Doubts about the benefits of antioxidants are confirmed
Some antioxidants shorten life
Kirill Stasevich, Compulenta
Those who use antioxidants do not live any longer than those who do not use them; moreover, some antioxidants can even shorten life: this is the conclusion of researchers from the hospital at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). Among the antioxidants that reduce life expectancy are beta-carotene, vitamin E and vitamin A (if taken in increased amounts).
According to Peter Cohen of the Cambridge Health Alliance (USA), this study only confirms that it has long been no secret for doctors: antioxidant supplements do not make a person healthier, you should not rely on them if you want to live longer.
The work itself is a meta-analytical review: Christian Glud and his colleagues used data from 78 clinical trials of antioxidants conducted from 1977 to 2012. In total, the statistics covered 300 thousand people on average 63 years old, many of whom took antioxidants for at least three years. 73% were healthy, the rest suffered from various chronic ailments, from diabetes and heart problems to Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers selected 56 works that looked satisfactory in terms of thoroughness of execution and allowed them to hope for reliable results. According to these studies, the mortality rate of antioxidant lovers was 4% higher than that of placebo users. Moreover, it increased both among those who were healthy and among chronically ill.
In some variants of antioxidant tests, their participants used not a mixture of antioxidants, but some one. This revealed that beta-carotene, vitamin E and high doses of vitamin A. Vitamin C and selenium, on the contrary, had no effect on mortality. Danish scientists published their results in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Antioxidant Supplements to Prevent Mortality).
Criticism of antioxidants has been heard more and more recently; perhaps the loudest was James Watson's speech. Antioxidants have gained popularity as a means against oxidative stress: their molecules help neutralize aggressive oxygen radicals that damage important biomolecules of the cell; as a result, the cell and the body as a whole should live "happily ever after". Why, then, do antioxidants have the opposite effect?
The aforementioned Peter Cohen offers three explanations. The first is purely scientific and methodological: experiments with antioxidants have been carried out in vitro and on animals for a long time, and their effect on humans can be very different from how they behave in a test tube and how they act on some mouse. Secondly, antioxidants can really rid us of radicals, but this also leads to some other molecular and cellular problems. Third: the work of antioxidants to clean up radicals suppresses their own cellular processes, which are designed for the same thing, and this has a bad effect on the cell.
However, all these explanations sound too general, and researchers have yet to find out exactly how antioxidants harm the body. And yet, the number of works talking about the dubious benefits of antioxidants continues to grow, and therefore, it would probably be more correct to abandon them, especially if you are not ill with anything.
Prepared based on the materials of LiveScience: Some Antioxidants Linked with Shorter Life.
From the editorial office:
In fairness, it should be noted that the authors of the article in JAMA are somewhat more cautious,
than the author of a note in LiveScience, formulate the conclusions of their research:
“Antioxidant supplements are not associated with lower all-cause mortality. Beta carotene, vitamin E, and higher doses of vitamin A may be associated
with higher all-cause mortality”.
May be, and may not be – that is still the question…
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19.09.2013