(Radio Iowa) — Researchers at Iowa State University are studying why an antioxidant that protects the brain is also associated with deterioration in areas of the brain that are susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease. Auriel Willette, an I-S-U professor of food science and human nutrition, says the focus was on what’s called SOD-1, an antioxidant produced in the brain. Willette says, “On the one hand, it had or was related to some protective effects but on the other hand, it seemed to be in a clash of wills with this toxic protein called tau, which is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.”

Willette says the study involved nearly 300 people participating in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, while the I-S-U research zeroed in on the impact of SOD-1 on the brain in combination with the toxic protein. “As levels of tau were higher, levels of this antioxidant were also higher,” Willette says. “Eventually, if you had high enough tau levels, the antioxidant didn’t seem to do anything and so, progressively, its usefulness just diminished and then disappeared.”

While the protective SOD-1 is produced naturally in our brains, he says it’s possible to supplement what we already have through certain foods. “You can look at antioxidant levels of SOD-1 in blueberries, they’re particularly high, strawberries as well, non-oily fish, olive oil, things of that nature,” he says. I-S-U researchers say more study is needed to determine if increasing the production of the antioxidant through diet or medication might delay the progression of Alzheimer’s.