Rapeseed oil, commonly used as a cooking medium in India can hasten memory impairments associated with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), a study has found.
Researchers at the Temple University administered canola oil (also known as rapeseed oil) to mouse and studied its effects on a variety of neurological aspects including Alzheimer’s Disease pathogenesis (process by which a disease happens). “In conclusion, our investigation demonstrates for the first time to the best of our knowledge a negative effect of the chronic consumption of canola oil on memory, synaptic integrity and Aβ 42/40 ratios in a mouse model of AD (Alzheimer’s Disease). The translational value of our findings lies in the observation that this type of oil supplementation can influence some of the most important features of the AD pathological phenotype,” they concluded in the study that was published in Scientific Reports. In short they found that the neurological incidents leading to AD are hastened by rapeseed oil.
Rapeseed or canola oil is the third largest vegetable oil by volume after palm and soybean oil worldwide. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other cognitive abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. An estimated 4.1 million people are supposed to be living in India with dementia. According to a paper published in Neurology India which was trying to analyse the population incidence rates of AD, “Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other forms of dementia are a growing public health problem among the elderly in developing countries, whose aging population is increasing rapidly. It is estimated that by the year 2020, approximately 70% of the world’s population aged 60 and above will be living in developing countries, with 14.2% in India.” For India the problem is compounded by the fact that AD which is more common in older people can often go undiagnosed because of a variety of reasons including lack of awareness and lack of qualified health professionals. It is mostly disregarded as age related forgetfulness and the patient just keeps deteriorating.
The Temple University researchers concluded: “Overall our findings do not provide support to some of the current ideas suggesting healthy benefits deriving from the regular consumption of canola oil. Although we recognize that more studies are needed to investigate the biological effects of this oil, our data would not justify the increasing tendency of replacing olive oil with canola oil as part of a good and healthy dietary alternative in non-Mediterranean countries.”
