Cranberry Juice May Protect Against Heart, Stomach Disease

Cranberry Juice May Protect Against Heart, Stomach Disease

SAN DIEGO & BEIJING--Cranberry juice powder containsantioxidants, flavonoids and polyphenols that appear to protect against heartdisease, and regular consumption of cranberry juice appears to suppress H.pylori infection, a major cause of peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer,according to research presented in San Diego at the 35th Congress of theInternational Union of Physiological Sciences (www.the-aps.org) by researchersfrom the Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, and a Beijing studypublished in Helicobacter (10, 2:139, 2005) (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com).

In the study presented in San Diego, Researchers fed 150g/kg/d of cranberryjuice powder for six months to pigs with familial hypercholesterolemic (FH), agenetic predisposition to developing high blood cholesterol leading toatherosclerosis and vascular dysfunction. The results of the trial included apronounced improvement in vascular function in pigs fed cranberry juice powdercompared with FH pigs denied the treatment.

The value of fruits and vegetables in our diet has recently been an areaof intense research and studies like this help us to understand the specificmechanisms by which the nutrients we consume can protect against heart disease,said lead researcher Kruse-Elliott.

In the Beijing study, researchers conducted a prospective, randomized, doubleblind, placebo-controlled trial in China by randomly dividing 189 adultsinfected with H. pylori into two groups; 97 participants were given two250 ml of cranberry juice and 92 were given placebo.

Researchers tested participants for infection using the C-urea breath test at35 and 90 days of treatment and found negative test results for infection in14of the 97 participants from the cranberry juice group (14.43 percent) and fiveof the 92 from the placebo group (5.44 percent). Eleven individuals from thecranberry juice group and two from the placebo group were negative for infectionat both 35 and 90 days of experiment.

Researchers concluded that regular consumption of cranberry juice maysuppress <H. pylori infection in populations at high risk for gastriccancer.