Since the 1920s, researchers have studied the benefits of carotenoids for cancer prevention and treatment.
However, interest in lycopene did not really begin until the late 1980s when it was found to have twice the antioxidant activity of beta carotene.
By the late 1990s, over 70 studies had found a link between diets high in tomatoes and a lower risk of cancer.
Lycopene is an open-chain unsaturated carotenoid that imparts red color to tomatoes, guava, rosehip, watermelon and pink grapefruit.
Lycopene has been shown to prevent prostate cancer and also to stop it from becoming more advanced.
Cooked tomato products such as tomato sauce, juice and ketchup are better sources of lycopene than raw tomatoes, as cooking breaks down plant cell walls making the lycopene more available for absorption.
In the body, lycopene is deposited in the liver, lungs, prostate gland, colon and skin.
It is best known for its role in preventing prostate cancer, the second leading cause of male cancer deaths in America.
However, consumption of lycopene is also associated with a lower risk of cancer of the breast , cervix , and digestive tract.12
Curative Properties Of Lycopene
Lycopene shows special promise in preventing and treating prostate cancer .
A study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Ohio State University on prostate cancer in rats found that feeding the animals tomato powder(13 mg lycopene/kg) had the greatest protective effect against prostate cancer, and that supplements of much higher levels of isolated lycopene (161 mg lycopene/kg) were of less benefit, though still better than the control group which received no tomatoes or lycopene.
The proportions of rats dying of prostate cancer was 62% in the tomato group, 72% in the lycopene group, and 80% in the control group.
Dietary restriction also increased survival
In another study, thirty-two patients with localized prostate adenocarcinoma consumed tomato sauce-based pasta dishes for 3 weeks (approximately 30 mg of lycopene/day) before their scheduled radical prostatectomy.
Prostate tissue was obtained for biopsy before the lycopene supplementation began, and compared to tissue resected at the time of the prostatectomy.
Examination of tissue from the resected tumors showed a decrease in tumor biomarkers, increased tumor cell apoptosis (cell death) and decreased DNA damage.14
Dutch researchers found that a low-dose combination of vitamin E and lycopene extended the lifespans of mice inoculated with human prostate cancer cells and suppressed tumor growth by 73% after 42 days, but that high doses of lycopene or vitamin E had no effect.
However, other scientists reviewing the research feel that lycopene by itself has been shown in other studies to be effective by itself, though it can be potentiated by vitamin E.
However, interest in lycopene did not really begin until the late 1980s when it was found to have twice the antioxidant activity of beta carotene.
By the late 1990s, over 70 studies had found a link between diets high in tomatoes and a lower risk of cancer.
Lycopene is an open-chain unsaturated carotenoid that imparts red color to tomatoes, guava, rosehip, watermelon and pink grapefruit.
Lycopene has been shown to prevent prostate cancer and also to stop it from becoming more advanced.
Cooked tomato products such as tomato sauce, juice and ketchup are better sources of lycopene than raw tomatoes, as cooking breaks down plant cell walls making the lycopene more available for absorption.
In the body, lycopene is deposited in the liver, lungs, prostate gland, colon and skin.
It is best known for its role in preventing prostate cancer, the second leading cause of male cancer deaths in America.
However, consumption of lycopene is also associated with a lower risk of cancer of the breast , cervix , and digestive tract.12
Curative Properties Of Lycopene
Lycopene shows special promise in preventing and treating prostate cancer .
A study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Ohio State University on prostate cancer in rats found that feeding the animals tomato powder(13 mg lycopene/kg) had the greatest protective effect against prostate cancer, and that supplements of much higher levels of isolated lycopene (161 mg lycopene/kg) were of less benefit, though still better than the control group which received no tomatoes or lycopene.
The proportions of rats dying of prostate cancer was 62% in the tomato group, 72% in the lycopene group, and 80% in the control group.
Dietary restriction also increased survival
In another study, thirty-two patients with localized prostate adenocarcinoma consumed tomato sauce-based pasta dishes for 3 weeks (approximately 30 mg of lycopene/day) before their scheduled radical prostatectomy.
Prostate tissue was obtained for biopsy before the lycopene supplementation began, and compared to tissue resected at the time of the prostatectomy.
Examination of tissue from the resected tumors showed a decrease in tumor biomarkers, increased tumor cell apoptosis (cell death) and decreased DNA damage.14
Dutch researchers found that a low-dose combination of vitamin E and lycopene extended the lifespans of mice inoculated with human prostate cancer cells and suppressed tumor growth by 73% after 42 days, but that high doses of lycopene or vitamin E had no effect.
However, other scientists reviewing the research feel that lycopene by itself has been shown in other studies to be effective by itself, though it can be potentiated by vitamin E.
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