Antioxidants and cancer prevention

[GreatAmericanZero]

Hey Dr Steve

I was just curious..everyone says you should eat foods with a lot of antioxidants and how antioxidants are so good for you


I want to know what antioxidants are and why they are good for you. In simple language i can understand (like you do oh so well). I tried wikipedia-ing it and it was too complicated for me

thanks

[Dr Steve]

Hey Dr Steve

I was just curious..everyone says you should eat foods with a lot of antioxidants and how antioxidants are so good for you


I want to know what antioxidants are and why they are good for you. In simple language i can understand (like you do oh so well). I tried wikipedia-ing it and it was too complicated for me

thanks

This is a great question. The whole "you should eat antioxidants" thing has become a truism in our culture, but the science behind it is very iffy indeed.

There are a ton of oxidation reactions in the body, and some of those cause a phenomenon called the "free radical". An example of a free radical would be O+, a positive ion of oxygen. This is an incredibly unstable atom (missing an electron in its outer shell), and it will do ANYTHING to regain that electron and become stable again. If it bumps into an atom or molecule that isn't holding on to its electrons too tightly, it'll steal one, creating another free radical. Bump that free radical into a strand of your DNA, and you'll change its chemical structure, possibly inducing a mutation. ANTIOXIDANTS are substances with lots of free electrons, and will neutralize free radicals, breaking the chain.

There is a whole theory that free-radical damage can cause cancer. So anything that gets rid of free radicals should be good, right? Makes sense. In fact, there are studies in cell cultures and animal models that indicate that antioxidants should be able to forestall the damage that free radicals can do.

However, in human studies, the data has been inconclusive. There was even one study that showed that people who smoked and took antioxidants had a HIGHER incidence of cancer than those that didn't.

The national cancer institute has three large scale studies going on now to dope this out once and for all (hopefully). You can check out their info at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/antioxidantsprevention

In the end, I can't say with certainty that supplementing with antioxidants will do you any good. However, fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants, and a diet high in fruits and vegetables has been shown to be good for you, so you can get a load of antioxidants and do some good just by eating a balanced diet.

your pal,


steve