Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse

#1

Post by jrs235 » Wed, Jan 27, 2016, 8:52 PM UTC

Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse
scientificamerican.com

Re: Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse

#2

Post by ThomPete » Wed, Jan 27, 2016, 9:35 PM UTC

As I am now on my second Melanoma (luckily stage 1) this article hit me right in the stomach for some reason.

I kept looking to see if I am eating something wrong. So can someone with better understanding of antioxidants explain if this is only via vitamin or if it's specifically present in some types of food.

Re: Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse

#3

Post by bad_user » Wed, Jan 27, 2016, 9:48 PM UTC

Reductionist science does it again.

Re: Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse

#4

Post by trhway » Wed, Jan 27, 2016, 9:52 PM UTC

Being high-iron cells, cancer cells is supposedly more easily damaged by free radicals (this is how artemisinin being super-peroxide works against cancer and malaria), and one can see the logic that cancer cells can benefit significantly from decreasing of oxidative stress, in particular by anti-oxidants.

Re: Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse

#5

Post by vox_mollis » Wed, Jan 27, 2016, 9:55 PM UTC

ThomPete wrote: post #2

As I am now on my second Melanoma (luckily stage 1) this article hit me right in the stomach for some reason. I kept looking to see if I am eating something wrong. So can someone with better understanding of antioxidants explain if this is only via vitamin or if it's specifically present in some types of food.

Note: Not a medical professional, with associated caveats.

I don't know about this article specifically, but the importance of hormesis in medicine has come on fairly strongly in recent years. Specifically, that persistent, low-level damage to your cells and subsequent autophagy can actually reduce one's risk of various ailments. Antioxidants reduce the occurrence of this damage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormesis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy

Re: Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse

#6

Post by pmiller2 » Wed, Jan 27, 2016, 9:57 PM UTC

ThomPete wrote: post #2

As I am now on my second Melanoma (luckily stage 1) this article hit me right in the stomach for some reason. I kept looking to see if I am eating something wrong. So can someone with better understanding of antioxidants explain if this is only via vitamin or if it's specifically present in some types of food.

Supplements contain massive levels of antioxidants compared to foods. I wouldn't want to completely cut out, say, glutathione, because then you'd miss cruciferous vegetables, for instance.

I'm not a medical professional, but I think whole, healthy foods are generally good choices.

Re: Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse

#7

Post by mmaunder » Wed, Jan 27, 2016, 10:11 PM UTC

bad_user wrote: post #3

Reductionist science does it again.

Yup. The trouble with this kind of linkbaity content is that it makes you dive for the pill bottle or the juicer and consume even more high concentrations of something our species never evolved into handling.

Re: Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse

#8

Post by Symmetry » Wed, Jan 27, 2016, 10:19 PM UTC

ThomPete wrote: post #2

As I am now on my second Melanoma (luckily stage 1) this article hit me right in the stomach for some reason. I kept looking to see if I am eating something wrong. So can someone with better understanding of antioxidants explain if this is only via vitamin or if it's specifically present in some types of food.

People have investigated antioxidants pretty thoroughly and supplemental antioxidants really aren't needed in healthy cells. Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life goes into some details on the biochemistry behind that but you can look at the Antioxidant Wikipedia page for all the research showing no positive effect.

If I were to speculate it might be that while normal cells can make enough for themselves cancerous cells benefit from external antioxidants. The damage done by free radicals is mostly concentrated in the mitochondrial genome, which is why evolution has brought as many genes as possible out of the mitochondria into the nucleus. By contrast the mutations that causes cancer are, IIRC, mostly inside the nucleus.

Re: Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse

#9

Post by danieltillett » Wed, Jan 27, 2016, 10:25 PM UTC

The problem is there are inducible antioxidant systems inside our cells. If you increase the levels of exogenous antioxidants then your cells respond and down regulate the inducible systems and you end up where you started (homeostasis is a bitch).

Re: Antioxidants May Make Cancer Worse

#10

Post by ferrari8608 » Wed, Jan 27, 2016, 10:31 PM UTC

The article just talks about antioxidant supplements being harmful, not naturally occurring antioxidants from sources such as coffee. That's good. Don't ruin coffee for me, please science.

I don't really understand the whole supplement craze. To me, it feels like common sense not to megadose any particular thing, especially when you don't understand the effects said thing can have on the body.