The fruit which contains the most delicious Vitamin C wallop is probably the blueberry. With just one serving of blueberries, you will supply your body with 25% of the daily requirements, as well as additional manganese significant for the health of your bones, and fiber important for the health of your heart.
Since it is super rich in antioxidants, this fruit can also decrease the risk of cancer, heart disease, and even Alzheimer’s disease, according to latest researches.
This fruit’s antioxidants can also improve the memory and cognitive function to some older people, and avoid occurrence of neurocognitive decline.
The U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council explains the origin of the blueberry’s deep color. It comes from the flavonoid called anthocyanins which functions as an antioxidant here.
Antioxidants avoid cellular level damage within the plants related to age. Scientists are divided over the thinking that antioxidants help in the aging delay.
Regardless of whether one fruit or vegetable can prevent some specific disease, eating them on a regular basis is unquestionably good for your overall health.
Krikorian and his colleagues are among the scientist who try to discover if these food types can aid in the treatment of some disease, and they found out that blueberries are beneficial for dementia prevention.
Silver Tide
Alzheimer’s disease is a dementia type which causes problems with behavior, memory, and thinking. It develops in the brain as a neurodegenerative disorder, with symptoms gradually increasing over time.
A person with this disease will eventually come to the point of having difficulties performing daily tasks, and finally experiencing heath rate and breathing problems as a result of disrupted autonomic nervous system. If patients with Alzheimer’s live long enough, their death will be caused by stopped breathing.
There are around 5.3 million people in US who suffer from this disorder, and as the Alzheimer’s Association predicts, by 2025 this number will increase to 7 million.
How can scientists slow down this progression?
Krikorian and his colleagues started two new researches, based on previous which showed that blueberries are boosters of the cognitive performance.
The first study was conducted on 47 adults older than 67 years with mild cognitive impairment symptoms which is in fact an Alzheimer’s risk factor.
All patients underwent testing and brain scanning before being divided into two groups. Then, once a day in a period of 16 weeks, the first group was given to eat a placebo powder, while the other group was given a freeze-dried blueberry powder, which is equal to one cup of blueberries.
What Krikorian and colleagues noticed by comparing the two groups is that the group who consumed blueberry powder showed improved memory and brain function.
Their second research was conducted on 94 adults between 62 and 80 years, all experiencing certain problems with their memory. The researches considered these participants with better cognitive function than the previous group, although this wasn’t verified.
The participants in this group were divided in four groups, each of them consuming fish oil, blueberry powder, placebo, or fish oil and powder.
The researchers expected the same results as the previous study, but that didn’t quite happen. Participants who consumed fish oil or blueberry powder separately, showed somewhat improved cognition but their memory was scarcely improved, way less than the participants in the previous research, as well as their scans.
According to the team of researchers, this weakened result was due to the less severe impairments on participants’ cognition.
The two studies showed that blueberries are way more beneficial for people with symptoms of mental impairment, as oppose to those with minor or no memory problems.
Krikorian notes that anthocyanins, the ingredient which gives plants their color, can provide brain benefits to blueberries, since scientists proved this ingredient improves cognition.
Source: medicaldaily.com
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