Diet rich in polyphenols, polyunsaturated fatty acids ‘cuts Alzheimer risk’

WASHINGTON - A new Spanish study has found that polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids in food, patented as an LMN diet, can boost the birth of new neurons, which could delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers led by Mercedes Unzeta, professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Universitat Autrnoma de Barcelona (UAB) experimented on two groups of mice to come up with their findings.

For 40 days (Equivalent to nearly five human years) one group was given a normal diet and the other was fed on the same diet enriched with LMN cream.

It was found that those mice, which had been fed on LMN cream, had a considerably higher number of stem cells and new differentiated cells, in the olfactory bulb and hippocampus.

The second objective was to verify if the LMN cream could prevent damage caused by oxidation or neural death in cell cultures.

Scientists also discovered that a pretreatment with LMN cream could reduce and even prevent any oxidative damage to cells.

Thus, it was concluded that an LMN diet could induce the production of new cells in the adult brain, and strengthen neural networks, which are worn down by age and Alzheimer’s disease.he study will appear in the December issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Beverages like tea, beer and wine and grapes, olive oil, cocoa, nuts contain polyphenols.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids can be had from the consumption of blue fish and vegetables like corn, soya beans, sunflowers and pumpkins. (ANI)