Why Pomegranate Juice Is ‘Roto-Rooter’ For The Arteries

Millions take toxic cholesterol and blood pressure lowering drugs that may do nothing to reduce heart disease specific mortality. Pomegranate juice, on the other hand, actually reverses underlying pathologies of the cardiovascular system that lead to bypass surgeries and heart attacks. 

One of the most amazing clinical studies ever performed has been hidden away behind a pay wall for over a decade. When I first stumbled upon this clinical pearl two years ago, in the form of the publicly indexed abstract on pubmed.gov, my jaw nearly dropped. I’ve finally acquired the full version of the study and am now excited to report on its implications in greater depth to help raise awareness about the power of pomegranate to heal the body, and I believe, save millions lives from premature death from heart disease.

The most eye-opening line in the abstract reveals why our original report on the study, How To Clean Your Arteries With One Simple Fruit, received over 500,000 social media shares:

“Pomegranate juice consumption resulted in a significant IMT [intima media thickness] reduction, by up to 30%, after 1 year.”

We shouldn’t be that surprised at how great an interest there is among the masses in safe, delicious, and affordable drug alternatives that have the power to unclog arteries? Certainly the drugs aren’t working, with the most popular class — cholesterol-lowering statins — being linked to over 300 adverse health effects. But sometimes the technical language of medicine gets confusing: what does this pomegranate-induced reduction in the intima media thickness (IMT) of the arteries mean?

Reducing The Intima Media Thickness: Reversing Atherosclerosis

The intima media is the middle portion of the arteries that become inflamed and fill up with plaque comprised of oxidized fats, immune cells, and their debris, in the condition known colloquially as “blocked arteries.” As the intima media grows thicker, less space is available for the blood contents to move through the opening (lumen) of the arteries. When the arteries eventually close or are blocked, catastrophic injury or death may follow. Therefore, anything that can safely reduce, or better, reverse intima media thickening is the holy grail as far as obtaining a root cause resolution of atherosclerosis, and by implication would profoundly reduce deaths linked to cardiovascular mortality.

Indeed, in a world where the #1 cause of death is cardiovascular disease, and where we preemptively medicate millions more with drugs that only reduce surrogate markers for cardiovascular disease risk – i.e. lipoproteins carrying cholesterol – without showing any convincing evidence that it is reducing cardiovascular disease or all-cause mortality, how could something as simple and powerful as pomegranate be overlooked? In fact, if a simple daily dietary intervention is capable of regressing and/or reversing the underlying disease process in millions of fatal cardiac cases, it would seem highly unethical not to use it.

Here, we wish to bring some of the finer details of this clinical trial to light, to further substantiate the value of botanical and food-based interventions not only in preventing but treating major chronic disease processes like cardiovascular disease, the developed world’s most deadly disease.

The Pomegranate “Artery Cleaning” Clinical Trial

Published in Clinical Nutrition in 2004 and titled, “Pomegranate juice consumption for 3 years by patients with carotid artery stenosis reduces common carotid intima-media thickness, blood pressure and LDL oxidation,” Israeli researchers discovered pomegranate, administered in juice form over the course of a year, reversed plaque accumulation in the carotid arteries of patients with severe, though symptomless, carotid artery stenosis (defined as 70–90% blockage in the internal carotid arteries).

The study consisted of nineteen patients, 5 women and 14 men, aged 65-75, non-smokers. They were randomized to receive either pomegranate juice or placebo. Ten patients were in the pomegranate juice treatment group and 9 patients that did not consume pomegranate juice were in the control group. Both groups were matched with similar blood lipid and glucose concentrations, blood pressure, and with similar medication regimens which consisted of blood-pressure lowering (e.g. ACE inhibitors, β-blockers, or calcium channel blockers) and lipid lowering drugs (e.g. statins).

The ten patients in the treatment group group received 8.11 ounces (240 ml) of pomegranate juice per day, for a period of 1 year, and five out of them agreed to continue for up to 3 years.

The remarkable results were reported as follows:

“The mean intima media thickness the left and right common carotid arteries in severe carotid artery stenosis patients that consumed pomegranate juice for up to 1 year was reduced after 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of pomegranate juice consumption by 13%, 22%, 26% and 35%, respectively, in comparison to baseline values.”

You can only imagine what would happen if a pharmaceutical drug was shown to reverse plaque build up in the carotid arteries by 13% in just 3 months! This drug would be lauded the life-saving miracle drug, and not only would be promoted and sold successfully as a multi-billion dollar blockbuster, but discussion would inevitably follow as to why it should be mandated.

While these results are impressive, if not altogether groundbreaking for the field of cardiology, they may be even better than revealed in the stated therapeutic outcomes above.  When one factors in that the carotid artery stenosis increased 9% within 1 year in the control group, the pomegranate intervention group may have seen even better results than indicated by the measured regression in intima media thickness alone.  That is, if we assume that the pomegranate group had received no treatment, the thickening of their carotid arteries would have continued to progress like the control group at a rate of 9% a year, i.e. 18% within 2 years, 27% within 3 years. This could be interpreted to mean that after 3 years of pomegranate treatment, for instance, the thickening of the arteries would have been reduced over 60% beyond what would have occurred had the natural progression of the disease been allowed to continue unabated.

3 Ways How Pomegranate Heals The Cardiovascular System

The researchers identified three likely mechanisms of action behind pomegranate’s observed anti-atherosclerotic activity:

• Antioxidant properties: Subjects receiving pomegranate saw significant reductions in oxidative stress, including decreases in autoantibodies formed against ox-LDL, a form of oxidized low density lipoprotein associated with the pathological process of atherosclerosis. Decreases in oxidative stress were measurable by an increase in the blood serum enzyme paraoxonase 1 (PON1) of up to 91% after 3 years; PON1 is an enzyme whose heightened activity is associated with lower oxidative stress. All of this is highly relevant to the question of pomegranate’s anti-atherosclerotic activity because of something called the lipid peroxidation hypothesis of atherosclerosis, which assumes that it is the quality of the blood lipids (i.e. whether they are oxidized/damaged or not), and not their quantity alone that determine their cardiotoxicity/atherogenicity. Essentially, pomegranate prevents the heart disease promoting effects of oxidative stress.


• Blood Pressure Lowering Properties: The intervention resulted in significant improvement in blood pressure: the patient’s systolic blood pressure was reduced 7%, 11% ,10%, 10% and 12% after 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of pomegranate consumption, respectively, compared to values obtained before treatment. Pomegranate’s ability to reduce systolic blood pressure indicates it has a healing effect on the endothelium, or the inner lining of the artery which fails to relax fully in heart disease; a condition known as endothelial dysfunction.


• Plaque Lesion Stabilization: Because two of the ten patients on PJ (after 3 and 12 months) experienced clinical deterioration, carotid surgery was performed and the lesions were analyzed to determine the difference in their composition to those who did not receive pomegranate. The researchers noticed four distinct positive differences in the composition of the pomegranate-treated lesions:

1.     Reduced Cholesterol Content: “The cholesterol content in carotid lesions from the two patients that consumed PJ was lower by 58% and 20%, respectively, in comparison to lesions obtained from CAS patients that did not consume PJ (Fig. 3A).”

2.     Reduced Lipid Peroxides: “[T]he lipid peroxides content in lesions obtained from the patients after PJ consumption for 3 or 12 months was significantly reduced by 61% or 44%, respectively, as compared to lesions from patients that did not consume PJ (Fig. 3B).

3.     Increased Reduced Glutathione Content: “A substantial increase in the lesion reduced glutathione (GSH) content, (GSH is a major cellular antioxidant) by 2.5-fold, was observed after PJ consumption for 3 or 12 months, (Fig. 3C).

4.     Reduced LDL Oxidation: “LDL oxidation by lesions derived from the patients after PJ consumption for 3 or 12 months, was significantly (Po0.01) decreased by 43% or 32%, respectively, in comparison to LDL oxidation rates obtained by lesions from CAS patients that did not consume PJ (Fig. 3D).”

Essentially these results reveal that not only does pomegranate reduce the lesion size in the carotid arteries, but “the lesion itself may be considered less atherogenic after PJ consumption, as its cholesterol and oxidized lipid content decreased, and since its ability to oxidize LDL was significantly reduced.”

This finding is quite revolutionary, as presently, the dangers of carotid artery stenosis are understood primarily through the lesion size and not by assessing for the quality of that lesion. This dovetails with the concept that the sheer quantity of lipoproteins (i.e. “cholesterol”) in the blood can not accurately reveal whether those lipoproteins are actually harmful (atherogenic); rather, if lipoproteins are oxidized (e.g. ox-LDL) they can be harmful (or representative of a more systemic bodily imbalance), whereas non-oxidized low density lipoprotein may be considered entirely benign, if not indispensable for cardiovascular and body wide health. Indeed, in this study the researchers found the pomegranate group had increased levels of triglycerides and very low density lipoprotein, again, underscoring that the anti-atherosclerotic properties likely have more to do with the improved quality of the physiological milieu within which all our lipoproteins operate than the number of them, in and of itself.

Finally, it should be pointed out that all the patients in this study were undergoing conventional, drug-based care for cardiovascular disease, e.g. cholesterol- and blood pressure-lowering agents. Not only did the pomegranate treatment not appear to interfere with their drugs, making it a suitable complementary/adjunct therapy for those on pharmaceuticals, but it should be pointed out that the control group’s condition got progressively worse (e.g. the mean IMT increased 9% within 1 year), speaking to just how ineffective drugs are, or how they may even contribute to the acceleration of the disease process itself.

Pomegranate’s 100+ Health Benefits

Believe it or not, pomegranate has many other ways in which it can help to heal the cardiovascular system, as well as other organ systems. Our research project has identified over 100 distinct health benefits of pomegranate: View the Pomegranate Research Database. Learn more by reading some of our other articles on the topic:

• 100+ Health Properties of Pomegranate Now Includes Diabetes


• Amazing Fact: Pomegranate Can Serve As A Backup Ovary


• Pomegranate-Polyphenol Food Blend Reduces Prostate PSA Rise

© April 17, 2018 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.

The post Why Pomegranate Juice Is ‘Roto-Rooter’ For The Arteries appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

Turmeric Rich Curry’s Amazing Artery-Opening Properties

Did you know that a single culinary serving of spices in the form of curry can dilate your arteries, preventing the cardiovascular harms associated with eating common foods?

While spices are thought of mainly as culinary agents for the aesthetical enhancement of the flavor of food, they are also powerful medicinal agents, and in certain respects may actually mitigate the harms of things we like to eat that may not be as good for us as their pleasurable tastes and textures would have us believe.

A recent study published in Nutrition Journal titled, “A single consumption of curry improved postprandial endothelial function in healthy male subjects: a randomized, controlled crossover trial,” brought home exactly this point. Moreover, it reveals that certain culinary formulas, sometimes handed down through countless generations, may have indispensable value for our health. Interestingly, we find this concept echoed in the word recipe itself, whose first recorded use in Mid 16-century French literally means “medical prescription.”

A curry is essentially a blend of various spices used as a sauce in dishes, and in the case of this study’s tested formula, a traditional Japanese combination was used containing the following 8 herbs:  Clove, coriander, cumin, garlic, ginger, onion, red pepper, turmeric. [Note: click the hyperlinks of the preceding 8 herbs to view the extensive database of healing properties we have amassed on each one]  Interesting, Japanese curry was actually introduced to Japan by the British during the Meiji period (1868–1912) when India was still under colonial rule, making it a “Western” influence there, even though it ultimately originated in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

In the study, researchers tested 14 healthy male subjects with an average age of 45 years, who were given either a single serving of curry meal or spice-free control meal (180 g of curry or control and 200 g of cooked rice; approximately 500 kcal in total). Researchers then tested what happened to the blood vessels of subjects before and consuming either meal.

A variety of Indian curries. Image Source: Wikicommons.

Based on post-meal measurements of the ability of blood to pass through the blood vessels (postprandial flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD)) and other parameters, clearly the consumption of curry increased the blood flow through the blood vessels (increased FMD), whereas the consumption of the curry-free control meal resulted in a decrease in blood flow (decreased FMD). More specifically, the results were reported as follows:

The consumption of the control meal decreased FMD from 5.8 ± 2.4% to 5.1 ± 2.3% (P = 0.039). On the other hand, the consumption of the curry meal increased FMD from 5.2 ± 2.5% to 6.6 ± 2.0% (P = 0.001), and the postprandial FMD after the curry meal was higher than that after the control meal (P = 0.002). Presence of spices in the curry did not alter significantly the systemic and forearm hemodynamics, or any biochemical parameters including oxidative stress markers measured.”

The researchers concluded that curry prevented the negative effects of the meal upon post-meal “endothelial function,” that is, it prevented the inner lining (endothelium) of the blood vessels from contracting and inhibiting the normal flow of blood throughout the cardiovascular system. They surmised that the antioxidant activity of the spices likely are responsible for the observed positive outcomes, possibly through blunting the post-meal increases in blood sugar and/or oxidative stress. They summarized their findings:

Curry consumption ameliorates postprandial endothelial dysfunction and may be beneficial for preventing cardiovascular events. Lifestyle-related diseases such as atherosclerosis and diabetes mellitus have become serious health problems in the modern world. Curry may be helpful in the fight against those lifestyle-related diseases.”

The reason why this finding is highly relevant to concerns about cardiovascular function is because atherosclerosis — the so-called “hardening of the arteries” — takes decades to develop within the system, often completely without symptoms, and one of the characteristic predisposing features of this pathological process is endothelial dysfunction, often starting with the inability of the blood vessels to fully relax when confronted with any number of stressors – dietary incompatibilities (e.g. wheat) and deficiencies (e.g. magnesium), environmental (e.g. smoking), infectious (e.g. periodontal pathogens), and psychological (e.g. stress) — and resultant damage incurred by them. You can see a more extensive list of nutritional approaches to keeping your arteries healthy here.

Imagine what would happen if we could address endothelial dysfunction decades before it progresses into atherosclerosis?  Since heart disease is the #1 killer, worldwide, adding certain medicinal spices to the diet could perhaps help to neutralize the cardiotoxic and highly lethal disease vector which is the standard Western diet. We’ve reported, previously, on how something so simple as adding fresh avocado to a traditional American hamburger completely ameliorates the artery-contracting properties of this typical meal. It is amazing when you consider all of the edible things now studied which are capable of ameliorating endothelial dysfunction. You can peruse the Endothelial Dysfunction page on GreenMedInfo.com’s healing substances database and find over 90 substances that may help with this goal.

Take a look at the 1700 studies on turmeric’s health benefits on our database.

Consider, also, that some of the spices in curry, such as turmeric, and which features almost universally in all the different cultural variations, have themselves been studied individually to have powerful cardiovascular benefits. Turmeric extract, for instance, was found to confer health benefits to the cardiovascular system as powerful as exercise. Garlic has been found to clear the arteries of plaque and to have blood-pressure lowering properties in hypertensive patients about as potent as pharmaceutical drugs.  You can learn more by looking at the over 1,000 studies we have indexed on the therapeutic potential of dozens of culinary herbs and spices here.

The beauty, however, is that culinary combinations of herbs often require lower doses than are typically used in the context of traditional herbal medicine. In fact, recent research on the spice rosemary known by poets and herbalists for centuries to be “for remembrance,” shows that lower culinary doses are much more effective than larger ‘pharmacologic’ doses for boosting cognition. Less can be more, and with the possibility of synergistic combinations, even lower amounts are needed to obtain a beneficial effect, especially when the purpose is to prevent disease, rather than just treat it after the fact with an aggressive ’emergency care’ model typical of allopathic approaches. Also, for those who do not like “spicy food,” consider drinking spices like turmeric by preparing beverage called “Turmeric Milk.” Check out this DIY recipe here.

Also, consider that the quality of the spices you consume may make all the difference to your health. It is a underreported fact that many of the spices available on the shelf in the U.S. today are irradiated with massive doses of gamma radiation, in a process euphemistically called “cold-pasteurization.” Read my article on the topic, “The Invisible Nuclear Threat Within Non-Organic Food,” to learn more. Suffice it to say, unless it is certified organic, or wild-harvested, it may actually be harmful to your health.

Finally, another useful culinary hack you can employ to reduce white rice’s potential toxicity is to cook it with coconut. It will significantly reduce both the caloric content and blood-sugar elevating properties of the dish if you do so. Learn more by reading: Coconut Oil May Reduce White Rice Calories 50-60%.

© April 6, 2018 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.

The post Turmeric Rich Curry’s Amazing Artery-Opening Properties appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

How To Clean Your Arteries With One Simple Fruit

The future of cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment will not be found in your medicine cabinet, rather in your kitchen cupboard or in your back yard growing on a tree.

Pomegranate Found To Prevent Coronary Artery Disease Progression

A new study published in the journal Atherosclerosis confirms that pomegranate extract may prevent and/or reverse the primary pathology associated with cardiac mortality: the progressive thickening of the coronary arteries caused by the accumulation of fatty materials known as atherosclerosis.[i]

Mice with a genetic susceptibility towards spontaneous coronary artery blockages were given pomegranate extract via their drinking water for two weeks, beginning at three weeks of age. Despite the fact that pomegranate treatment actually increased cholesterol levels associated with very low density lipoprotein-sized particles, the treatment both reduced the size of the atherosclerotic plaques in the aortic sinus (the dilated opening above the aortic valve) and reduced the proportion of coronary arteries with occlusive atherosclerotic plaques.

Remarkably, the researchers also found that pomegranate extract treatment resulted in the following beneficial effects:

• Reduced levels of oxidative stress


• Reduced monocytie chemotactic protein-1, a chemical messenger (chemokine) associated with inflammatory processes within the arteries.


• Reduced lipid accumulation in the heart muscle


• Reduced macrophage infiltration in the heart muscle


• Reduced levels of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 and fibrosis in the myocardium


• Reduced cardiac enlargement


• Reduced ECG abnormalities

How can something as benign and commonplace as a fruit extract reverse so many aspects of coronary artery disease, simultaneously, as evidenced by the study above?  The answer may lie in the fact that our ancestors co-evolved with certain foods (fruits in particular) for so long that a lack of adequate quantities of these foods may directly result in deteriorating organ function.  Indeed, two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling argued that vitamin C deficiency is a fundamental cause of cardiovascular disease, owing to the fact that our hominid primate ancestors once had year-round access to fruits, and as a result lost the ability to synthesize it.  [see Linus Pauling vitamin C lecture on GreenMedTV]

Discussion

This study adds to the already extant body of clinical research indicating that pomegranate can help unclog your arteries.  For instance, back in 2004, the journal Clinical Nutrition published the results of a three year clinical trial in an Israeli population, finding that the daily consumption of pomegranate juice reversed carotid artery stenosis by up to 29% within 1 year.  Remarkably, the blockages in the control group increased 9%, indicating that pomegranate’s artery unblocking effects were even greater than at first apparent. [ii]

Pomegranate’s value in cardiovascular disease is quite broad, as evidenced by the following experimentally confirmed properties:

• Anti-inflammatory: Like many chronic degenerative diseases, inflammation plays a significant role in cardiovascular disease pathogenesis. There are five studies on GreenMedInfo.com indicating pomegranate’s anti-inflammatory properties.[iii]


• Blood-Pressure Lowering: Pomegranate juice has natural angiotensin converting enzyme inhibiting properties, [iv] and is a nitric oxide enhancer, two well-known pathways for reducing blood pressure. [v] Finally, pomegranate extract rich in punicalagin has been found reduce the adverse effects of perturbed stress on arterial segments exposed to disturbed flow.[vi]


• Anti-Infective: Plaque buildup in the arteries often involves secondary viral and bacterial infection, including hepatitis C and Chlamydia pneumoniae.[vii] Pomegranate has a broad range of anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.


• Antioxidant: One of the ways in which blood lipids become heart disease-promoting (atherogenic) is through oxidation. LDL, for instance, may be technically ‘elevated’ but harmless as long as it does not readily oxidize. Pomegranate has been found to reduce the oxidative stress in the blood, as measured by serum paraoxonase levels.  One study in mice found this decrease in oxidative stress was associated with 44% reduction in the size of atherosclerotic lesions. [viii]

For additional research on pomegranate’s heart friendly properties read our article: Research: Pomegranate May Reverse Blocked Arteries

Also, view our dedicated research section on reversing arterial plaque: Clogged Arteries

---

Resources

• [i] Aishah Al-Jarallah, Fatima Igdoura, Yi Zhang, Christine B Tenedero, Elizabeth J White, Melissa E Macdonald, Suleiman A Igdoura, Bernardo L Trigatti. The effect of pomegranate extract on coronary artery atherosclerosis in SR-BI/APOE double knockout mice. Atherosclerosis. 2013 May ;228(1):80-9. Epub 2013 Mar 7. PMID: 23528829


• [ii] Michael Aviram, Mira Rosenblat, Diana Gaitini, Samy Nitecki, Aaron Hoffman, Leslie Dornfeld, Nina Volkova, Dita Presser, Judith Attias, Harley Liker, Tony Hayek. Pomegranate juice consumption for 3 years by patients with carotid artery stenosis reduces common carotid intima-media thickness, blood pressure and LDL oxidation. Clin Nutr. 2004 Jun;23(3):423-33. PMID: 15158307


• [iii] GreenMedInfo.com, Pomegranate’s Anti-Inflammatory Properties


• [iv] Mahalaxmi Mohan, Harshal Waghulde, Sanjay Kasture. Effect of pomegranate juice on Angiotensin II-induced hypertension in diabetic Wistar rats. Phytother Res. 2009 Dec 17. PMID: 20020514


• [v] Filomena de Nigris, Maria Luisa Balestrieri, Sharon Williams-Ignarro, Francesco P D’Armiento, Carmela Fiorito, Louis J Ignarro, Claudio Napoli. The influence of pomegranate fruit extract in comparison to regular pomegranate juice and seed oil on nitric oxide and arterial function in obese Zucker rats. Nitric Oxide. 2007 Aug ;17(1):50-4. Epub 2007 May 5. PMID: 17553710


• [vi] Filomena de Nigris, Sharon Williams-Ignarro, Vincenzo Sica, Lilach O Lerman, Francesco P D’Armiento, Russell E Byrns, Amelia Casamassimi, Daniela Carpentiero, Concetta Schiano, Daigo Sumi, Carmela Fiorito, Louis J Ignarro, Claudio Napoli. Effects of a pomegranate fruit extract rich in punicalagin on oxidation-sensitive genes and eNOS activity at sites of perturbed shear stress and atherogenesis. Cardiovasc Res. 2007 Jan 15;73(2):414-23. Epub 2006 Sep 1. PMID: 17014835


• [vii] Yasunori Sawayama, Kyoko Okada, Shinji Maeda, Hachiro Ohnishi, Norihiro Furusyo, Jun Hayashi. Both hepatitis C virus and Chlamydia pneumoniae infection are related to the progression of carotid atherosclerosis in patients undergoing lipid lowering therapy. Fukuoka Igaku Zasshi. 2006 Aug;97(8):245-55. PMID: 17087362


• [viii] M Aviram, L Dornfeld, M Rosenblat, N Volkova, M Kaplan, R Coleman, T Hayek, D Presser, B Fuhrman. Pomegranate juice consumption reduces oxidative stress, atherogenic modifications to LDL, and platelet aggregation: studies in humans and in atherosclerotic apolipoprotein E-deficient mice. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 May ;71(5):1062-76. PMID: 10799367

© February 15, 2018 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.

The post How To Clean Your Arteries With One Simple Fruit appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

Worried About Clogged Arteries? Drink This.

Millions take toxic cholesterol and blood pressure lowering drugs that may do nothing to reduce heart disease specific mortality. Pomegranate juice, on the other hand, actually reverses underlying pathologies of the cardiovascular system that lead to bypass surgeries and heart attacks. 

One of the most amazing clinical studies ever performed has been hidden away behind a pay wall for over a decade. When I first stumbled upon this clinical pearl two years ago, in the form of the publicly indexed abstract on pubmed.gov, my jaw nearly dropped. I’ve finally acquired the full version of the study and am now excited to report on its implications in greater depth to help raise awareness about the power of pomegranate to heal the body, and I believe, save millions lives from premature death from heart disease.

The most eye-opening line in the abstract reveals why our original report on the study, How To Clean Your Arteries With One Simple Fruit, received over 500,000 social media shares:

“Pomegranate juice consumption resulted in a significant IMT [intima media thickness] reduction, by up to 30%, after 1 year.”

We shouldn’t be that surprised at how great an interest there is among the masses in safe, delicious, and affordable drug alternatives that have the power to unclog arteries? Certainly the drugs aren’t working, with the most popular class — cholesterol-lowering statins — being linked to over 300 adverse health effects. But sometimes the technical language of medicine gets confusing: what does this pomegranate-induced reduction in the intima media thickness (IMT) of the arteries mean?

Reducing The Intima Media Thickness: Reversing Atherosclerosis

The intima media is the middle portion of the arteries that become inflamed and fill up with plaque comprised of oxidized fats, immune cells, and their debris, in the condition known colloquially as “blocked arteries.” As the intima media grows thicker, less space is available for the blood contents to move through the opening (lumen) of the arteries. When the arteries eventually close or are blocked, catastrophic injury or death may follow. Therefore, anything that can safely reduce, or better, reverse intima media thickening is the holy grail as far as obtaining a root cause resolution of atherosclerosis, and by implication would profoundly reduce deaths linked to cardiovascular mortality.

Indeed, in a world where the #1 cause of death is cardiovascular disease, and where we preemptively medicate millions more with drugs that only reduce surrogate markers for cardiovascular disease risk – i.e. lipoproteins carrying cholesterol – without showing any convincing evidence that it is reducing cardiovascular disease or all-cause mortality, how could something as simple and powerful as pomegranate be overlooked? In fact, if a simple daily dietary intervention is capable of regressing and/or reversing the underlying disease process in millions of fatal cardiac cases, it would seem highly unethical not to use it.

Here, we wish to bring some of the finer details of this clinical trial to light, to further substantiate the value of botanical and food-based interventions not only in preventing but treating major chronic disease processes like cardiovascular disease, the developed world’s most deadly disease.

The Pomegranate “Artery Cleaning” Clinical Trial

Published in Clinical Nutrition in 2014 and titled, “Pomegranate juice consumption for 3 years by patients with carotid artery stenosis reduces common carotid intima-media thickness, blood pressure and LDL oxidation,” Israeli researchers discovered pomegranate, administered in juice form over the course of a year, reversed plaque accumulation in the carotid arteries of patients with severe, though symptomless, carotid artery stenosis (defined as 70–90% blockage in the internal carotid arteries).

The study consisted of nineteen patients, 5 women and 14 men, aged 65-75, non-smokers. They were randomized to receive either pomegranate juice or placebo. Ten patients were in the pomegranate juice treatment group and 9 patients that did not consume pomegranate juice were in the control group. Both groups were matched with similar blood lipid and glucose concentrations, blood pressure, and with similar medication regimens which consisted of blood-pressure lowering (e.g. ACE inhibitors, β-blockers, or calcium channel blockers) and lipid lowering drugs (e.g. statins).

The ten patients in the treatment group group received 1.69 ounces (50 ml) of pomegranate juice per day (about the volume of a shot glass), which contained .036 milligrams of total polyphenols (primarily tannins and anthocyanins), for a period of 1 year, and five out of them agreed to continue for up to 3 years.

The remarkable results were reported as follows:

“The mean intima media thickness the left and right common carotid arteries in severe carotid artery stenosis patients that consumed pomegranate juice for up to 1 year was reduced after 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of pomegranate juice consumption by 13%, 22%, 26% and 35%, respectively, in comparison to baseline values.”

You can only imagine what would happen if a pharmaceutical drug was shown to reverse plaque build up in the carotid arteries by 13% in just 3 months! This drug would be lauded the life-saving miracle drug, and not only would be promoted and sold successfully as a multi-billion dollar blockbuster, but discussion would inevitably follow as to why it should be mandated.

While these results are impressive, if not altogether groundbreaking for the field of cardiology, they may be even better than revealed in the stated therapeutic outcomes above.  When one factors in that the carotid artery stenosis increased 9% within 1 year in the control group, the pomegranate intervention group may have seen even better results than indicated by the measured regression in intima media thickness alone.  That is, if we assume that the pomegranate group had received no treatment, the thickening of their carotid arteries would have continued to progress like the control group at a rate of 9% a year, i.e. 18% within 2 years, 27% within 3 years. This could be interpreted to mean that after 3 years of pomegranate treatment, for instance, the thickening of the arteries would have been reduced over 60% beyond what would have occurred had the natural progression of the disease been allowed to continue unabated.

3 Ways How Pomegranate Heals The Cardiovascular System

The researchers identified three likely mechanisms of action behind pomegranate’s observed anti-atherosclerotic activity:

• Antioxidant properties: Subjects receiving pomegranate saw significant reductions in oxidative stress, including decreases in autoantibodies formed against ox-LDL, a form of oxidized low density lipoprotein associated with the pathological process of atherosclerosis. Decreases in oxidative stress were measurable by an increase in the blood serum enzyme paraoxonase 1 (PON1) of up to 91% after 3 years; PON1 is an enzyme whose heightened activity is associated with lower oxidative stress. All of this is highly relevant to the question of pomegranate’s anti-atherosclerotic activity because of something called the lipid peroxidation hypothesis of atherosclerosis, which assumes that it is the quality of the blood lipids (i.e. whether they are oxidized/damaged or not), and not their quantity alone that determine their cardiotoxicity/atherogenicity. Essentially, pomegranate prevents the heart disease promoting effects of oxidative stress.


• Blood Pressure Lowering Properties: The intervention resulted in significant improvement in blood pressure: the patient’s systolic blood pressure was reduced 7%, 11% ,10%, 10% and 12% after 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of pomegranate consumption, respectively, compared to values obtained before treatment. Pomegranate’s ability to reduce systolic blood pressure indicates it has a healing effect on the endothelium, or the inner lining of the artery which fails to relax fully in heart disease; a condition known as endothelial dysfunction.


• Plaque Lesion Stabilization: Because two of the ten patients on PJ (after 3 and 12 months) experienced clinical deterioration, carotid surgery was performed and the lesions were analyzed to determine the difference in their composition to those who did not receive pomegranate. The researchers noticed four distinct positive differences in the composition of the pomegranate-treated lesions:

1.     Reduced Cholesterol Content: “The cholesterol content in carotid lesions from the two patients that consumed PJ was lower by 58% and 20%, respectively, in comparison to lesions obtained from CAS patients that did not consume PJ (Fig. 3A).”

2.     Reduced Lipid Peroxides: “[T]he lipid peroxides content in lesions obtained from the patients after PJ consumption for 3 or 12 months was significantly reduced by 61% or 44%, respectively, as compared to lesions from patients that did not consume PJ (Fig. 3B).

3.     Increased Reduced Glutathione Content: “A substantial increase in the lesion reduced glutathione (GSH) content, (GSH is a major cellular antioxidant) by 2.5-fold, was observed after PJ consumption for 3 or 12 months, (Fig. 3C).

4.     Reduced LDL Oxidation: “LDL oxidation by lesions derived from the patients after PJ consumption for 3 or 12 months, was significantly (Po0.01) decreased by 43% or 32%, respectively, in comparison to LDL oxidation rates obtained by lesions from CAS patients that did not consume PJ (Fig. 3D).”

Essentially these results reveal that not only does pomegranate reduce the lesion size in the carotid arteries, but “the lesion itself may be considered less atherogenic after PJ consumption, as its cholesterol and oxidized lipid content decreased, and since its ability to oxidize LDL was significantly reduced.”

This finding is quite revolutionary, as presently, the dangers of carotid artery stenosis are understood primarily through the lesion size and not by assessing for the quality of that lesion. This dovetails with the concept that the sheer quantity of lipoproteins (i.e. “cholesterol”) in the blood can not accurately reveal whether those lipoproteins are actually harmful (atherogenic); rather, if lipoproteins are oxidized (e.g. ox-LDL) they can be harmful (or representative of a more systemic bodily imbalance), whereas non-oxidized low density lipoprotein may be considered entirely benign, if not indispensable for cardiovascular and body wide health. Indeed, in this study the researchers found the pomegranate group had increased levels of triglycerides and very low density lipoprotein, again, underscoring that the anti-atherosclerotic properties likely have more to do with the improved quality of the physiological milieu within which all our lipoproteins operate than the number of them, in and of itself.

Finally, it should be pointed out that all the patients in this study were undergoing conventional, drug-based care for cardiovascular disease, e.g. cholesterol- and blood pressure-lowering agents. Not only did the pomegranate treatment not appear to interfere with their drugs, making it a suitable complementary/adjunct therapy for those on pharmaceuticals, but it should be pointed out that the control group’s condition got progressively worse (e.g. the mean IMT increased 9% within 1 year), speaking to just how ineffective drugs are, or how they may even contribute to the acceleration of the disease process itself.

Pomegranate’s 100+ Health Benefits

Believe it or not, pomegranate has many other ways in which it can help to heal the cardiovascular system, as well as other organ systems. Our research project has identified over 100 distinct health benefits of pomegranate: View the Pomegranate Research Database. Learn more by reading some of our other articles on the topic:

© May 24, 2017  GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.

Resveratrol may Benefit Your Arteries, Especially if You Have Type 2 Diabetes

Resveratrol – a substance found in red wine, peanuts, and berries – may reduce artery stiffness in people with Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study presented in early May at the American Heart Association’s 2017 Scientific Sessions in Minneapolis. [1]

The study’s senior author, Dr. Naomi M. Hamburg, of the Boston University School of Medicine, said:

“This adds to emerging evidence that there may be interventions that may reverse the blood vessel abnormalities that occur with aging and are more pronounced in people with Type 2 diabetes and obesity.”

Read: 4 Health-Protective Qualities of Resveratrol

For the study, researchers recruited 57 obese, middle-aged patients with Type 2 diabetes. Nearly 2/3 of the participants were African American, and slightly more than half were women.

The aorta, the largest artery in the body, stiffens with age and illness, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Researchers tested the participants’ arterial stiffness using a test called the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, or CFPWV, after the volunteers consumed daily doses of 100 mg/day of resveratrol for 2 weeks, followed by 300 mg/day of resveratrol for 2 weeks.

The test was performed a second time after participants underwent comparable placebo dosing for a total of 4 weeks.

In addition, researchers assessed the ability of the participants’ blood vessels to expand and relax as needed to allow for changes in blood flow, an important indicator of healthy blood vessel function.

Overall, the study found that participants who took the resveratrol supplements had less arterial stiffness, but it wasn’t statistically significant.

In a subset of 23 patients who had severe aortic stiffness at the beginning of the study, however, the 300 mg dose of resveratrol reduced aortic stiffness by 9.1%, and the 100 mg dose reduced aortic stiffness by 4.8%. [2]

Among the patients that took a placebo for 4 weeks, aortic stiffening worsened.

Past studies in animals showed that resveratrol activates a gene (SIRT1) that seems to delay aging and development of several diseases. To test whether the same thing occurs in humans, researchers took samples from the blood vessel linings of 7 patients and looked at SIRT1 activity. After resveratrol supplementation, they found that gene activity increased slightly in humans.

Source: Dr. Axe

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the antioxidant can undo age-related changes in the arteries, but it’s a step towards helping scientists figure out how resveratrol can reverse age-related changes in the arteries.

Read: Resveratrol Protects Diabetics Against Heart Disease

Lead study author, Dr. Ji-Yao Ella Zhang, Ph.D., also of the Boston University, said:

“We found that resveratrol also activates the longevity gene SIRT1 in humans, and this may be a potential mechanism for the supplements to reduce aortic stiffness.

However, the changes in this small and short-term study are not proof. Studies with longer treatment are needed to test the effects of a daily resveratrol supplement on vascular function.” [1]

Hamburg cautions that resveratrol may not be as beneficial to people without Type 2 diabetes.

“The effect of resveratrol may be more about improving structural changes in the aorta, and less about the relaxation of blood vessels, and people with more normal aortic stiffness may not get as much benefit.” [3]

Sources:

[1] Newsmax Health

[2] Health Day

[3] Healthline

Dr. Axe

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About Julie Fidler:
	Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.

Curry Dilates Arteries With One Serving

Did you know that a single culinary serving of spices in the form of curry can dilate your arteries, preventing the cardiovascular harms associated with eating common foods?

While spices are thought of mainly as culinary agents for the aesthetical enhancement of the flavor of food, they are also powerful medicinal agents, and in certain respects may actually mitigate the harms of things we like to eat that may not be as good for us as their pleasurable tastes and textures would have us believe.

A study published in Nutrition Journal titled, “A single consumption of curry improved postprandial endothelial function in healthy male subjects: a randomized, controlled crossover trial,” brought home exactly this point. Moreover, it reveals that certain culinary formulas, sometimes handed down through countless generations, may have indispensable value for our health. Interestingly, we find this concept echoed in the word recipe itself, whose first recorded use in Mid 16-century French literally means “medical prescription.”

A curry is essentially a blend of various spices used as a sauce in dishes, and in the case of this study’s tested formula, a traditional Japanese combination was used containing the following 8 herbs:  Clove, coriander, cumin, garlic, ginger, onion, red pepper, turmeric. [Note: click the hyperlinks of the preceding 8 herbs to view the extensive database of healing properties we have amassed on each one]  Interesting, Japanese curry was actually introduced to Japan by the British during the Meiji period (1868–1912) when India was still under colonial rule, making it a “Western” influence there, even though it ultimately originated in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

In the study, researchers tested 14 healthy male subjects with an average age of 45 years, who were given either a single serving of curry meal or spice-free control meal (180 g of curry or control and 200 g of cooked rice; approximately 500 kcal in total). Researchers then tested what happened to the blood vessels of subjects before and consuming either meal.

A variety of Indian curries. Image Source: Wikicommons.

Based on post-meal measurements of the ability of blood to pass through the blood vessels (postprandial flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) and other parameters, clearly the consumption of curry increased the blood flow through the blood vessels (increased FMD), whereas the consumption of the curry-free control meal resulted in a decrease in blood flow (decreased FMD). More specifically, the results were reported as follows:

The consumption of the control meal decreased FMD from 5.8 ± 2.4% to 5.1 ± 2.3% (P = 0.039). On the other hand, the consumption of the curry meal increased FMD from 5.2 ± 2.5% to 6.6 ± 2.0% (P = 0.001), and the postprandial FMD after the curry meal was higher than that after the control meal (P = 0.002). Presence of spices in the curry did not alter significantly the systemic and forearm hemodynamics, or any biochemical parameters including oxidative stress markers measured.”

The researchers concluded that curry prevented the negative effects of the meal upon post-meal “endothelial function,” that is, it prevented the inner lining (endothelium) of the blood vessels from contracting and inhibiting the normal flow of blood throughout the cardiovascular system. They surmised that the antioxidant activity of the spices likely are responsible for the observed positive outcomes, possibly through blunting the post-meal increases in blood sugar and/or oxidative stress. They summarized their findings:

Curry consumption ameliorates postprandial endothelial dysfunction and may be beneficial for preventing cardiovascular events. Lifestyle-related diseases such as atherosclerosis and diabetes mellitus have become serious health problems in the modern world. Curry may be helpful in the fight against those lifestyle-related diseases.”

The reason why this finding is highly relevant to concerns about cardiovascular function is because atherosclerosis — the so-called “hardening of the arteries” — takes decades to develop within the system, often completely without symptoms, and one of the characteristic predisposing features of this pathological process is endothelial dysfunction, often starting with the inability of the blood vessels to fully relax when confronted with any number of stressors – dietary incompatibilities (e.g. wheat) and deficiencies (e.g. magnesium), environmental (e.g. smoking), infectious (e.g. periodontal pathogens), and psychological (e.g. stress) — and resultant damage incurred by them. You can see a more extensive list of nutritional approaches to keeping your arteries healthy here.

Imagine what would happen if we could address endothelial dysfunction decades before it progresses into atherosclerosis?  Since heart disease is the #1 killer, worldwide, adding certain medicinal spices to the diet could perhaps help to neutralize the cardiotoxic and highly lethal disease vector which is the standard Western diet. We’ve reported, previously, on how something so simple as adding fresh avocado to a traditional American hamburger completely ameliorates the artery-contracting properties of this typical meal. It is amazing when you consider all of the edible things now studied which are capable of ameliorating endothelial dysfunction. You can peruse the Endothelial Dysfunction page on GreenMedInfo.com’s healing substances database and find over 90 substances that may help with this goal.

Take a look at the 1700 studies on turmeric’s health benefits on our database.

Consider, also, that some of the spices in curry, such as turmeric, and which features almost universally in all the different cultural variations, have themselves been studied individually to have powerful cardiovascular benefits. Turmeric extract, for instance, was found to confer health benefits to the cardiovascular system as powerful as exercise. Garlic has been found to clear the arteries of plaque and to have blood-pressure lowering properties in hypertensive patients about as potent as pharmaceutical drugs.  You can learn more by looking at the over 1,000 studies we have indexed on the therapeutic potential of dozens of culinary herbs and spices here.

The beauty, however, is that culinary combinations of herbs often require lower doses than are typically used in the context of traditional herbal medicine. In fact, recent research on the spice rosemary known by poets and herbalists for centuries to be “for remembrance,” shows that lower culinary doses are much more effective than larger ‘pharmacologic’ doses for boosting cognition. Less can be more, and with the possibility of synergistic combinations, even lower amounts are needed to obtain a beneficial effect, especially when the purpose is to prevent disease, rather than just treat it after the fact with an aggressive ’emergency care’ model typical of allopathic approaches. Also, for those who do not like “spicy food,” consider drinking spices like turmeric by preparing beverage called “Turmeric Milk.” Check out this DIY recipe here.

Also, consider that the quality of the spices you consume may make all the difference to your health. It is a underreported fact that many of the spices available on the shelf in the U.S. today are irradiated with massive doses of gamma radiation, in a process euphemistically called “cold-pasteurization.” Read my article on the topic, “The Invisible Nuclear Threat Within Non-Organic Food,” to learn more. Suffice it to say, unless it is certified organic, or wild-harvested, it may actually be harmful to your health.

Finally, another useful culinary hack you can employ to reduce white rice’s potential toxicity is to cook it with coconut. It will significantly reduce both the caloric content and blood-sugar elevating properties of the dish if you do so. Learn more by reading: Coconut Oil May Reduce White Rice Calories 50-60%.

© October 22, 2016 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.