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   The Times of Israel   
      
   ISRAEL & THE REGION   
   Good press   
      
   Olive oil helps prevent Alzheimer’s, study shows   
      
   New research finds that in addition to protecting against memory loss, staple   
   of Mediterranean diet boosts learning ability   
      
   By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF   
   June 30, 2017, 3:53 am 7   
     Share via Whatsapp Olives are crushed to make olive oil in the West Bank   
   vilage of Beit Ola near Hebron, on October 24, 2010. (Najeh Hashlamoun/Flash90)   
   Olives are crushed to make olive oil in the West Bank vilage of Beit Ola near   
   Hebron, on October 24, 2010. (Najeh Hashlamoun/Flash90)   
   Researchers at Philadelphia’s Temple University have found that extra-virgin   
   olive oil helps improve one’s learning capacity and protects against memory   
   loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease.   
      
   Domenico Pratico, a professor at Temple’s medical school, said that the new   
   research contributed to a number of studies showing the benefits of the   
   olive-oil infused Mediterranean diet, which is considered to have multiple   
   health benefits.   
      
      
   The study will be particularly welcome in Israel and the Palestinian   
   territories, where olive oil is a staple, used extensively in cooking and   
   dressings, and poured liberally over plates of hummus.   
      
   In the course of their research, scientists at the university’s Lewis Katz   
   School of Medicine discovered olive oil’s role in helping to prevent the   
   formation of amyloid-beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain,   
   two of the most prominent    
   signs marking Alzheimers.   
      
   “The thinking is that extra-virgin olive oil is better than fruits and   
   vegetables alone, and as a monounsaturated vegetable fat it is healthier than   
   saturated animal fats,” he said.   
      
      
       
   Pratico explained that the study — which was conducted using two groups of   
   six-month-old mice, one of which was given olive oil — highlighted the   
   oil’s role in the autophagy process, which helps prevent nerve cell   
   dysfunction.   
      
   Illustrative photo of extra-virgin olive oil. (CC BY-SA 2.0, Consell Comarcal   
   del Baix Empordà, Wikimedia Commons)   
   Illustrative photo of extra-virgin olive oil. (CC BY-SA 2.0, Consell Comarcal   
   del Baix Empordà, Wikimedia Commons)   
      
   “Thanks to the autophagy activation, memory and synaptic integrity were   
   preserved, and the pathological effects in animals otherwise destined to   
   develop Alzheimer’s disease were significantly reduced,” he said.   
      
   “This is a very important discovery, since we suspect that a reduction in   
   autophagy marks the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease,” he added.   
      
   Pratico also said that the research team hopes to study the effects of giving   
   olive-oil to year-old mice in its next project, an age at which a number of   
   Alzheimer’s symptoms have begun to develop.   
      
   “Usually when a patient sees a doctor for suspected symptoms of dementia,   
   the disease is already present, he said. “We want to know whether olive oil   
   added at a later time point in the diet can stop or reverse the disease.”   
      
   According to the Alzheimer’s Association, of the estimated 5.5 million   
   Americans living with Alzheimer’s dementia in 2017, 5.3 million are age 65   
   and older and the remaining 200,000 have younger-onset Alzheimer’s. One in   
   10 people age 65 and older,    
   10 percent, has Alzheimer’s dementia.   
      
   Shoshanna Solomon contributed to this report.   
      
   http://www.timesofisrael.com/olive-oil-helps-prevent-alzheimers-study-shows/   
      
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