喝牛奶可预防老年痴呆症.doc

Can Drinking Milk Prevent Alzheimers Disease? Drink your milk, and youll grow up strong. At least thats what your mom always said. But decades later, drinking your milk may help?keep your brain young, according to new research published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. For the study, researchers from the University of Kansas Medical Center examined the dietary intake of 60 older adults over the course of a week. The team then performed brain scans on the participants to measure the levels of a naturally occurring antioxidant, called glutathione, floating through their noggins. It turned out, the subjects who had reported drinking the most milk had higher levels of glutathione -- and possibly a?lower risk of Alzheimers disease. A long-standing theory of aging called the free-radical theory explains that oxidative stress plays a key role in aging, aging-associated neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers disease, says lead study author In-Young Choi, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Glutathione is a major antioxidant in our brains and is known to fight against oxidative stress and protect our nerve cells. Therefore, increasing glutathione concentrations could be an important strategy to promote brain health. Throughout our lives, the liver produces glutathione from a combination of amino acids. That glutathione is integral to scavenging free radicals to prevent their harmful effects throughout the body. In a perfect world, our body should be able to recycle its own glutathione for use, says registered dietitian Jaime Mass. However, pollution, lack of exercise, junk food and mental stress can all cause your bodys levels of circulating glutathione to drop. Glutathione is a perfect example of how modern-day living could be playing a role in increased disease states and illness, she says. Unfortunately, the brain is particularly vulnerable to oxidative stress. So when glutathione levels get too low, so too