Men's Health

Antioxidant And Prostate Cancer

US researchers have observed that in one out of every four Caucasian males has prostate cancer because of high levels of selenium, vitamin E and the tomato carotenoid lycopene or inheritance of a specific genetic variation that is particularly sensitive to oxidative stress.

They have also noted in today’s issue of cancer research that if carriers of this genetic variant have low levels of these vitamins and minerals, their risk of aggressive prostate increases substantially, as great as 10-fold, over those who maintain higher levels of these nutrients.

Dr Haojie Li, a researcher at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School said, "This large prospective study provides further evidence that oxidative stress may be one of the important mechanisms for prostate cancer development and progression, and adequate intake of antioxidants, such as selenium, lycopene and vitamin E, may help prevent prostate cancer."

These latest findings are based on an analysis of 764 cancer free men and 567 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1982 and 1995 from the Physicians Health Study.

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of aspirin and beta-carotene on men's health by checking for variants of the gene that codes for manganese superoxide dismutatase (MnSOD), an enzyme that works as an antioxidant in human cells to defend against disease.

MnSOD gene is passed from parents to offspring in one of three forms: VV, VA or AA.

Dr Li also noted that men with the MnSOD VV or VA genotype compared to those people with the AA genotype seem to be more sensitive to the antioxidant status. Results showed that a half of the men in the study carried VA genotype, a quarter carried the MnSOD AA genotype and the remaining quarter carried the VV genotype. This indicated that the VA and VV men were at equal risk for developing prostate cancer across all levels of antioxidants in their blood.

It was also discovered that , MnSOD AA males had an 89 per cent greater risk for developing aggressive prostate cancer if they had low blood levels of the mineral compared to MnSOD VV or VA carriers in the lowest quartile of selenium levels.

However those men in the highest quartile (MnSOD AA carriers with high selenium ) had a 65 per cent lower risk than the MnSOD VV or VA males who maintained low levels of selenium. The levels of selenium in the highest quartile of those men were not abnormally high because the range is neither extremely high nor extremely low.

When tested independently, similar trends were observed for lycopene and vitamin E the contrast in relative risk was most pronounced for the men who had high blood levels for all three antioxidants combined, said the researchers.

A 10-fold difference in risk for aggressive prostate cancer was observed among men with the MnSOD AA genotype when comparing men with high versus low levels of antioxidants combined. In contrast the prostate cancer risk was only weakly altered by these antioxidant levels among men with the VV or VA genotype.

This study encourages dietary intake of nutrients such as lycopene from tomato products, or supplements for vitamin E and selenium to reduce risk of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is one of the biggest cancer killers in industrial countries and affects more than 500,000 men worldwide every year. This number is expected to increase with the ageing population.

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Anti-Hair Loss Shampoos

This is an easy to try option specially designed to boost the health of hair and to reduce the rate of hair loss in both men and women. There are several sources to investigate specific shampoos; “Google” search will provide hundreds of products, complete with testimony and small research studies. It’s easy to get confused when investigating the hundreds of shampoos available. With background knowledge of what has show to work and previous studies, you can make wise resolutions on which shampoo to try out. The best thing about shampoos is that they are relatively cheap, hence in this puzzle of hair loss/regrowth methods you can try out lots of them without breaking your budget.

(1) Essential oils; these are concentrated oils which come from plants such as lavender. They have been used to stimulate healthy hair and to decrease hair loss rate since ancient times.

(2) Tea Tree Oil; There are many brands of this in the market which people have confidence in. You can find them in any drug store as well as health product retailers because of their popularity. Tea tree oil has been found to be effective in the prevention of head lice infections. No definitive studies show that shampoos can actually result in hair regrowth caused by heredity or hormones.

(3) Surfactants; When shampoos lather up nicely in people’s hair, they tend to feel good. What they don’t know is that, lather, has just a psychological effect. The ingredient that causes lather is called surfactant and doesn’t have any cleaning effect. Surfactants are pretty harsh and for a person experiencing abnormal hair loss, he/she should avoid them. There are lots of shampoos without it – try some.

(4) Herbal ingredients; the most notable herb worth trying out is any shampoo with Saw Palmetto as an ingredient. This ingredient has proven to have success in hair loss difficulty. It tends to inhibit the production of DHT, which causes hair follicles to shrink and close up.

(5) Nettle and bay have also proven helpful to some people. Shampoos including these might help you.

However early prevention of hair loss is important and trying out with specific shampoos during these early stages may provide valuable help in reducing the rate of hair loss or even stop it completely. For more information visit http://www.provillus.com/?aid=274704