Olive Oil And Dying From Dementia

Half a tablespoon. That is the amount of olive oil per day that researchers linked to a 28 percent lower risk of dying from dementia.

Let that sink in for a second. Not a pill. Not a procedure. A spoon of olive oil.

In May 2024, researchers at Harvard published a study in JAMA Network Open that followed more than 92,000 American adults for 28 years. Every four years the participants reported what they ate, including how much olive oil they used. Over those 28 years, 4,571 of them died from dementia.

The result was hard to ignore. People who consumed more than 7 grams of olive oil a day, which is about half a tablespoon, had a 28 percent lower risk of dementia related death compared to people who never or rarely touched the stuff. And here is the interesting part. It did not matter how healthy the rest of their diet was. It did not even matter if they carried the gene that raises Alzheimer risk. The olive oil group still came out ahead.

The researchers also looked at swaps. Replacing just one teaspoon of margarine or mayonnaise a day with the same amount of olive oil was tied to an 8 to 14 percent lower risk. Small change, real difference.

Now, the fine print. This was an observational study, which means it shows a link, not proof. The researchers themselves said more studies are needed. People who use olive oil might also do other healthy things that were not fully measured. That is how science works, and I will not pretend otherwise.

But here is what I personally take from it. From my knowledge, if you already have heart issues, except for anything mechanical, take one tablespoon of cold pressed extra virgin olive oil in the morning, swallowed on an empty stomach. I heard this from a cardiac surgeon in Russia. People come to him, he tells them to do this, and a lot of surgeries get cancelled. They just do not need them anymore.

My own mother lived this. When I was growing up, several times a week she would turn blue and fall down because of her heart. When I heard about the olive oil, we found extra virgin cold pressed olive oil and she started taking it. She did it for exactly one bottle. Not even a big one, a regular small 350 milliliter bottle. And for many, many years after that she never touched her heart again. Even now, almost 20 years later, she gets some heart pain once in a while, but nothing major, nothing like it used to be.

So there is definitely something about olive oil worth paying attention to.

Dementia terrifies people, and the standard answer is always to wait for some future drug. Meanwhile the boring, unprofitable stuff keeps quietly winning. Real food. Simple habits. Things you can do in your own kitchen today without a prescription and without side effects. Nobody gets rich off you drizzling olive oil on a salad, which might be exactly why you do not hear about it every day.

A small note: Do not worry about the brand. Whatever cold pressed extra virgin is in the store, that is the one. Dark bottle is better, light is the enemy of oil. Single country or blend, Greece or Spain, does not matter nearly as much as the cold press. With my mom we just grabbed whatever cold pressed virgin they had, and it did its job for twenty years.