|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Nutrition, Vitamins & Supplements for Seniors
Drinking Fruit, Vegetable Juices Lowers Alzheimer's
Risk 76 Percent in New Study
Another study pointing to health benefits of
polyphenols
September 1, 2006 - People who drank three or more
servings of fruit and vegetable juices per week had a 76 percent lower
risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than those who drank juice less
than once per week, according to a large new study. Even drinking juice
once or twice per week was found to reduce the risk by 16 percent.
| |
Related Stories |
|
| |
Food for Thought: Berries and Grapes Boost Brain
Power
September 1, 2006 – Loss of clear thinking is a
major concern of aging senior citizens and baby boomers and many are
reaching for foods high in antioxidants. They may be on the right track
if they reach for berries or grapes, according to new findings reported
by Agricultural Research Service-funded scientists.
Read more...
Pomegranate Juice Could Benefit Diabetics and Slow
Bad Cholesterol
Another research report touting the
health benefits of the drink
August 24, 2006 – Pomegranate juice can reduce the
risk for atherosclerosis, and thus the risk of death for diabetics,
since the condition leads to arterial wall thickening and hardening, and
accounts for 80 percent of deaths for diabetic patients. It also reduces
the uptake of bad cholesterol, according to studies at Technion-Isreal
Institute of Technology.
Read
more...
Pigments in Corn, Squash and other Vegetables Help
Protect Against Age-Related Vision Loss
The carotenoids fight
age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
August 14, 2006 – Women, at least those younger
than age 75, who eat diets rich in the yellow plant pigments lutein and
zeaxanthin may have a reduced risk of developing the eye disease
age-related macular degeneration, according to a report in the August
issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives
journals.
Read more...
Read more
on
Nutrition, Vitamins & Supplements |
|
Recent studies of Alzheimer's disease biochemistry
have focused on the accumulation of beta-amyloid peptide in the brain,
and the action of hydrogen peroxide in mediating this process.
Various studies have suggested that polyphenols,
strong anti-oxidants available in many foods, might disrupt these
processes and provide some protection against Alzheimer's disease.
Although some studies of antioxidant vitamins have been disappointing,
this study claims to be the first to examine juices rich in polyphenols
as a preventive measure for Alzheimer's disease.
"We found that frequent drinking of fruit and
vegetable juices was associated with a substantially decreased risk of
Alzheimer's disease," said lead author Qi Dai, MD, PhD., assistant
professor of Medicine.
"These findings are new and suggest that fruit and
vegetable juices may play an important role in delaying the onset of
Alzheimer's disease," he added.
The researchers followed a subset of subjects from
a large cross-cultural study of dementia, called the Ni-Hon-Sea Project,
which investigated Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia in older
Japanese populations living in Japan, Hawaii and Seattle, Wash.
For the current study, called the Kame Project, the
researchers identified 1,836 dementia-free subjects in the Seattle
population and collected information on their dietary consumption of
fruit and vegetable juices. They then assessed cognitive function every
two years for up to 10 years.
After controlling for possible confounding factors
like smoking, education, physical activity and fat intake, the
researchers found that those who reported drinking juices three or more
times per week were 76 percent less likely to develop signs of
Alzheimer’s disease than those who drank less than one serving per week.
The benefit appeared particularly enhanced in
subjects who carry the apolipoprotein E ˙-4 allele, a genetic marker
linked to late-onset Alzheimer’s disease – the most common form of the
disease, which typically occurs after the age of 65.
The researchers chose to study this group because
of the low incidence rate of Alzheimer’s disease in the Japanese
population. However, the incidence of Alzheimer’s in Japanese people
living in the United States is higher, approaching the incidence rates
in Americans. This pointed to environmental factors like diet and
lifestyle as important contributors to disease risk.
Originally, researchers suspected that high intakes
of antioxidant vitamins (vitamins C, E and -carotene) might provide some
protection against Alzheimer's disease, but recent clinical studies have
not supported this hypothesis.
"We thought that the underlying component may not
be vitamins, that there was maybe something else," Dai said.
Dai began to suspect that another class of
antioxidant chemicals, known as polyphenols, could play a role.
Polyphenols are non-vitamin antioxidants common in the diet and
particularly abundant in teas, juices and wines.
Most polyphenols exist primarily in the skins and
peels of fruits and vegetables. Recent studies have shown that
polyphenols (like resveratrol in wine) extend maximum lifespan by 59
percent and delay age-dependent decay of cognitive performance in animal
models.
"Also, animal studies and cell culture studies
confirmed that some polyphenols from juices showed a stronger
neuroprotective effect than antioxidant vitamins. So we are now looking
at polyphenols," Dai said.
The next step, said Dai, is to test the subjects'
blood samples to see if elevated levels of polyphenols are related to
the reduced risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. This
would provide further evidence of the role of juice polyphenols in
Alzheimer’s disease risk. It also may point to the types of juice that
would be most beneficial.
We don't know if it is a specific type of juice
(that reduces risk). That information was not collected in the current
study," said Dai. "But we can use plasma to narrow down the kinds of
juices."
However promising the study results appear, Dai
cautioned, it's important that the general public not jump the gun
regarding the value of juice as a preventive measure for Alzheimer's
disease.
"A few years ago, hormone replacement therapy,
NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and antioxidant vitamins
showed promise (in preventing or slowing Alzheimer's disease), but
recent clinical trials indicate that they do not," Dai said. "More
study, I think, is needed."
Notes:
This research was supported by grants from the
National Institutes of Health.
James C. Jackson, Psy.D., research assistant
professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical
Center; Amy R. Borenstein, Ph.D., and Yougui Wu, Ph.D., from the
University of South Florida; and Eric B. Larson, M.D., Ph.D., of the
Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound were co-authors on the study.
Participating in the study were. Vanderbilt School of Medicine, the
Veterans Administration Tennessee Valley Geriatric Research, Education,
and Clinical Center, the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida,
and the Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, Washington.
The study is "Fruit and Vegetable Juices and
Alzheimer's Disease: The Kame Project" and appears in The American
Journal of Medicine, Volume 119, Issue 9 (September 2006), a themed
issue featuring gastroenterology and nutrition, published by Elsevier.
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
