A common sight that fills me with amazement and a degree of wistful envy is that of young kids on their skate boards or bicycles, executing quick maneuvers in space that I know would have been the death of me even18 years ago, when I turned 50.
The natural order of things is that we decline in strength as we age but that serious physical activity can retard the rate of decline. (A Jack Lalanne can still perform prodigious acts of strength.) Exercise furthermore can even reverse this decline somewhat, as I can testify from personal experience.
But getting back to those kids on bikes and skate boards, as we age our motor skills and our sense of balance also diminish. Whether or not there are exercises that can halt or reverse the decline in these areas seems to be debatable.
But some very interesting experiments carried out recently by Dr. James A. Joseph of Tufts University suggest that diet (specifically a diet rich in blueberries) may have a positive effect on motor skills and diet (provided that what works for laboratory rats may also work for humans).
The subjects of these experiments were rats which were 19-months old at the outset (equivalent to humans aged 60 to 65) and 21-months old at the conclusions (equivalent to humans 70 to 75). The rats were divided into four groups. The diet of one group was supplemented by Vitamin E; of another, by extract of spinach; of another by extract of strawberry; and of the fourth group by extract of blueberry.
The test of balance involved a narrow rod spinning at increasing speed. Young rats can remain on this rod for an average 13 seconds, old rats without any dietary supplementation for only 5 seconds. The rats with supplements of spinach, Vitamin E, or strawberry showed no improvement. But the 21-month old rats who on extract of blueberry stayed on the rods for 10-11 seconds.
The cause seems to be the extraordinary chemistry of blueberries, their richness in substances like ellagic acid and, crucially, in flavonoids like quercetin and several anthocynanins (such as malvidin, petunidine, and others).
An account of the Tufts experiments can be found at
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2000/mar00-cover1a.html
Can blueberries help restore the our sense of balance as we get older? It would be wonderful if they could, and I’m a great candidate--me on a bike is a scary sight!
For several months I’ve been eating half a cup of blueberries every day, also trying to balance on first my right and then my left foot, while blindfolded. It’s anecdotal evidence, but for what it’s worth I’ve gone from 10-15 seconds to 30-40.
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