 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
By Vivian Richardson, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent
ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A little red wine every day could be exactly what the doctor ordered. A new study reveals moderate consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon actually prevents an Alzheimer's-like disease in mice.
Text Continues Below
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York wanted to know if the FDA's recommended servings of red wine per day, approximately one glass for women and two glasses for men, would have the same effect on health previous studies and surveys of populations have shown in the past.
"We wanted to get as close as possible to the human condition," says researcher Giulio Maria Pasinetti, M.D., director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He and his colleagues gave mice that mimic Alzheimer's disease the equivalent of once glass of Cabernet Sauvignon a day.
What the researchers discovered was that one glass of red wine a day was all the mice needed to get significant brain-protecting benefits. "Moderation is the key word, otherwise you lose all the benefit," says Dr. Pasinetti.
Researchers also report that they now have a better idea of what in the wine is so good for us. It's all thanks to the effects the chemicals in wine have on amyloid precursor protein, which is the stuff that hardens into plaques in the brain, causing Alzheimer's. The red wine chemicals seem to keep that from happening.
"One of the mechanisms that red wine might have in attenuating memory function is indeed through this kind of mechanism by preventing the formation of more complex structures of soluble structures," says Dr. Pasinetti. Which means red wine can even help prevent or lessen age-related memory loss in people without Alzheimer's. That's because the amyloid precursor protein is in everyone's brain. Any time it comes together in any kind of structure, the brain works less efficiently.
The Cabernet Sauvignon used in this study, however, is no ordinary wine. Food science and human nutrition researcher Susan Percival at the University of Florida in Gainesville created a special Cabernet Sauvignon in the lab. Because the wine from any old vineyard can change from vintage to vintage, she created a wine that would remain consistent for lab studies like Dr. Pasinetti's.
Dr. Pasinetti says with this research scientists are one step closer to understanding the exact molecule that is responsible for protecting memory ... and closer to synthesizing that molecule in a lab where it can be used to create drugs that would prevent or even cure Alzheimer's.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Giulio Maria Pasinetti, M.D., director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
|
.gif)
