Pomegranate Juice
Punica Granatum
 Drinking
Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices, especially
Pomegranate, lowers Alzheimer's Risk By 50 to 70 Percent
in New Study.
A new animal study published in the journal Neurobiology
of Disease has found that dietary intake of
antioxidant-rich pomegranate juice may reduce the
buildup of harmful proteins associated with Alzheimer's
disease by half. Researchers from Loma Linda University
in California believe that Alzheimer's may be caused by
the buildup of plaque from deposits associated with
brain cell death due to oxidation, called beta-amyloid
deposits. Pomegranate juice, which is high in
antioxidant polyphenols, may offer protection against
the oxidative stress that causes beta-amyloid deposits.
Richard
Hartman of Loma Linda (Calif.) University and his
colleagues worked with mice that were genetically
predisposed to develop Alzheimer's-like symptoms,
including buildups in the brain of a protein called
beta-amyloid. The researchers separated the animals into
two groups. Starting at 6 months of age, which is young
adulthood in mice, one group had pomegranate-juice
concentrate added to its drinking water in amounts that
approximated a glass or two of the juice per day for a
person. The second group received water without the
concentrate but with as much sugar as the juice mix had.
In a study published in the September issue of The
American Journal of Medicine, researchers followed
almost 2000 subjects for up to 10 years and found that
the risk for developing Alzheimer's disease was reduced
by 76% for those who drank fresh fruit and vegetable
juices more than 3 times per week compared with those
who drank juices less than once per week. A lower
reduction (16%) was obtained for juice consumption once
or twice per week.
September 1, 2006 - People who drank three or more
servings of fresh fruit and vegetable juices per week
had a 76 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's
disease than those who drank juice less than once per
week, according to a large new study. Even drinking
fresh juice once or twice per week was found to reduce
the risk by 16 percent "We found that frequent drinking
of fresh fruit and vegetable juices was associated with
a substantially decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease,"
said lead author Qi Dai, MD, PhD., assistant professor
of Medicine. "These findings are new and suggest that
fresh fruit and vegetable juices may play an important
role in delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease," he
added.
Professor Dai began to suspect that another class of
antioxidant chemicals, known as polyphenols, could play
a role. Polyphenols are non-vitamin antioxidants common
in the diet and particularly abundant in teas, juices
and wines. Most polyphenols exist primarily in the skins
and peels of fruits and vegetables. Recent studies have
shown that polyphenols (like resveratrol in wine) extend
maximum lifespan by 59 percent and delay age-dependent
decay of cognitive performance in animal models
Sources:
"This study is the first to show beneficial effects
(both behavioral and neuropathological) of pomegranate
juice in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease,' lead
researcher Richard Hartman, Loma Linda University,
California.
Pomegranate juice shown to halt Alzheimer's disease
progression, The study is "Fruit and Vegetable Juices
and Alzheimer's Disease: The Kame Project" and appears
in The American Journal of Medicine, Volume 119, Issue 9
(September 2006), a themed issue featuring
gastroenterology and nutrition, published by Elsevier.
Pomegranate: The Ultimate Health Food, By Robert A.
Newman, Ephraim P. Lansky, and Melissa Lynn Block, Pub.
Public Health Publications, Inc., 2007 |
