Blueberries Promote A Healthy Living Choice

 Medical costs can play a big role in some people’s lives. Wouldn’t it be great to prevent or slowly decline an illness without having that expensive bill attached to it?  Everyday blueberries are being researched for multiple health benefits.  Research shows that blueberry phytonutrients (chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants) can have a big impact in the brain.  Blueberries could be the safer and less expensive approach to treating and maybe even preventing neurodegenerative disorders and dementia. Brunswick Laboratories  says, “According to recent studies, organically grown blueberries appear to yield significantly more phytonutrients and demonstrate greater antioxidant activity than blueberries grown conventionally”

Here is some Interesting Fact You Want to Know about Blueberries:

1. Blueberry phytonutrients exert their health-promoting effects via complex biochemical mechanisms that counteract oxidative stress, decrease inflammation, and modulate genes associated with a myriad of disease processes.
2. Blueberry is best studied as an agent of neurological support. Research suggests that blueberry phytonutrients attenuate age-related declines in cognitive and motor function, augment brain plasticity, limit brain damage after ischemic stroke, and may one day play a role in the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
3. Blueberry phytonutrients may also safeguard cardiovascular health by decreasing total serum cholesterol and fighting high blood pressure.
4. Fermented blueberry extracts can function as insulin potentiators. Diabetics taking a commercial preparation of blueberry and other extracts significantly lowered their fasting plasma glucose levels.
5. Blueberry leaves contain polyphenols that demonstrate alpha-amylase inhibitor activity and may represent an encouraging adjunctive treatment for type 2 diabetes.
6. The juice of blueberries, as well as a number of other berry fruits, significantly inhibits in vitro proliferation of prostate, breast, intestinal, and gastric cancer. Pterostilbene, a phenolic compound found in blueberries, shows promise against colon cancer in animal and laboratory models.
7. Low molecular-weight phenols found in blueberries boost colon health by altering bacterial metabolism. 8. Blueberry consumption was shown to improve several parameters of disease activity in a model of colitis.Merging research also indicates that blueberry phytonutrients may help combat liver inflammation, vascular disease, and osteoporosis.

All the following in formation can be found at :  http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/feb2009_Blueberries_01.htm