[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> A student asked in class today about a study that concluded that blueberries
> help to improve memory. I had never heard about this, but a colleague stated
> that she has read about this, but she could not remember where.
>
> Can anyone help by providing a reference? I've already started eating them,
> but I want to make sure that I'm not being overly credulous. They're also
> staining my keyboard.
>
> Jeff (Berry Boy) Ricker
> Scottsdale Community College
> Scottsdale AZ'
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your student is correct. The article appeared in the September 15 issue of
Journal of Neuroscience. Rats ate chow with blueberry poweder added. The
amount by body weight was about equal to a human eating a cup a day. The
outcome showed that the blueberry rats outperformed the control group on
measures of memory. The mechanism of action is suspected to be the flavonoids,
which berries are rich in, and which have antioxidant properties.
There were two surprises in this study, which caused me to add this reference
to my Psychology of Aging class and to update my notes.
The first surprise was that the berries did not merely slow or stop the aging
process; they reversed it. So the older rats were looking more like younger
rats in performance. This is the first study I know of to report such a result.
The second surprise was that the researchers looked at different parts of the
body. The researchers concluded that antioxidants may affect different parts of
the body. There seems to be evidence that there may be subtypes of
antioxidants. This is news to me, also.
I am eager to see how these findings might replicate to humans.
A salute of blueberry stained fingers to Blueberry Boy (aka Jeff Ricker).
Dave S. Kerby
Dept of Psychology
University of Louisiana at Monroe
Monroe, LA
