People with Parkinson’s disease should start eating berries and drinking red wine—the flavonoids could help them live longer.
Sufferers who eat up to 673 mg (0.02 ounces) of flavonoids every day are 70 percent more likely to be alive compared to another sufferer who doesn’t consume any of the compounds.
Although Parkinson’s is a degenerative disease, causing tremors and balance problems, it’s not fatal in itself, although sufferers are more likely to die as a result of one or more of the symptoms.
But flavonoids seem to counteract some of the damage caused by the disease, say researchers from Penn State. As they are antioxidants, they can lower chronic neuro-inflammation levels and slow neuron loss, which can protect against cognitive decline and depression, said lead researcher Xinyuan Zhang.
The researchers tracked the health of 599 women and 652 men who had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and asked them how often they ate flavonoid-rich foods and drinks, such as tea, apples, berries, oranges and red wine. The researchers calculated that those who consumed the most flavonoid-rich foods and drinks had a 70 percent greater chance of still being alive.
Berries and red wine contain more flavonoids than the other foods and drinks tested, the researchers said.
Around 10 million people around the world suffer from Parkinson’s, where the brain does not produce enough dopamine, a neurotransmitter.
(Source: Neurology, 2022; 10.1212/WNL.00000000000013275)
