Discovered the elixir of life in pomegranate, according to ETH Lausanne, the fruit has thaumaturgic properties
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have discovered that a molecule in pomegranate, transformed by the’gut, effectively combats muscle senescence. The results are described as “spectacular”. The study was published by “Nature Medicine”. As we age, the mitochondria in cells, which function as miniature generators of energy, gradually lose their effectiveness. Their malfunction adversely affects muscle’activity.
A group of EPFL researchers, including its former president Patrick Aebischer, as well as the company Amazentis, are behind a spectacular discovery, the EPFL says in a statement today. The discovery was made by analyzing pomegranate, and more specifically a molecule from the fruit. After being transformed by intestinal bacterial flora, the molecule in question, urolithin A,, is able to restore the functioning of defective mitochondria, say the study authors. On the nematode worm C. elegans, molecule extended its lifespan by more than 45 percent. The test was then conducted on mice and rats. “Senior mice, about 2 years old, showed 42 percent greater running endurance abilities than the control group”.
The fact that two species extremely distant from each other react similarly to the same substance“proves that this is a mechanism essential to life” stresses study co-author Johan Auwerx, quoted in the release. It is therefore very likely that the mechanism also works for humans, notes Giovanni D’Agata, president of “Sportello dei Diritti”. Urolithin A is not directly contained by pomegranate, but it is a precursor whose concentrations depend on the intestinal flora of each individual, human or animal, the researchers point out. The study finds that the nutritional approach constitutes a “near revolution” or at least “a real scientific paradigm shift”: by helping the body regenerate itself, “urolithin A could succeed where pharmaceutical group candidates have failed”.
The’nutritional approach, whose goal is to cure or prevent diseases by means of “improved” nutrients, is at the heart of the current strategies of large industrial and pharmaceutical groups.