A glass of pomegranate juice every day may help

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A daily glass of antioxidant-rich pomegranate juice could halve the build-up of harmful proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease, says a new animal study from the USA.

"This study is the first to show beneficial effects (both behavioral and neuropathological) of pomegranate juice in an animal model of AD," wrote lead researcher Richard Hartman from Loma Linda University in California.

Although the mechanism of Alzheimers is not clear, more support is gathering for the build-up of plaque from beta-amyloid deposits. The deposits are associated with an increase in brain cell damage and death from oxidative stress. It is against the oxidative stress that the polyphenols appear to offer protection.

Hartman and his co-workers supplemented the diets of transgenic mice (APPsw/Tg2576) with pomegranate juice. This strain of mice are engineered to express an amyloid precursor protein (APP) that leads to an early onset of neurological degeneration and subsequently Alzheimer's disease.

When the researchers examined the quantity of beta-amyloid deposits in the brain cortex of the mice, it was found that the pomegranate juice-supplemented groups had 50 per cent less of the protein than the non-supplemented group.Being the first study into the potential protective role of pomegranate concentrate and the antioxidant polyphenols contained within, significantly more study is needed. The data is based on pomegranate concentrate and no attempt was made by the authors to discriminate the potentially 'active' biochemicals in the fruit that may offer protection independently or synergistically, although they said the evidence suggests a complimentary effect of the polyphenols.

"These results suggest that further studies to validate and determine the mechanism of these effects, as well as whether substances in PJ may be useful in Alzheimer's Disease, should be considered," they concluded.

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posted YVN