Health Benefits Of Dates

Improve Cognitive Function

Dates may help improve cognitive function, for their anti-inflammatory properties may help defend the brain from Alzheimer’s disease. In 2016, the science journal Neural Regeneration Research described an experiment in which researchers fed dates to some mice for fifteen months. They found the mice that had been fed dates showed less oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain. They were also less likely to develop the plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

A year earlier, the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine described a study in which researchers worked with two groups of mice over fourteen months. They fed one group a diet that included dates, while the other group got the standard mouse feed. The scientists had the mice run a series of mazes and perform a variety of tests at both the beginning and the end of the study. They found the mice given the conventional diet were more anxious, had poorer memories, and had more trouble learning than the mice that had received dates.

While other studies involving animals have gotten similar promising results, researchers will need to perform similar tests on human volunteers to prove dates’ efficacy in protecting the brain from Alzheimer’s disease and, possibly, other degenerative diseases of the nervous system.

Learn more about how dates can benefit health now.