Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Blueberries have earned the “superfood” label for being a low-calorie product that is high in nutritional value (especially antixoxidants), and now a recent study indicates that the fruit may also potentially help treat individuals affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.
In research presented last month at the at the Experimental Biology meeting in Boston, Philip J. Ebenezer of Louisiana State University and his colleagues indicated that rats who had consumed blueberries recovered better from a traumatizing experience that those that had not.
Using blueberries to modulate neurotransmitters
According to National Geographic, Ebenezer’s team studied rats that had developed PTSD after being deliberately frightened by cats. Some of the rodents were fed blueberries while others were not, and those that consumed the superfood were found to have significantly higher levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a sign of improved recovery from the disorder.
Specifically, the researchers found that serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Zoloft and Paxil, which are the only currently approved treatments for PTSD, causes an increase in levels of serotonin (5-HT) and the neurotransmitter norepinephrine (NE). Since higher levels of NE could lessen the effectiveness of this therapy, they wanted to see if blueberries were able to counteract those affects by modulating neurotransmitter levels in a rat model of the disorder.
They supplemented some of the rats with a blueberry-enriched diet and others with a control diet, and also studied a third, non-PTSD group that received a standard, blueberry-free diet. The rats that did not receive blueberries experienced an increase in both NE and 5-HT as compared to the control group, but the PTSD rats that received blueberries demonstrated an increase in 5-HT with no effect on NE levels, indicating that the fruit could modulate neurotransmitters.
A long list of health benefits linked to blueberries
Provided blueberries can be shown to have a similar effects on neurotransmitter levels in human beings, they may help alleviate the problems of the severely traumatized, Nat Geo said. It would also add to a long and growing list of the benefits of this antioxidant-rich food, which protects the body’s cells from damage caused by the highly-reactive molecules known as free radicals.
In addition, the website also reports that a recent paper published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics claims that eating one cup of blueberries per day could reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Other research has similarly found that the fruit can decrease the odds of developing prostate cancer, treat urinary tract infections and reduce age-related memory loss. They are also a great source of vitamin C and may help improve cognitive function as well.
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.
Comments