Blueberries Studies and My Daughter

Note: This post was set into private mode when I removed a bunch of postings in October last year. Tonight I went over the content and I didn’t see anything that put it into the banning category so I just updated and reposted it here.

There are many studies on health benefits of Blueberries and the like. A ‘blueberries’ search word in pubmed site returns 319 entries (as of Apr 21, 2009. Today the total number is 376). But this one is very personal. 

During lunch break today, I received a note from my daughter:

If you go to www.umich.edu and then click on the link next to the picture of the blueberries, that’s actually an article about my research lab. Also, that study is the one that i worked on in particular, so, thought that u’d be interested in looking at it.

Even before closing her email, I have already on that link and found the following press release from the University of Michigan:
Blueberries make their mark on cardiovascular and diabetes risks, U-M animal study finds .

By April 21, 2009, the story of their finding has been picked up by almost every major news outlet on the Internet.

To tell you the truth, I’m not really surprised with the reported findings. After all, I have always taken a cocktail consisting of OPC-3 mixed with other Isotonic products including the Isotonic Maximum High ORAC Formula. If you click on Key Ingredients Tab when you go to this ORAC page, you will find the following information:

Mixed Berry Extracts 653 mg

Each serving of Maximum ORAC contains 653 mg of berry extracts from high-ORAC value foods such as elderberry, blueberry and cranberry. These berry extracts contain an assortment of bioflavonoids, organic acids and other polyphenolic compounds that work synergistically to defend against free radical damage.

The thing that thrilled me most was the fact that my daughter is on the research team reported above. I have heard her telling stories on feeding or disecting rats in her lab, but I didn’t know that all these were related to a topic that is closer to my heart. As a junior member in the team, I don’t expect she would know a lot about the implications of their research, particularly at the time where she is too busy with her final semester. However, I feel vindicated that at least she knows now that her Dad is not taking some strange snake oil kind of supplements, but the one with real benefits to his health. I’m really grateful for the opportunity she got.

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