Vitamin deficiency may cause modern ills - UK Independent newspaper

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Vitamin deficiency may cause modern ills

By Steve Connor

Saturday, 16 February 2008

A chronic shortage of vitamins and other " micronutrients " in the diet

may be responsible for triggering many of the ills of modern life such

as cancer, obesity and the degenerative diseases of ageing.

Professor Bruce Ames, of the University of California, Berkeley, who

invented one of the standard tests for cancer-causing chemicals, said

many people's diets were deficient in one or more of the 40

micronutrients essential for a healthy life.

Taking dietary supplements in the form of vitamin pills could help to

counteract many of the disorders associated with ageing, Dr Ames told

the American Association meeting.

He said many people on a high-calorie diet in the West or poor diet in

developing countries were short of micronutrients and this caused the

body to go into an emergency " triage " response in which it tried to keep

its metabolism in balance by a process of compensation. This ensures

immediate survival, but the consequences are an increase in DNA damage,

which causes future cancers, a lowered immune defence, and a decay of

the mitochondrial " power plants " of the cells, which causes accelerated

ageing, " he said.

He said a shortage of minerals, vitamins and other nutrients could also

be partly responsible for obesity.

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