Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Antioxidants lead to fertility problems part I... part II coming friday

ANI, Feb 1, 2011, 12.00am IST
New research has revealed a possible unexpected side effect of antioxidants: They might cause fertility problems in females. 


Antioxidants are sold over the counter everywhere. They're added to food, drink and face cream. But according to Prof. Nava Dekel of the Biological Regulation Department, we still don't have a complete understanding of how they act in our bodies. 


Common antioxidants include vitamins C and E. These work by eliminating molecules called reactive oxygen species that are produced naturally in the body. Stress can cause these chemically active molecules to be overproduced; in large amounts they damage cells indiscriminately. 


By neutralizing these potentially harmful substances, antioxidants may, theoretically, improve health and slow down the aging process. 


But when Dekel and her research team including her former and present Ph.D. students Dr. Ketty Shkolnik and Ari Tadmor applied antioxidants to the ovaries of female mice, the results were surprising: ovulation levels dropped precipitously. 


That is, very few eggs were released from the ovarian follicles to reach the site of fertilization, compared to those in untreated ovaries. 


To understand what lies behind these initial findings, the team asked whether it is possible that the process of ovulation might rely on the very 'harmful' substances destroyed by antioxidants – reactive oxygen species. 


Further testing in mice showed that this is, indeed, the case. In one experiment, for instance, Dekel and her team treated some ovarian follicles with luteinizing hormone, the physiological trigger for ovulation, and others with hydrogen peroxide, a reactive oxygen species...

2 comments:

  1. This is very difficult for a lot of people to believe as we have been taking vitamins for so long! Our American way of thinking is that if a little is good then a lot is a whole lot better! What I am learning is that we need to eat fruits and vegetables, fresh, raw, vine ripened and a rainbow variety of color! Whole food nutrition! I am reading the book by Dr. John McDougall, "The Starch Solution".

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  2. Sherry, my response comes after the article in the next post and gives you a better understanding of how they performed the test and how that has a lot to do with the outcome. It's very similar to the study done with synthetic vitamin A and smokers. It was a very isolated vitamin and the only one used for a specific group of people and did not take into account any other variables that would greatly affect the outcome!!!

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