Bilberry May Process Depressant-Like Effects

By Kyle J. Norton

Depression is a mood disorder, affecting the patients feel, think, and handle daily activities

Acute depression comes and goes is a normal response formed a part of our daily lives such as a loss of a job, the death of a loved one, and illness.

Over 30 million Americans suffer from depression and the amount is increasing at an alarming rate. 

However, chronic depression may be a mental health disorder that can affect the way you eat, sleep, and the way you feel about yourself. 

Researchers don't know what causes exactly depression. Neither they know why some people are more prone to depression while many do not.

However, according to epidemiological studies, a major illness, culture shock, family history, social and family isolation due to other mental illnesses or other factors, physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, long-term use of medication, such as isotretinoin and genetic preposition can contribute to the risk of developing clinical depression. 

Given to the cultural diversity in Canada, there is no doubt that many immigrants come to the country try to adapt to the change of culturally and socially, some of them may be culturally shocked that can lead to major depression.

Dr. Natali Creglia, in the article "Impact of Cultural Shock on Mental Health" wrote, "According to Analysis of Impact of Culture Shock on Individual Society by Junzi Xia, “When these people lose all familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse, they have to try to adapt themselves to different lifestyles, living conditions and business practices in a new cultural setting. However, this is a long term and difficult process. In this condition, feelings of alienation accumulate sharply because of poor adaptation. Consequentially, culture shock occurs, followed by a series of psychological confusion and emotional discomfort. (Hess, 1994)” (Xia, 2009). Individuals experiencing cultural shock have to adjust to a completely new way of life".

And  "Customs and beliefs of their homeland do not apply in this new area anymore. This is often where the idea of being ‘weird’ or ‘awkward’ originates from. Psychological stress begins to emerge. This stress is the starting point to much deeper psychological problems. “Although not everyone will experience all the symptoms, almost all people will experience some parts. The major symptoms may be described as depression, anxiety and feelings of helplessness (Mio, 1999)” (Xia, 2009) Sense of isolation occurs in most individuals as does a sense that the personal culture has been lost.

These results strongly suggested that immigrants come to Canada who can not adapt to the new cultures may experience psychological confusion and emotional discomfort from time to time, leading to culture shock induced-depression.

Bilberry is a species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, belonging to the family Ericaceae, native to Northern Europe.

The plant has been used as herbs in traditional medicine for the treatment of acute and chronic diarrhea, gastritis, gastric ulcer, and duodenal ulcer, enterocolitis, ulcerative colitis, anemia, cystitis, kidney disease, and psoriasis, diabetes, etc.

In the differentiation of natural compound for the treatment of depression, researchers evaluated the antidepressant-like effects of water VBF extract (VBFW) in an animal model.

In a mouse model of chronic restraint stress (CRS), VBFW treatment significantly reduced the immobility time and increased swimming time in forced swim test (FST) without altering the locomotor activity in unstressed mice.

CRS mice treated with VBFW showed a reduction of depression by exhibiting significantly decreased immobility time in FST and serum corticosterone (CORT), increased locomotor activity in the open field test (OFT), and enhanced brain monoamine neurotransmitters.

Futhermore, VBFW ameliorated depression-related behavior and promoted neurogenesis by exhibiting functions of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC).

Moreover, VBFW also acted as an agonist in neuromodulation against the 5-HT receptor that binds the (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) in the induction of depression.

Dr. Oh DR the lead scientist said, " Our study provides evidence that antidepressant-like effects of VBFW might be mediated by the regulation of monoaminergic systems and glucocorticoids".

Also, in a mouse model of chronic restraint stress (CRS), CRS-exposed mice treated with VBLW (100 and 200 mg/kg) showed a similar effect of the above study by significantly reduced immobility time and increased swimming and climbing times in the FST, and increased locomotor activity in the OFT.

CRS mice treated with VBLW exhibited the antidepressant-like activity by significantly decreased levels of serum corticosterone (CORT) and adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH), but enhanced brain monoamine neurotransmitters.

Increased levels of CORT and ACTH and protein levels of monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) and SERT and decrease tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (TPH2) protein levels, were found in patients with depression.

CRS mice treated with VBLW had dramatically decreased protein levels of MAO-A and serotonin transporter (SERT) but increased TPH2 protein levels in the hippocampus and the PFC.

Taken altogether, bilberry processed antidepressant-like activity may be considered a herbal remedy for the treatment of depression, pending to the confirmation of larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Antidepressant-Like Effects of Vaccinium bracteatum in Chronic Restraint Stress Mice: Functional Actions and Mechanism Explorations by Oh DR1,2, Kim Y1, Choi EJ1, Jung MA1, Oh KN1, Hong JA1, Bae D1, Kim K1, Kang H1, Kim J1, Kim YR2, Cho SS3, Choi CY. (PubMed)
(2) Vaccinium bracteatum Leaf Extract Reverses Chronic Restraint Stress-Induced Depression-Like Behavior in Mice: Regulation of Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis, Serotonin Turnover Systems, and ERK/Akt Phosphorylation by Oh DR1,2, Yoo JS3, Kim Y1, Kang H1, Lee H1, Lm SJ1, Choi EJ1, Jung MA1, Bae D1, Oh KN1, Hong JA1, Jo A1, Shin J1, Kim J1, Kim YR2, Cho SS4, Lee BJ3, Choi CY. (PubMed)
(3) Impact of Cultural Shock on Mental Health By Natali Creglia. (Hastac)