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Antioxi NOW newsletter for September 9th, 2007

Hi! Jan from Antioxi.net here. I hope you've had a good week.

  This summer has just flown by, I can't believe it's September already. The daytime temperature is slightly lower now, which is fine with me - I can actually stand to be outside for more than ten minutes at a time.

Let's get on with the newsletter.

This week:

• An antioxidant strongly impacts longevity in bees
• Enzymes that fight cancer seem to be given a boost by green tea extract
• Make sure you get enough sun
• Antioxidant of the Week: Vitellogenin
• Antioxidant Source of the Week: Honey

 This week's edition of Antioxi NOW! has a distinct flavor of honey, as our article about the life spans of bees created quite a buzz (sorry, couldn't resist) on the Internet. I'm personally not that fond of honey, mainly because I don't like the stickyness. But it is a fine source of antioxidants, so if you can stand its sticky tendencies, you are to be congratulated.  

Antioxidant strongly impacts longevity in bees

I wasn't aware of this scientific result from 2006 before I stumbled across an interesting paper in the PNAS last week. More than anything else, this is a confirmation that antioxidants can have an enormously strong impact on longevity.

I'm not sure if vitellogenin, the antioxidant in question, will be all that significant for us humans, but it will certainly be interesting to see how the process works (even so, I chose vitellogenin as the Antioxidant of the Week - more below).

At the end of the article is the link to the paper itself. As you can see, the paper is almost 18 months old - it escaped my attention at the time it was published, but I was made aware of its significance this week, and I promptly talked to the lead scientist and wrote the article.

This is exciting news, because such a dramatic reversal of the aging process is virtually unknown in animals.

Green tea extract boosts anti-cancer enzymes

This article was published in Scientific American and tells of how taking green tea extract boosts the concentration of enzymes that are known to strengthen the body's ability to fight cancer.

In the study, volunteers were taking four capsules of epigallocatechin gallate every morning for four weeks. This would be equivalent to drinking 8-16 cups of green tea every day. The study group showed an increased production of detoxification enzymes afterwards, and those with the lowest levels of such enzymes before the test experienced an increase of 80 percent. Those who had a normal or high level of the enzyme before the test had either no or a slight increase.

The carefully worded conclusion is that "concentrated green tea extract could be beneficial to those who are deficient in the detoxification enzyme and shouldn't be harmful for those who have adequate detoxification enzyme," according to the lead researcher.

So, while by no means conclusive evidence that green tea extract helps fight cancer, it is an interesting indication in that direction. As is so often the case, more studies are needed. We should keep in mind that this is how natural science works - nothing is ever definitely proven beyond doubt, but theories can be strengthened or weakened.

In that perspective, this result certainly seems to strengthen the theory that green tea is healthy. Also, green tea (and white tea) contains more antioxidants than just epigallocatechin gallate as used in the study.


 

Get some sun - but not too much

Now, there has been a lot of talk about vitamin D lately, as the evidence is mounting that it has a positive effect on fighting cancer. In fact, some researchers feel that up to 600 000 deaths a year worldwide could be prevented by just ten minutes of sunshine a day. When exposed to the sun, the skin turns sunlight into vitamin D, which happens to be a pretty strong antioxidant.

This article tells the story.

As the lead scientist says, «[Increasing the level of vitamin D] could be best achieved with a combination of diet, supplements and short intervals - ten or 15 minutes a day - in the sun."

The thing to remember is to get enough, but not to much. Exposing your bare skin to the sun for more than a few minutes a day will greatly increase the chance of getting skin cancer.

As with everything, including antioxidants, moderation is key.


 

Antioxidant of the Week: Vitellogenin

The term "vitellogenin" denotes both the antioxidant protein and the gene for producing that protein. Humans don't produce vitellogenin, only fish and certain insect (including bees) can do that. In bees, the lifespan of the queen bee and certain worker bees (see the article or the summary above) is significantly lengthened by the strong concentration of vitellogenin, which acts as an antioxidant.

For the bees, the vitellogenin is a valuable resource, which only queen bees and nursing bees have in abundance. The worker bees that forage are only given just as much as they need to do their jobs, since they are considered expendable to the hive. In fact, both vitellogenin the gene and vitellogenin the protein are now seen as very important in the social functioning of honeybees.

It would seem natural to ask if taking vitellogenin, say, as a supplement, would have an impact on the life expectancy of humans. Now, I have not been able to find any mention of vitellogenin and humans at all in any journal or indeed anywhere else. Since we lack the gene for the protein, I strongly suspect that any such use is unrealistic, or at best lies far in the future.

Instead, vitellogenin and its impact on the longevity of bees will probably give us important clues as to the process of aging in general. So don't expect to see vitellogenin supplements in the health stores anytime soon. On the other hand, who knows... :)

 

Antioxidant Source of the Week: Honey

Now, first I should mention that honey does not, to my knowledge, contain any vitellogenin as mentioned above. I guess that's just as well, since our human organism probably wouldn't know what to do with it anyway. But honey does contain other antioxidants, including vitamin C , catalase and several polyphenols, the same class of antioxidants found in white and green tea and wine grapes.

 In 2004, U.S. researchers found that antioxidant levels rose in people who ate between four and 10 tablespoons of honey per day, depending on their weight. Also, one study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign concluded that honey contains as many antioxidants as spinach, apples and strawberries.

Raw honey also has natural anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. In addition, it may lower total cholesterol while increasing HDL (good) cholesterol.

Gathered from the nectar of flowers, honey in its raw state has some of the same antioxidants found in the plants that bees pollinate. Interestingly, the darker the honey, the greater the concentration of the antioxidants. This is due to the fact the antioxidant content of the honey depends on its floral source - i.e., what kind of pollen the bees were harvesting to make the honey. Buckwheat honey is supposedly especially good for you.

While significantly sweeter than table sugar, honey has less calories, but is a much healthier sweetener than sugar, which has no nutritional value, but more empty calories. Even so, honey is about 80 percent sugar, so your intake should be moderate.



  Well, that was it for this week. If you as a subscriber have any comments about the newsletter or the site, feel free to contact me on this address: jan@antioxi.net. 

So, until next time, I wish you a fine and healthy week. Make sure you get your antioxidants!

Jan Siqueland, webmaster of antioxi.net



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