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Eating
Berries may activate the Brain’s Natural
Housekeeper for Healthy Aging
Newswise, 2010 — Scientists today reported
the first evidence that eating blueberries,
strawberries, and acai berries may help the
aging brain stay healthy in a crucial but
previously unrecognized way. Their study,
presented at the 240th National Meeting of
the American Chemical Society (ACS),
concluded that berries, and possibly
walnuts, activate the brain’s natural
“housekeeper” mechanism, which cleans up and
recycles toxic proteins linked to
age-related memory loss and other mental
decline.
Shibu Poulose, Ph.D., who presented the
report, said previous research suggested
that one factor involved in aging is a
steady decline in the body’s ability to
protect itself against inflammation and
oxidative damage. This leaves people
vulnerable to degenerative brain diseases,
heart disease, cancer, and other age-related
disorders.
“The good news is that natural compounds
called polyphenolics found in fruits,
vegetables and nuts have an antioxidant and
anti-inflammatory effect that may protect
against age-associated decline,” said
Poulose, who is with the U. S. Department of
Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service
(USDA-ARS) Human Nutrition Research Center
on Aging in Boston.
Poulose did the research
with James Joseph, Ph.D., who died June 1.
Joseph, who headed the laboratory, pioneered
research on the role of antioxidants in
fruits and nuts in preventing age-related
cognitive decline.
Their past studies, for instance, showed
that old laboratory rats fed for two months
on diets containing 2 percent
high-antioxidant strawberry, blueberry, or
blackberry extract showed a reversal of
age-related deficits in nerve function and
behavior that involves learning and
remembering.
In the new research, Poulose and Joseph
focused on another reason why nerve function
declines with aging. It involves a reduction
in the brain’s natural house-cleaning
process. Cells called microglia are the
housekeepers. In a process called autophagy,
they remove and recycle biochemical debris
that otherwise would interfere with brain
function.
“But in aging, microglia fail to do their
work, and debris builds up,” Poulose
explained. “In addition, the microglia
become over-activated and actually begin to
damage healthy cells in the brain. Our
research suggests that the polyphenolics in
berries have a rescuing effect. They seem to
restore the normal housekeeping function.
These findings are the first to show these
effects of berries.”
The findings emerged from research in which
Joseph and Poulose have tried to detail
factors involved in the aging brain’s loss
of normal housekeeping activity. Using
cultures of mouse brain cells, they found
that extracts of berries inhibited the
action of a protein that shuts down the
autophagy process.
Poulose said the study provides further
evidence to eat foods rich in polyphenolics.
Although berries and walnuts are rich
sources, many other fruits and vegetables
contain these chemicals ― especially those
with deep red, orange, or blue colors. Those
colors come from pigments termed
anthocyanins that are good antioxidants. He
emphasized the importance of consuming the
whole fruit, which contains the full range
of hundreds of healthful chemicals. Frozen
berries, which are available year round,
also are excellent sources of polyphenolics,
he added.
The American Chemical Society is a
non-profit organization chartered by the
U.S. Congress. With more than 161,000
members, ACS is the world’s largest
scientific society and a global leader in
providing access to chemistry-related
research through its multiple databases,
peer-reviewed journals and scientific
conferences. Its main offices are in
Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
