The ability of antioxidants to reduce life expectancy
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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It turns out that the vitamin E, A, and beta-carotene at higher dosages increase your chances of premature death regardless of your health condition and the presence of chronic diseases.
The use of antioxidants in no way prolongs the life span of life, even on the contrary - according to researchers at the University of Copenhagen - reduces life expectancy.
According to doctors, antioxidant supplements do not improve the level of health, so do not rely entirely on them in the desire to live longer. This is confirmed by the statistical review of Christian Glud (Denmark), who used together with colleagues about 78 clinical trials of antioxidants in the interval 1977-2012. The scientists analyzed the state of health of 300,000 people of the average age group (63 years) who had been taking antioxidants for three years. Of these, 73% were healthy people, the rest had various chronic diseases - diabetes, heart problems, Alzheimer's disease.
In the course of the scientific experiment, 56 works were selected that meet the main condition - careful implementation, which allows to rely on the reliability of the results. Based on these studies, scientists found an increase in the death rate by 4% in antioxidant users compared with patients taking placebo. This relationship was observed, both in healthy and suffering from various ailments of patients.
A number of tests were carried out using one antioxidant, and not mixtures thereof. This allowed, in turn, to reveal a general pattern - the abuse of vitamin E, A, beta-carotene increased the death rate. On the other hand, selenium and vitamin C did not affect the life expectancy of patients. The results of the research of Danish scientists are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Antioxidants are increasingly being criticized, mentioning the carcinogenic properties of their molecules, damaging important structures of body tissues. The popularity of antioxidants is due to the ability to get rid of oxidative stress, their action is based on the suppression of aggressive oxygen radicals that destroy the biomolecules of the cell. Why does the opposite happen in practice?
Peter Cohen of the Cambridge Health Alliance explains this with the following facts:
- the effect of antioxidants has been tested for a long time in vitro (in simple terms, in vitro), as well as in animals, which casts doubt on a similar, positive effect on the human body;
- Of course, antioxidants are able to rid of radicals, but at the same time there are changes at the molecular-cellular level;
- the process of getting rid of radicals by antioxidants adversely affects the cell itself, suppressing its own ability to withstand radicals.
Harmful antioxidants require more specific medical justifications and experimental data. However, the number of works that raise the issue of the adverse effect of antioxidants on the human body, continues to increase day by day.