Antioxidant Supplements Will Protect Me Against Cancer and Heart Disease, Right?
It may be that what we have been thinking about taking antioxidant supplements for cancer and heart protection is based in wishful thinking rather than scientific fact. Not that positive thinking isn't a valid healthful activity to embrace, but evidently, taking antioxidant supplements provides more of a placebo effect than actual physical protection. Recent studies have shown that antioxidant supplements do not protect us against cancer and/or heart disease.
The heart study results, which were published by the American Heart Association (AHA) in the August 3 issue of Circulation, concluded that antioxidant supplements do not protect us from heart disease. The cancer study results, which were reviewed by the U.S. Prevention Services Task Force (USPSTF), concluded that the use of vitamins A, C, and E, or an antioxidant combination, cannot be recommended to prevent cancer; in fact, the use of beta-carotene may actually increase the risk of lung cancer for smokers.
The conclusions reached indicate that maybe we have to start taking supplements at a younger age to gain the benefits, or maybe we need more powerful supplements. In any case, pills and other supplements just do not give us the benefits we receive from fresh foods. Evidently, Grandma was right all along: to be healthy, we need to eat our fruits and vegetables!
For more information, see http://circ.ahajournals.org, or use an online search engine and search key words such as antioxidant supplements and heart disease or cancer. |
