Short Description: Flavonoids might reduce risk of death in Parkinson's disease patients: Study
Flavonoids might reduce risk of death in Parkinson's disease patients: Study
Washington [US], January 30 : People with Parkinson's disease who eat more flavonoids - compounds found in richly coloured foods like berries, cocoa and red wine - may have a lower mortality risk than those who don't, a recent study suggested.
The research has been published in the 'Neurology Journal'.
Specifically, the researchers found that when people who had already been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (PD) ate more flavonoids, they had a lower chance of dying during the 34-year study period than those who did not consume as many flavonoids.
Additionally, they found that eating more flavonoids before being diagnosed with PD was associated with a lower risk of death in men, but not in women.
"Adding a few servings of flavonoid-rich foods to their diets a week could potentially be an easy way for people with PD to help improve their life expectancy," said Xinyuan Zhang, PhD candidate in nutritional sciences at Penn State.
"Greater consumption of berries and red wine, which are rich in the flavonoid anthocyanins, was particularly associated with lower mortality," Zhang added.
Zhang noted that consumption of wine should not exceed the amount outlined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is one drink per day for women and two for men.
According to the Parkinson's Foundation, more than 60,000 people are diagnosed with PD each year, and more than 10 million people worldwide are living with the disease. The disease is caused by the brain not making enough dopamine and leads to tremors, stiffness and problems with balance.
Xiang Gao, professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State, said that while PD is not considered a fatal disease, its complications can lead to an increased risk of death and that few studies have examined how the diet of people with PD can affect disease prognosis.
"Our group's previous research found that when people without Parkinson's ate more flavonoids, it was associated with a lower risk of them developing the disease in the future," Gao said.
"We wanted to further explore whether flavonoid intake could be linked to better survival in individuals who had already been diagnosed with Parkinson's," Gao added.
( Details and picture courtesy ANI, the content is auto-generated from the feed.)
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