Prolonged intake of Pomegranate juice reduces mortality in hemodialysis patients.

Madrid, July of 2012. According to the results of a randomized and controlled with placebo, which was just released on Free Radical Biology and Medicine ”, intake prolonged for one year of Pomegranate juice reduces oxidative stress, inflammation and the incidence of infections in hemodialysis patients, causes of mortality in patients.

The study has been done by the quality Department, Hospital of Western Galilee – Nahariya, Israel, laboratory of clinical microbiology, Hospital of Western Galilee – Nahariya, Israel, research laboratory, Hospital of Western Galilee – Nahariya, Israel, Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel, school of public health of the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences of the University of HaifaIsrael, Nephrology service, Hospital of Western Galilee – Nahariya, Israel, Radiology Department, Hospital of Western Galilee in Nahariya, Israel.

The increase in systemic inflammation and oxidative stress are well established as the key non-traditional players in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis (syndrome characterized by infiltration of lipid substances on the walls of the arteries of medium and coarse gauge and tank) and are also involved in the deregulation of the immunity innate in hemodialysis patients.

The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of intake year juice granada, source of antioxidants on oxidative stress, inflammation and clinical outcomes in the long term.

In the randomised controlled double blind, participated 101 patients in hemodialysis to those who were administered 100 ml of juice of granada, or placebo, three times per week for one year. The main objectives were the levels of oxidative stress and inflammation markers. Secondary objectives were to hospitalization due to infection and progression of the atherosclerotic process based on a combination of variables of the carotid arteries: the intimate average thickness (GIM), the number and structure of the plates.

As a result, in the patients who ingested Pomegranate juice second hospitalizations due to infections incidence was significantly lower. In addition, 25% of the patients in the Group of Pomegranate juice showed an improvement in its process atherosclerotic and only 5% a worsening, while more than 50% of the patients that not consumed Pomegranate juice showed progression and none showed no improvement.

Spain is the leading producer of Granada of the European Union with 95% of the total. Since 2007 the Department of quality and safety food of the University Miguel Hernández, together with the University of Kansas in United States, universities in Europe and Asia, studies have been conducted for the optimization of juices of granada and see the quality of the juices which are currently traded at Spain.

A bibliography of studies in various universities of the world about the beneficial health properties of this fruit, and the results obtained are reflected in a book that has been published this week with the title La Granada cultivated in Spain ”

the Professor Doctor Ángel Carbonell, director of this work food technology is declare. On numerous occasions to walk towards the future, first we have to learn from our past. The granada has been known since time immemorial for its beneficial properties, and although Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs not know the existence of antioxidants, if that knew its effects, transcending these from generation to generation until modern times.

For the Doctor D. Emilio Robres Oñate President of the Royal Academy of medicine and surgery of the Region of Murcia, there is no doubt that investigations of the antioxidant substances in the granada cultivated in Spain have opened new horizons of how regular consumption of this fruit extract or juice can have benefits on human health. This book will expand this knowledge in the medical Spain in community and in the world.