Sunday, November 8, 2009

Antioxidants and malnutrition disease

America has been bombarded in recent years with advertisements touting the health benefits of antioxidants such as vitamin E and beta carotene. But a new study from the University of Florida and Washington University in St. Louis suggests that they may be far more important to children in other parts of the world who have a severe form of malnutrition called kwashiorkor.
Based on the study, which uncovered the mechanisms by which kwashiorkor works, the researchers may be able to begin designing treatments to drastically reduce the fatality rate from kwashiorkor, a leading cause of juvenile death in Third World countries...

Because of the lack of antioxidants in the diet of many children who suffer from kwashiorkor, their bodies undergo oxidative stress, in which particles called free radicals destroy healthy cells, the researchers found.
"Now that we've established that oxidative stress may be involved, simple oxidative therapies, like giving the children doses of various antioxidants, can help," Leeuwenburgh said. "Giving these children antioxidant supplements as well as supplemental proteins could increase their life spans."

Read the rest of this article at:
Antioxidants and what role they play

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