Cranberry Improves Symptoms of Neuro-Psychology

By Kyle J. Norton


Neuropsychological assessment provides both general and specific information about current levels of cognitive performance. An average or composite score across multiple ability areas provides an overall index of how well a person functions cognitively at the current time.

Cognition is the process of the brain functioning associated with the attention of working memory, producing and comprehending language, learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision making.

Cognitive deficit is a medical condition, that affects a person's thinking, communication, understanding or memory. The cognitive deficit can be acute or chronic.

Acute cognitive deficit is a short-term health problem caused by drugs toxicity and withdrawal, electrolyte disturbance, lack of drugs, liver disease, infection, reduced sensor input, intracranial urinary retention/fecal impaction or myocardial/metabolic/pulmonary. An acute cognitive deficit may be recovered if the cause is found.

Chronic cognitive deficit is a permanent medical condition caused by the gradual or permanent loss of the neurons, leading to problems of language, ideomotor and constructive praxis, visual gnosis, spatial attention, learning abilities, and executive functions.

There is no single cause of the chronic cognitive deficit. Increase in age, genetic preposition, certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, high blood cholesterol, and pressure, being obese and lack of exercise are some prevalent factors found in patients with chronic cognitive deficit.

Some researchers suggested that depending on the locations of the brain that were affected, patients may be at risk of Alzheimer's disease such as brain change caused by the abnormal clumps of beta-amyloid protein (plaques).

Small strokes or reduced blood flow through the brain can also cause a chronic cognitive deficit.

According to the observation of the patient MRI, patients brain with cognitive impairment also showed shrinkage of the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory, enlargement of the brain's fluid-filled spaces (ventricles) and reduced use of glucose, the sugar that's the primary source of energy for cells.

Out of many risk factors associated with the onset of the condition, obesity is also one of the major risk factors of cognitive impairment in the Western world.

Dr. Jason C. D. Nguyen, the lead author on the neurological team wrote in the final report, "The incidence of obesity in middle age is increasing markedly, and in parallel, the prevalence of metabolic disorders including cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes is also rising. Numerous studies have demonstrated that both obesity and metabolic disorders are associated with poorer cognitive performance, cognitive decline, and dementia".

Cranberry is an evergreen dwarf shrub, genus Vaccinium, belongings to the family Ericaceae, native to Northern America and Southern Asia. Because of its health benefits, cranberry has been cultivated in some parts of the world for commercial profit and used in traditional and herbal medicine to treat wounds, urinary disorders, diarrhea, diabetes, stomach ailments, and liver problems.

On finding a potential compound for the treatment of the neurological disorder, researchers examined the cranberry extract (CE) neuropsychologic effect.

The double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, parallel-group, clinical trial included 50 community-dwelling, cognitively intact volunteers, > or = 60 years old, who reported no history of dementia or significant neurocognitive impairments.

Participants in the study were randomly assigned to receive either 32 ounces/day of a beverage containing 27% cranberry juice per volume (n = 25) or placebo (n = 25) for 6 weeks.

According to the neuropsychologic tests before and after treament on participants' self-reported, there was a nonsignificant trend (X2(1) = 2.373, p = 0.123) on overall abilities to remember.

However, more than twice of many participants (37.5%) reported the overall abilities to remember at the end of treatment compared to placebo controls (17.4%).

In other words, cranberry extract (CE) although can not improve overall neuropsychologic symptoms, it enhances the short term memory on dementia or significant neurocognitive impairments.

Taken altogether, cranberry may be considered a remedy for the improvement of memory, pending to the confirmation of the 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.

Sources
(1) A double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of the neuropsychologic efficacy of cranberry juice in a sample of cognitively intact older adults: pilot study findings by Crews WD Jr1, Harrison DW, Griffin ML, Addison K, Yount AM, Giovenco MA, Hazell J. (PubMed)
(2) Obesity and cognitive decline: role of inflammation and vascular changes by Jason C. D. Nguyen,1 A. Simon Killcross,2 and Trisha A. Jenkins. (PMC)