Ask Dr. Marie: Cutting Calories for Memory? Elderly, Beware

Jan. 30, 2009— -- A small study that made national headlines this week suggests that cutting calories may help improve memory for the elderly. The title of the article, "Caloric Restriction Improves Memory in Elderly Humans" in this week's online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences caught my attention because it seemed so simple and yet likely too good to be true.

But yikes -- when I read the article, I found the headline not only deceptive but potentially providing risky advice for thousands of elderly seniors who can ill afford to cut calories any more than they do already.

As I have learned from caring for so many elderly patients over the years, people tend to eat less as they get older; they often stick to monotonous, low-quality food which fails to provide their daily nutritional needs. They often worry about the cost of food as well.

I am also thinking about my 84-year-old father who lives alone and eats sugar-coated corn flakes for breakfast, soup for lunch and a scrambled egg for dinner just about every day. His appetite has waned over the years, he fears gaining weight which he knows could signal fluid retention and possible heart failure, and with the recent death of my mom he is now eating alone and cooking for the first time in his life.

I know he will try to cut back his intake further when he reads the latest headline about the promise of improving his memory. It is his sharp memory that gives him a reason to get up every day; he will do almost anything to preserve it.

As a result of the media hype around this headline, I worry that too many other seniors will cut back on needed calories and nutrition with the hopes of improving their memory. After all, most seniors fear memory loss more than almost any other condition.

On the other hand, what they may not realize is that the elderly are much more likely to have cognitive impairment and increasing frailty and risk of falling as a result of poor nutritional intake leading to deficiencies in protein, vitamin D, calcium, B12 and folate, along with many other medical problems. Restricting calories, especially nutrient rich-calories, is the last thing they need.