Heart-healthy pill made of tomatoes
DON’T like piling your plate with fruit and vegetables, but want to take care of your heart? Scientists may have come up with an answer.
They have created a ‘tomato pill’ that is bursting with lycopene, a powerful antioxidant credited with many of the Mediterranean diet’s famous health benefits.
A single pill provides as much lycopene — the phytonutrient which gives tomatoes their rich, glossy red colour — as eating more than 2lb of the pasta-sauce favourite.
Now research at the University of Cambridge has shown that the patented lycopene supplement improves blood vessel health in heart attack survivors and people with other cardiac problems.
Their blood vessels were able to open 53 per cent wider by the end of the study.
Blood flow had improved so that their arteries worked almost as well as those of healthy people. All continued to take their usual blood pressure pills, statins and other tablets throughout.
Fat-busting lycopene is known to help prevent furring of the arteries but is poorly absorbed in its natural form.
The supplement combines lycopene with whey protein from milk, to make lactolycopene, which is easier to absorb and has no reported side effects.
It works by blocking proteins that trigger the breakdown of fats in the blood to form particles.
These stick to the walls of arteries, narrowing the channel for the passage of blood and leading to heart attacks and strokes. The trial showed that vital cells lining the inside of blood vessels become healthier when the supplement is taken regularly.
These endothelial cells are key to keeping blood moving through the body — and so to warding off dangerous blockages in the arteries.
Longer-term studies are continuing to see if the allnatural ‘tomato pill’ cuts the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Cardiovascular disease remains the UK’s biggest killer, affecting an estimated 7 million Britons and causing around 153,000 deaths a year.
Other research has credited lycopene with a host of health benefits, from warding off prostate cancer, cognitive decline and macular degeneration, to countering yeast infections and keeping bones strong.