Fruits and vegetables keeps people in everyday life, healthy, is known. According to the study results by researchers from the Rush University Medical center in Chicago, and it also helps against dementia: thanks to the content substance Flavonol. Accordingly, the risk of disease decreases by almost 50 percent.
Flavonols belong to the class of flavonoids and are present in plant pigments. The natural substances are known for their positive effects on health due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Multi-year study of eating habits and life style
The multi-year study of 921 people participated in total, with an average age of 81 years who had to study the beginning of all no signs of Alzheimer’s dementia.
An average of six years, they filled in an annual questionnaire about how often certain foods have eaten. In addition, other factors were queried, such as education, physical activities and the time you spend with spiritually-committed activities.
Proper nutrition: probability drops to 48 percent
During the study, was diagnosed in 220 people Alzheimer’s. Against the end of the study, the participants were divided on the basis of their flavonol consumption in groups of five.
The subjects in the group with the highest flavonol consumption sufferers with 48 per cent less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease than the participants with the lowest level: Of the 186 people in the group with the highest consumption of 28 people (15 percent) patients, compared with 54 persons (30 percent) of the 182 subjects in the group with the lowest consumption.
The researchers considered the genetic predisposition, demographic factors, and life style. In another calculation, they adjusted the data for risk factors such as Diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure – here, too, the ratio remained the same.
These foods are on your menu?
Study author Thomas M. Holland, from the Rush Institute for healthy aging under the flavonols divided additionally into four types. Here you can see the probability in percent to suffer with a high intake of rare Alzheimer’s disease, as well as a list of foods that contain a particularly high proportion of the respective types:
Kaempferol (51 percent): green cabbage, beans, tea, spinach, and broccoli
Isorhamnetin (38 percent): pears, olive oil, wine and tomato sauce
Myricetin (38 percent): tea, wine, green cabbage, oranges and tomatoes
Quercetin (0 percent): tomato, green cabbage, Apples, and tea
Holland stresses that the study flavonolen a connection between Food and Alzheimer’s risk, but does not prove, that flavonols have the effect of directly reducing the disease risk.
Simple way of prevention?
"Further research is required to confirm these results, but there are promising Ergebnisse", Holland said in a notification by the Rush Institute. To eat more fruit and vegetables and drink more tea could be a quite cost-effective and easy way for people to combat Alzheimer’s dementia.