isn't this interesting?, a natural preventative.


--- Meir Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/print.php?url=/releases/2005/07/050701062536
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> Source: Washington University School of Medicine
> Date: 2005-07-01
> URL:
>
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/07/050701062536.htm
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Pomegranate Juice For Moms May Help Babies Resist
> Brain Injury
> St. Louis, June 28, 2005 -- Expectant mothers at
> risk of premature birth
> may want to consider drinking pomegranate juice to
> help their babies
> resist brain injuries from low oxygen and reduced
> blood flow, a new
> mouse study from Washington University School of
> Medicine in St. Louis
> suggests.
>
> In humans, decreased blood flow and oxygen to the
> infant brain is linked
> to premature birth and other irregularities during
> pregnancy, birth and
> early development. The phenomenon, which is called
> hypoxia ischemia,
> causes brain injury in approximately 2 of every
> 1,000 full-term human
> births and in a very high percentage of babies born
> before 34 weeks of
> gestation. Hypoxic ischemic brain injury can lead to
> seizures, a
> degenerative condition known as hypoxic ischemic
> encephalopathy, and
> mobility impairments including cerebral palsy.
>
> When scientists temporarily lowered brain oxygen
> levels and brain blood
> flow in newborn mice whose mothers drank water mixed
> with pomegranate
> concentrate, their brain tissue loss was reduced by
> 60 percent in
> comparison to mice whose mothers drank sugar water
> or other fluids.
>
> "Hypoxic ischemic brain injury in newborns is very
> difficult to treat,
> and right now there's very little we can do to stop
> or reverse its
> consequences," explains senior author David
> Holtzman, M.D., the Andrew
> B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the
> Department of
> Neurology. "Most of our efforts focus on stopping it
> when it happens,
> but if we could treat everyone who's at risk
> preventively, we may be
> able to reduce the impacts of these kinds of
> injuries."
>
> The study, which appears in the June issue of
> Pediatric Research, was
> conducted in collaboration with POM Wonderful, a
> U.S. producer of
> pomegranates and pomegranate juice, and scientists
> at the University of
> California, Los Angeles. Lead author David Loren,
> M.D., formerly a
> neonatal critical care fellow in the Department of
> Pediatrics, performed
> the research. He is now at the University of
> Washington in Seattle.
>
> Holtzman's lab has been studying neonatal brain
> injury for more than a
> decade by temporarily reducing oxygen levels and
> blood flow in the
> brains of 7-day-old mouse and rat pups. The model
> produces brain
> injuries similar to those seen in human infants
> injured by hypoxia
> ischemia.
>
> Pomegranates contain very high concentrations of
> polyphenols, substances
> also found in grapes, red wine, and berries that
> scientists have linked
> to potential neuroprotective and anti-aging effects.
>
> Scientists gave pregnant female mice water with
> pomegranate juice, plain
> water, sugar water or vitamin C water to drink
> during the last third of
> pregnancy and while they suckled their pups for
> seven days after birth.
>
> After performing the procedures that exposed mouse
> pups to low oxygen
> levels, scientists examined the brains, comparing
> damage to the cortex,
> hippocampus and the striatum. Researchers who
> conducted the examinations
> were unaware of what the pup's mother drank. Mice
> whose mothers drank
> pomegranate juice had brain injuries less than half
> the size of those
> found in other mice.
>
> Much of the damage from hypoxia ischemia results
> when oxygen-starved
> brain cells self-destruct via a process known as
> apoptosis. Scientists
> found an enzyme linked to apoptosis, caspase-3, was
> 84 percent less
> active in mice whose mothers drank pomegranate
> juice.
>
> Holtzman says the results suggest the need for
> studies of pomegranate
> juice's effects in humans, but he cautions that
> because of the relative
> unpredictability of hypoxia ischemia in newborns, it
> would be difficult
> to assemble a sufficiently large study group.
>
> Hypoxic ischemic brain damage is frequently
> associated with premature
> delivery. The lungs, brain and circulatory systems
> in some premature
> babies are insufficiently mature to supply the brain
> with enough
> nutrients and oxygen outside the womb. Scientists
> know some of the
> factors that increase risk of premature birth,
> including diabetes, low
> economic status, youthful mothers, weakness in the
> cervix and a personal
> or familial history of miscarriage.
>
> "One might advise this group that studies in animals
> have suggested
> drinking pomegranate juice may reduce the risk of
> injury from hypoxia
> ischemia," he says.
>
> Holtzman's findings and other research into the
> potentially beneficial
> effects of pomegranate juice, red wine, and other
> natural foods form a
> neurological parallel to chemoprevention, an area of
> oncology research
> focused on finding naturally-occurring substances in
> foods that reduce
> the chances of developing cancer.
>
> "For pregnant women previously interested in the
> neuroprotective effects
> of red wine, these results suggest that pomegranate
> juice may provide an
> alternative during pregnancy, when alcohol
> consumption is unacceptable
> because it increases risk of birth defects,"
> Holtzman says.
>
> Holtzman's group is attempting to isolate the
> neuroprotective
> ingredients in pomegranate juice as a possible
> prelude to concentrating
> those ingredients and testing their ability to
> reduce brain injury. They
> also plan to investigate the possibility that
> polyphenols from
> pomegranates and other natural foods can slow other
> neurological
> disorders including Alzheimer's disease.
>
>
>
> ###
> Loren DJ, Seeram NP, Schulman RN, Holtzman DM.
> Maternal dietary
> supplementation with pomegranate juice is
> neuroprotective in an animal
> model of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury.
> Pediatric Research,
> June 2005, 858-864.
>
> Funding from the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Revocable
> Trust and the
> National Institutes of Health supported this
> research.
>
> Washington University School of Medicine's full-time
> and volunteer
>
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