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by Phd Randolph M. Howes MD (Author)
Many foods, such as pomegranate, broccoli and turmeric, have claimed to possess magical antioxidant properties and capabilities which assert to cure a wide spectrum of human diseases and increase one's lifespan. Yet, I have collected well over 500 studies showing the ineffectiveness and the potential harm of these very same supplemental antioxidants. Many of the articles concerning antioxidants are "awash with adjustments, nonsignificant results and unfamiliar statistical methods," and convincing conclusions or "plausibility" are hard to come by, particularly as it relates to cause and effect or provability. I do not "shoot from the hip," based on pre-conceived ideas, but I look at the relevant papers and give a thoughtful critique on the peer-reviewed literature. Contrary the erroneous claims of antioxidants, in article after article, which I have read, and in book after book that I have written, I have been impressed with the fact that many of the beneficial effects of antioxidants can be attributed to their prooxidant activity, including cancer cell kill, which is primarily an electronically modified oxygen derivative (EMOD)-induced (ROS, prooxidant) apoptotic event. In short, when properly researched, antioxidants which claim to have tumoricidal activity have been found to trigger apoptosis primarily prooxidatively, not antioxidatively. This has proven to be the case with pomegranate, broccoli and curcumin. Curiously, antioxidant zealots deny any prooxidant role in these mechanisms and continue to preach the wonders of antioxidants and to attribute a pernicious character to oxidants or EMODs. For the sake of scientific accuracy and truth, this must stop. The facts are that the free radical theory has fallen and that "antioxidant mania" is over. I have been promoting this approach for over 15 years and it is now coming to fruition. It has been a long and arduous path for me but it has been worth it to set the scientific record straight as regards antioxidants and reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are more accurately called electronically modified oxygen derivatives (EMODs). In spite of spurious claims to the contrary, there are no "super foods." Yet, curcumin is of special interest.
