Dark chocolate, berries may help boost memory and relieve stress: Study

Struggling with memory and stress issues A bite of dark chocolate or a handful of berries may help boost your memory levels and also cut down stress according to an animal study The improved memory and cognition may be due to flavanols found abundantly in cocoa and berries said the team from Shibaura Institute of Technology JapanThe study published in the journal Current Research in Food Science demonstrated that flavanol intake can trigger wideranging physiological responses resembling those induced by exercise functioning as a moderate stressor that activates the central nervous system and enhances attention arousal and memory Flavanols also protect against neuronal damageldquoStress responses elicited by flavanols in this study are similar to those elicited by physical exercise Thus moderate intake of flavanols despite their poor bioavailability can improve the health and quality of liferdquo said Dr Yasuyuki Fujii from the Shibaura InstituteIn the study the team investigated how flavanols affect the nervous system through sensory stimulation They tested the hypothesis that the astringent taste a dry puckering rough or sandpapery sensation in the mouth of flavanols may act as a direct signal to the brainThe researchers conducted experiments in 10weekold mice administering flavanols orally at doses of 25 mgkg or 50 mgkg body weight while control mice received only distilled waterBehavioural tests showed that flavanolfed mice exhibited greater motor activity exploratory behaviour and improved learning and memory compared to controlsFlavanols enhanced neurotransmitter activity across several brain regions Dopamine and its precursor levodopa norepinephrine and its metabolite normetanephrine were elevated in the brain immediately after the administrationThese chemicals regulate motivation attention stress response and arousalFurthermore enzymes critical for noradrenaline synthesis tyrosine hydroxylase and dopaminebetahydroxylase and transport vesicular monoamine transporter 2 were upregulated strengthening the signalling capacity of the noradrenergic systemIn addition biochemical analysis revealed higher urinary levels of catecholamines hormones released during stress as well as increased activity in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus PVN a brain region central to stress regulationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever