Alzheimer's and Diet
by The Irish Times Health Supplement.Tuesday 20th June 2006.
Eating fewer calories may help prevent the symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease, according to new research.
A study in mice suggested a lower-calorie diet could help trigger the production of a protein that protected the brain from the disease, siad researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
In the study, mice in one group were permitted to eat as they wished, while the other group was fed 70 per cent of that amount.When the animals were killed 6 months later,researchers discovered the brains of the calorie-restricted mice held significantly higher levels of an anti-ageing protein, SIRT1.
This protein has been shown to curtail and reverse the production of plaque in the brain, a symptom of Alzheimer's Disease.