Giving atherosclerosis the squeeze

I don't know where you will find pomegranate juice but some researchers think you should. Studies were done on atherosclerotic mice and healthy men to determine cholesterol changes in the blood. Now, first off, let me remind you that the cholesterol-causes-heart-disease paradigm is a weak one. But, for what it's worth, here's what the researchers found:

The mouse studies were the most impressive because they were done on sick mice, not healthy ones, as in the case of the humans. In mice, pomegranate juice reduced oxidation of LDL (bad) cholesterol by 90 percent. That may be relevant or it may not. But in addition, the juice shrank atherosclerotic lesions in the mice by 44 percent, compared with control mice-and that is impressive.