A new study out of the UK shows older men and women who drank a blueberry concentrate improved brain function in just 12 weeks!
As you know, I grew up in New England, where blueberries grow wild. We picked them straight off the bush to enjoy them fresh. And, as a lifelong fan of blueberries, I keenly followed early research, which began popping up four years ago, showing their brain benefits.
From those early studies, I concluded that blueberries are the single best brain food. You can easily add them to your diet. And it’s getting easier all the time.
Since then, research has continued to pour in about blueberries. And the latest study comes from the University of Exeter, which had started the first “complementary/alternative” medicine program in the UK.
Of course, the U.S. lags far behind Europe in natural medicine. In fact, the same year Exeter started this program, the mainstream in the U.S. was just starting to take the topic seriously.
Plus, countries in Europe spend a fraction of the funds on medical research that we lavish on the National Institutes of Health and other government entities. Yet they continue to come out with more useful research on safe, healthy, natural medical treatments. And I will keep reporting on these international natural advances in the Daily Dispatch and my monthly newsletter, Insiders’ Cures. (So if you’re not already a subscriber, now is the perfect time to get started.) In the meantime, here are more details on this new study…
The Exeter researchers measured brain function in healthy men and women ages 65 to 77 using a range of standard cognitive tests. They also measured resting brain blood flow and monitored brain activity in memory centers with MRI imaging scans.
They split participants into two groups. The first group drank 30 milliliters of concentrated blueberry juice daily (the equivalent of eating 230 grams — or about a cup — of blueberries a day) for just 12 weeks. The second group drank a placebo.
The blueberry concentrate group showed improvements in brain function, blood flow to the brain, and activation of brain centers during cognitive testing. They also experienced improvements in working memory.
Natural approaches reshape old theories about dementia
This study provides even more evidence that older men and women need more of the healthy constituents in plants, such as edible fruits, to prevent cognitive decline and dementia.
The findings also stand in stark contrast to a report I caught last night on a mainstream “news” program. The reporter lamented on the complete failure of the amyloid hypothesis, which claims that amyloid protein builds up in the brain and causes Alzheimer’s dementia.
Decades ago, as a hospital pathologist, I observed amyloid build-up in virtually every tissue of the body. Sometimes, there was dysfunction in organs with a lot of amyloid. And other times the presence of amyloid didn’t appear to be significant at all. Any hospital pathologist could have told you the same.
Plus, in recent years, autopsy studies have shown that half the people with dementia did not have amyloid build-up in the brain. And half the people who DID have amyloid build-up in the did NOT have dementia.
In the end, these studies failed to turn up any cause-and-effect relationship between amyloid and dementia.
Of course, we have spent billions of dollars on drug research studies based on the amyloid hypothesis. And they all utterly failed.
Only now do some leading “experts” admit their failure. (Although basic biology and pathology could have told them years ago.) Plus, I find it ironic these so-called experts can only admit that their amyloid theory is a bust after the drugs designed to deal with amyloid failed to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s.
The mainstream news story certainly painted a dismal picture of the prospects for drug treatments for dementia. But it failed to mention the real, new and good findings that show consuming healthy foods can prevent and treat dementia.
Plant-rich diet protects the brain
Research consistently shows that older adults with a plant-based diet preserve better brain function. And this finding makes sense. The flavonoid constituents present in plants possess potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as important nutrients.
The Exeter researchers focused on the blueberry brain powerhouse, but they extended their conclusions to anyone eating more than five portions of fruits and vegetables per day.
The new study included 26 healthy adults. Mainstream experts will claim it was a small study. They would rather lavish hundreds of millions on large clinical trials studying whether dangerous drugs can eek out enough marginal benefit (if any) to show “statistical significance.”
But a small, efficient study like this one that shows dramatic results does not require huge numbers of people to show statistical significance.
The results are obvious.
Lord Rutherford, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry a century ago, once said, “If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.” Some good science and common sense will still go a long way.
Multi-million dollar studies on natural treatments will never happen because the mainstream academic-government-industrial complex will never spend that kind of money in the interests of your health, instead of their profits.
Plus, even if we could afford them, we can’t afford to wait to address the largest health crisis of our century.
You can find potent water-soluble blueberry powdered extract in new, easy-to-use formulations. Plus, in this month’s Insiders’ Cures newsletter, I tell how to get started, growing your own blueberries this summer. (So, again, if you’re not yet a newsletter subscriber, now is the perfect time to become one.)
Of course, eating blueberries is just one of the natural steps you can take to prevent and reverse Alzheimer’s and dementia. I tell you all about ALL of the safe, natural measures you can take to safeguard yourself from this disease in my Complete Alzheimer’s Cure on-line learning protocol. You can learn more about this protocol, or enroll today, by clicking here.
Source:
Enhanced task-related brain activation and resting perfusion in healthy older adults after chronic blueberry supplementation,” Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) 3/1/2017