News
Multivitamin supplements may reduce cancer risk
18 October 2012
According to a new US study, a daily intake of a combination of low-dose vitamins and minerals can decrease total cancer incidence by 8%.
03 January 2014
A new review from China concludes that a combined antioxidant therapy with beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium may significantly reduce pain in patients with chronic pancreatitis.
The systematic review included nine randomized controlled trials from Europe, Asia and the US, involving 390 adult patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP) who received antioxidant therapy or placebo for 6 to 24 we- eks (1). The data analysis showed that patients receiving therapy with different antioxidants had increased blood levels of antioxidant biomarkers. While no significant positive effect on pain relief was shown on single antioxidants, the use of combined antioxidants, such as beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium, had a strong association with pain relief. Antioxidant therapy appeared to be safe and there were no serious adverse events after therapy.
The researchers commented that subgroups of patients with CP who obtained optimal benefit from combined antioxidant therapy needed further investigation. It seemed that measures of total antioxidant status may not help to monitor the efficacy of antioxidant therapy for patients with CP. CP is a progressive inflammatory disease of the pancreas, which results in a gradual loss of normal pancreatic tissue architecture and subse- quent fibrosis. For patients with CP, abdominal pain is the most common presentation, which may signifi- cantly decrease quality of life and sometimes lead to severe malnutrition.
Currently, there is still no effective medical therapy for pain relief in patients with CP. In the West, alcohol abuse is the most common cause of CP, which accounts for 70% of cases. It is thought that oxidative stress caused by increased exposure to alcohol or nicotine causes pancreatic cell damage either directly by cell membrane destruction, toxicity from free radical peroxidation products, or through altering signaling path- ways (2).
18 October 2012
According to a new US study, a daily intake of a combination of low-dose vitamins and minerals can decrease total cancer incidence by 8%.
10 December 2009
Antioxidant supplements may prevent the development of new colon polyps in people with a history of colorectal tumors, says a new study.
14 July 2009
There are no important advantages in terms of health and nutritional benefits gained from eating organic food when compared to food produced using conventional techniques, says the UK’s Food Standards Authority (FSA), with the recent publication of a scientific study.