(Phytochemicals in) Foods to Prevent and Treat diseases - Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is defined as a health condition associated to the depletion of dopamine in the corpus striatum as a result of neuron loss in the substantianigra. The disease most often occurs in the middle age and beyond.

Types of food to prevent and treat Parkinson's disease
1. Fish
In the review the use of antioxidants and other supplements for the prevention and treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD), showed that antioxidants and supplements appear to have a limited role in the prevention or treatment of PD. Of those reviewed here, CoQ10 appears to provide some minor treatment benefits(1).

2. Green tea

In the study of Differential effects of black versus green tea on risk of Parkinson's disease in the Singapore Chinese Health Study, found that total caffeine intake was inversely related to Parkinson's disease risk (p for trend = 0.002); the relative risk for the highest versus lowest quartile was 0.55 (95% confidence interval: 0.35, 0.88). Black tea, a caffeine-containing beverage, showed an inverse association with Parkinson's disease risk that was not confounded by total caffeine intake or tobacco smoking (p for trend = 0.0006; adjusted relative risk for the highest vs. lowest tertile of intake = 0.29, 95% confidence interval: 0.13, 0.67). Green tea drinking was unrelated to Parkinson's disease risk. Diet had no strong influence on risk. Ingredients of black tea other than caffeine appear to be responsible for the beverage's inverse association with Parkinson's disease(2).

3. Skin and seed of grapes
In the study to investigate the neuroprotective effects of resveratrol on 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced Parkinson's disease in rats. 6-OHDA-induced Parkinson's disease rat model involves chronic inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and oxidative stress, and the loss of the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra is the predominant lesion, found that resveratrol treatment also significantly decreased the levels of COX-2 and TNF-alpha mRNA in the substantia nigra as detected by real-time RT-PCR. COX-2 protein expression in the substantia nigra was also decreased as evidenced by Western blotting. These results demonstrate that resveratrol exerts a neuroprotective effect on 6-OHDA-induced Parkinson's disease rat model, and this protection is related to the reduced inflammatory reaction(3)

4. Soy
In the study of the protective effect of the bioflavonoid quercetin on behaviors, antioxidases, and neurotransmitters in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1, 2, 3, 6-tetrahydropyridine-(MPTP-) induced Parkinson's disease (PD, show that quercetin treatment markedly improves the motor balance and coordination of MPTP-treated mice. Significant increases were observed in the activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and Na(+), K(+)-ATPase, AchE, the content of dopamine (DA) in the quercetin plus MPTP groups compared to those in the MPTP group. Significant reduction the 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE) immunoreactivity in striatum of brains was observed in the quercetin plus MPTP groups in comparison to the MPTP group. Taken together, we propose that quercetin has shown antiparkinsonian properties in our studies. More work is needed to explore detailed mechanisms of action(4)

5. Etc.
 
Sources
(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16622156
(2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18156141
(3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18940189
(4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22454690