[H] Off Topic: Alzheimer and Fruits

[Gaby Rottler]

Hi Richard,
I posted they Tinyurl afterwards, where you should have had approach to
the abstract (at least that way worked for me). I didn't read the entrie
article either, as I'm not a subscriber to the American Journal of
Medicine, but I find the abstract interesting enough.

The preliminary data of Qi Dai's et. al. Research were obviously already
posted a year before at:

The Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Prevention of
Dementia, June 18-21, 2005
Consumption of Fruit and Vegetable Juices Predicts a Reduced Risk of
Alzheimer's Disease: The Kame Project.

Topic: Nonpharmacological and Lifestyle interventions
Presentation Time: Sunday, 12:00 noon - 2:30 p.m.

Amy R. Borenstein1, Qi Dai2, Yougui Wu1, James C. Jackson2, Eric B.
Larson3, 1University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA; 2Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, TN, USA; 3Group Health Cooperative of Puget
Sound, Seattle, WA, USA. Contact e-mail: aborenst@hsc.usf.edu
Keyword: antioxidants, risk factor, epidemiology

Background: Chronic accumulation of reactive oxygen species in the brain
may exhaust antioxidant capacity and lead to the onset/progression of
AD. Antioxidant vitamins, particularly vitamin E from dietary fruits and
vegetables, but not from supplements, may play a role in delaying AD
onset.

Objective(s): To test whether polyphenols from consumption of fruit and
vegetable juices lower AD risk.

Methods: The Kame Project cohort, 1836 of whom were dementia-free at
baseline (1992-1994) was followed through 2001. At baseline, a
semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was given,
including fruits, vegetables, tea, wine, and fruit and vegetable juices;
usual dietary intake of nutrients was calculated from a food composition
database. Time to first diagnosis of probable AD (NINCDS/ADRDA criteria)
using age as the time axis and Cox hazard regression were used,
adjusting for ApoE, baseline CASI score, gender, smoking/alcohol
consumption, education, physical activity, BMI, energy intake,
antioxidant vitamin supplements, history of vascular conditions,
diabetes and cancer. Intake of antioxidant vitamins was categorized into
tertiles. Fruit and vegetable groups, tea, wine and juice drinking were
classified as “<1/week”, “1-2/week” and “≥3/week”.
Over 6.3 years follow-up (sd=2.6), 81 incident cases of probable AD were
diagnosed who had FFQ data. Mean age was 71.8; 54.4% female; 65% drank
fruit or vegetable juices at least 1/week; 32% used vitamin E
supplements at least 1/week (41.8% vitamin C). No association was
observed for intake of any supplemental vitamin or for dietary intake of
vitamins E, C or β-carotene. The hazard ratio was 0.27 (95% CI
0.10-0.74) in the fully-adjusted model comparing subjects who drank
fruit and vegetable juices at least 3/week vs. those who drank less
often than 1/week (p for trend=0.01) with an HR of 0.67 (95% CI
0.21-2.13) for those drinking juices 1-2/week.
Conclusions: Certain polyphenols abundant in fruit and vegetable juices
may play an important role in delaying AD onset. Animal studies have
found that a number of polyphenols from juices have stronger protection
for neuronal cells against H2O2 and protein oxidation than vitamins E
and C. These results may lead to a new avenue of inquiry in the
prevention of AD.
(Taken from:
http://www.applepolyphenols.com/studies/alzheimers.htm, where much more
about this topic can be read).

Does that help?

Best,

Gaby

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gaby Rottler,
Germany
rottler@curantur.de

http://www.curantur.de
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~