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# Antioxidants may extend your lifespan
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/antioxidants_may_extend_your_lifespan_0716130650/
- Published: 2013-07-16T19:50:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:18:37.000Z
- Description: Bruce Ames and colleagues reviewed 217 research articles for PNAS and concluded that vitamin C, vitamin E and carotenoids can reduce oxidative damage and help prevent or delay age-related conditions such as cancer, heart disease, immune decline and cataracts.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Supplements, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

Tuesday July 16, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A review on antioxidants and age-related diseases suggests that taking antioxidants like ascorbic acid (vitamin C), tocopherol (vitamin E) and carotenoids like beta-carotene can help prevent age-related disease or degenerative diseases of aging including cancer, cardiovascular disease, immune-system decline, brain dysfunction, and cataracts. In a sense, taking antioxidant supplementation or eating an antioxidants rich diet can help fight age-related diseases and may extend human lifespan.

Bruce N. Ames from University of Caledonia, Berkeley, California and colleagues reviewed 217 previous research articles and published their report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, which was cited by 5099 research papers, according to google.com.

The authors say in their report that not only environmental oxidative stress such as smoking and radiation, but also oxidant by-products of normal metabolism can induce damage to DNA, protein and lipid which are the ultimate cause for aging. And the metabolic by-products are considered the major contributor to aging and the aging-associated degenerative diseases and this means that the aging process is inevitable.

The good news is that vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene can help reducethe oxidative stress and thus the risk of age-related diseases such as heart disease, cancer and compromised immunity or delay the onset of these diseases. 

Fruit and vegetables are the main source of ascorbate and carotenoids and tocopherol, but dietary supplements of these nutrients are considered necessary as only 9% of Americans actually can eat the recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables per day. The authors say low dietary intake of fruits and vegetables doubles the risk of many types of cancer and increases drastically the risk for heart disease and cataracts, compared with high intake.

The basal metabolic rate affects the aging process, that is, high metabolic rate such as that in a rat can generate higher levels of endogenous oxidants and other mutagens as by-products resulting from metabolism, compared with a low metabolic rate such as that in humans. The authors say the rate in a rat is 7 times higher than that in a human, which explains why a 2-year old rat has much higher cancer rates than a 2 year-old human.

Another concept is that the oxidative damage to DNA, proteins and other macromolecules is not only related to the metabolic rate, but also accumulates with age.

The authors conducted their own research and found the DNA per cell in rats receives 100,000 oxidative hits to DNA, compared with 10,000 in humans. By the time a rat is two years old, about 2 million DNA lesions have been induced in each cell. One outcome of DNA damage is mutation, which accumulates also with age. Elderly people have 9 times greater DNA lesions than neonates, according to the review.

Oxidative stress is caused by oxidants which come from four sources, according to the authors. What can naturally generate oxidative stress include normal aerobic respiration in mitochondria, oxidative compounds that are generated when phagocytic cells destroy bacteria and virus infected cells, peroxisomes and cytochrome p450 enzymes. 

What can increase the risk of age-related degenerative diseases like cancer and heart disease include smoking and chronic inflammation/infection and what can reduce the risk include antioxidants and caloric restriction including protein restricted diet. Caloric restriction has been known to extend the lifespan of many species. It is also known to prevent cancer and other age-related disease. Antixodants like vitamin C, vitamin E and beta carotene can certainly reduce the risk of age-related degenerative diseases like cancer and heart disease. (reporting by David Liu, PHD)