a diet 30 % deficient in total sulfur amino acid for 10 days

Original Contribution

The inverse association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and mortality may be modified by vitamin A status and use of vitamin A supplements

Original Contribution

A low-fat high-carbohydrate diet reduces plasma total adiponectin concentrations compared to a moderate-fat diet with no impact on biomarkers of systemic inflammation in a randomized controlled feeding study

ACC 2024 Congress Coverage

Cardiology Video

Highlights from the ACC 2024 Congress

Watch now

Watch official videos from the ACC congress summarizing key highlights from the last year in heart failure, cardiomyopathies, valvular disease, pulmonary vascular disease, and pediatric cardiology.

Semaglutide benefits people with type 2 diabetes and obesity-related heart failure

16-04-2024 Type 2 Diabetes News

Incentivised to exercise

11-04-2024 Lifestyle Modifications News

New intervention for STEMI-related cardiogenic shock

10-04-2024 Myocardial Infarction News

» View more highlights on the ACC 2024 congress hub page

Image Credits