Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) may have a new enemy:\npomegranates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The disease, which is actually two different conditions\n(ulcerative colitis and Crohn\u2019s disease), is characterized by long-term\ninflammation in the intestines, stomach and esophagus. Nearly 3 million adults\nin the United States are affected by it, according to the Centers for Disease\nControl and Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But a new study from the University of Louisville have\ndetermined that urolithin A, a compound found in pomegranates and berries, may\nhelp fight IBD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researchers discovered that the ellagic acid in\npomegranates interacts with a particular strain of bacteria in the gut called\nINIA P815, causing the release of urolithin A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The urolithins have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative\nproperties and repair the gut barrier dysfunction and maintain barrier\nintegrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More studies need to be done and there\u2019s no guarantee that\neating pomegranates or other berries will make the symptoms of Inflammatory\nBowel Disease go away. First, because there\u2019s no guarantee the foods will\nrelease urolithin A in the gut. Second, because the bacteria that helps produce\nthe metabolite may not be present in everyone\u2019s gut, or it may not be present\nat the same level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researchers believe that a synthetic form of the urolithin may be more effective and reliable in treating some kinds of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, such as acute colitis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As lead researcher Venkatakrishna Rao Jala explains, our gut\nmicrobes have evolved to create beneficial metabolites near the gut barrier,\nbut it takes work to keep them sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHowever, this requires that we protect and harbor the\nappropriate gut microbiota and consume a healthy diet,\u201d says Rao Jala. \u201cThis\nstudy shows that direct consumption of UroA or its analog can compensate for a\nlack of specific bacteria responsible for production of UroA and continuous\nconsumption of pomegranates and berries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you or someone you love has inflammatory bowel disease, find out how pomegranates might help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[690],"tags":[723,724,943,944,732,719],"class_list":["post-13246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellness","tag-diet","tag-health","tag-ibd","tag-inflammatory-bowel-disease","tag-nutrition","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}