Herbal Bilberry, A Natural Prevention and Treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with No Side Effects

By Kyle J. Norton


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease found mostly in the aging population characterized impaired memory, thinking, and behavior. caused by the gradual loss or death of neurons. These symptoms are slowly getting worse over time and becoming severe enough to interfere with daily activity.

60 percent to 80 percent of dementia found in the US are involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

According to the statistics, the numbers of patients living with AD is growing fast, affecting over 5.5 million people age 65 and older. AD is a sith leading cause of death in the US. Most patients AD lives four to eight years after diagnosis. However, the years of survival rate is totally depending on other factors.

Contrast to general belief, getting old is a risk factor of AD but AD is not a disease of aging. Approximately 200,000 Americans under the age of 65 have younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

As of today, there is no cure for AD,  the aim of treatment is to slow down the severity of the symptoms and delay the progression of the disease.

In other words, treatment is to improve the quality of life for both patients and their caregivers.

Besides aging, physically active, smoking, excessive alcohol drinking, medical conditions such as metabolic syndrome, stress are some of the prevalent risks of AD.

Some researchers in the investigation of the correlation between obesity and AD wrote, "There is ample scientific as well as empirical evidence that obesity and its metabolic and vascular comorbidities are related to AD and likely in the causative pathway".

And, "Obesity prevention and treatment could prove to be an efficacious and safe approach to preventing AD, a serious and daunting epidemic disease".

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

The plant berry 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 searching a natural ingredient for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease with no side effects, researchers at the effects of different polyphenols on neuroprotection and APP processing under different stress conditions in transgenic AD mice (APdE9).

Selected mice induced free radical toxicity and apoptosis in human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells overexpressing APP751.

APdE9 mice fed with anthocyanin-rich bilberry showed the decreased Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP)APP C-terminal fragment levels, the indication of reduced death of neurons in the cerebral cortex compared to APdE9 mice fed with control diet.

Furthermore, soluble Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels, the plaque in the brain associated with increased risk for AD, mild cognitive impairment, and cognitive decline were significantly decreased in bilberry-fed mice, compared to blackcurrant-fed mice.

Moreover, bilberry diet protected the spatial working memory of aged APdE9 mice, compared to mice on the control diet, thus reducing the risk of deficits.

The results clearly suggested bilberry diet protects the integrity and viability of the neuron in the brain against the risk of AD.

Dr. Vepsäläinen S, the lead scientist said, "These data suggest that anthocyanin-rich bilberry and blackcurrant diets favorably modulate APP processing and alleviate behavioral abnormalities in a mouse model of AD".

In order to reveal more information of bilberry anti AD activity, researchers examined the anthocyanoside extracts (Vaccinium myrtillus anthocyanoside (VMA)) obtained from bilberry on the aggregation and deposition of the amyloid beta (Aβ1-42) peptide in fibrillar form.

According to the tested assays, injection of VMA  protected Neuro2a cells by inhibiting the formation of Aβ peptide fibrils and reducing the toxicity of these aggregates in vitro.

A diet containing 1% VMA was found to exhibit the significant activity in the prevention of the cognitive degeneration in AD tested mice. 

Interestingly, VMA promoted the cognitive ability accompanied not by a reduction in an aggregate deposition in brains, rather an increase in insoluble deposits compared to control diet mice.

In other words, bilberry protected the brain neuro against the risk AD by diverting Aβ aggregation to insoluble deposits, an alternate, non-toxic form.

Taken altogether, bilberry processed abundantly bioactive compound anthocyanoside may be considered a function remedy for the prevention and treatment of AD, 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) Anthocyanin suppresses the toxicity of Aβ deposits through diversion of molecular forms in vitro and in vivo models of Alzheimer's disease by Yamakawa MY, Uchino K, Watanabe Y, Adachi T, Nakanishi M, Ichino H, Hongo K, Mizobata T, Kobayashi S, Nakashima K, Kawata, (PubMed)
(2) Anthocyanin-enriched bilberry and blackcurrant extracts modulate amyloid precursor protein processing and alleviate behavioral abnormalities in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease by Vepsäläinen S1, Koivisto H, Pekkarinen E, Mäkinen P, Dobson G, McDougall GJ, Stewart D, Haapasalo A, Karjalainen RO, Tanila H, Hiltunen M. (PubMed)
(3) Obesity as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease: weighing the evidence by Alford S1, Patel D2,3, Perakakis N4, Mantzoros CS. (PubMed)