"Berries for Inflammation and Osteoarthritis Treatment"
How might berries improve human health, healthy aging, and quality of life?
Maybe, due to their anti- inflammatory effects,
since inflammation can be an underlying contributing factor
in the development, progression, and complications
of a number of chronic diseases.
Higher intake of anthocyanins—the brightly colored pigments in berries—
has been associated with anti-inflammatory effects,
which may be a key component underlying the associated reduction
in chronic disease risk.
But these are all just associations.
You can’t prove cause and effect, until…
you put it to the test.
A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial
found that blueberry smoothies could turn off inflammation genes.
(This is measuring the expression of pro-inflammatory genes
in white blood cells taken from individuals
before and after six weeks of drinking placebo smoothies with no blueberries.)
They got worse over time.
Six weeks later more inflammatory chemicals pouring out,
whereas the blueberry group started out about the same at week zero,
but six weeks of daily blueberries and the expression
of inflammatory genes went down.
In addition to attenuating inflammation,
they demonstrated that blueberry consumption was able to
significantly decrease the levels of free radicals in their bloodstream:
no change in the placebo group,
but after six weeks of blueberry smoothies,
the amount of free radicals in their blood was extinguished by half.
OK, but does all that antioxidant and anti-inflammatory power
actually translate into clinical benefits?
For example, what is the effect of blueberry consumption
on recovery after excessive weight lifting-induced muscle damage?
A randomized cross-over study: a blueberry smoothie or
an antioxidant-matched placebo smoothie 5 and 10 hours
prior to, and then 12 and 36 hours after, exercise-induced muscle damage.
The smoothies were about a cup and a half of frozen blueberries,
a banana, and apple juice, or without the berries,
but dextrose and vitamin C added to match it
for calories and antioxidant power.
Even so, the blueberries worked better at mopping up free radicals.
Here’s the oxidative stress without the blueberries—
it goes up and stays up—
but with the blueberries it comes right down.
Yeah, but what we care about is the recovery of muscle strength,
so you can jump right back into training.
Same drop in peak torque 12 hours later,
but a day later, significantly faster restoration of
peak muscle strength, demonstrating that the ingestion
of blueberries can accelerate recovery;
something that may be especially relevant to athletes
who compete over successive days.
That’s all well and good, but what about using berries
to treat inflammatory diseases like arthritis?
Yes, they may have protective effects against arthritis in a rat,
significantly reducing “paw volume” (how swollen their paw gets when you
inject it with some inflammatory irritant),
but there had never been any human arthritis berry studies…
until now.
Remember that amazing study where strawberries alone
could reverse the progression of precancerous lesions?
The strawberries were dramatically down regulating pro-inflammatory genes.
Give strawberries to diabetics for six weeks,
and not only does their diabetes get better,
their C-reactive protein levels, a marker of systemic inflammation,
drops 18 percent.
Even just a single meal can help.
Have people eat a largely unhealthy breakfast,
and the level of inflammatory markers goes up over the next six hours,
but less so if you added just five large strawberries to the meal.
So, could strawberries improve pain and inflammation
in confirmed knee osteoarthritis?
No fair that the title ruined the suspense.
But yes, osteoarthritis patients randomized to get
like a pint and a half of strawberries a day for 12 weeks and yeah,
certain inflammatory markers plummeted on the strawberries,
but did they actually feel any better?
Significant reductions in constant pain, intermittent pain, and total pain.
The first clinical study on the effects of berries on human arthritis
found that a simple dietary intervention, the addition of berries to one’s diet,
may have a significant impact on pain, inflammation, and overall quality of life
in obese adults with osteoarthritis.