Flavonoids are substances naturally present in plants that are considered powerful antioxidants, and have been shown to have health benefits, such as helping to improve blood pressure, reduce the risk of cognitive decline, or protect cerebral vascular function. Now a new study shows that Parkinson’s patients who include three or more weekly servings of flavonoid-rich foods, such as apples, berries, tea or orange juice, in their diet may be less likely to die.
This work has been published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, and its authors analyzed different types of flavonoids and found that a higher intake of flavan-3-ols and anthocyanins, both before being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and afterwards, it was associated with a lower risk of dying during the study period.
“Our results are exciting because they suggest that people with Parkinson’s in our study who did something as simple as eating three or more servings per week of common foods like red berries, apples and orange juice may have improved their chances of living.” more time”, has declared the author of the study Xiang Gao, of the Pennsylvania State University in University Park (United States).
“Something as simple as including three or more servings per week of common foods like red berries, apples and orange juice may have improved the chances of living longer”
The research involved 1,251 Parkinson’s patients with an average age of about 72 years who answered a questionnaire indicating how often they ate certain foods – including tea, apples, berries, oranges and orange juice – to determine which was their intake of flavonoids before and after diagnosis of the disease, for an average of 33 years.
Association between flavonoid intake and survival rate
The researchers calculated their intake of different types of flavonoids by multiplying the content of these compounds in each food by their frequency. People in the group that represented the highest 25% of flavonoid consumers ate an average of about 673 milligrams (mg) of these foods daily, while the group of people in the lowest 25% of flavonoid consumers they ate about 134 mg a day.
At the end of the study period, 944 participants (75%) had died. Of these, 513 died of Parkinson’s, 112 due to cardiovascular diseases and 69 due to different types of cancer. After adjusting for other factors that could influence the results, such as age and total calories ingested, it was found that the group with the highest consumption of
flavonoids had a 70% better chance of survival than individuals in the lowest group. Throughout the study, after diagnosis, 120 of 163 men in the highest user group died, compared to 129 of 163 men in the lowest group.
In the case of women, 96 of the 150 in the upper group died, compared to 96 of the 149 in the lower group. However, the researchers found that, after diagnosis of the disease, a higher consumption of flavonoids was associated with better survival rates in both men and women.
The group with the highest flavonoid consumers had a 70% better chance of surviving than the individuals in the lowest group.
The study has not found the cause that explains why people with Parkinson’s who follow a diet rich in flavonoids will be favored by a better survival rate, but only an association between both factors, as its authors have warned, which states that “More research is needed to understand why people with Parkinson’s who have diets higher in flavonoids may have better survival rates.”
“However,” Gao concludes, “if someone with Parkinson’s is able to add a few servings of berries, apples, oranges, and tea to their weekly diet, our results suggest that it may be an easy, low-risk way to possibly improve their outcome.” . And while we don’t encourage people who don’t currently drink alcohol to start, people who do drink might consider switching to red wine.”
.
