Antioxidants' reputation has taken ...

Antioxidants' reputation has taken a beating lately. more [i]or[/i] less studies show no effect of antioxidants forward cancer, while other studies prompt a detrimental effect of certain antioxidant nutrients upon health. For example, last year, the Beta Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET) an nounced that the close attention would be terminated, after four years of supplementing with beta-carotene showed no health benefit, and may have actually increased the risk of lung cancer, in a dispose of 18,314 heavy smokers and asbestos-exposed workers (although the authors admit that the study's terminates are statistically insignificant).

The termination of the CARET meditation fueled a fire that was lit back in 1994 when the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Trial (ATBC) from Finland was raised to celebrity status after finding an association between beta-carotene supplementation and an increased risk of lung cancer. The media maelstrom was reignited after the Physicians' Health reflection (released late in 1995) reported no health import -- good or bad -- from 12 years of beta-carotene supplementation.

Setting the record straight

Before you toss without your bottle of antioxidant continuations let's put the negative studies into perspective. (See Editor's Desk April 1996 BN) The Achilles' heel of the CARET subject of attention probably lies in its high-risk research population. Most of the cogitation participants smoked a pack a day for 20 years or more and many were expos to the carcinogen asbestos in succession top of that! It is probable that their cancers were initiated years before this research was even developed. Beta-carotene is not a magic bullet; it cannot undo years of unhealthy living.

the two the CARET and Finnish studies showed that subject of attention participants with the highest flushs of beta-carotene at the beginning of the studies (indicating a lifelong commitment to a higher intake of beta-carotene) were les likely to disentangle lung cancer during the study

through the whole extent of 200 laboratory experiments, population studies, and clinical trials demonstrate that beta-carotene is not harmful. In fact, they exhibit to the reverse, beta-carotene plays an important part in preventing many diseases, including cancer. A contemplation that assesses beta-carotene's role in treating pre-existing cancer, in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as CARET, may simply be inappropriate.

novel research sheds light on close attention inconsistencies

Researchers at the Center for Vitamins and Cancer Research at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center may have an explanation for the apparent inconsistencies of findings in regards to antioxidants and cancer risk seen in prior research.

These researchers, in order to assess the events of individual and multiple antioxidant vitamins, grew agricultures of human cells that are known to transform into cancerous solitary abode; squalids The next step was to add various amounts of vitamin C beta-carotene, vitamin E and vitamin A, alone and in different combinations, to these improvement dishes and monitor the efficiency on cancerous changes.

Combining four fundamental note antioxidants is most effective

When the vitamins were used alone, beta-carotene was construct to be more effective than vitamins A or E in inhibiting tumor putting out Vitamin C at low doses stimulated tumor vegetation but inhibited growth at high doses. Combining pair antioxidant vitamins was generally more effective than the individual vitamins. The combination of all four antioxidants was the greatest in number effective in inhibiting tumor growth

"Result from the use of mixtures of sum of two units vitamins suggest that, in the absence of knowledge of doses and the meaning of potential interaction, cancer prevention trials among high-risk populations or cancer treatment trials can be ineffective. Therefore the in every one's mouth clinical trials on cancer prevention in which the same or two arbitrarily selected vitamins at arbitrarily exquisiteed doses are used are likely to yield inconsistent results" gather the researchers.

The bottom line of this study? The more the merrier; a mixture of antioxidants provides maximum protection against cancer, especially in high risk populations.

REFERENCES

Ede TE "Beta carotene and cancer: Where are we now?" Journal of the American college edifice [i]or[/i] building of Nutrition 14(3):306-308, 1995.

Gormley, James J "Best medicine? I'd hate to descry the worst," Better Nutrition 58(4):6 1996

Prasad, KN and Kumar, R "Effect of individual and multiple antioxidant vitamins onward growth and morphology of human nontumorigenic and tumorigenic parotid acinar small cavitys in culture," Nutrition and Cancer 26:11-19 1996

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