NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – According to a study published in the April issue of American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, higher blood levels of vitamin E may protect the lungs from tissue damage caused by free radicals, produced as a result of the body’s normal processes. The research, conducted by Holger J. Schunemann, of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Buffalo in New York, and his colleagues, involved 1,616 people between the ages of 35 and 79 who did not have any respiratory illness. The study tested also other supplements with antioxidant properties.
The researchers found that the subjects with high blood levels of vitamin E and the carotenoid beta-cryptoxanthin (a pigment found in oranges) had healthier lungs than those with lower levels. The investigators also found an association between decreased lung function and low levels of vitamin C, vitamin A, lutein, beta-carotene and lycopene; however, the link between vitamin E and beta-cryptoxanthin and healthy lungs was much stronger.
Source: dailynews.yahoo.com, May 7, 2001
