Resveratrol, a natural polyphenol, present in grapes, red wine and chocolate, would slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. A new study, believed to be the longest and largest in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s diseaseshows that this polyphenol slows cognitive decline.
Dr. Scott Turner, professor of neurology and director of the memory disorders program at Georgetown University (USA) created a purified form of resveratrol, which was distributed to half of a group of 119 men and women with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. They took 1000 mg a day while the other half took a placebo.
After a year, Dr. Turner compared all participants’ scores on cognitive tests and asked them if they had become addicted to certain activities in their daily lives. “My nightmare was to find out that there was no difference with the placebo group. Thankfully it didn’t,” Dr. Turner said.
The group taking resveratrol showed smaller brains, which is an encouraging sign for Alzheimer’s disease, which causes inflammation and swelling in the brain, which can interfere with certain neurological actions. Even more encouraging, the members of this group showed a slight improvement in their abilities to do certain activities such as dressing or bathing themselves.
“I think that resveratrol represents an interesting line of research and that it could be manipulated pharmacologically to develop a treatment” concluded the doctor.
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