Apart from increasing your blood count, pomegranates could help you live longer. Researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, have found that pomegranates help cells recycle and rebuild themselves, thus slowing the ageing process. As we age, the powerhouse of our cells, our mitochondria, starts degrading, leading to muscle weakness. The team found that they can restore mitochondria by a molecule called urolithin A. However, this molecule is not found in pomegranates but produced when a molecule in the fruit combines with microbes in the intestine, depending on the bacteria in your gut. They first tried their study on roundworms, whose lifespan increased by 45 per cent. Next, the molecule was tried on old mice, whose running improved 42 per cent. Next up are human trials. The study was published in journal Nature Medicine.

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Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
November 2016