Do you know our tomato can save smokers.

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We use to take Tomatoes as a salad and an essential ingredient in a Bloody Mary cocktail. But scientists now believe tomatoes, rich in antioxidants, could help protect smokers against lung disease. They found that mixing tomato juice into mice’s drinking water completely prevented them suffering emphysema triggered by tobacco smoke. Emphysema is predominantly found in smokers’ and prevents the lungs working properly, resulting in breathlessness and wheezing. Together with chronic bronchitis it is one of the chief causes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, which kills about 28,000 people each year in the UK. E m p hy - s e m a d a m - a g es the elastic supporting structure of the lungs, leading to the breakdown and collapse of airways. Powerful antioxidant Tomato juice was given to the mice because it contains a powerful natural antioxidant, lycopene, which is already known to benefit health. It has been associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer in men. The scientists from the Juntendo University School of Medicine in Tokyo believe other ingredients in tomato juice may also have played a part. They now want to test tomato juice on human patients with COPD. The findings were published in the American Journal of Physiology.