As if we needed yet another reason to drink red wine, science has once again come up trumps. Good job, research guys.
Red wine is not normally something we think of when it comes to memory aids, but scientists at Texas A&M have proven that it will actually help prevent age-related memory decline.
Ashok K Shetty, one of the lead authors of the study, was looking at the benefits of resveratrol, which can be found in the skin of red grapes, some berries and peanuts, and the research showed that it was not only good for memory, but also helped blood flow and brain growth, while it has already been proven to prevent heart disease and keep other effects of ageing at bay.
The results of the study were more than conclusive, as there were two groups of rats, one that were given resveratrol and one control group that weren't. The control group's "spatial learning ability was largely maintained, but ability to make new spatial memories significantly declined between 22 and 25 months". That's science talk for the fact that there was some decline in the memory of the rats who didn't get the antioxidant, while for those that did, "both spatial learning and memory improved".
The rats actually experienced double the amount of neurogenesis and reduced inflammation of the hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls mood, learning and memory. In particular, they noted that resveratrol in late middle age was particularly helpful when it came to avoiding memory loss and other ill-effects of ageing on the brain.
We can only presume that the earlier you start the better the effects (definitely not science, that part) so we're off to open a bottle of wine. It could help us work better, maybe. Where's the study that says it won't poindexter?! Yeah, that's what we thought.
Via The Independent
