Antioxidants Bad?

Dr. James Watson, winner of the Nobel Prize for his co-discovery of the structure of DNA, thinks antioxidants are bad.

He mostly thinks they're bad when they are taken with chemotherapy, and can actually do the opposite of what they are supposed to do. We think of antioxidants as good things, of course. Antioxidants work by eliminating substances that mess with the DNA of healthy cells, which would otherwise cause problems. However, says Dr. Watson, chemo is often one of those substances. in other words, antioxidants can't distinguish between substances that might damage healthy cells and substances (like chemo) that might damage cancer cells.

This doesn't mean that we need to stop eating fruits and vegetables when we're taking chemo. It does mean, says Watson, that maybe a conversation with an oncologist is in order if you're taking lots of extra vitamin E or some other known antioxidant.

This isn't a new idea. I've written about it before. What is new -- at least, it's probably never been suggested by someone of Dr. Watson's stature -- is the idea that antioxidants might actually cause cancer. Wouldn't that be a kick in the head? Popping all those pills to stay healthy, and it does the opposite? I know it wasn't until I was taking fish oil and drinking green tea for a year that I was diagnosed.....

Ok, ok, let's not get carried away. There's no evidence right now to suggest that antioxidants in and of themselves cause cancer. But Watson is calling for researchers to at least start looking into it. He's made a career out of shaking things up in the Biology/Cancer/Genetics community, and he's certainly earned it. (My high school Biology teacher, a Christian Brother, used to genuflect when he said Watson's name, so I've kind of had a lot of respect for him since I was 14.)

Maybe a little shake up is what we need?