The Surprising Way Chlorella Helps Your Brain with Oxygen

When your mind begins to abandon you, you are profoundly powerless. That’s why Alzheimer’s and dementia are so scary.

Tragically, medicine offers few answers for these illnesses.

None of the drugs used for dementia actually stop memory loss. They just seem to slow down the progression a bit. And these medications come with side effects like gastrointestinal problems that often make it difficult for people to continue using them at the recommended dosage.

In stark contrast, when it comes to strategies to keep your brain fit, natural health has far more satisfying answers. And chlorella shows promise as one of these natural solutions…

Chlorella’s Proven Brain Power Boost

We’ve known for a while that chlorella can help stave off memory loss.

In 1989, the Kanazawa Medical College Department of Serology conducted a study to find out if chlorella would be effective in keeping memory sharp. A total of 49 men and women were selected for the study. All of them were experiencing memory loss. The participants were divided into a control group and a group that received ten chlorella tablets and a “cup” of extract three times a day. The chlorella was administered for a period of six months.

More than two-thirds of the participants benefited from Chlorella supplementation. In all, 32% of seniors who took chlorella showed signs of some improvement, while 36% experienced a complete end to memory loss. The control group and the remaining 32% of patients who took chlorella worsened.[2] However, the researchers noted that most of these patients who took chlorella but showed no benefit also suffered from brain bleeds before the study began.

While the results of this initial small-scale trial excited researchers, no one was able to pinpoint why chlorella seemed to help.

Some research published in 2013 sheds some light on this question. And it appears that some of these responses stem from the way our brains use oxygen.

The oxygen paradox

See, your brain is a hungry organ. Although it is only 2% of your body weight, you consume about 20% of your calories. Have you ever noticed how you feel the urge to snack when you’re doing heavy mental work? Your brain is craving fuel to do its job.

To metabolize this fuel, your brain uses oxygen. Oxygen keeps the fires of life burning throughout your body, and most notably in your gas-guzzling brain.

However, there is a downside to all this calorie burning. When your brain uses oxygen to metabolize nutrients, it also produces dangerous oxidized molecules. You have probably heard of these molecules before. They are also known as free radicals.

These free radicals continue to wreak further havoc throughout your body, including, ironically, the very cells your body relies on to carry oxygen to your brain: Red blood cells.

It turns out that people with Alzheimer’s disease have abnormally high levels of oxidized fats in the cell membranes of red blood cells. Since red blood cells are responsible for carrying oxygen to the starved brain, some researchers speculate that these impaired red blood cells may be related to brain deterioration. If these cells can’t transport oxygen properly, your brain may be missing out on this essential element.

Additionally, older people with Alzheimer’s disease have significantly lower levels of the antioxidant nutrient lutein in their red blood cells. Lutein provides antioxidant protection to fats like those in cell membranes that are so vulnerable to oxidation.

In 2013, a group of Japanese researchers decided to see if antioxidant-rich chlorella could help with this problem. Chlorella is rich in lutein and beta-carotene, a nutrient from the same family as lutein.

A group of 12 healthy older adults participated in the study. Half received 8 grams of Chlorella tablets each day for 2 months. This amount of chlorella provided them with 10.67 mg of lutein per day. This is slightly more than the 10 mg of lutein that is normally recommended. This is the amount of lutein in half a cup of cooked spinach.

The other half took placebo pills.

After a month of taking the Chlorella tablets, the researchers noted a significant increase in the levels of lutein and carotene in the participants’ blood. However, they still did not see significant changes in the oxidized fats in the red blood cells.

Within two months, however, this changed. Lutein levels in red blood cells were nearly 5 times higher than at the start of the study. Even more impressive, the level of oxidized fats in the cell membranes of the red blood cells of the same group that took chlorella had been reduced by half!

This study adds an important chapter to the story we are beginning to piece together about how Chlorella helps the brain stay healthy. Chlorella’s rich supply of lutein seemed to make a noticeable difference in protecting red blood cells from oxidation.[2] And consequently, it may also be the key to keeping your brain healthy.

Keep your brain healthy with oxygen… and with oxygen

Feeding your brain can be a challenge! It’s not easy to find the balance between not getting enough oxygen… and protecting your brain from the ravages of oxygen. This is why we have such a sophisticated body that knows how to use nutrition intelligently.

All you need to do is make sure your body gets what it needs. And, as this research indicates, chlorella can be a powerful ally in doing this.

However (as this research also shows) it is important to focus on nutrition for the long term. While your body will appreciate any dose of good nutrients you give it, the real benefits come with a long-term commitment to good nutrition.

Sources:

[1] Effects of long-term administration of chlorella preparations on the progression of aging in humans. Scientific Reports on Chlorella in Japan, 1992; Silpaque Publishing, Inc. Kyoto, Japan.

[2] Miyazawa T et al. Chlorella ingestion reduced the amount of oxidized erythrocyte membrane lipids in elderly Japanese people. Journal of Petroleum Sciences, 2013 62(11).

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