Group items tagged

Eating some kinds of berries can help your brain stay healthy by helping to clean out toxic material linked to mental decline, including age-related memory loss, a new study shows.

Experts have long known that as the body ages it suffers “oxidative damage” and is less likely to be able to protect itself against cancer, heart disease and age-related mental decline.

But Poulose and his colleague found that strawberries, blueberries and acai berries activate brain cells called microglia. These cells, according to the ACS, act as the brain’s “housekeeper.” In a process called autophagy, they clean out “biochemical debris that would otherwise interfere with brain function.”