Good news! Not only in older women! I can tell from my own experience that occasional fasting or restricting eating during the day helps.
"Restricted eating windows could be linked to a reduced dementia risk, per a new pilot study presented at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting, which found that cognitive skills were improved in older women who restricted their eating to an 8–9-hour window and avoided eating four hours before bed, compared with participants who spread their meals across ~12 hours. ..."
"Eating within a shorter daily window may help protect certain thinking skills as people age. In a small six-month trial, older women who limited eating to about 8 to 9 hours a day performed better on planning and problem-solving tests than those who ate over 12 hours. Both groups lost similar amounts of weight, hinting that when people eat could matter in addition to how much they eat."
From the abstract:
"Objectives:
Circadian rhythms coordinate physiological processes with environmental cues such as meal timing and the light-dark cycle.
Most Americans consume food over prolonged periods ( >12 h/d).
Time-restricted eating (TRE) shortens the eating window and influences circadian biology that can improve cognitive performance. However, weight loss itself also improves cognition, and studies examining TRE with caloric restriction (CR) remain limited. We examined the effects of TRE+CR versus CR on cognition in postmenopausal women.
Methods:
In this trial, women (BMI ≥25 kg/m2, 50-79 years old) were randomized to six months of TRE+CR (n=26) or CR (n=21). Groups were counseled to reduce calorie intake (-500 kcal/d), and TRE+CR self-selected a ≤ 9-hour eating window, while CR maintained their eating window.
Baseline National Adult Reading Test (NART) was used to estimate premorbid levels of intelligence. The Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire and Cambridge Neuropsychological Battery of Tests (CANTAB) were administered at weeks 0 and 24.
CANTAB tests included memory and learning (Paired Associate Learning; PAL), executive function (Stockings of Cambridge; SOC; and Multitasking Test) and reaction time (RTI).
Results:
The women (61±5 years, 72% white, 33±4 kg/m2) had an eating window of 12.3±0.9 h/d, which was reduced with TRE+CR (8.2±0.7 h/d), and maintained in the CR group (12.6±0.8 h/d) (p< 0.001).
Mean NART error score (13.8±5.5) was within an expected range. Global PSQI score was unchanged after 6 months and did not differ between groups. There were similar reductions in body weight (-7.5±4.6 vs -6.1±5.4 kg) after 6 months.
Spatial planning and problem-solving (SOC) improved over time with TRE (p< 0.05), but not CR and differed between groups (p< 0.05).
Total errors during the PAL test decreased over time with TRE (p< 0.01), but not CR although the changes between groups were not significant. The multitasking test and RTI were not changed by the intervention.
Reductions in the eating window predicted greater improvement in SOC (p< 0.01) and PAL (p< 0.05) after adjusting for relevant covariates.
Conclusions:
TRE improved memory, learning, and problem-solving tests, independent of weight loss. Additional mechanistic analyses are warranted to explain these findings."
Eating within 8 hours may help keep the aging brain sharp "Eating within a shorter daily window may give the aging brain a modest boost beyond weight loss alone."
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