Antioxidants may actually cause cancer, says Nobel laureate

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Renowned geneticist James Watson, who was among the group of researchers who received the 1962 Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA, has recently published an article in Open Biology, an online journal published by The Royal Society, suggesting that antioxidants such as vitamins C and E are ineffective as cancer fighters, and may in fact be causing certain types of cancer.

"In light of the recent data strongly hinting that much of late-stage cancer's untreatability may arise from its possession of too many antioxidants," he writes, "the time has come to seriously ask whether antioxidant use much more likely causes than prevents cancer."

Antioxidants such as Beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium have long been thought to reduce the risk of cancer. But, Watson argues that nutrition intervention trials "have shown no obvious effectiveness in preventing gastrointestinal cancer nor in lengthening mortality. In fact, they seem to slightly shorten the lives of those who take them."

He goes on to predict that "future data may, in fact, show that antioxidant use, particularly that of vitamin E, leads to a small number of cancers that would not have come into existence but for antioxidant supplementation. Blueberries best be eaten because they taste good, not because their consumption will lead to less cancer." BF