A groundbreaking study has revealed that consuming a diverse range of foods rich in flavonoids, such as tea, berries, dark chocolate, and apples, can lower the risk of developing serious health conditions and potentially lead to a longer lifespan. The research, conducted by a team of scientists from Queen’s University Belfast, Edith Cowan University Perth, and the Medical University of Vienna, tracked over 120,000 participants aged 40-70 years old for more than a decade.

Flavonoids are powerful compounds found in plant-based foods like tea, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, apples, grapes, and even red wine and dark chocolate. The study’s findings show that increasing the diversity of flavonoids within your diet can help prevent conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and neurological diseases.

The research team led by Dr. Benjamin Parmenter, a Research Fellow at ECU, discovered that consuming around 500 mg of flavonoids per day was associated with a 16% lower risk of all-cause mortality, as well as a 10% lower risk of CVD, type 2 diabetes, and respiratory disease. That’s roughly the amount found in two cups of tea.

However, the study revealed that those who consumed the widest diversity of flavonoids had an even lower risk of these diseases, even when consuming the same total amount. For example, instead of just drinking tea, it’s better to eat a range of flavonoid-rich foods to make up your intake, as different flavonoids come from different foods.

The study’s co-lead author, Professor Aedín Cassidy from Queen’s University Belfast, emphasized that higher intakes of dietary flavonoids can reduce the risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and neurological conditions like Parkinson’s. The researchers also noted that different flavonoids work in different ways, some improving blood pressure, others helping with cholesterol levels and decreasing inflammation.

The findings are significant as they suggest that consuming a higher quantity and wider diversity of flavonoids has the potential to lead to a greater reduction in ill health than just relying on a single source. The study’s results also align with popular claims that eating colourful foods is invaluable for maintaining good health.

As the first-ever dietary guidelines for flavonoids recommend increasing consumption to maintain health, this study provides inaugural evidence that we may also need to advise increasing diversity of intake of these compounds for optimal benefits. The results provide a clear public health message, suggesting that simple and achievable dietary swaps, such as drinking more tea and eating more berries and apples for example, can help increase the variety and intake of flavonoid-rich foods, and potentially improve health in the long-term.

Epileptic seizures are more common in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) than previously known, according to a recent study. This discovery sheds new light on the symptoms of this memory disorder and emphasizes the importance of considering epileptic seizures in treatment and monitoring patients.

The research project, led by Neurocenter Finland, analyzed data from 12,490 medical records at the University Hospitals of Kuopio and Oulu between 2010-2021. The study identified 245 patients with FTD and found that epilepsy was significantly more common among them than those with Alzheimer’s disease or healthy controls.

“Our results show that epilepsy is considerably more common among those with FTD than those with Alzheimer’s disease or in healthy controls,” says Doctoral Researcher Annemari Kilpeläinen, the first author of the research article and a medical specialist in neurology. “It is noteworthy that epilepsy occurred in some patients with FTD already ten years before their dementia diagnosis, and it was more common in all the examined stages of the disease than previous international studies have reported.”

The prevalence of epilepsy increased over time in patients with FTD, reaching approximately 11% five years after the diagnosis. In addition to diagnosing epilepsy, medications used for epilepsy were more common among patients with FTD, further strengthening the reliability of the results.

Diagnosing epilepsy in patients with FTD can be challenging due to the resemblance between the symptoms of the disease and epileptic seizures. However, untreated epilepsy can significantly worsen patients’ condition. Identifying epilepsy is essential because its treatment can improve patients’ functional capacity and quality of life.

“Knowledge about the association between epilepsy and FTD raises new research questions: do these diseases share some pathophysiological mechanisms and could some FTD symptoms be caused by alterations in the specific electrical systems of the brain?” asks Associate Professor Eino Solje, the principal investigator of the project.

The recently published study is part of an extensive project that combines real-life patient data with different kinds of unique registers. The project involves a strong cooperation between the University of Oulu and the University of Eastern Finland as well as different fields of science, including between researchers in medicine and law.

Breaking New Ground: Immune System Discovery Offers Potential Solution to Alzheimer’s

A groundbreaking study has shed new light on the relationship between the immune system and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered that an immune molecule called STING plays a crucial role in driving the formation of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, hallmarks of Alzheimer’s.

The study found that blocking STING activity in lab mice protected them from mental decline, suggesting a promising new target for developing treatments. This breakthrough has far-reaching implications for understanding and treating not only Alzheimer’s but also other neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and dementia.

“The findings demonstrate that the DNA damage that naturally accumulates during aging triggers STING-mediated brain inflammation and neuronal damage in Alzheimer’s disease,” said researcher John Lukens, PhD. “These results help to explain why aging is associated with increased Alzheimer’s risk and uncover a novel pathway to target in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.”

The study, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, involved a team of researchers from UVA’s Department of Neuroscience and Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG Center). They found that removing STING dampened microglial activation around amyloid plaques, protected nearby neurons from damage, and improved memory function in Alzheimer’s model mice.

The discovery of STING as a key player in the development of neurodegenerative diseases opens new doors for research into potential treatments. While much more work is needed to translate these findings into effective therapies, this breakthrough has sparked hope among researchers and patients alike.

“Our hope is that this work moves us close to finding safer and more effective ways to protect the aging brain,” said Lukens. “Shedding light on how STING contributes to that damage may help us target similar molecules and ultimately develop effective disease-modifying treatments.”