January 28th, 2009
Will apple juice or coffee prevent Alzheimer's?
Since learning I have a family history of Alzheimer’s Disease I have had a rooting interest in anything that might cure or (better still) keep it from happening to me.
So do many other people, which leads to headlines like this one.
A Scandinavian study says drinking coffee in mid-life can keep you from getting Alzheimer’s later in life. The research showed those who drank 3-5 cups per day fared best.
Then there’s apple juice.
Earlier this month the same Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that mice given the equivalent of 2 glasses of apple juice each day produced less beta-amyloid (which causes Alzheimer’s plaques) than a control group.
I give more credence to the second study, using lab mice under strict control, than the first study, which was based on about 1,500 patients self-reporting over the course of 21 years.
I’m guessing that if you can get down 3-5 cups of coffee per day (I get high after just one and fall asleep after the second) you’re probably not genetically programmed for either hypertension or high cholesterol, thus less likely to suffer plaques.
As to the apple juice, it can’t hurt. I like apple juice. Apple juice is also used as a component in other juices — check your kids’ ingredient labels to learn more.
But if Mott’s starts running ads showing healthy old folks quaffing down big glasses and bragging about their mental capacities, I expect a lawsuit.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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