High Doses of Antioxidant Supplements Induce Stem Cell Genetic Abnormalities

[Guest guest]

Given the abundant supplements used to assist in metals detoxification, I'm

wondering what people on this list make of this new study (cut-and-pasted below

from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100504173821.htm)?

Eye-catching quote: " If you are taking 10 or 100 times the amount in a daily

multivitamin, you may be predisposing your cells to developing cancer " .

Thank you,

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ScienceDaily (May 4, 2010) — High doses of antioxidant nutritional supplements,

such as vitamins C and E, can increase genetic abnormalities in cells, which may

predispose supplement-takers to developing cancer, according to a new study from

the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.

The study, led by Marbán, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Cedars-Sinai

Heart Institute, was published online in the medical journal Stem Cells. The

study also will appear in the journal's July printed edition.

Marbán and his team accidentally discovered the danger of excessive antioxidant

doses while seeking a way to reduce the genetic abnormalities that occurred

naturally when the scientists sought to multiply human cardiac stem cells.

Marbán stressed that the study's finding applies only to excessive nutritional

supplements and not to foods that are rich in antioxidants, such as milk,

oranges, blueberries and peanuts. In recent years, multiple studies have touted

the benefits of foods rich in antioxidants.

" Taking one multivitamin daily is fine, but a lot of people take way too much

because they think if a little is good, a lot must be better, " said Marbán, who

is also the Mark Siegel Family Professor at Cedars-Sinai. " That is just not the

case. If you are taking 10 or 100 times the amount in a daily multivitamin, you

may be predisposing your cells to developing cancer, therefore doing yourself

more harm than good. "

In laboratories, stem cells are often grown in a Petri dish culture than is

composed of 20 percent oxygen, whereas cells growing inside human tissue are

exposed to just 3 to 5 percent oxygen. But Marbán's team of researchers became

frustrated because the higher concentration of oxygen in lab-grown stem cells

resulted in 9 percent of the cells being rejected because of genetic

abnormalities.

" We sought to counter that oxidation problem by adding high doses of

antioxidants directly to the cells, " Marbán said. " That's when we made the

serendipitous discovery that there is a danger zone for the cells exposed to

antioxidants to develop genetic abnormalities that predispose to cancer. "

Marbán is leading an ongoing, groundbreaking clinical trial in which heart

attack patients undergo two minimally-invasive procedures in an effort to repair

and re-grow healthy muscle in a heart injured by a heart attack. First, a biopsy

of each patient's own heart tissue is used to grow specialized heart stem cells.

About a month later, the multiplied stem cells are then injected back into the

patient's heart via a coronary artery.

The two-step procedure was completed on the first patient in June 2009. The

results of the trial are expected in early 2011.

Recently, Marbán received a $5.5 million grant from the California Institute for

Regenerative Medicine to continue developing cardiac stem cell therapies.