WASHINGTON — Remember: Eat fish to improve your ability to remember.
New research in the current American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows people who regularly eat fish build the part of the brain that controls memory and learning, and can add protection from Alzheimer’s disease.
“If you eat fish just once a week, your hippocampus — the big memory and learning center — is 14 percent larger than in people who don’t eat fish that frequently – – 14 percent,” lead researcher Dr. Cyrus Raji, a residential radiologist at UCLA, tells The Atlantic.
The study found that eating bake or broiled fish is associated with larger gray matter volumes.
“There wasn’t one type of fish that was the best,” Raji said, although fried fish had few health benefits.
Having a thicker brain helps reduce the risk of problems as a person ages.
“If you have a stronger hippocampus, your risk of Alzheimer’s is going to go down,” says Raji.
Raji and his team have previously shown the benefits to the brain derived from physical activity.
“Understanding the effects of fish consumption on brain structure is critical for the determination of modifiable factors that can reduce the risk of cognitive deficits and dementia,” Raji says.
