Eating Berries, Drinking Tea May Cut Men’s Risk for Parkinson’s
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Hemera/Thinkstock(BOSTON) — While Parkinson’s disease is on the rise, now there may be a way to reduce the probability of men getting the disorder of the central nervous system, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Neurology.
Research from Harvard University suggest that eating foods such as berries and apples and drinking tea and red wine may protect you against the disease. That’s because these food and drink items are rich in flavonoids, a water-soluble pigment, that helps to inhibit the onset of Parkinson’s.
Researchers studied around 130,000 men and women for over 20 years, and 800 developed Parkinson’s.
Among men, there was a 40-percent decrease in developing Parkinson’s disease for those who ate the most flavonoids compared to those who ate the least.
Eating berries more than five times a week apparently had the strongest benefit — but only for men. It is still unclear why flavonoids have no measurable impact on preventing Parkinson’s disease for women.
“For total flavonoids, the beneficial result was only in men,” said lead author of the study, Dr. Xiang Gao, a research scientist at Harvard School of Public Health. “But, berries are protective in both men and women.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio