Do you eat pomegranates? Well here's a few reasons why you should

An ingredient in pomegranate may help stop the spread of Alzheimer's disease, scientists from the University of Huddersfield claim.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The chemical punicalagin, a form of a chemical compound known as polyphenol, helps prevent the inflammation that destroys brain cells known as micrologia, and scientists hope that these findings may also potentially benefit sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis and Parkinson's disease, by reducing painful inflammation caused by these conditions.

You can be a light in the darkness with "prayer and action."

There is no cure for Alzheimer's, but the punicalagin in pomegranates could prevent or slow the development of the disease.

This new study was headed by Dr. Olumayokun Olajide, who worked with co-researchers at the University of Huddersfield's Department of Pharmacy and scientists from the University of Freiburg in Germany.

The researchers used brain cells isolated from rats to test their findings, which were published in the science journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research.

Olajide does not yet know the amount of pomegranate that is required to create an effective form of the drug. "But," he said, "we do know that regular intake and regular consumption of pomegranate has a lot of health benefits - including prevention of neuro-inflammation related to dementia."

He continued to say that most of the helpful anti-oxidant compounds that are found  in pomegranates come from the outer skin of the fruit, not the soft interior.

Though it has not been scientifically proven, pomegranates have been used in folk medicine for centuries as effective treatments for heart disease, high blood pressure, inflammation and some cancers.

Still, the potential to treat several terrible diseases with pomegranates is astounding.

"We show for the first time that you can specifically change memory functions of the brain in adults without surgery or drugs, which have not proven effective," said Joel Voss, a researcher at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

'This noninvasive stimulation improves the ability to learn new things. It has tremendous potential for treating memory disorders."

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