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Pomegranate Counters Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome

In addition to its diverse cardioprotective effects, pomegranate may have profound benefit for people with diabetes and the pre-diabetic condition known as metabolic syndrome.

To start with, pomegranate components appear to lower blood sugar levels immediately following a meal, according to research from Australia.10 Scientists there who studied obese rats with type II diabetes found that oral administration of pomegranate extract markedly lowered the animals’ blood sugar levels after a meal, while having minimal effect on the blood sugar levels of animals that had not eaten. This exciting finding suggests that pomegranate extracts block the breakdown of sucrose (table sugar) in the intestine by inhibiting alpha-glucosidase, an enzyme that breaks down sugars. This action could help prevent sugars from being absorbed, thus lessening the abrupt after-meal spike in blood sugar that is so damaging to diabetics.

Diabetes is associated with numerous detrimental changes that impair the function of heart tissue. These include increased levels of non-functional fibrous tissues and increased accumulation of triglycerides within the heart muscle itself. Australian researchers recently found that diabetic rats that were given pomegranate extract for six weeks greatly reduced the amount of non-functioning fibrous tissue in their hearts,11 while long-term pomegranate supplementation helped improve abnormal cardiac lipid metabolism.12

Diabetes is associated with increased oxidative stress and the development of atherosclerosis. Pomegranate’s antioxidant power and ability to fight atherosclerosis led Israeli researchers to examine the effects of pomegranate juice on inflammatory cells in diabetic rats.13 They compared the antioxidant effects of pomegranate juice to those of white grape juice on macrophages, the immune cells that stimulate inflammation in arterial walls as the result of oxidative stress. Just 10 days of pomegranate juice consumption greatly decreased macrophage oxidant levels and increased cellular antioxidant levels, while the animals fed white grape juice demonstrated exactly the opposite effects.

The Israeli researchers then proceeded to examine the effects of pomegranate juice on the blood and macrophages of human diabetics.14 The subjects received 50 milliliters (1.69 fluid ounces) of pomegranate juice daily (providing 78 mg of punicalagins) for three months, and their blood and macrophage status was compared to that of healthy controls. Not surprisingly, the diabetics had much higher measures of tissue oxidative damage compared to controls. However, dramatic improvement was found at the three-month mark in the pomegranate-treated group, which recorded a 56% reduction in serum lipid peroxides, an indicator of damaging lipid peroxidation. Similarly powerful effects were seen on oxidant levels in the patients’ macrophages—pomegranate helped reduce cellular oxygen radicals by 71%, while increasing cellular antioxidants by 141%! Perhaps of greatest importance to preventing atherosclerosis and heart disease, pomegranate-supplemented subjects had a 39% reduction in their macrophages’ uptake of oxidized LDL—the deadly fat-protein compound that triggers vascular disease.

Iranian researchers took the next logical step, evaluating the effects of pomegranate juice on the mix of blood fats and cholesterol in diabetic patients. Twenty-two diabetics with elevated blood lipids consumed 40 grams (1.41 fluid ounces) per day of concentrated pomegranate juice for eight weeks, when blood lipid levels were measured again. Total cholesterol and LDL levels decreased substantially, demonstrating that pomegranate juice markedly reduces cardiac risk factors in diabetic patients.

Pomegranate thus offers an array of protective benefits for people with diabetes, from preventing aberrantly high blood sugar levels to protecting the heart against the potentially devastating cardiovascular consequences of diabetes.

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2007/may2007_report_pomegranate_01.htm

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