Norwegian scientists will test for substances in blueberries that can have a preventive effect against cognitive failure and dementia.
“We want to test a blueberry capsule to find out if the blueberry’s effect can prevent dementia,” said Arne Exner Nakling, specialist in geriatrics and internal medicine at Betanien Hospital in Bergen to NRK news.
The working hypothesis is that an important part of the dementia disease consists of inflammation.
“We believe that the strong antioxidant effects found in the blueberry dye will give measurable and positive effects,” said Nakling.
In Norway, almost 80,000 people are affected by some form of dementia today.
“If we can show that dementia is an inflammatory disease, then we can probably find traces of it in a blood test,” he said.
Those who participate in the survey will be taking four capsules a day, equivalent to half a kilo of blueberries. They will be taken for 24 weeks.
‘’Half of them get blueberries in the capsules, the rest “nerve capsules”. Along the way, they will go through different memory tests to find out if we can see a difference, said Nakling.
Sesam, a regional center of expertise in Health West, has received NOK 9 million from the National Association for Public Health to complete the project.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
