Researchers from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM) in Philadelphia, PA were reported to discover that extra virgin olive oil could aid in preventing Alzheimer’s disease. Aside from that, olive oil was said to boost memory as well.

According to News Medical, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed that Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia wherein there is no cure. However, the researchers found out that the most common component of the Mediterranean diet, extra virgin olive oil boosts the cognitive performance and could prevent Alzheimer’s in genetically modified mice.

With that said, the study involved mice models that have the three components present in Alzheimer’s disease. The components were identified to be memory impairment, amyloid plaque buildup and neurofibrillary tangles. The mice were separated into two groups, wherein the first were fed a regular chow diet consisted of extra virgin olive oil while the second group has no extra virgin olive oil added to their chow diet.

Moreover, the Alzheimer’s disease mice models were said to have no changes in physical appearance after several months after the experiment. Yet, the mice fed with extra virgin olive oil were mentioned to perform better when they reached the age of 9 months and 12 months old. “We want to know whether olive oil added at a later time point in the diet can stop or reverse the disease," as the study noted per Medical News Today.

"Thanks to the autophagy activation, memory and synaptic integrity were preserved, and the pathological effects in animals otherwise destined to develop Alzheimer's disease were significantly reduced,” senior investigator and professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Microbiology and the Center for Translational Medicine at LKSOM, Domenico Pratico said in a statement.

Nonetheless, Pratico stated that extra olive oil was thought of better than vegetables and fruits long before and was mentioned to be healthier than saturated animal fats. Pratico then said that the reduction in the in autophagy marks the beginning of Alzheimer’s. The study was published in the journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.