#Bilberry, the Herbal Medicines in the Inhibition of #Alzheimer's Disease, According to Studies

By Kyle J. Norton

Alzheimer's disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease caused by the gradual loss of neuron functioning that usually starts with the early symptom of the difficulty of remembering recent events and worsens over time.
The disease is most prevalent in the elderly and causes over 60% of all cases of dementia.

According to the statistics, approximately 5.7 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's. 15.9 million family caregivers provided an estimated 18.2 billion hours and $230 billion to people with dementia worldwide.


Epidemiological studies suggest that Alzheimer's disease is caused by a combination of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors that affect the brain's neurons over time.


Although, less than 10% of patients with AD are associated with a genetic preposition. Patients with such a mutated gene are virtually guaranteed to develop the disease.

More precisely, any one of a number of different single-gene mutations on chromosomes 21, 14, and 1 was found to induce the onset of AD.

Bilberry is a species of low-growing shrub 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, duodenal ulcer, enterocolitis, ulcerative colitis, anemia, cystitis, kidney disease, psoriasis, diabetes, etc.

Researchers on finding a natural compound for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) investigated the effects of anthocyanoside extracts (Vaccinium myrtillus anthocyanoside (VMA)) obtained from bilberry on the in vitro progression of Aβ fibril formation and in vivo effects of this compound on AD pathogenesis.

In Neuro2a cells, injection of VMA inhibited the in vitro formation of Aβ peptide fibrils in the induction of neuron toxicity.

Furthermore, A diet containing 1% VMA prevented the cognitive degeneration found in the tested AD mice.

Interestingly, this diet in the retention of cognitive ability was not accompanied by a reduction in the aggregate deposition in brains but rather, an increase in insoluble deposits, compared to control mice.
The results suggested that VMA shows a strong effect on Alzheimer's disease by altering the Aβ aggregation to a non-toxic form.

In order to reveal more information about bilberry anti-AD activity, researchers elucidated the effects of different polyphenols on neuroprotection and APP processing under different in vitro stress conditions.
Injection of myricetin, quercetin, or anthocyanin-rich extracts in a dose-dependent manner significantly inhibited the overexpression of free radicals caused by the application of Menadione.

APdE9 mice fed with anthocyanin-rich bilberry or blackcurrant extracts showed decreased APP C-terminal fragment levels, the amyloid precursor protein in the cerebral cortex, compared to APdE9 mice on the control diet.

Levels of soluble Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels were found to significantly decrease in bilberry-fed mice, compared to blackcurrant-fed mice.

Additionally, the bilberry diet also improved the spatial working memory of aged APdE9 mice, compared to mice on the control diet.

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

Taken altogether, bilberry rich in anthocyanin may be considered a functional remedy for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD), pending the validation of a larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Natural Medicine for Fatty Liver And Obesity Reversal - The Revolutionary Findings To Achieve Optimal Health And Lose Weight

How To Get Rid Of Eye Floaters
Contrary To Professionals Prediction, Floaters Can Be Cured Naturally

Ovarian Cysts And PCOS Elimination
Holistic System In Existence That Will Show You How To
Permanently Eliminate All Types of Ovarian Cysts Within 2 Months

Back to Kyle J. Norton's Homepage http://kylejnorton.blogspot.ca


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 the international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Anthocyanin suppresses the toxicity of Aβ deposits through the 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 Y. (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)