Pomegranate, thanks to the substances that contains, is able to improve the functionalities of the muscles with a consequent improvement in the lung capacity and in the movement and results helpful to protect the muscle cells from aging processes. This is the result of a study performed by researchers of EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Svizzera) and the company Amazentis and published in 2016 in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine. The research is still very young and a lot of work remains to do but for now, thanks to the intermediate excellent results, some light has been shed on the role played by the pomegranate and its juice in counteracting the cell aging. In fact, until now, there are just a few studies about the topic, unclear and with different results.
But what happens in our body over the years and what can the pomegranate do for our health? With the years the cells of our body degrade, loose their functionalities because of the diminished activity of the centers that produce energy, the mitochondria. In this way damages to tissues, muscles included, that tend to become weak, may occur. In addition to this, there is also the suspect that the accumulation of mitochondria may play a role in degenerative illnesses such as Parkinson. The mentioned study has found that a type of substances contained in the pomegranate, the ellagitannins, are transformed by intestinal bacterial flora into urolithin A, a molecule able to restart the life cycle of the damages cells. Other studies should be done in order to understand if and how the production of urolithin A, that depends on specific intestinal bacteria, may change from person to person. But for now it is for sure an amazing result that proves again that nature can really be the solution to many problems that can affect our body.
