Drinking Fruit Juices May Reduce Alzheimer Risk
August 31, 2006 by ruth
Filed under Food & Nutrition
I’ve already written a previous entry on apple juice and its potential to stave off Alzheimer’s Disease. There’s a more recent study that supports it, with data from 1,836 dementia-free subjects observed for a span of 10 years indicating that drinking fruit and vegetable juices more than 3 times per week had 76% less chances of developing Alzheimer’s than those who drank less than once a week.
76% risk reduction! Imagine that! And just by regularly drinking juice!
Although such neuroprotective effects are often attributed to antioxidant vitamins (Vitamin C, E and ß-carotene), the authors of this particular study believe it is more likely due to another class of antioxidants called polyphenols.
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 authors would like to confirm these by determining the polyphenol level in the subjects blood samples, and to possibly identify which particular juices have maximum benefits.
Am betting on apple juice. What do you think?
Should you want further reading, the results of the abovementioned study has been published in The Journal of American Medicine (abstract available, but requires subscription to access whole text). For lighter reading and fruit juice recipes, here’s a book that got quite good reviews in Amazon: Power Juices Super Drinks: Quick, Delicious Recipes to Prevent & Reverse Disease.
Hi,
I was going to tell you about this info and I see you already have it. You’ve done a great job writing about juices and Alzheimer’s. So I’ll send my Alzheimer’s Notes (www.alzheimersnotes.com) readers over your way!
These juices can reduce many more risks. A dose of natural juice means long term health and it’s perfect recommendable for the young ones.
Vitamin discussion