'Superfruit' found in most supermarkets hailed as helping to slash dementia risk

Dementia is the leading cause of deaths in England and there are over 944,000 people diagnosed with the disease in the UK currently according to the NHS.

It's predicted to exceed 1 million by 2030 and potentially double by 2040, and while it's most commonly seen in elderly people, there are over 40,000 people under 65 with dementia in the UK. But researchers at the University of Kent believe there is one 'superfruit' that could help.

They believe cherries, turned into a powder rather than as a juice, could help improve patients symptoms with a mild to moderate diagnosis. This is due to the powders ability to retain antioxidants called anthocyanins and quercetin, both known for their anti-inflammatory properties.

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Lead researcher Dr Marina Ezcurra said: "The powder was found to protect against harmful effects linked to age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease in laboratory models, underlining its potential as a functional food ingredient," according to The Sun.

The researchers used damaged or discoloured cherries that were heading for the bin, and turned them into a natural powder and compared it to cherry juice, pulp and pomace.

"Notably, greater biological activity was observed in developing the pulp powder than juice alone, suggesting that consuming the anthocyanin-rich cherry powder may bring more health benefits than extracts or supplements. We have developed an innovative way to turn waste cherries into a valuable, health-boosting food ingredient," Dr Ezcurra said.

The powdered form was found to protect against amyloid-β toxicity which is the key factor that disrupts normal brain function, such as triggering memory loss, personality changes and progressive degeneration of cells.

Dr Ezcurra added: "Working with local growers has been key to this success. Together we are showing that agricultural by-products don’t need to go to waste – they can become part of the solution to producing sustainable and accessible healthy foods. Our newly discovered innovation is a scientific approach that could be adopted at scale in Kent and other agricultural regions, and we look forward to carrying out further research to help drive this forward."

It's also been noted that broken and disturbed sleep could leave you vulnerable to developing dementia, groundbreaking research has revealed. Experts from the University of Toronto discovered disrupted sleep can inflict harm on the brain's blood vessels after studying more than 600 elderly participants.

The volunteers wore smartwatch-style devices to monitor their sleep patterns and underwent genetic testing to assess pericyte levels in their brains.

"We found that individuals who had more fragmented sleep, such as sleeping restlessly and waking up a lot at night, had a change in their balance of pericytes - a brain blood vessel cell that plays an important role in regulating brain blood flow and the entry and exit of substances between the blood and the brain," Andrew Lim, principal investigator of the study, said, reports the Express.

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