The answer to a sharper memory may be as close as your grocer's shelves. A recent study found that drinking a couple of cups of blueberry juice each day may give aging memories a boost.
Researchers led by Robert Krikorian of the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center tested people in their 70s with age-related memory problems. One group of volunteers drank 16 to 20 ounces of a commercially available blueberry juice every day for two months. The control group drank a non-juice beverage.
At the end of two months, those volunteers who drank blueberry juice showed significant improvements on learning and memory tests. "These preliminary memory findings are encouraging and suggest that consistent supplementation with blueberries might offer an approach to forestall or mitigate neurodegeneration," the scientists wrote in a report published in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Although previous animal studies had indicated that blueberries may help aging memories, until now there had been little actual testing of blueberries' effect on people.
According to WebMD, the study also indicated that the volunteers who drank blueberry juice had reduced symptoms of depression and lower glucose levels.
Blueberries are one of nature's richest sources of phytochemicals and antioxidants.
Ongoing studies are focusing on blueberries' ability to protect against stroke and lessen brain damage in stroke victims, slow vision loss, prevent cancer, and relieve or prevent upper urinary tract and bladder infections.
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