Alzheimer’s research
Dr. Navindra Seeram of the University of Rhode Island, the University of Toronto’s Dr. Donald Weaver and a number of other scientists, worked on the study and presented it to the society’s annual meeting in San Diego.
“Natural food products such as green tea, red wine, berries, curcumin and pomegranates continue to be studied for their potential benefits in combatting Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Seeram said.
“And now, in preliminary laboratory-based Alzheimer’s disease studies,” he added. “Extracts of maple syrup from Canada showed neuroprotective effects, similar to resveratrol, a compound found in red wine.”
As part of their research, the team conducted a meta-analysis, looking at 24 studies that examined the effects of various food stuffs on brain health. They saw that, along with blueberries and green tea and other substances, maple syrup was helpful in warding off Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases.
Stops protein tangling
Maple syrup, Dr. Seerman and his colleagues found, prevents the clumping together, or ‘tangling,’ of two proteins that can combine to cause Alzheimer’s. The beta amyloid and tau peptide proteins can tangle together and cause amyloid plaque to build in the brain and maple syrup helps prevent that from occurring, they found.
In Canada, Global News spoke to producers of maple syrup in that country who were naturally happy to learn of the study. Serge Beaulieu, president of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers told Global reporter Carmen Chai they are excited to see how well the research was conducted.
“This has been demonstrated by a robust and carefully guided research program that started in 2005 to explore the potential health benefits of pure maple syrup,” Beaulieu said. “Brain health is the latest topic of exploration and we look forward to learning more about the potential benefits that maple syrup might have in this area.”
There are an estimated 44 million people around the world suffering from Alzheimer’s, a deadly disease that robs victims of their memory and gradually kills over a five- to eight-year period.
