Good For You

My cousin sent this to me- an AFP report published on September 01, 2006.

We’ve known this for a while but have never had a study/evidence to back up the talk. So here it is, finally.  So drink up people- but not the canned or bottled juices.  Fresh fruit please!
Drinking fruit or vegetable juice several times a week could help protect against Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study in the September issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

The nine-year study involving nearly 2,000 people, led by Professor Qi
Dai of Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University, showed that the risk of
developing Alzheimer’s — a degenerative brain disease that affects a
person’s memory, thinking and mood — was cut by 76 percent among
those who drank fruit or vegetable juice more than three times a week.

Among those who drank juice once a week, the risk was reduced by 16 percent.

LONG & EXTENSIVE STUDY

The study focused on 1,836 dementia-free people in Seattle, Washington
beginning in 1991. They were tracked by questionnaires on their
lifestyle and eating habits, as well as by cognitive function tests
that were conducted every two years.

Although the scientific community had long thought that antioxidant
vitamins like vitamins C and E or carotene had protective benefits
against Alzheimer’s, the study confirmed their belief that “there was
maybe something else,” Dai said, pointing to polyphenols, natural
antioxidants found in juice, tea and wine.

“Animal studies and cell culture studies confirmed that some
polyphenols from juices showed a stronger neuroprotective effect than
antioxidant vitamins. So we are now looking at polyphenols,” Dai said.

The study did not indicate whether some types of juice were more
beneficial than others. The study was part of a larger research project examining Alzheimer’s disease in Japan, Hawaii and Seattle.

The illness affects some 4.5 million Americans and nearly 5.4 million
people in Western Europe.