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ANTIOXIDANT LEVELS
Forget about your cholesterol number - what are your levels of CoQ-10, vitamin E, selenium, beta-carotene and vitamin C? You may eat well and take supplements, but do you know if they actually get into your system? Are the concentration levels of these protective substances in your blood below par, middling, or in the higher protective range?
In recent Health Connection columns, the world's leading researchers on antioxidants, heart disease, cancer and aging have explained how our antioxidant defenses help us live better and longer. Our antioxidant defense system includes large molecules such as the antioxidant enzymes and coenzymes, together with small molecules such as the antioxidant micronutrients - many of which turn out to be the familiar vitamins. Our diet helps determine both the amount antioxidant micronutrients in our blood and cells, as well as the levels of antioxidant enzymes and coenzymes that our bodies produce is determined partly by heredity and partly by diet.
I stress that our diet is a factor in our antioxidant defenses, because the needed nutrients must be in your diet in the first place. However, they won't help you unless they are absorbed. It is not just what we eat, but how well we absorb nutrients from our food and supplements. We can determine out diets, but our antioxidant defenses are influenced by other variables that are outside our control. The only solution is to MEASURE the blood levels directly and then make adjustments as necessary based on these measurements.
Let me emphasize the importance of the latter with the research of Dr. Richard Donaldson of the St. Louis Veterans' Administration Hospital. Dr. Donaldson conducted a clinical trial with terminally ill cancer patients. He found that when he could raise the patients' blood levels of selenium into the normal range, their pain and tumor sizes were often reduced. The amount of selenium needed to obtain normal blood levels varied from person to person. Normal healthy people usually have normal blood selenium levels on normal diets. However, cancer patients usually have low selenium levels on normal diets. Apparently they could not get enough without supplements. Dr. Donaldson found that he had to supplement the cancer patients with at least 200 to 600 micrograms of selenium per day and in some cases 2,000 micrograms of selenium per day were required to obtain normal blood selenium levels.
As Dr. Gerhard Schrauzer told us in the December 1991 column, blood selenium levels often indicate the presence of cancer and even the severity of cancer in a patient. This is how he became interested in the role of selenium in cancer. It seems that low blood selenium levels increase the risk of cancer and that tumors may also deplete the blood of selenium. Some people absorb selenium poorly and this increases the probability of developing cancer.
Selenium, of course, is just one element in the complex and overlapping antioxidant defense system that includes nutrients such as vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin A, coenzyme Q-10, vitamin C, and many others. Blind supplementation is not a good idea, because some of these micronutrients like selenium and vitamin A can be toxic at higher levels. When I first pointed this out several years ago, many people wrote to me asking where they could get the blood levels of these substances measured. Now, at last, there is such a laboratory that can do just this. They measure the blood concentrations of more than 20 different substances that are related to the antioxidant defense system. The results are plotted in graphs that make it easy to see exactly what relative deficiencies actually exist so that they can be targeted for correction.
Do you know what your antioxidant profile is? Dr. Charles A. Thomas will tell us some of the reasons why this information should be of interest to you.
US researchers reported findings this week from a vitamin E dose response and time course study which some believe may help supplement manufacturers to select the appropriate dose of a particular antioxidant ingredient or formula.
The study, which examined vitamin E doses using isoprostanes, widely used to measure in-vivo free radicals in the body, may show why clinical trials of alpha tocopherol have largely failed to show a beneficial effect on the prevention of atherosclerotic events. This is the claim of Lipoprotein Diagnostics, a development stage diagnostic company which has the exclusive rights to commercialise the isoprostanes as biomarkers for the measurement of oxidative stress in-vivo and in foods as an index of food spoilage.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University presented the results of the vitamin E dose response and time course study on oxidative stress at this week's American Heart Association and Oxygen Society meetings, being held in Chicago and San Antonio respectively.
The study measured the effects of increasing doses of vitamin E as alpha tocopherol on isoprostanes (F2 IsoPs), a patented biomarker for measuring oxidative stress in-vivo. Isoprostanes are produced in-vivo by oxidation of lipids, and can be measured in blood or urine. They have become the gold standard for the in-vivo measurement of free radicals in the body, and over 250 papers published each year use the isoprostanes as an index for measuring oxidative stress in-vivo, claims Lipoprotein Diagnostics.
The company added that as scientists now have a tool for measuring the effects of oral antioxidant supplements and drugs on free radical production in-vivo, many are finding out that antioxidants that looked good in-vitro do not always prove to be effective in-vivo.
The clinical trial, presented this week at the American Heart Association and Oxygen Society Conferences, involved 35 subjects with elevated cholesterol who were supplemented with either zero, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, or 3200 IU/d of alpha tocopherol for 16 weeks. A run-in period to establish the time course for the highest dose effect on oxidative stress was conducted in eight subjects at a dose of 3200 IU/d for 20 weeks prior to starting the dose response phase of the study.
The time course study indicated that the maximum reduction in oxidative stress as measured by the isoprostanes was not achieved until 16 weeks of dosing and levels remained reduced at 20 weeks. No effect was observed on plasma F2 IsoPs (oxidative stress) at a dose of 400 IU/d or less. At a dose of 800 IU/d, plasma F2IsoPs levels were reduced by 30 per cent, at 1600 IU/d levels were reduced by 35 per cent, and at 3200 IU/d reductions of 49 per cent were achieved.
Lipoprotein Diagnostics suggests that clinical trials of alpha tocopherol on the prevention of atherosclerotic events may have failed to show a beneficial effect, because implicit in these trials is the assumption that the doses of alpha tocopherol tested effectively inhibit oxidative stress. The new study enables the selection of the appropriate dose of a particular antioxidant ingredient or formula.
Lipoprotein Diagnostics is currently developing an easy-to-use consumer-friendly test to measure the effects of oral antioxidant supplementation on the body by gauging levels of this marker in urine with a simple dipstick. Future development could also lead to an electronic device with Internet connectivity that will be able to provide consumers and physicians with quantitative results in minutes, said the company.
"Now consumers, scientists, and physicians will be able to study and determine the optimum doses for antioxidant products, as well as test and screen new antioxidant ingredients for efficacy," said Eric Kuhrts, president of Lipoprotein Diagnostics. "This will result in a radical shift in thinking for supplement marketers in the future, as each formulation will be able to be tested in-vivo, and in-vitro/in-vivo correlation's of antioxidants will be subjected to scrutiny," he added.
An easy, quick test for food spoilage is also in development by the company. It is seeking corporate partners for the application.
For the past three years our research team at Sharp Labs Inc. has been watching the outcome of many placebos for various tests on many so claimed "Super Antioxidants". We know now so much more about what vitamins and minerals work as true antioxidants for our immune system and what vitamin co factors work well together with regard to antioxidant performance. We are proud to offer our best antioxidant formula yet. "Cell Protect" is a super antioxidant formula that is dynamic and keeps changing with modern research results. We keep our formula top notch for only the best in aiding your diet for immune system boosting power.
For instance did you know this?
 Vitamin A has been ruled out as a super antioxidant in high doses and can actually be harmful and increase
cancer risk especially in smokers. Vitamin A in small doses such as in "Cell Protect" although works well with Vitamin E and other vitamins.
 Flax Seed extracts have had good results while being tested for antioxidant performance.
 Garlic is quickly becoming our most exciting antioxidant ingredient yet amd tests have shown that garlic
is all good and has no bad side effects. Garlic powder extract will be released in our newest "Cell Protect"
formula being released shortly.
 Vitamin C can be used in large amounts and not be harmful but our bodies will only process set amounts for what it needs. We know this and apply this formula to the production of our super "Cell Protect" antioxidant supplement.
This is just a brief description of some facts that we have researched and uncovered throughout our antioxidant and immune system studies and hope you will choose "Cell Protect" as your daily antioxidant supplement. We offer you only the finest and purest extracts and strains in all of our supplements!
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