cognitive decline

Boost your gray matter with this blue fruit

We all forget life's little details from time to time.

As we age, however, these lapses in memory and focus can become a bit more troublesome.

But British researchers have found that you can help keep your mind and memory sharp by making a delicious addition to your diet that's small… but mighty.

According to a new study, you can improve your brain function and memory by eating blueberries!

In the study, healthy seniors drank either concentrated blueberry juice (the equivalent of 8 ounces of fresh blueberries) or a placebo every day for three months.

Based on their performance on cognitive tests at the end of the study, blueberry juice drinkers showed improvements in brain activity, brain function, and working memory – while the placebo group didn't improve significantly.

This could be because, as MRI brain scans showed, blood flow to the brain significantly increased after the blueberry boost.

If you’ve been reading my eTips (and my monthly Nutrition & Healing newsletter) for a while now, you know that our bodies NEED that blood to FLOW!

Now, I should note that all participants in the study -- both the blueberry and placebo groups – had already been eating more than five fruits and vegetables each day as part of their normal diets.

But there was something about blueberries in particular. So, if you're struggling with memory and focus, try adding blueberries into your daily meals.

Pile blueberries into a bowl of Paleo (no-grain) granola at breakfast, toss them into a spinach salad at lunch, grab a handful with nuts as a snack, or top them with some Greek yogurt for dessert.

You can also drink your blueberries! Blueberry juice has become widely available, though you’ll want to make sure there’s no added sugar. You may want to opt instead for blueberry powder or blueberry juice concentrate – like what was used in the new study – which are available at your local health food store.

The only possible side effect? A blue tongue!

To Your Health,

Dr. Glenn S. Rothfeld, M.D.

P.S. Studies have also shown that eating plenty of fruits and veggies can boost your brain volume – and if there’s one thing you don’t want to shrink as you get older, it’s your brain.

I’ve found something else that can help put the brakes on that shrinkage – and I’ve included it in my latest breakthrough formula, NeuroBrin.

We’ve hardly been able to keep up with the demand for it, but I’ve saved a few bottles just for you. Claim them right here.

You fall asleep... and you wake up with a new hip or a stent in your heart… or without a couple of cataracts.

Surgeons can do some pretty amazing things once they’ve put you “under!”

And if your doc has recommended an operation for you, the promise of those "clear-cut" results can sure make you want to sign up.

But even if your surgery is minor or elective... and there are no complications during the procedure... letting someone slice into you always comes with its share of risks.

And according to a new study, surgery can even set you up for "brain drain" -- because going under the knife can compromise your memory and mental clarity for YEARS to come.

In the study, Mayo Clinic researchers gave a group of nearly 2,000 folks over 70 cognitive tests four times over a five-year period.

Now, given that everyone's cognitive function declines somewhat with the passage of time, you'd expect that these folks' scores would be A LITTLE worse at the end of the study than at the beginning.

And that proved to be the case.

But the participants who'd had anesthesia and surgery at any point in the 20 years prior to the start of the study had a FASTER rate of cognitive decline than those who'd never had surgery.

What's more, the researchers found that those who had surgery during the five-year study period had a faster rate of cognitive decline AFTER surgery than they'd had before.

That means going under the knife may speed up cognitive decline that's already underway... or "unmask" problems with memory and thinking that were previously under the surface.

Either way, there's no GAIN for your BRAIN!

And while all of the participants in the new study were over 70, previous studies have shown that even middle-aged folks score lower on memory tests following surgery than they do prior to it .
The theory is that the drugs that PUT you under can actually activate memory-loss receptors in your brain.

Plus, any surgery will ramp up your body’s inflammatory response -- and we know that ongoing inflammation is a risk factor for cognitive decline.

So, if you want to hold on to your precious memories, don't let the mainstream be too quick to cut you open.

Obviously, certain surgeries really do save lives in cases of critical emergencies. But for chronic conditions, surgery can often have questionable results.

For example, previous studies have shown that surgery isn’t better than active surveillance for prostate cancer… knee surgery won't help arthritis… and angioplasty is worthless for many heart patients.

You only want to choose surgery when it's absolutely necessary or as a very LAST resort -- after you've tried natural approaches to heal the root cause of whatever ails you.