A Little About Antioxidant(s) ....

A quote from : http://www.nestle.pk/wellness/antioxidants.aspx

Anti-Oxidants :
Your Body's Guardian

What are Antioxidants? Why do we need them?
Antioxidants are nutrients and certain compounds that help keep your body cells healthy to fight off infections. They are believed to play a role in prevention of certain chronic diseases like cancer, cataracts, stroke, heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Antioxidants come in many forms, and can be found in all kinds of fruits and vegetables in the form of Vitamins A (β - Carotene), C, E or Selenium and in green tea and coffee in the form of Flavonols and Polyphenols, respectively.

Radical Act
[bgcolor=#ffff00]Our cells are always dying and being replaced. When a cell dies, it releases a damaged molecule called a free radical that steals nutrients from healthy cells, starving them to death. Antioxidants counteract the effect of free radicals, and keep them from damaging healthy cells. [/bgcolor]

Damage Control
As you approach 30, your body starts making more free radicals, which cause your cells to age prematurely. Antioxidants neutralise free radicals and help stop the cellular damage.

Ready to Fight!
[bgcolor=#ffff00]Antioxidants help strengthen your immune system, which defends your body against infections[/bgcolor].

Eye Spy
Antioxidants help prevent damage to the cells controlling our vision. Antioxidants keep these cells healthy, and prevent them from damage due to age and nutrient deficiencies.

Take Care
Umair

Thank you for this information Umair.  This is a very great article!

Sharmin

Thank you Sharmin , but its not gonna stop here with this article , i have a few researches which i will share you time to time as andy told me that : it will b easy to read all research material if you ( I umair) send it with a little breaks , soo be ready for some usefull information that is realy great to my point of view .... these article was the base making articles for that information ....

Take Care
Umair

When talking about antioxidants, we have to do so in terms of thalassemia. The needs of thals may be very different than those of non-thals and this has to be taken into account. Some examples of this would be vitamins C and E. Both are well known as powerful antioxidants, but thalassemia changes the need for these supplements in patients. I take 400 IU natural E complex daily. While that may be enough for me, it is not enough for any thal. Studies have shown that a minimum of over 600 IU daily is necessary to counter the deficiency found in thalassemics. 1000 IU daily is a safe dose for thals and I highly recommend this dose of natural vitamin E (synthetic E may cause problems in high doses and is substance with questionable value).

Vitamin C creates a paradox in thalassemia. Patients are almost universally low in vitamin C and could benefit greatly if they were able to take large doses, but this is believed to not be safe in iron overloaded patients because vitamin C can raise the amount of free iron in the blood and this can pose a physical danger to the heart. However, studies have shown that 1000 mg of C can DOUBLE the amount of iron that desferal chelates. This is incredible but the safety is in question, so lower doses of no more than 250 mg daily are advised. This is a shame, as vitamin C could be a powerful weapon in the arsenal of treatment if a way was found to allow thal patients to take daily megadoses. In addition to its ability to bind iron and free it from tissue, vitamin C is a vitamin that would do wonders for the health of thals with its antioxidant properties and its strong ability to protect against colds and infections. I am very surprised more research hasn't been done to find a way to capture the benefits of C so thals could safely take advantage of its many properties.

The value of antioxidants to thalassemics cannot be questioned. I would like to share some comments from Sharmin about what doctors have said about the use of antioxidants for thalassemia.

I am happy to report to you that both Dr. Vichinsky and Dr. Krishnamurti are in full agreement with the supplements that you are recommending to our members.  That is quite amazing! 

Dr. Vichinsky looked over all of Arman's supplements that we had taken with us during our visit.  Here are his comments about the supplements.

Vitamin C - 100mg  -  you should increase that to 250mg
IP6  -  wonderful!  this answers many of my questions.  Despite have significant iron overload and
          hemolysis this child is very healthy - this supplement may have protected him from the
          oxidative stress.   I am really amazed at how healthy and normal this child is despite what
          has been going on during the past few years.
vitamin e - great, this is a very important supplement
calcium/magnesium - great
progressive children's multivitamins - great
folic acid - I don't think that he necessarily needs to be on this
He is not getting zinc - thalassemics are often deficient in zinc so you need to get him on zinc  - we often recommend 'Centrum Silver' as a multivitamin to patients because it provides enough vitamins and minerals without the iron.  It is also easier for some patients to at the very least take that one vitamin pill rather than taking several different ones.  Also, it is easily available in North America.

"I am glad to see that you have him on all of these antioxidants, we have reason to believe that antioxidants can have an incredible impact on the health of thalassemia patients.  In fact, we are doing several studies looking at the impact of supplements such as IP6 and vitamin e in thalassemia patients.  So far it looks like the benefits are enormous in terms of providing protection against iron damage"

Dr Vichinsky is absolutely one of the best thalassemia specialists in the world and he is someone to whom we should all be listening.

I just wanted to add a few things to what Andy has said.  Little A began taking vitamin C soon after he started desferal before 2 years of age.  Until he was in grade school he required desferal only 3 times a week, 10 hours a day - along with 100mg of vitamin C 1/2 hour after starting desferal infusion.  Doctors were mystified about how he maintained ferritin levels around 900 with a desferal dose suitable for a 3 year old even when he was 8 years old.    I believe that beginning desferal early and using vitamin C had a lot to do with this. 

Once the antibody issue began and his transfusion requirement tripled for 2 years, his desferal was not increased until the second year and even then it was only increased slightly.  Again, his iron levels reached 2880 - but considering how much blood he required for such a long time - and how little chelation he was getting in comparison - it was not terrible.  I truly believe that using vitamin C all of this time played a significant role in chelating iron for little A.    Once we increased his vitamin C to 250mg in early July - his urine became MUCH darker red (this was 1 month before beginning exjade).  Of course, Exjade further increased this affect. 

I also started giving my non thal daughter 250mg of vitamin C on top of the 75mg that is in her progressives multivitamins.  My son gets 250mg with his desferal - I hope that this effect continues - but my children have not gotten sick from any of the multitude of flus and colds that have gone around this fall.  In fact, when my son's entire school was hit by the noravirus - with the average student being sick for 2 weeks - little A was the last to get it and he was sick for only one evening.  He threw up a couple of times, had a good night's sleep and was fine the next morning.  My daughter has escaped all of the colds that went around this year so far.   This is much much better than previous years, especially considering my daughter just started first grade and all of the other children at school have been very sick this year.  The kids have been very regular with their vitamins beginning in September (progressives, vit C, Osteocare, omega 3-6-9  - and little A with his IP6, carao, vit e, b complex) and I think that this has had a very positive impact on them.  As Andy can tell you - little A does not look like the same child that he was in June 2008.  The effects of supplements in thalassemia are undeniable.  I am sure supplements enhance everyone's health - but in thalassemia the results are much more visible.  Dr. Vichinsky is convinced that the vitamins saved little A from harm during the two year battle with antibodies. 

I hope that everyone will take their vitamins and supplements!  Little A is also a regular tea drinker.  He has been drinking green tea everyday since five years of age, he drinks Earl Grey tea about 3 times a week as well - I am sure these things have been helpful to him as well. 

Thanks again Andy for guiding us with supplements.  Our local doctors agree that there is value in supplements but they do not know what little A should take and how much.  Were it not for you I would not have known what to do.  We were pretty happy to impress Dr. Vichinsky with little A's supplements

Sharmin

I ran into another article talking about Oxidative Stress and disturbance in Antioxidants Balance in Beta Thalassemia Major

The complete article can be found at :- http://medind.nic.in/iaf/t08/i4/iaft08i4p337.pdf

Vitamin E plays a key role in protecting cells against oxidative damage. The antioxidant role of vitamin E is attributed to its ability in quenching highly reactive lipid peroxide intermediate by donating hydrogen and this prevents extraction of hydrogen from PUFA. This assists in restricting self perpetuated lipid peroxidation chain reaction

Thank you Narendra. 

All of this comes to the same logical deduction.  The key culprit in thalassemia is iron - why and how is iron damaging?  Free iron is a free radical (an oxidant) - therefore if we can neutralize free iron with antioxidants we can prevent organ damage. 

Sharmin