Red Wine And Chocolate Compound May Fight Alzheimer's Progress, Study

Resveratrol, present in red wine and chocolate, could perhaps delay Alzheimer's disease and prevent dementia, Live Science reports. 

One experiment that looked at 119 people with Alzheimer's disease, involved concentrated forms of resveratrol being given to one group, while the other group was given a placebo every day for a year to check the effect. The high dosage of resveratrol was almost equivalent to about 1,000 bottles of wine.

After the study was completed, scientists noticed that those who took the compound did not show a decrease in the level of amyloid-beta40 in the spinal fluid, which is normal in Alzheimer's patients. But the level decreased in those who took the placebo.

Routine activities of patients who took the compound also did not reduce like those in the placebo group.

It was also surprising to find that the resveratrol group exhibited more brain shrinkage compared to the placebo group, as was detected by MRI scans. Even though this was surprising, R. Scott Turner, study author and director of the Memory Disorders Program at Georgetown University Medical Center, believes that the loss of brain inflammation might be the cause of it.

However, people should not jump at taking resveratrol in order to fight the progress of Alzheimer's. The study has not examined the effect of resveratrol on the symptoms of the illness.

"I'm not recommending that people go out and buy resveratrol and start taking it," Turner said. "We need further studies to see if it really does have a benefit," according to hngn.

The study was published in the Sept. 11 online issue of the journal Neurology.