The Research Team (L-R): Top Row, Dr. Nizar Khatib, Professor Wiener, and Dr. Yuval Ginsburg;
Bottom Row (L-R) Dr. Noor Saadi and Professor Beloosesky.
Photo credit: Pioter Fliter, RHCC.
One of the fruits commonly associated with the nation of Israel—pomegranates—could be a key to reducing pregnancy inflammation and brain damage to newborn babies, according to an Israeli research group who has tested the theory. Professor Ron Beloosesky, Director of the Prenatal Ultrasound Unit in the Division of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Rambam Health Care Campus in Israel, said in a press release that prior research had already shown that pomegranate juice can reduce inflammation.
That’s key, because inflammation can lead to premature birth and can transmit to the baby, increasing the risk of brain damage and lifelong disorders such as cerebral palsy. According to research done by Belooseky and his team, mothers drinking the juice of one of Israel’s Biblical seven species and commonly found freshly squeezed in Jerusalem could help prevent those defects.
“It seems that an accessible and inexpensive juice that can be found in any supermarket has a positive effect on a serious problem that harms mothers and their embryos,” said Belooseky in the press release. After order valium online australia testing the effects of the juice on pregnant rats, human trials are slated to be completed in the next two years.
The Israel research tested pomegranate juice on pregnant rats by setting up three groups—one with inflammation that was not given the juice, one given juice for several days before experiencing inflammation, and one group with neither inflammation nor juice to act as a control. Not only did the pomegranate juice reduce inflammation in the mother rats, “there was a significant reduction in signs of inflammation and injury to the brains of the fetuses,” noted the Rambam press release.
Beloosesky called the research—which took several months and involved a number of co-authors including Professor Zeev Weiner, Director of the Division of Gynecology and Obstetrics—both “preliminary” and yet “very interesting.”
“This is the first study of its kind aiming to understand how to use the pomegranate, which has known health benefits, to prevent a problem that, under certain conditions, passes from mother to child,” Professor Zeev Weiner was quoted by the press release as saying.
“The results of the first study are certainly satisfactory and we are curious to see what we’ll learn in the future.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, August 22, 2018)