Herbal Bilberry In the Prevention and Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)

By Kyle J. Norton



Cardiovascular disease is a general term of diseases associated with the blood vessels and heart, including coronary artery diseases (CAD) affected by obstruction of arteries and stroke affected by the capillaries in the brain.

In other words, the disease in CVD is vary depending on the affected locations. Atherosclerosis is also the most common cause of cardiovascular disease.

The exact causes of CVD are not clear. However, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes mellitus, lack of exercise, obesity, high blood cholesterol, poor diet, and excessive alcohol consumption, are found to associated with the increased risk of CVD.

According to the statistics provided by the American Heart Association, over 84 million people in the US suffer from some forms of cardiovascular disease, causing the death of 2,200 people a day.

Sadly, approximately 15 million U.S. adults have coronary heart disease.

Out of many risk factors, some researchers suggested that high blood pressure found in 103 million U.S. adults are one of the major cause of CVD. Believe it or not, approximately 54% of strokes and 47% of coronary heart diseases, worldwide, are attributable to high blood pressure.

Dr. Chen-Yi Wu, the lead scientist said, "The cardiovascular and expanded-cardiovascular mortality risks were lowest when systolic blood pressures were 120 to 129 mm Hg, and increased significantly when systolic blood pressures (SBPs) were ≥160 mm Hg or diastolic BPs were ≥90 mm Hg".

And, " The impacts of stage 2–3 hypertension on mortality risks were significantly increased among women. The mortality risks of hypertension were not attenuated with older age".

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,

In the urgency to find a natural ingredient for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), a leading cause of death researchers examined the bilberries beneficial effects on CVD risk reduction.

The study included women (n=25) and men (n=11) who consumed 150 g of frozen stored bilberries 3 times a week for 6 weeks. 

According to the tested assays, consumption of bilberries showed a decrease of total cholesterol, LDL-C, TG, glucose, albumin, γ-glutamyltransferase, and a positive increase in HDL-C.

All parameters associated with the risk of CVD were decreased substantially at the end of the study. In other words, bilberry reduced the risk of CVD by promoting the blood flow to the heart and other parts of the body.

Interestingly, in men, favorable changes were observed in total cholesterol, glucose, albumin, aspartate aminotransferase, γ-glutamyltransferase, and HDL-C compared to women.

The results strongly support the regular use of bilberries as a dietary source of fruit to reduce the CVDs risk, by decreasing LDL-C/TG and increasing HDL-C. 

Dr. Habanova M, after taking into account co and confound wrote in the final report, "Changes in other parameters were not significant, for both women and men. Thus, the regular intake of bilberries can be important to reduce CVDs risk, by decreasing LDL-C/TG and increasing HDL-C".

Taken altogether, bilberry may be considered a function remedy for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), pending to the validation 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) Intake of bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) reduced risk factors for cardiovasculardisease by inducing favorable changes in lipoprotein profiles by Habanova M1, Saraiva JA2, Haban M3, Schwarzova M4, Chlebo P5, Predna L6, Gažo J7, Wyka J. (PubMed)
(2) A Brief Review of Blue- and Bilberries' Potential to Curb Cardio-Metabolic Perturbations: Focus on Diabetes by Crespo MC1, Visioli F. (PubMed)
(3) High Blood Pressure and All-Cause and Cardiovascular Disease Mortalities in Community-Dwelling Older Adults by Chen-Yi Wu, MD, PhD, Hsiao-Yun Hu, PhD, Yiing-Jenq Chou, MD, PhD, Nicole Huang, PhD, Yi-Chang Chou, MS, and Chung-Pin Li, MD, PhD. (PMC)