The Paradox of antioxidant
Posted on June 1, 2009 |
The antioxidant study, in particular, surprised a lot of people and has
prompted a heated debate. Antioxidants such as vitamins A, beta carotene (another form of vitamin A), E and C have long enjoyed a reputation as disease fighters because they’re thought to protect against free radicals that can damage cells and speed up aging. But in 47 randomized trials involving almost 181,000 adults, researchers found that taking vitamins A, beta carotene and E, alone or in combination, actually increased a person’s risk of dying byup to 16 percent.
These latest findings made headlines, but they haven’t convinced everyone. A number of leading health experts criticized the JAMA review, including Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, head of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. He argued that the results were skewed because the studies it reviewed were too diverse and could not be easily compared. It also included deaths from all causes, not just health-related ones.
Based on these flaws, Bernadine Healy, MD, former head of the NIH and the American Red Cross, deemed the study alarmist and silly. Still, others
wonder, why take the risk if you can get what you need from the produce
aisle or the farmers’ market? “Unless your doctor says you need supplements for a specific diagnosis, there is no reason to take them and no need to spend the money,” says the review’s senior author, Christian Gluud, MD, of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.