Not Hair Loss News – Antioxidants Accelerate Lung Cancer in Mice
Snippet from the article:
Although some people spend countless dollars on antioxidant supplements to improve their health, many studies have found that these would-be panaceas could actually exacerbate the diseases they claim to prevent.
Now, a team of Swedish scientists has shown that two antioxidants—vitamin E and N-acetylcysteine (NAC)—can fuel the growth of lung cancers in mice. The team also worked out why.
Antioxidants protect cells from chemically unstable molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can easily react with DNA and cause damage that leads to cancer. But Martin Bergo’s team at the University of Gothenburg showed that antioxidants neutralize ROS in tumors as well as healthy cells. “If we give extra antioxidants in the diet, we’re helping the tumor to reduce radicals that would otherwise block its growth,†Bergo said. “Then it can speed up all it wants.â€
Read the rest — Antioxidants Speed Up Lung Cancer
This may bust the modern thought that antioxidants are good for everyone. Although this was discovered in mice, we need to pay attention to such publications.
The use of antioxidants, as well as all supplements, have come under scrutiny for some time.
Antioxidants, as a general rule, pose no risk to the otherwise healthy individual. Vitamin C, A, E, etc, when used in appropriate doses, should pose no risk to an otherwise healthy individual.
Where the math gets fuzzy with antioxidant use is when the person is NOT otherwise healthy and is being medically treated for cancer. Part of what chemotherapeutics do to kill cancer cells is to increase intracellular oxidation and stressors. It appears logical to assume that, if you are undergoing chemotherapy with say Cisplatin or Carboplatin, both of which increase intracellular oxidation within cancer cells, it would be counter-intuitive to use any antioxidant that would reduce the efficacy of the chemotherapy by reducing the amount of oxidation to the cancer cell.
In essence, vitamin E, A, C, or any other antioxidant will NOT cause cancer. There is evidence to suggest these antioxidants may reduce the efficacy of chemotherapy used to TREAT cancer, but it will not cause cancer.
If this were true, all those who live in tropical climates, and consume a large percentage of citrus fruits (all with varied and high antioxidant levels, not just vitamin C) would have among the highest incidences of a wide variety of neoplastic diseases.