Blueberries can ward off heart disease

Want to ward off heart disease? Eat blueberries daily, recommends a new study. Blueberries are already known for helping to guard against cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

Want to ward off heart disease? Eat blueberries daily, recommends a new study.

Blueberries are already known for helping to guard against cancer and Alzheimer's disease. Now, researchers, led by the US Department of Agriculture, claim that the fruit can also help prevent a cardiac arrest or stroke.

They have found that blueberries fight hardening of the arteries, which often causes a cardiac arrest or stroke.

The researchers have based their findings on an analysis of an experiment on mice who were fed blueberries. The study found a big reduction in blocked arteries of the laboratory animals, the Daily Express reported.

According to them, this is the first direct evidence that they could beat heart disease that's said to be the biggest killer in the western world.

The researchers, based in Arkansas, now want to discover whether giving youngsters a diet of blueberries while growing up would help protect against artery hardening in later life.

Lead researcher Xianli Wu said: "Prevention may be specially important in light of the epidemic of childhood obesity, which increases the risk of artery hardening."