If someone told you at the beginning of the previous century that the medical benefits of cranberries included possible prevention of heart disease, among other things, you would probably just laugh it off. However, scientists have reason to believe that cranberries can actually just fend off any cardiovascular ailment.

This was, of course, initially greeted with a lot of skepticism. However, an investigation by experts in the field has set these doubts to rest, at least for the time being. The effectiveness of cranberries in preventing heart disease was determined by Dr. Ted Wilson, another scientist at Harvard. Dr. Wilson showed, through this test, that the cholesterol level was very easily controllable once the patient drank cranberry juice that was not too rich on calories. When a patient drinks low-cal cranberry juice, there is a perceptible change in the blood pressure levels of the patient. This helps a person to remain calm and placid by nature.

Besides controlling cholesterol levels, cranberries also help increase the high density lipoprotein (HDL). This may sound like bad news, but it is not, as HDL is basically not the cholesterol that causes the problem. It is the good cholesterol that the body needs to maintain good health.

Cranberries and Cancer

You might be thinking that as the article progresses, the claims regarding the ability of cranberries to counter and prevent various diseases are far-fetched. However, scientific evidence is piling up, all of which helps dispel these myths and help establish the genuineness and authenticity of the claim.

A very exciting piece of information a while back states that cranberries can be used to combat cancer as well. The main reason for this could be the presence of antioxidants in the cranberries. We will discuss more about the possibility of cranberries contributing to even the fight against cancer in another article. We will discuss this later simply because there is a whole lot of information, all of which absolutely up to date, since this development itself is brand new. The amount of information cannot fit into this article.

Cranberries and Cerebral Strokes

This is another development that is still unfolding. While the impact of cranberry juice on cerebral strokes in humans is not known, experiments are being conducted to understand the relation, if any, of the consumption of cranberry juice and its impact on the patient about to suffer from to a cerebral stroke.

Currently, experiments in this area are being carried out on rats in the laboratory. Scientists, led by Catherine Neto of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, are trying to tie in the fact of the presence of the cranberry juice in the patient’s system and the subsequent lowering of his stroke’s severity. Initial studies indicate that one of the main driving forces behind the wide range of healing powers of the cranberry juice is its near-miraculous anti-oxidant mechanism.

In the next article, we will take a detailed look at how, if at all, cranberries may actually be helping fighting cancer, in detail.