Recent medical studies managed to prove that polyphenols, compounds that can be found in red wine, play a crucial role in stopping the development of Alzheimer's, as well as in reversing its effects, on mice models. This seems to explain why French people, who eat a lot of fatty foods, have a lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, as well as Alzheimer's, which was, until now, a mystery.
 

Toxic fibers that attack the myelin sheets covering the neurons, in the brains of patients suffering from the disease, are composed mainly of two proteins, AB40 and AB42. The recent study points out that polyphenols prevent the two proteins from aggregating and forming toxic plaques that are aggressive towards the coating of the neurons.
 

"What we found is pretty straightforward. If the AB proteins can't assemble, toxic aggregates can't form, and thus there is no toxicity. Our work in the laboratory, and Mt. Sinai's Dr. Giulio Pasinetti's work in mice, suggest that administration of the compound to Alzheimer's patients might block the development of these toxic aggregates, prevent disease development and also ameliorate existing disease," explained UCLA professor of neurology David Teplow.
 

"No disease-modifying treatments of Alzheimer's now exist, and initial clinical trials of a number of different candidate drugs have been disappointing. So we believe that this is an important next step," he added.
 

Fighting Alzheimer's by conventional means seems to be ineffective, so new methods of approach, such as this one, could be the future of therapies aimed at fighting this disease. It affects the coating of neurons, which leaves them incapable of accurately and rapidly delivering the electrical impulses they carry. Seeing how billions of impulses are transmitted throughout the human brain every second, it's easy to see how an impairment in the pathways responsible for signal delivery could cause confusion, irritability, long-term memory loss and, eventually, death.