Cherry juice improves brain performance

According to a new study, elderly people wishing to improve their cognitive performance would do well to drink plenty of Montmorency sour cherry juice. The improvements observed in subjects who drank this juice may be due to "bioactive compounds" naturally present in cherries.

Cherry juice improves brain performance
University of Delaware scientists began by selecting 34 healthy volunteers aged 65 to 73. Then they were randomly divided into two groups - one group consumed 480 ml of cherry juice every day for 12 weeks (half the juice in the morning and the other half in the evening), while the other group consumed a placebo drink.

None of the participants were taking any medications that could affect brain function and maintained their usual diet and physical activity levels throughout the test period. Moreover, none of them knew whether they were getting cherry juice or placebo.

After 12 weeks, it was found that subjects who drank cherry juice had a 23% reduction in errors when performing an episodic visual memory task. In contrast, control group members showed little or no improvement for the same task, designed to assess visual memory and new learning.

In addition, compared to baseline values, cherry juice drinkers showed a 5% increase in their satisfaction with their ability to remember many things. As well as a 4% reduction in movement time, which is a measure of the speed of response to visual stimuli.

As well as a 3% improvement in sustained visual attention, which is a measure of visual information processing; and an 18% reduction in errors when performing a spatial working memory task, which is used to evaluate memory usage.

The beneficial effects would come from bioactive compounds
"The potential beneficial effects of sour cherries can be linked to the bioactive compounds they possess, including polyphenols, anthocyanins and melanin," said Sheau Ching Chai, lead author of an article in this study. "These effects may also be related to a decrease in blood pressure, described in a previous study we conducted with the same population, because blood pressure can affect blood flow to the brain. »

Despite promising initial results, scientists say a longer-term trial involving more participants is needed to confirm the beneficial effects of cherry juice consumption.