Dietary approach to the prevention of Alzheimer's Disease

Dementia is a symptom, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the cause of the symptom having significant memory problems as well as other cognitive difficulties. Globally, there are more than 36 million people with dementia today and 115 million are predicted by 2050, while in Australia there are more than 321,000 Australians living with dementia and expected to soar to almost 900,000 by 2050. The hallmark pathologic features of AD including abnormal deposition of am`eurofibrillary tangles within the cells. Currently, there is no treatment and cure for AD, but the available FDA approved medicines can help to delay the condition's development. Due to severity inside effect and narrow therapeutic effect, researchers suggested herbs or herbal formulations offering certain complementary cognitive benefits to the approved drugs.The recent suggested dietary recommendation for AD including the minimize intake of saturated fats and trans fats, and increase the intake of Vegetables, legumes (beans, peas, and lentils), fruits, and whole grains. Olive (Olea europaea) fruit, leaves and extra virgin oil serve as good sources of biophenols and unsaturated fatty acids. The biophenols in olive offering versatile pharmacological activities mainly attributed to their antioxidant and free radical-scavenging activity. We investigated the effect of these biophenols on the activity of key enzymes implicated in these disorders; acetylcholine esterase, butyrylcholinesterase, tyrosinase and histone deacetylase enzymes. Inhibition of acetylcholinesterase increases acetyl choline levels, an important neurotransmitter for learning and memory, and is one of the key mechanisms of treating AD. While, tyrosinase can contribute to dopamine neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration associated with PD and the tyrosine phosphorylation of tau protein in AD. Inhibition of histone deacetylases normalise the homeostasis of histone acetylation, and DNA methylation has