You’ll likely be hearing (if not already) juice makers and berry growers tout the benefits of blueberry juice on memory. For the first time researchers have shown that a few daily glasses of blueberry juice can boost memory in older adults with early signs of memory loss. Blueberries, like tomatoes, grapes and tea, contain polyphenols which are known to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Therefore, it’s theorized that these substances can combat oxidative stresses that can lead to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. The recent study is published in the current issue of the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. However, it must be noted that the researchers only studied a total of 18 patients – 9 were given blueberry juice and 9 given placebo – making this an extremely small study which may not necessarily extrapolate to an entire population of people. Therefore, the jury is still out on this one. Although drinking blueberry juice will likely not worsen your memory, there are other means that have been shown to slow memory loss, including keeping mentally active, exercise, cultivating a strong social network, stopping smoking, and getting plenty of sleep. [via Medical News Today]
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Tags: aging, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, blueberry, dementia, memory, polyphenol
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Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
January 26th, 2010 at 6:27 am
Great I love Blueberries .I have been taking Ginko Biloba For some time & think they are giving me Headaches now so have stopped taking them Will try the juice now .Thank you for your updates I read them every day & think they are very helpful Pauline ( 60 yrs old )
January 26th, 2010 at 9:55 am
do they put anything in it to enhance the memory or is the juice one hundred percent blueberry juice, with nothing added to it? that is a big question that is on my mind. does anyone have an answer? please email me if you do.
January 26th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
I will be 74 yrs old on 2-4-10; This AM I prayed that God would restore and grant me a long good memory. I read your E-mail this AM and said my prays were answered. I also read the daly dose article re. alsheimer when there is a loss of smell, and I am concerned about that also. I was cleared from MRSA in Dec 09. since that time I seem to be having a problem with my memory.
I thank you for your information.
Thank You
Juanita Pinion
January 26th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Thanks for all your comments!
Jared – nothing was added to the blueberry juice. The study looked at blueberry juice without additives.
January 26th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
c’est important de savoir les secrets de la nature
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Hi! My name is Harparkash Kaur and I am 66 year old. I am diabetic, and have osteoarthritis, osteopenia. If I drink pomegranate or guava juices my blood sugar goes very high, then I start having blurred eyevision. So juices are not good for me. But still I drink them for the sake of getting rid of heart problem. But for heart problem I used to make a green tea just once a day. After the tea was boiled I made it cold and then added cinnamon almost little less than half a tea spoonful, and flax ground seeds one little tea spoonful, little ground red peppers, little ground ginger root and garlic, and ten ground black peppers, five to seven bay leaves. After including all these things in the cold tea I used to drink it for almost one month. I never added those spices in tea when tea was hot. Because cinnamon’s natural oils would fly away with the steam. I drank this type of tea almost for one month or little more time, but at the same time I was using soy sauce almost one packet a day, thank God I got rid of heart pains, I mean angina. My doctors wanted to put stant in my heart. I told them that putting a stant in my heart will not cure my heart. I am aging I can die on the operation table. I don’t take risk of surgery at all. I talked to one of my friends, she told me to do all the above things. I acted upon her advice and I got rid of angina without surgery. Now I don’t have any heart problem but walk little slowly because I am no more a young woman. In order to keep my self I need polyphenols, flavonoids, vitamine B comlex, vitamine A c, and E, also. For these things I don’t take synthetic vitamins from the bazar, I make different types of vegetables. That’s it. But my sugar level is not under control. I need to take a lots of broccoli including cinnamon.
H. Kaur
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Hi! My name is Harparkash Kaur and I am 66 year old. I am diabetic, and have osteoarthritis, osteopenia. If I drink pomegranate or guava juices my blood sugar goes very high, then I start having blurred eyevision. So juices are not good for me. But still I drink them for the sake of getting rid of heart problem. But for heart problem I used to make green tea just once a day. After the tea was boiled I made it cold and then added cinnamon almost little less than half a tea spoonful, and flax ground seeds one little tea spoonful, little ground red peppers, little ground ginger root and garlic, and ten ground black peppers, five to seven bay leaves witch I boiled in the green tea. After including all these things in the cold tea I used to drink it for almost one month. I never added those spices in tea when tea was hot. Because cinnamon’s natural oils would fly away with the steam. I drank this type of tea almost for one month or little more time, but at the same time I was using soy sauce almost one packet a day, thank God I got rid of heart pains, I mean angina. My doctors wanted to put stant in my heart. I told them that putting a stant in my heart will not cure my heart. I am aging I can die on the operation table. I don’t take risk of surgery at all. I talked to one of my friends, she told me to do all the above things. I acted upon her advice and I got rid of angina without surgery. Now I don’t have any heart problem because with the above told tea, every day I used one packet of soy sauce also. I walk little slowly because I am no more a young woman. In order to keep my self healthy I need polyphenols, flavonoids, vitamine B comlex, vitamine A C, and E, also. For these things I don’t take synthetic vitamins from the bazar, I make different types of vegetables. That’s it. But my sugar level is not under control. I need to take a lots of broccoli including cinnamon.
H. Kaur