News you might use

This is probably too good to be true. I would have thought someone would have noticed the correlation before if the consumption of certain foods reversed Alzheimer’s.

scientists at Tufts University are working to understand what might slow the progression of the disease. They tested 21 different compounds in Alzheimer’s-afflicted neural cells in the lab, measuring the compounds’ effect on the growth of sticky beta-amyloid plaques. These plaques develop in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.

The team found that two common compounds—green tea catechins and resveratrol, found in red wine and other foods—reduced the formation of plaques in those neural cells. And they did so with few or no side effects.

The applicability of this to humans drinking green tea and red wine are somewhat tenuous. The experiments were done on an artificially grown 3D neural tissue model. I presume the treatment was done via the nutrient bath or some such thing. So there was no passage of the active compounds through the digestive system, into the blood stream, and through the blood brain barrier to the brain.

Still, the risk/reward ratio for drinking green tea and/or red wine (and/or eating grapes) is favorable.

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9 thoughts on “News you might use

  1. not actually all that new. Mutliple treatments have been proven to reduce amyloid plaques, that’s how we know that the plaques are a symptom, and not the *cause* of dementia. Reducing the plaques does not reduce dementia.

    They’re barking up the wrong tree.

    However, it would not be surprising at all to find a dietary or other environmental factor at play here, as there is NO MONEY to look for such things, as they cannot be patented. The suprising part would be that someone conducted the study, and that they results where not censored. There *is* money to do *that*.

    • Agreed. Increasingly, it’s looking like the increase in vaccines (conventional ones) that have microparticle aluminum (nearly all of them) are a contributing factor that is slowly poisoning people (did you get your annual dose of MEK, aluminum, and adjuvants in your flu shot?) and increasing the rates of a host of degenerative and autoimmune disorders that Pharma would be happy to sell you treatments (but not cures) for…..

      • D’oh! Should have been “formaldehyde” not MEK.
        But there are a whole string of things in most vaccines that are considered toxic by poison-control personnel. Seriously, look them up, then compare to the MSDS or toxicity research for it. Sort of like the sodium fluoride added to water… is a neuro toxin. Good for teeth (if the right form of it), but not for consumption.

    • But a treatment for the root cause would also eliminate the plaques. Hence, elimination of plaques is an indicator of something worthy of further testing.

      Not all money for research is spent with the hope of making more money. There are many charitable organizations and individuals which want problems solved more than making money from the solutions.

      • Minute detail, like the plaques, can distinguish nuances in disease, but we do *not* know that you cannot reverse the dementia without reversing the plaques. I still think it’s barking up the wrong tree.

        These kinds of details are often available *only* in a biopsy (or an autopsy), both of which are *rarely* done. (almost never)

        The symptoms of alzheimer’s are *identical* to those of prion disease. Only a biopsy can distinguish them. For all we can know, most of the rise in dementia may well be prion disease, and not alzheimer’s. It is *always* diagnosed as alzheimer’s sans biopsy.

        No one is interested in spending money on these if the treatment cannot be patented, or if discovery of an underlying cause would damage a vested group by being made public.

      • In fact, patients often have *marked* differences in symptoms from day to day, with some “good days” reporting near normal cognition. Plaques do not come and go so quickly.

        Charities *do* help, but there are *many orders of magnatude* differences in the amounts of money we’re talking about here, and nearly all such charities just donate to existing groups, few inspire new research, and few will “earmark” their money for specific research.

  2. Just because something works in vitro does not mean it will work in vivo.
    LOTS of things kill cancer. Most of those things are useless in treating
    cancer patients. Same issue regarding Alzheimers causes and treatments.
    Only time….and a LOT of properly done nonagenda
    driven research can answer these questions.

  3. In a twist that only be God’s sense of humor at work. We find that Alzheimer’s is also being treated with Viagra. (Hilarious, and totally not making that up.)
    But just in case, I’m going to be hitting the green tea a lot harder.
    (I can imagine my poor wife trying to explain to the ER Doctor that I have Alzheimer’s and an erection for over four hours.)

  4. As you allude, one does not necessarily have to drink fermented grape juice to get the desired compounds. Fresh red grapes, or red grape juice (referred to in ancient times as “new wine”) is just fine. And if you haven’t had actual, fresh pressed grape juice then you’ve been missing out your whole life and have no idea.

    Still, far more study is in order when it comes to the effects or benefits of the almost infinite array of phytochemicals. But who is going to do it? For the powers-that-should-not-be, is there not more profit in keeping people sick, in a mental fog, demoralized and dependent than in keeping them healthy, confident and sharp?

    Which person is the more controllable, and which is more likely to pose a threat to the authoritarian system? Or is that not at all an appropriate or relevant question?

    Those ubiquitous food nutritional content labels are grossly inadequate when it comes to the billions of different compounds, when at times the main benefit, or serious risk, of eating certain foods cannot be addressed at all within the narrow scope of the label.

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