New research
findings suggest adding blueberries and strawberries to the diet may help slow
the decline in learning and motor skills that often occurs with aging. Click
the image for more information about it. |
Food for Thought: Berries Boost Brain Power
By Rosalie Marion
Bliss August 23, 2006
As 77 million baby boomers face retirement, many are reaching for
foods high in antioxidants, hoping to slow the diminished function that often
occurs with aging. New findings reported by Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-funded scientists suggest they may be
on the right track.
Laboratory animals that were fed berry extractsand then treated
to accelerate the aging processwere protected from damage to brain
function, the researchers report. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agricultures chief
scientific research agency.
Psychologist
Barbara
Shukitt-Hale, neuroscientist
James
Joseph and psychologist Amanda Carey of the Jean Mayer USDA
Human
Nutrition Research Center on Aging at
Tufts University in Boston
conducted the research in collaboration with colleagues at the
University of Maryland-Baltimore County. The
study, which has been
published
online, will also appear in an upcoming print issue of Neurobiology
of Aging.
Three groups20 rats in eachwere studied for about three
months. The control group was fed a standard diet of grain-based chow. A second
group was fed chow with blueberry extract equal to one cup daily in humans. A
third group was fed chow with strawberry extract equal to one pint daily in
humans. After two months on the diets, half of the rats in each group were
treated to induce the normal losses in learning and motor skills that often
come with aging.
Compared to the aged control rats, the aged-but-supplemented rats were
much better able to findand in some cases rememberthe location of
an underwater platform.
In addition, the aged control rats had lower levels of dopamine
release than the nonaged control rats. But these decreases in dopamine release
were not seen in the strawberry- and blueberry-supplemented groups, whether
aged or not.
The new findings add to a lineup of research studies published during
the past eight years showing reduced, or in some cases reversed, declines in
brain function among rats whose diets were supplemented with either blueberry,
cranberry or strawberry extracts or Concord grape juice.