To understand why urolithin A slows down the aging process, we need to look at how our muscles age. Ninety percent of our energy stems from microscopic structures in our cells called mitochondria. The cells in your body contain billions, perhaps trillions, of tiny mitochondria. You can think of them like many batteries. Once this happens, your cells make brand new mitochondria. During this process, dysfunctional and toxic elements in our cells are recycled or eliminated. When we’re younger, the mitophagy process happens more often. But when the process of mitophagy slows down with age, toxins may not be recycled or removed fast enough. This makes our body cells age faster, including muscle.
Studies on humans and animals revealed that in the elderly, walking slower and poor muscle strength are associated with poor mitochondrial function. Improving mitophagy in older people has been shown to slow muscle strength decline from aging. Maintaining a regular exercise regimen triggers the production of new mitochondria and boosts energy in our skeletal muscle cells. A study showed that urolithin A promoted mitophagy, produced more mitochondria, and helped improve mitochondrial function in elderly individuals. These effects of urolithin A mimicked how a regular exercise regimen benefits our muscles and helps us retain energy even when we’re older.
Additionally, several rat and animal studies showed that urolithin A increased endurance levels in young and old rats by improving muscle health. So, does that mean that urolithin A and exercise combined have an even greater effect? Probably, but this is still unknown. The effect of urolithin A on humans is underway, but the early results do look promising.
Also, urolithin A produced by fecal bacteria is used to increase short-chain fatty acid production in our body.
While lab results are promising, more conclusive human studies are needed.
As a rule of thumb, eating fruit raw is much better for you than drinking their juice. With pomegranate juice, you get a more concentrated version of multiple pomegranates in one bottle. However, pomegranates are high in sugar. Juice, in general, eliminates the dietary fiber found in fruit, and without their essential fiber, your blood sugar levels can spike. Here is the USDA nutritional information for raw pomegranate and bottled pomegranate juice.
So, what’s the final takeaway from this video? Preliminary studies in the elderly also showed that the byproducts of digesting pomegranates can help improve endurance and muscle strength, rejuvenate mitochondria for more energy, and slow the aging process. While more studies in humans are required before pomegranate juice or extracts can be certified as protective against cancer and cardiovascular disease, preliminary research is promising.
Research suggests that pomegranate juice, despite its antioxidant properties, hasn’t shown significant improvements in conditions like blood pressure, unlike in individuals without kidney disease where such benefits have been observed. Nevertheless, in kidney disease patients, it may offer some protection to the kidneys and improve antioxidant levels, thereby reducing cell damage associated with the condition. However, it hasn’t demonstrated substantial benefits such as lowering blood pressure, improving kidney function (measured by factors like creatinine levels or glomerular filtration rate), in the trials conducted using both juice and extract forms.
When selecting pomegranate juice, ensure it’s 100% pomegranate without any added sugars or blends (like pomegranate-cranberry), as added sugars can negate its health benefits. While pomegranate juice can add variety to a kidney diet, it’s essential not to expect miraculous results for kidney health. Instead, focus on other proven strategies and dietary adjustments. Thank you for watching, everyone. Like, subscribe, comment, and stay tuned for more tips on achieving optimal kidney health. Bye for now.
And in this video we will look at what would happen if you had pomegranate everyday for 14 days. If you guys are new here, this channel is all about helping you make informed decisions as well as be in the know when it comes to your health and wellness, and I would love for you all to gently tap on that like button down below, and if you really like the content, then Id love for you all to subscribe as well, to stay up to date with new weekly article.
Now without wasting anymore time, lets get straight into it. In 2012, a very interesting study came out and followed 60 volunteers from different work locations, 22 males, and 38 females. And they took daily saliva samples, in the AM, noon, and in the PM. And they were able to find 3 changes after the 14 day mark.
The first benefit they saw was a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Their Systolic dropped an average from 123.7 give or take to 119.6 give or take, which is the top number of your blood pressure, and Diastolic from 74.9 to 72.4 give or take, which is bottomnumber. This is probably because Pomegranates are believed to reduce blood pressure through reducing levels of Angiotensin converting enzyme or (ACE).
And ACE is a protein that plays an important role in controlling blood pressure through controlling the size of blood vessels in the body. The second thing they noticed after 14 days is,in the beginning the volunteers took whats called the PANAS mood questionnaire, which is a self-reported measure that is available to help practitioners identify your strengths and symptoms of mental wellbeing through positive and negative emotions. Their overall score increased from 73 to 77, and their ; positives increased from 29 to 31 and their negatives decreased from 16 to14. Which basically means there mood was more positive and less negative. And this could possibly be due to the effect on how pomegranates lower cortisol, which is your body’s main stress hormone And dialing down high cortisol levels often times leads to stress reduction, which puts you in a better mood. And lastly after the 14 days, the most interesting thing happened. There was an increase in salivary testosterone, in both men and women from ELISA results. And that got me thinking about that older study in rats,which found that pomegranate juice increased testosterone levels, and helped protect Leydig cells, which are the cells that produce testosterone when they get the signal from LH.
But not just that, pomegranates can also protect against obesity-induced inflammation, which can lower testosterone levels, which is why people who have Moderate obesity, see a decrease in total testosterone due to insulin resistance-associated reductions in sex hormone binding globulin.
Which is where about 45% to 65% of testosterone in blood is normally bound already. So in 14 days, you saw lower blood pressure, lower stress, and higher testosterone. Which is crazy because, if pomegranates can do all that in just 14 days, I wonder what else it could do if taken longer. ANd keep in mind ideally, more studies are needed to gain more validity, but its an interesting starting point to understanding pomegranates as whole.
And there about 8 or more different types of the fruit each having their own seasons of ripeness, which you can see here. And the secret to picking one up if you choose to start by eating its fruit before the liquid is knowing that The ripest pomegranates aren’t shaped like balls.
They have angles, that are flattened around the sides, not rounded. Secondly, a ripe pomegranate should feel heavy for its size, the smaller and heavier, the better. And as for the liquid pomegranate, The ones used in the study were the ones by pomegreat, just fyi. Which are about 4 times more concentrated than regular pomegranate juice. Click the red subscribe button down below, and let me know what your thoughts are down below.