Apple juice may delay Alzheimer's disease

LOWELL, Mass., Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Drinking apple juice helped mice perform better in maze trials and prevented the decline in performance otherwise seen in aging, U.S. researchers said.

The research team of Thomas B. Shea of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, carried out a number of laboratory studies demonstrating that drinking apple juice helped mice perform better than normal in maze trials and prevented the decline in performance that was otherwise observed as the mice aged.

The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, demonstrated that mice receiving the human equivalent of two glasses of apple juice per day for one month produced less of a small protein fragment called beta-amyloid that is responsible for forming the "senile plaques" commonly found in brains of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease.