Pomegranate Juice is the New Powerhouse

By:   Jean Carper

Step aside, green tea and red wine. The new wonder health drink is pomegranate juice--nicknamed pom juice.

Heart specialist Dean Ornish says blood flow to the heart improved 17% in men and women with coronary heart disease who drank 8.5 ounces of pomegranate juice a day for three months. Blood flow decreased 18% in patients who took placebos; this was a normal progression of their heart disease. The study was done at Ornish's Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, Calif.

Other research on pom juice:

• It can lower blood pressure and help shrink plaque buildup in the neck arteries, say Israeli studies.
• Tests on mice indicate it may inhibit prostate cancer and Alzheimer's-like brain plaque.

Copyright 2004 Jean Carper. Printed first in USA Weekend. All rights reserved.

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