Blueberry Supplementation Improves Memory in Older Adults.

Edgar LepmanFood TechnologyEULS/ EMUTartu2011

Introduction

The number of those suffering from dementia is increasing among adult population.

Dementia is incurable but it can be prevented at an early stage of predementia conditions by diversifying diet with blueberry products.

Materials and Methods

•Participants. Nine elderly volunteers (5 men and 4 women)

who had experienced memory decline such as forgetfulness were invited to take part in the experiment.

Materials and Methods

•Procedure. Participants were divided into two groups

(placebo beverage and blueberry juice groups) and their health indices were measured afterwards.

Wild blueberry juice was prepared from ripe, frozen wild blueberries.

Materials and Methods

The most abundant components in the juice were: glucose, fructose, and malic and citric acid.

Daily juice and placebo consumption was maintained between 6 and 9 mL/kg, hence individuals weighing 54- 64 kg were prescribed 444 mL/day.

Materials and Methods

Subjects were forbidden to consume berry fruits, juices and berry extracts for the duration of the research (12 weeks).

Memory function was measured with Verbal Paired Associate Learning Test (V-PAL) and Californian Verbal Learning Test (CVLT)

Results•Figure 1 shows that memory performance for

the blueberry juice sample group has significantly improved at 12 weeks.

Results•Figure 2 shows that the memory performance

of the blueberry juice group exceeded that of the placebo beverage group.

ConclusionResearch indicated that wild blueberry juice

supplementation for 12 weeks improved memory function in older adults with early memory decline.

Construction of this finding should be tempered because of the relatively small sample size and the absence of a blueberry-specific control, although comparison with the placebo group data provides proof of the effectiveness of blueberry supplementation.

Thank you for your attention!

References

•Journal article “Blueberry Supplementation Improves Memory in Older Adults.”

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf9029332?prevSearch=%255BAllField%253A%2B%255BAllField%253A%2Bblueberry%2Bsupplement%255D%255D&searchHistoryKey=