Carrots, The Potent functional Food Which Protects the Brain Against Onset of Neuro-degenerative Disorders, Scientists Reveal

Carrots may have a profound and positive effect in reducing risk, progression, and treatment of the neurodegenerative disorder, some scientists suggested.

Neurodegeneration is the progressive loss of neurons including the death of neurons, characterized by structure loss-induced reduction of brain function.

The exact causes of neurodegenerative disorders are unknown. Researchers also do not why people with the same health conditions, some are susceptible to certain neurodegenerative disorders such as
Huntington's disease. ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), or Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's disease or other forms of dementia, while others do not.

However, some researchers suggested that genetic mutation inherited from parents, certain illness and traumatic injury to the brain are some of the major causes of the onset of the disease.

According to Dr. Chaudhuri K, in the study of unhealthy diet and lifestyle on risk of neurodegenerative disorders, the onset of some neurodegenerative disorder was attributed to the unwholesome diet that disturbed mental health in initiating etiopathogenesis of senile dementia.

Further differentiation showed that psychological syndromes such as disturbed sleep, anxiety, tension, depression, difficulty in concentration, and memory, and the tendency to indulge in defective dietary habits, Kapha vitiating diets, and lifestyle are some predominant risk factors associated to the development of the disease.

Carrot, a root vegetable with an orange color is a subspecies of Daucus carota, belonging to the family Apiaceae, native to Asian and Europe.

In the evaluate the neurodegenerative disorder such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases affecting the central nervous system with debilitating effect to the patient, researchers at the University Technology of Mauritius launched a study to test the efficacy of flavonoids, found in many vegetables including carrot.

Flavonoids are phytochemicals containing numbers of the member, including curcumin, lycopene, ginsenoside, vitexin, and baicalin with a proven record of anti-cancer and antioxidant and immunomodulation properties in numbers of studies.

At the results of the analysis, researchers showed that the application of flavonoid to the brain ischemia patient also exerts potential neuroprotective effects by increasing neuronal viability, tissue perfusion, and cerebral blood flow and reducing ischemic-related apoptosis.



Moreover, patients treated with flavonoids also demonstrated a significantly anti-amyloidogenic effect and reduced the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain that has a strong implication in patients with Pakistan's disease.


After taking into account other co and confounders, researchers concluded that flavonoids found in numbers vegetables and fruits, including carrot, may be served as a potential therapeutic agent in brain disorders.

Further differentiation of the oxidative stress which causes neurodegenerative disorder, including oxidative damage to neuron in induction of mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis, scientists at the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region conducted a experiment to test the effect of lycopene, a polyunsaturated hydrocarbon with the highest antioxidant capacity compared to the other carotenoids against the expression of the diseases.

In rat model randomly divided into 5 groups: the sham group, the spinal cord injury (SCI) group and 3 SCI groups pre-treated with lycopene (5, 10, or 20mg/kg) researchers found that

* Spinal cord injury (SCI) group without treatment group displays a significant increase of malondialdehyde (MDA) content and a decrease of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) levels, compared to other groups.

Malondialdehyde (MDA) the final form of polyunsaturated fatty acids peroxidation is considered as a natural marker for oxidative stress.


* Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) are natural antioxidants that produced the host body tissue with an aim to maintain the balance of ratio of reactive oxygen species and antioxidants in the body.

The expression of lower levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) is a strong indication of overabundant free radicals, compared to levels of antioxidant in the body.

* Group treated with lycopene regardless to concentration exerted an overwhelming effect in blocking the change of mRNA of the mitochondrial membrane caused by spinal cord injury (SCI), including cytochrome b and mitochondrial transcription factor A (Tfam), with functions in the induction of mitochondrial dysfunction.

Cytochrome b, a protein in the mitochondria of eukaryotic cells functioned as a part of the electron transport chain which was oxidated in this case.

Mitochondrial transcription factor A (mtTFA or Tfam), a protein with functions as a key regulator of mammalian mitochondrial (mt) DNA transcription and replication which was altered caused by the presence of MDA.

Further analysis also found that the application of lycopene also reduces the risk of neuron cell apoptosis through decreased levels of pro-inflammatory and increased levels of anti-inflammatory expression in the tested rats.

These results suggested that lycopene found in vegetable including carrot significantly ameliorated oxidative damage, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cell apoptosis via some parameters indicated above.

Dr. Hu W, the lead authors said in the classification of doses application said, " lycopene significantly ameliorated the hind limb motor disturbances in the SCI+lyco10 group and the SCI+lyco20 group compared with the SCI group".

Taken together, carrot with a high amount of bioactive flavonoids, particularly lycopene may be considered a functional food in reducing the risk and treatment of various forms of the neurodegenerative disorder, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.


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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blog, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Neuroprotective effects of lycopene in spinal cord injury in rats via antioxidative and anti-apoptotic pathway by Hu W1, Wang H2, Liu Z2, Liu Y2, Wang R2, Luo X2, Huang Y3(PubMed)
(2) Flavonoids and its neuroprotective effects on brain ischemia and neurodegenerative diseases by Putteeraj M1, Lim WL2, Teoh SL3, Yahaya MF(PubMed)
(3) Evaluation of diet and life style in etiopathogenesis of senile dementia: A survey study by Chaudhuri K1, Samarakoon SM, Chandola HM, Kumar R, Ravishankar B.(PuibMed)