Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content material. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, pictures, and quotes to which Dr. Greger could also be referring, watch the above video.
How may berries enhance human health, healthy getting old, and high quality of life? Maybe, as a consequence of their anti-inflammatory results, since irritation might be an underlying contributing issue within the “development, progression, and complication” of a lot of power illnesses. Higher consumption of anthocyanins, the brightly-colored pigments in berries, has been related to anti-inflammatory results, which can be “a key component” underlying the related discount in power illness danger. But these are all simply associations. You can’t show trigger and impact till you place it to the take a look at.
A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial discovered that blueberry smoothies might flip off irritation genes. (This is measuring the expression of pro-inflammatory genes in white blood cells taken from people earlier than and after six weeks of ingesting placebo smoothies with no blueberries.) They received worse over time. Six weeks later, extra inflammatory chemical substances pouring out, whereas the blueberry group started out about the identical at week zero, however six weeks of day by day blueberries and, the expression of inflammatory genes went down.
“In addition to attenuating inflammation,” they display that “blueberry consumption was able to significantly decrease the levels of free radicals” of their bloodstream: no change within the placebo group, however after six weeks of blueberry smoothies, the quantity of free radicals of their blood was extinguished by half. Okay, however does all that antioxidant and anti-inflammatory energy truly translate into scientific advantages? For instance what’s the impact of blueberry consumption on restoration from extreme weight lifting-induced muscle harm?
A randomized crossover examine: a blueberry smoothie or antioxidant-matched placebo smoothie 5 and 10 hours previous to, and then 12 and 36 hours after, exercise-induced muscle harm. The smoothies had been a few cup and a half of frozen blueberries, a banana, and apple juice, or with out the berries, however dextrose and vitamin C added to match it for energy and antioxidant energy. Even so, the blueberries labored higher at mopping up free radicals. Here’s the oxidative stress with out the blueberries: it goes up and stays up. But, with the blueberries, it comes proper down. Yeah, however what we care about is the restoration of muscle strength, so you possibly can soar proper again into training. Same drop in peak torque 12 hours later, however a day later, considerably quicker restoration of peak muscle strength, demonstrating that the ingestion of blueberries can speed up restoration — one thing which may be particularly related to athletes who compete over successive days.
That’s all effectively and good, however what about utilizing berries to deal with inflammatory illnesses like arthritis? Yes, they might have protecting results in opposition to arthritis in a rat — considerably lowering “paw volume”— how swollen their paw will get while you inject it with some inflammatory irritant. But there had by no means been any human arthritis berry research, till now.
Remember that incredible examine the place strawberries alone might reverse the development of precancerous lesions? The strawberries had been dramatically downregulating pro-inflammatory genes. Give strawberries to diabetics for six weeks, and not solely does their diabetes get higher, their C-reactive protein ranges, a marker of systemic irritation, drops 18%. Even only a single meal may help. Have individuals eat a largely unhealthy breakfast, and the extent of inflammatory markers goes up over the subsequent six hours, however much less so if you happen to added simply 5 massive strawberries to the meal.
So, can “strawberries improve pain and inflammation” in confirmed knee osteoarthritis? No truthful that the title ruined the suspense, however sure, osteoarthritis sufferers randomized to get like a pint and a half of strawberries a day for 12 weeks and yeah, sure inflammatory markers plummeted on the strawberries. But did they really really feel any higher? Significant reductions in fixed ache, intermittent ache, and complete ache. The “first clinical study on the effects of…berries” on human arthritis, and discovered {that a} “simple dietary intervention, the addition of berries to one’s diet, may have a significant impact on pain, inflammation, and overall quality of life in obese adults with [osteoarthritis].”
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