Blueberries Health Benefits - Slow Aging

I was introduced to the blueberries health benefits while attending a class at UCLA. I attended a weekend class (instead of a semester long class) at UCLA to finish a health requirement for a teaching credential. I wasn’t looking forward to this class because it was the last weekend before school started and I needed more time to prepare for classes. However, during the two eight hour class days we had a number of PhD professors talk to us about the healthy things we should be doing and communicating to our students. A repeated theme throughout the two days was the blueberries health benefits. Some professors and students were doing studies at UCLA with blueberries and rats. They claimed that blueberries feed to rats reversed aging and corrected many other age related problems that elderly rats were experiencing. They said the older rats seemed to have new vitality and appeared much younger than their actual age.

UCLA Study - Slow Aging

Fernando Gomez-Pinilla a professor of neurosurgery and physiological science at UCLA has been studying food effects on the brain and has published an article called Brain Foods: The Effects of Nutrients on Brain Function in Nature Review Neuroscience, July 2008. This article discusses the benefits of blueberries being packed with polyphenols that are antioxidant compounds that aid memory, slow memory loss, help learning ability, and help slow aging.

USDA Human Research Center Laboratory

Neuroscientists working at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center laboratory discovered that rats feed blueberries slowed and reversed age related deceases and think these finding could be important for humans.

Class Learning Outcomes

Since this class I know many of the students, myself included, have added blueberries to our daily diets. Not really sure if the effects are that pronounced but I have had people ask me why I am not experiencing some of the age related ailments that they and others are experiencing. I don’t know, but I have tried a little harder, over the years, by keeping a weekly regiment of exercise and healthy eating habits. Who knows, maybe blueberries are making a difference.