Antioxidants contained in fruit juices and wines are pointing to prevention for people at risk of suffering the debilitating Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers gathered in Washington at the first Alzheimer's Association International Conference on the Prevention of Dementia, presenting the results of exhaustive studies illuminating several lifestyle trends that seemed to prevent, or at least slow, the development of Alzheimer's.
Expectations are that the number of Alzheimer's or dementia cases is expected to rise among the general population 70 percent by 2020.
"We've got to do something about this disease or it's going to bankrupt the system," he says.
In one study of 1,800 elderly Japanese-Americans, those who drank at least three glasses of fruit or vegetable juice a week were 75 percent less likely to develop dementia than those who drank less than one glass of juice a week.
Another study following 500 middle-aged Wisconsin residents, all of whom had Alzheimer's in their family, found that moderate drinkers performed better on various cognitive tests than non-drinkers.
Drinking fruit juice and getting regular exercise are keys to fending off the disease according to new data, with lifestyle choices playing a major part.
Researchers also say they have discovered a change in the memory area of the brain which could determine who will get Alzheimer's nine years before symptoms appear.
One group scanned the brains of middle-aged and older people while they were still healthy, discovering that lower energy use in the hippocampus part of the brain correctly signalled who would get Alzheimer's.
"We found the earliest predictor," said lead researcher, Lisa Mosconi from New York University School of Medicine.
"The hippocampus seems to be the very first region to be affected."