Here’s something that can thwart bacteria from ganging up against you and spreading infection. Taking a page out of the military’s handbook, researchers from the Institut Armand Frappier, Canada, have discovered that interrupting lines of communication can stop bacteria in their tracks. And launching the assault is the sweet and innocuous cranberry! Cranberries are a great source of antioxidants. They also have antiadhesive properties owing to compounds called proanthocyaidins (PACs). Researchers fed cranberry extracts to fruit flies and found they lived longer than their counterparts and had reduced severity of bacterial infection. They now hope the study can reduce our dependence on antibiotics. The results were published in Scientific Reports.

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Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
January 2017