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Antioxidants and Aging
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A Japanese experiment involving rats showed that vitamin E deficient diets produced a faster rate of lipofuscin accumulation in cells than a diet with adequate vitamin E. Not only did the deficient animals age faster but when exposed to additional fatty toxins their aortas showed signs of tissue damage. This experiment, therefore, showed what is already widely assumed in human terms, that lipid peroxidation can be directly linked, not only to ageing, but also to the illnesses of ageing such as arterial damage, unless adequate antioxidants such as vitamin E are present (S. Hirai et al, Proceedings of the International Conference of Lipid Peroxides in Biological Medicine, Academic Press, New York, 1982).
A Russian study involving rabbits showed what happened when they were fed a diet deficient in vitamins C and E as well as co-enzyme Q10 (all of these are powerful antioxidants present in a good balanced diet). All the rabbits on the deficient diet showed signs of advanced premature ageing within 50 to 100 days, suggesting (or rather confirming) a major contribution to the ageing process from free radical activity (O. Voskresenskii et al, 'Chronic polyantioxidant insufficiency as a model for ageing' Dokl. Akad. Nauk. USSR (1983) 268:470-3
The activity of the important antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase was found to be extremely poor in duckling tissues where selenium deficiency existed. In these same ducklings supplementation of vitamin E had no effect on improving glutathione peroxidase activity. This Chinese study teaches us several important things, including the strong link between vitamin E and selenium, in which a symbiotic relationship exists, both antioxidants being more powerful in their work when the other is present. However, when one is absent (as is common in parts of China where levels of selenium in the soil are particularly low, leading to a very high incidence of cancer and heart disease) vitamin E on its own cannot make up for selenium deficiency (G. Xu et al, British Journal of Nutrition (1983) 50:437-44).
Doctors Porta, Joun and Nitta of the University of Hawaii at
Manoa, Honolulu, studied the health and life span effects on rats of six different diets containing various types and levels of fats and antioxidants, with no dietary (calorie) restriction involved. The researchers make the very important point that while no overall life extension pattern was observed, whatever the diet, 'the 50 per cent survival time of rats fed on safflower oil with high vitamin E supplementation was significantly longer than in all other groups'. This indicates that this particular group of animals stayed healthy and young longer than other groups who were receiving saturated fats (e.g. coconut oil) and low, or no, vitamin E supplementation (Henkel Corporation, Minnesota, Vitamin E Abstracts (1980) page 61).
But does life span actually increase in animals on antioxidants? In research conducted at Charles University, Czechoslovakia, mice were studied for the effects on life span of a diet rich in sunflower oil (polyunsaturated oil) or on the same diet with vitamin E also being supplemented. Those mice recieving additional vitamin E 'showed a slight prolongation of maximum life span'. Here we see evidence of some extension of life, using just one nutritional alteration, vitamin E supplementation, although the degree of extension of life was regarded as slight (M. Ledvina et al, Experimental Gerontology (1980) 15:67-71).
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A practicing naturopath, osteopath, and acupuncturist in the United Kingdom, with over forty years clinical experience, Dr. Chaitow is Editor-in-Chief, of the 
