BILBERRY & BLUEBERRY - Blood brain barrier, Hypertensio & LDL

[Guest guest]

BILBERRY & BLUEBERRY - The Blood brain barrier, Hypertensio & LDL

JoAnn Guest

Aug 30, 2006 16:20 PDT

---

 

BILBERRY & BLUEBERRY (Vaccinium myrtillus, Vaccinium myrtilloides)

Latin: Vaccinium myrtillus, Vaccinium myrtilloides

 

WHAT THEY DO: Bilberries and blueberries are sour in taste and

cooling

in action. They remove inflammation and congestion from tiny blood

vessels, strengthening vessel integrity and microcirculation; they

prevent oxidative stress damage to the eye and to neuronal cells.

 

RATING: gold

 

SAFETY ISSUES: None known

 

STARTING DOSAGE:

• Blueberries: eat fresh berries freely in season, use frozen

berries

during the off-season

• Bilberry extract: 60-180 mg anthocyanosides per day.

 

The colorful anthocyanoside pigment compounds in bilberries and [to

a

slightly lesser extent] blueberries find their way to the capillary

vessel basement membranes and the surrounding collagen structures,

where

they neutralize free radicals which can weaken these tiny

structures.

Healthy and resilient capillary vessels are able to maintain their

shape

and function for normal, efficient microcirculation to prevent

swelling

in the surrounding tissues.

 

This is very useful in the prevention of vascular complications of

diabetes, and the improvement of night vision and overall visual

acuity.

For the same reasons, bilberries or blueberries can be used to treat

intestinal inflammation, hemorrhoids, macular degeneration,

rheumatoid

arthiritis and varicose veins.

 

High doses of bilberry extract (and other flavonoids) act to

strengthen

the blood-brain barrier by acting on collagen fibers to protect

sensitive peptide bonds from attack and actually restoring degraded

basement membranes (Robert et al., 1977, 1997).

 

Since weakness of the blood-brain barrier is a suspected component

in

many serious diseases such as multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue

syndrome, I often tell patients with nervous system weakness to use

blueberries in fairly large quantities over a long period of time.

Typically, I suggest that they eat one bag of frozen blueberries

(this

form seems to be the most convenient to obtain year-round) once or

twice

per week, pretty much forever. Most patients love this prescription.

 

The stronger concentrated bilberry extracts are needed with more

serious diseases such as MS and macular degeneration, unless you

love to

eat blueberries. The best thing about them is that, like raspberries

and blackberries, they contain less sugar than most other fruit.

 

Research highlights

 

• The antioxidant action of bilberry extracts can help prevent the

problems caused by elevated LDL (bad) cholesterol levels (Laplaud et

al., 1997).

 

• Other reported benefits based upon pharmacological studies include

wound healing, anti-ulcer action (Martin A et al., 1998), protection

against damage to tendons, ligaments and cartilage (Monboisse et

al.,

1984)

 

• Of great interest to me was a 1997 study showing that bilberry

extract

in high dosage (equivalent to 180 mg. anthocyanosides per day)

helped

animals maintain normal permeability of the blood-brain barrier

during

induced hypertension. The same research group was able to

demonstrate

this over a series of experiments done over the next two decades

(Robert

et al., 1977; Robert et al., 1997).

http://oneearthherbs.squarespace.com/important-herbs/bilberry-

blueberry-vaccinium-myrtillus-vaccinium-myrtilloides.html

 

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets