The novel study, carried out by Australian scientists, suggests that eating grape seeds could help avert degenerative brain conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers say grape seeds are rich in compounds that prevent the formation of deposits of amyloid proteins, a major cause of Alzheimer's disease (AD), in the brain.
Using a mouse model, Professor Xin-Fu Zhou and colleagues of Flinders University have found that mice fed with grape seed extract for six months had better cognitive function than those on a normal diet.
"Grape seed extract demonstrates a strong disease-modifying effect. As a dietary supplement, the effect of grape seeds is significant and beneficial,” Zhou said. "It is a safe, natural product which contains 'goodies' that we shouldn't throw away."
For the study, Zhou’s team along with the Australian government-funded Commonwealth Scientific Research Organisation (CSIRO) fed grape seed extracts to mice with the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease over a six-month period and observed a 50 percent reduction in the damage to their brain cells.
'We found that grape seed extract was a very powerful agent in reducing amyloid-beta deposits in the brain. It also produced marginal improvements in cognitive function and, most importantly, reduced inflammation," Zhou said.
The reason could be the fact that grape seeds, like many other fruits and vegetables, contain polyphenols - complex molecules with anti-oxidant properties, and some have been identified by scientists as the possible medication for reducing amyloid deposition, according to a Flinders release. This could be an inexpensive preventive measure for Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers said.
The (CSIRO) team led by Dr. Michael Fenech found that grape seed extract also prevented DNA damage. "The level of damage to DNA, which is a fundamental cause of accelerated ageing and degenerative diseases, was reduced by including grape seed extracts in the diet of these mice," said Fenech.
The latest findings will be presented to the Society for Neuroscience which meets in Washington later this week.
Alzheimer's disease, which causes senility and can lead to death, is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the development of unusual clumps of proteins called amyloid plaques and nerve cell tangles that hinder messages being processed by the brain. AD destroys patients' memories and capacity for speech and affects an estimated 5.2 million Americans.
Alzheimer's affects almost half of all patients with dementia. The most striking early symptom of Alzheimer’s is loss of short term memory. As the disorder progresses, cognitive injury extends to the domains of language (aphasia), skilled movements (apraxia), recognition (agnosia), and those functions (such as decision-making and planning) closely related to the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.
The Alzheimer's Association revealed this year in March that an estimated 10 million of the United States’ 79 million baby boomers will likely develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of memory lapse disease in their lifetime.
According to statistics from a report, “2008 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures”, the number of people suffering from AD will increase to 81 million by 2040. Globally, there are about 60 percent people in the developing countries affected by Alzheimer’s and by 2040, this proportion will rise to 71 percent.
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