Download Alaska blueberries: brain food November 7, 2007 Courtesy of Far

Alaska blueberries: brain food
November 7, 2007
Courtesy of Far North Science
By Doug O'Harra
Talk about living off the fat of the land. Alaska's
wild berries - especially the blueberry species that
emerge from countless tundra slopes and forest
glades - may be one of nature's miracle foods,
chock full of powerful nutrients that feed the brain
and protect the nervous system from old-age
breakdown.
Alaska blueberries
Source: NPS
New research has
continued to show that
blueberries, along with
walnuts and strawberries
and certain other fruits
and nuts, contain high
concentrations of
antioxidant chemicals that
can actually protect the
brain from neuron-damaging substances known
as free radicals.
In some cases, exposure to blueberry extracts
reversed age-triggered ailments in lab animals,
according to a story posted online by Society for
Neuroscience.
And so, scarfing down gobs of Alaska blueberries,
walnuts and other foods appears to improve
cognition, maintain brain function and possibly
help treat brain disorders, the story says.
While much of the story concentrates on research
into the power of walnuts, conducted by James
Joseph, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts
University in Boston, one section focuses on
neurological studies at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks into blueberry magic.
UAF researcher Thomas Kuhn has discovered
that Alaska wild bog blueberries simply drip with
elixirs that combat inflammation in the central
nervous system.
Brain and spinal inflammation goes along with
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, multiple sclerosis
and other chronic degenerative diseases. You
can even find inflammation in some mental
illnesses or appearing during normal aging.
Bog blueberries appear to contain compounds
that pair up with with a certain protein molecule in
neurons, and this biochemical dance in turn
"reduces detrimental effects of inflammation" that
make these conditions worse.
Here's more detail, somewhat technical:
Understanding the interaction of these
compounds could lead to the development of new
drug therapies that would diminish inflammation
of the brain and spinal cord.
While the health benefits of fruits and vegetables
are largely attributed to
polyphenols, molecules with strong
antioxidant potential, Kuhn says
that, surprisingly, the compounds in
Alaska blueberries discovered in
their study are neither antioxidants
nor polyphenols, yet rather serve as
specific inhibitors.
Using a cell-based model of
neuronal inflammation, Kuhn's lab exposed
neuronal cells to tumor necrosis factor alpha
(TNFa), a pivotal factor mediating inflammation in
the brain and spinal cord.
Exposure of neuronal cells to TNFa rapidly
stimulates a cascade of reactions, which
ultimately leads to the death of neuronal cells.
The application of Alaska blueberry extracts to
neuronal cells effectively prevented the
degeneration of neuronal cells exposed to TNFa.
"Expanding our knowledge of natural products'
health benefits and their molecular targets in the
nervous system would improve preventative
measures and potentially reveal new therapeutic
strategies to alleviate inflammation in the brain
and spinal cord," says Kuhn.
Kuhn's work isn't the first time that Alaska's wild
berries have been accused of providing a sort of
medical manna.
Another UAF researcher, Patricia Holloway,
conducted a three-year study and found
extraordinarily high levels of antioxidants in
blueberries, cranberries, raspberries and a basket
of other wild fruits Alaskans commonly gather as
late summer cools.
For a 2006 summary of her result:
The original research with fruits showed that
cultivated blueberries had the highest (antioxidant activity) levels of commercial fruit with a
score of about 20. Anything above 40 is
considered very high.
We conducted a research project to find out how
our berries compared to the standards for
commercial fruit. We learned that Alaska wild
berries are a rich source of antioxidants. Nearly
all wild frozen berries have (a score) greater than
20.
This conclusion actually appears to be an
amazing understatement.
Blueberries scored 111 and high bush cranberries
hit 172 on the same scale.
That makes Alaska wild blueberries more than
five times more powerful as antioxidants than
those pretty blue orbs shrunk-wrapped in grocery
produce aisle. (Even Kuhn's bog blueberry scored
77 - packing more than three times the
antioxidant jolt.)
"The good news," Joseph said in the Society for
Neuroscience story, "is that it appears that
compounds found in fruits and vegetables - and,
as we have shown in our research, walnuts - may
provide the necessary protection to prevent the
demise of cognitive and motor function in aging."
Most of Far North Science is written and edited by
Doug O'Harra, a writer and journalist based in
Anchorage, Alaska. //End//
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