A new study has found that red wine – specifically Cabernet Sauvignon – may reduce the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease.
At the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, laboratory mice given Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine over a seven-month period experienced ‘significantly reduced Alzheimer’s Disease-type deterioration of spatial memory function’.
This was compared with control mice that were treated ‘with either a comparable amount of ethanol or water alone,’ Mount Sinai researchers said.
The study, to be published in November, infers that ‘moderate wine consumption, within the range recommended by the FDA dietary guidelines of one drink per day for women and two for men, may help reduce the relative risk for Alzheimer’s Disease.’
Alzheimer’s is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain leading to memory loss, which affects some 24m people worldwide. The figure is set to increase to more than 80m people by 2040, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International.
In a press release, Mount Sinai researchers Dr Giulio Maria Pasinetti and Dr Jun Wang called the study a ‘breakthrough’ in Alzheimer’s Disease research, which will ‘give researchers and millions of families a glimpse of light at the end of the long dark tunnel for future prevention of this disease.’
Written by Panos Kakaviatos