Extra virgin olive oil staves off Alzheimer’s, preserves memory, new study shows
As just reported in USA Today and by other news outlets, Temple University has just published research that shows that extra-virgin olive oil may be protective against memory loss, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Olive oil is a component of the Mediterranean diet, which also contains more fruits and vegetables than the typical American diet, and has been shown to have many health benefits. Regarding the idea to study the olive oil component of the diet Lead researcher Domenico Practico, MD explains, “The thinking is that extra-virgin olive oil is better than fruits and vegetables alone. As a monounsaturated vegetable fat, it is healthier than saturated animal fats.”
This research done at Temple’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine is a study using mice as their subjects. They found that mice in the study who had olive oil enriched diets, fared better on tests of learning ability and memory at 9 and 12 months, compared to the mice not fed the olive oil.
The mechanism by which the benefit works is that olive oil reduces brain inflammation and activates the process called autophagy , which removes cellular debris and toxins thought to play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr Pratico says that this experiment should be followed by studies aimed at introducing olive oil into the diet later in the aging process, to see if benefits can be shown then. “Thanks to the autophagy activation, memory and synaptic integrity were preserved, and the pathological effects in animals otherwise destined to develop Alzheimer’s disease were significantly reduced. We want to know whether olive oil added at a later time point in the diet can stop or reverse the disease.” For more information on the holistic treatments available to stave off Alzheimers, and treat it once it has occurred please see our website…