Blueberries Lower Cholesterol & Reverse Memory Decline

The power of blueberries is enough to turn Big Pharma’s drugs red with envy. Several new studies continue to document why blueberries are a true superfood that should be regularly part of your diet and/or consumed as high quality polyphenol concentrates in dietary supplements.

Research scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed that feeding blueberries to hamsters lowered their cholesterol¹ by 22 percent - 27 percent.  Detailed gene analysis showed that blueberries were changing liver function by enhancing bile synthesis, thereby helping to excrete extra cholesterol into the digestive tract so it could be carried out of the body. This is a type of cholesterol fitness, rather than taking a sledgehammer to the liver as is done with statin Class of drugs aka HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, that are used to lower cholesterol levels by inhibiting the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme that plays a central role in liver function and cholesterol production. drugs.

Researchers at the University of Houston showed that aged rats on a blueberry diet had significantly increased memory² scores leading the researchers to state, “These results suggest that a considerable degree of age-related object memory decline can be prevented and reversed by brief maintenance on blueberry diets.”  This supports research last year (2010) in nine older adults who ingested blueberry concentrates for 12 weeks and experienced significantly improved memory³, leading those researchers to state, “The findings of this preliminary study suggest that moderate-term blueberry supplementation can confer neurocognitive benefit and establish a basis for more comprehensive human trials to study preventive potential and neuronal mechanisms.”

These studies support many earlier studies indicating that blueberry supplements and blueberries in your diet are great tools for promoting human health.