Alot of people talking about fruit and vegetables often mention
” The antioxidants and how good they are against cancer”
This statement always frighten me…
First off: I am not a doctor and you should listen to your doctor.
I am just providing information about a topic that alot of people get mixed up.
That statement frightens me
because a person already diagnosed with cancer/tumor might hear this statement and believe that antioxidant supplementation can help her/him treat the cancer.But in fact:
In some cases that might instead lead to an increase of cancer/tumor growth.
Here is why
Antioxidants are good against taking care of radicals which result in your body beeing better prevented against early development of diseases including cancer cells.”Antioxidants stop radicals”.
Their effect against an already existing cancer/tumor in a patient is however debated alot in studies.
Some of the chemotherapy drugs and radiation against cancer are ment to produce radicals that will damage the DNA of the tumor cells and in the end hopefully terminate the tumor.
In that case: antioxidant supplementation will reduce the effect of the chemotherapy/radiation and will instead benefit the tumor growth.
Some other studies point out that some antioxidant supplements during cancer treatment can help the surrounding tissue around the tumor to stay out of harm.
The main point
I was trying to get to is to be carefull about commenting about antioxidants and cancer. There is a difference between prevention and treatment. You never know who is going to read and might end up getting the wrong idea.Once again: Listen to your doctor.
Getting your antioxidants through food can almost never go wrong! So continue eating alot of fruit and vegetables! =)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17761641
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24828241
https://integrativeoncology-essentials.com/2013/03/hey-doc-can-i-take-antioxidants-during-chemo-and-radiation/
https://www.oncologynutrition.org/erfc/eating-well-when-unwell/is-it-safe-to-take-antioxidant-supplements-during-chemotherapy-and-radiation-therapy/
