Study underlines the protective effect of fruit and vegetables against dementia

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

People who drink fruit juice regularly have a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease.
It has long been suspected that antioxidant vitamins might protect the brain from dementia. But research has not borne this out. However, scientists at the University of Washington now show that polyphenols, another class of antioxidant, in fruits and vegetables could play this protective role.

They looked at nearly 2,000 participants in the Seattle area who were free of both Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia at the start of the study. They were monitored for ten years with respect to dietary factors and cognitive functioning. Those who drank fruit or vegetable juices three times or more a week were 76 per cent less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than those who drank the juices less than once a week. The effect was most marked among those carrying the ApoE4 allele, a genetic marker that is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. The next stage of the research is to check polyphenol levels in the blood and see if these are directly linked to the reduction in Alzheimer's risk. This might reveal which kind of juice provides most benefit.

Source
American Journal of Medicine September 2006

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