Grapes May Protect Against Alzheimer's Disease

A research presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference, an annual gathering of neuroscientists to present their research, says that resveratrol, quercetin, catechins and other phytonutrients found in grapes may protect against the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The study may as well suggest that eating grapes regularly will be beneficial for the long-term health of the brain and for the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's disease affects 24 million people worldwide and those usually affected are people over the age of 65. Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease and is characterized by the formation of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain.

Dr. Nancy Berman of the University of Kansas, School of Medicine is the lead researcher in this finding and she conducted her experiment on aging mice. One group of mice were given a grape-enriched diet while the other controlled group were not given grapes. The results of the experiment showed that there was a dramatic increase in the genes that block the Alzheimer's disease and a decrease in the inflammation of the brain of the mice on the grape-enriched diet.

The experiment also revealed that the beta-amyloid scavenger that reduces plaque formation in Alzheimer's disease also known as transthyretin increased 246-folds in the controlled group of mice with grape-enriched diet and that there was a reduction of the genes that were said to cause the inflammation of the brain that occurs in the normal aging process and similarly the genes in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

According to Kathleen Nave, president of the California Table Grape Commission, preserving brain health should be a key concern when one ages and that they are very excited over the growing evidence that eating grapes everyday will help protect against Alzheimer's and other degenerative diseases.

There is currently no cure of Alzheimer's disease, available medications today only offer symptomatic benefits. However, there are some preventive measures that are being studied and other factors that would help reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to Wikipedia, are: intellectual stimulation such as playing chess or doing crosswords, regular physical exercise, social interaction since lonely individuals may be twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's, Mediterranean Diet that involves fruits and vegetables and low saturated fat, cholesterol lowering drugs, and long-term usage of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs used to reduce joint inflammation and pain. Recent data from Women's Health Initiative says that Female Hormone Replacement Therapy is no longer thought to prevent dementia.

SOURCE:

Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, "Eating Grapes May Protect Against Alzheimer's Disease." Prnewswire.com

Wikipedia, "Alzheimer's Disease" Wikipedia.org