Delay The Onset Of Dementia By Adding This Ingredient To Your Healthy Dinner

The National Health Service reveals that approximately 850,000 people in the UK are suffering from dementia. In most cases, those who have dementia were observed to be in their mid-60s. There are cases, though, of younger adults suffering from it due to traumatic brain injuries, central nervous system infections, prolonged drug or alcohol use, and some types of hydrocephalus.

According to the NHS, the possibility of some people developing dementia doubles every five years. Fortunately, researchers of a recent study say including an ingredient to dinner might help.

A Breakthrough Study

Researchers say dementia could be avoided by drizzling your dinner with extra virgin olive oil. Scientists say adding extra virgin olive oil to your diet can help keep the brain young. This, in turn, could help delay or even prevent the onset of dementia.

Widely recognized for its many health benefits, extra virgin olive oil is also rich in antioxidants that could protect your brain cells. It can also prevent other medical conditions, which are linked to aging like cardiovascular diseases, from happening.

According to the authors of the study, the key element needed to slow down the effects of aging is boosting brain functions. The researchers were from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Protecting the Brain

In past studies, US scientists also discovered that extra virgin olive oil could help in preserving memory and also has shown its potential in protecting the brain against Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers in this recent study also stumbled on another group of age-linked diseases referred to as tauopathies. This involved the gradual accumulation of an abnormal protein in the brain that researchers called tau. Such a process causes mental functions to decline.

They also found out, however, that extra virgin olive oil can be used to fight this particular type of mental decline. According to Professor Domenico Pratic, the study’s senior investigator and a professor at Temple University, extra virgin olive oil has been part of the human diet since time immemorial. The ancients use it because of its many health benefits and for other reasons that present-day individuals are still trying to understand. The fact that this product can defend the brain against various dementia types has opened the opportunity to learn more about mechanisms used by the oil to protect brain health.