Cranberries may be good for the heart

(April 2005) -- University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers report cranberries may help protect against heart disease.

The research, which was conducted on swine, was presented at the Congress of the International Union of Physiological Sciences. The team from the UW School of Veterinary Medicine studied the effects of giving the animals cranberry juice powder regularly over a six-month period.

The researchers said that the naturally derived compounds such as antioxidants, flavonoids, and polyphenols, help blood vessels to relax in subjects with high cholesterol and artherosclerosis.

The next phase of the research is to find the specific components of cranberries that are most important to improvements in vascular function and determine how they can most easily be consumed as part of a person's diet.

For more information, please contact: Kris Kruse-Elliott , University of Wisconsin-Madison.