Role of Functional Foods in the Amelioration of Alzheimer's and Related Diseases

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurological illness that causes a person's memory to deteriorate over time, as well as facing difficulties speaking and performing daily tasks. Alzheimer's disease affects around 42 million people worldwide, and this number is expected to quadruple by 2030. A nutraceutical is a bioactive component of human nutrition that is ready to be employed for disease prevention or therapy. The market for nutraceuticals has risen in the recent decade as public awareness of these compounds has grown, as has their utility in the prevention and treatment of a variety of ailments. Antioxidant-rich diets have been found to protect humans from degenerative diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Plant foods, such as vegetables, fruits, grains, spices, and legumes, have been shown to play important roles in the prevention and treatment of a wide range of chronic diseases by altering many metabolic pathways. Bioactive agents are extra from the functional food and are nutritional elements found naturally in plants that have the potential to have a biological effect. Now, scientists and nutritionists say that the link between nutrition and disease is a relatively recent discovery. The importance of functional foods in the treatment of chronic and neurodegenerative disorders, with a focus on AD, will be highlighted in this chapter.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, Bioactive compounds, Functional food, Nutraceutical, Neurodegenerative disease.