It has been found in a new study that resveratrol, a naturally occurring compound, could help treat Alzheimer’s disease. This compound is found in red wine, red grapes and dark chocolate. Researchers at Georgetown University conducted the study.

Researchers found that it has an effect on a biomarker for Alzheimer’s; however, they also said that more studies should be conducted before any recommendation of resveratrol for people suffering from disease that has no cure so far.

They reported in their study that resveratrol assisted in stabilizing amyloid-beta40 levels in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of participants who took the compound as compared to the control group that did not take the compound.

Amyloid-beta levels fall in the cerebrospinal fluid in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s, while deposits of it rise in the brain and here, it becomes insoluble. The insoluble plaques are a trait of the disease that in due course causes the death of nerve cells in the brain.

Dr. R. Scott Turner, director of the Memory Disorders Program at Georgetown University Medical Center, said someway resveratrol is having an effect on cerebrospinal amyloid levels and reason behind that is not completely understood; however, it could be associated with sirtuins.

According to Dr. Marilyn Petro, Associate Professor of Psychology at Nebraska Wesleyan University who had conducted a study on the effect of resveratrol, “We have observed that resveratrol (an anti-inflammatory plant compound) protected the middle-aged mouse brain from ethanol-induced damage as measured by a spatial learning and memory task”.