Green Tea Extract May Hold Key to Halting Alzheimer’s Disease, Notes Michigan Elder Law Attorney
Apr 5, 2013
Bloomfield Hills, MI (Law Firm Newswire) April 4, 2013 – Green tea extract has been found to interfere with the formation of damaging plaque which leads to Alzheimer’s.
A new research study through the University of Michigan indicates that green tea may help battle Alzheimer’s disease. A molecule found in the tea appears to prevent damage to proteins in the brain associated with the neurodegenerative disease.
“The findings are a glimmer of hope for all those affected by Alzheimer’s disease,” stated Christopher J. Berry, a Michigan elder law attorney.
The development of the damaging proteinsm known as metal-associated amyloids, have been controlled by an extract of green tea. In a paper researchers submitted to the science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a multidisciplinary team including chemists, biophysicists, and biologists used the extract from green tea, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), to halt the development of the protein and broke the existing protein structures. EGCG is one of several natural flavonoids that researchers have been studying as a useful antioxidant.
Though this is not the first study of metal-associated amyloids and small molecules, this is the first multidisciplinary approach. The team next plans to alter the molecule and test it on Alzheimer’s typical plaque formation to see if it inhibits plaque growth under lab conditions.
The project has support from the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative, National Institutes of Health, and the American Heart Association.
It is estimated that more than 5 million people in the U.S. are living with Alzheimer’s disease — one out of every eight people over the age of 65. Alzheimer’s disease is now the sixth-leading cause of death in the country, and the single cause of death in the U.S. that cannot be prevented, slowed or cured. There are more than 15 million people in the U.S. caring for a family member or other loved one with Alzheimer’s or another dementia, usually in an unpaid capacity. The amount of that unpaid care is valued at more than $200 billion, while care that is paid for is estimated to be at least $200 billion, just for the U.S.
Learn more at http://www.michiganelderlawattorney.com/
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