Pomegranate juice could help kidney patients

Source: The News

Date: November 23, 2010

There may be a seed of truth amidst the many health claims for pomegranate juice, researchers said, at least for kidney patients on dialysis. 
They found that such patients who gulped a few cups of the tart liquid every week lowered their chances of infections, the second-leading killer of the more than 350,000 Americans on dialysis.

The findings were presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s meeting in Denver — aka Renal Week — and have not yet been vetted by independent experts. “It’s a very intriguing study,” said Dr. Frank Brosius, who heads the nephrology division at the University of Michigan Health System and was not involved in the research.

“I certainly don’t know of anything else that would have such a profound effect,” he told Reuters Health, cautioning at the same time that the study needed to be replicated by other centres.

The results come in the wake of a US crackdown on allegedly false adver tising by POM Wonderful, which claims its pomegranate products can help everything from heart disease to prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction.The researchers, led by Dr. Batya Kristal of Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya, did not use POM juice, but a brand sold by Naturafood.

In laboratory tests, Kristal told Reuters Health, that brand ranked highest in polyphenol antioxidants, which can reduce cell damage caused by so-called free radicals.Antioxidants are found in different levels in fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries or broccoli.
“Pomegranate juice was shown in the last three years to contain the highest levels of polyphenols among a variety of products,” Kristal said. 

The researchers figured an antioxidant-rich diet might help patients with kidney failure, because the level of free radicals in their blood increases as the blood circulates through the dialysis device. That, in turn, may rev up inflammation in their tissues.

In the study, funded by the Israeli Ministry of Health, 101 patients were randomly assigned to either a concoction without pomegranate juice, or the real thing.

After downing about half a cup three times a week over a year, those who drank the real thing had a reduction of inflammatory molecules in their blood. They also made fewer trips to the hospital.“We found significant reductions in hospitalization due to infections, with more than 40 percent reduction in the first hospitalization and 80 percent in the second,” said Kristal.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/23-11-2010/Islamabad/16786.htm