Do Antioxidant Supplements Help Women?
research is coming out all the time that seems to indicate antioxidants can prevent
cancer, strengthen your immune system and even keep you from aging. Antioxidants
work by sucking up free radicals that can damage your body's cells and transporting
them to the liver where eventually they exit the body.
Heart Disease in particular has been the subject of recent studies. Researchers in
Italy examined three hundred and seven middle aged women for Atherosclerosis. This
is the formation of plaques and lesions in the coronary arteries, which can signal
the development of cardiovascular disease years before a doctor diagnosis's it.
These women did not take vitamin supplements containing vitamins A, C or E. The
researchers took blood samples to measure the women's baseline level of various
antioxidants, took questionnaires and performed ultrasound examinations of their
carotid arteries and branches of the heart. They found that women who had plaques
building in their arteries had a low intake of vitamin E. Women with the lowest
baseline concentrations of Vitamin E in their blood were twice as likely to have
plaque build up in their carotid arteries and branches of the heart.
In a side note some promising research has come up relating to breast cancer in
women. Researchers gave thirty-two women between the ages of thirty-two and
eighty-one with metastasized breast cancer a multivitamin supplement. It contained
vitamin C, E, Beta Carotene, selenium, coenzyme Q10 and other vitamins and minerals
daily for eighteen months. None of the patients died during this period, which is
wonderful because without supplements it could be expected that at least four of the
volunteers would have died. Also the cancer in each of the patients appeared to stop
spreading. Six of the patients showed partial remission. One of the six patients in
partial remission had her dosage of coenzyme Q10 increased to 390mg daily and within
two months her tumor could no longer be seen on a mammogram.
Antioxidants are beneficial but they seem to be able to do only do so much. In a
French study publicized in 2004 it was found that antioxidants tended to benefit men
more than women. The Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale and
Unite de Surveillance et d'Epidemiologie Nutritionnelle studied the effects of taking
supplements in more than thirteen thousand men and women for seven and a half years.
The participants were divided into groups, each one taking a different antioxidant
daily. The antioxidants were ascorbic acid, Vitamin E, Beta Carotene, Selenium, Zinc
and a placebo. At the end of the study they found that the men who took antioxidants
were thirty-one percent less likely to develop cancer than women. Some of us women
may be automatically thinking what a sexist finding! While it is possible that
antioxidants are simply more effective in men it's not probable. It is more likely
that the men had a lower baseline of antioxidants in their bloodstream than women, in
other words women may have a better diet than men with lots of antioxidants and their
baselines were already high. So the antioxidants that men took simply brought the
men's baseline up and the antioxidants that women took may have been superfluous.
As a result of this study the researchers suggested that you are able to get a high
and beneficial level of antioxidants in your blood with a diet containing lots of
fruits and veggies.
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