Originally published July 15 2005
Pregnant moms can drink pomegranate juice to help prevent brain injury in babies
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
By drinking pomegranate juice, pregnant women at risk for premature birth can reduce the likelihood of their babies suffering brain injury due to low oxygen and reduced blood flow, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mice whose mothers drank pomegranate juice had brain injuries less than half the size of those found in other mice.
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.
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