Perfect timing... antioxidants and your health

My biology literature review paper was due today... it's title is "Effect of Antioxidants on Tumor Progression." My basic finding, based on the the ten journal articles that I referenced in the paper, is that the conventional wisdom on antioxidants is wrong. Despite the claims made by the food industry and consumers' huge appetite for health in pill form, antioxidant supplementation may actually speed the formation and growth of tumors. Far from preventing cancer, too many antioxidants may promote it.

Scientists at Copenhagen University have just reported that antioxidant supplementation "increases mortality" after reviewing 67 studies.

From my paper:

Take a walk through your typical American supermarket’s aisles and you’ll likely find dozens of products touting their antioxidant content. Whether advertising their natural antioxidant content, as with pomegranate juice and green tea, or the fortified variety, such as breakfast cereals and artificially flavored “fruit” punch, a large and growing number of products proclaim the health benefits of the antioxidants that they contain....

In spite of the public’s conventional wisdom and the relentless marketing of antioxidant-fortified foods and supplements, antioxidants may, in fact, carry a significant danger of promoting the growth of existing tumors. In some at-risk individuals, they may even increase the risk of developing pre-cancerous changes in cells. While antioxidants play an essential role in metabolism, they may also accelerate damage resulting from environmental stress or aging. Further research to track long term effects on humans is necessary, including studies to determine if antioxidants occurring naturally in food have effects similar to those supplied by supplements. The results of the beta carotene study highlight the importance of designing these new studies so as to minimize potential harm to the participants.

The folks in Copenhagen are making the same recommendation that Michael Pollan makes in In Defense of Food: "eat well."

I've been taking supplements since I was 12 or 13. As soon as I had an income (how many newspapers did I deliver over the years????), I spent a fair amount of it on vitamins.

So while I haven't been able to completely wean myself off those appealing bottles on the health aisle's shelves, I have made a point of eliminating antioxidants. My only sources of vitamins A, C, E, etc. are... food. :-)

ONE OTHER NOTE: Several of the articles I read for my paper reported that dietary antioxidant supplements have the ability to speed tumor growth by short-circuiting the body's natural ability to kill off damaged cells before they become cancerous. I have read no articles that found or suggested that topically applied antioxidants might do the same thing for pre-cancerous skin cells, but the possibility certainly occurs to me. You might want to think twice about slathering on lotions containing antioxidants.

I read an article in Stanford's Alumni magazine last summer. It reported that early research at Stanford suggested that early removal of pre-cancerous cells by chemical peels and other procedures often considered "cosmetic" may be beneficial:

A number of interventions already exist for squamous and basal cell carcinoma. But surgery—the gold standard—can be disfiguring to patients with multiple lesions. Stanford researchers have conducted early studies that suggest cosmetic treatments for wrinkles, such as laser facial resurfacing, chemical peels and topical creams, could be beneficial.

These treatments resulted in an 83 percent to 92 percent decrease in actinic keratoses, rough patches of skin that appear on sun-exposed areas and are considered precursors to cancer. All, according to a 2006 Stanford study, may reduce precancerous lesions and lower the risk of skin cancer.