tired fools

red wine, green tea etc. etc. apparently all around the western world we’re swallowing vast quantities of anti-oxidants to avoid getting cancer.

I recently read “sex, power, & suicide” by Nick Lane. It was the first time I’d seen the anti-oxidant myth debunked. I’m never going to get this right from memory, but basically free radicals cannot be tackled by chomping fresh fruit or imbibing coloured liquids. In fact, free radicals are an essential part of the chemical signals utilised by the cell. According to the book, the only real way to avoid cancer is not to get old. At the moment the only way we can do this is by not producing so much energy, i.e. consume less, much less.

Here’s an article from the New Scientist with some evidence of the ineffectiveness of anti-oxidants. Interestingly beta carotene, a widely used supplement, turns out to increase the risk of lung cancer in smokers.

In 1992 researchers at the US National Cancer Institute set about testing beta carotene. They recruited more than 18,000 people at high risk of developing lung cancer, either because they smoked or had been exposed to asbestos, and gave around half of them beta carotene supplements. The trial was supposed to run for six years, but the researchers pulled the plug two-thirds of the way through after discovering, to their surprise and horror, that those taking supplements were faring worse than the controls. Their lung cancer rate was 28 per cent higher, and the overall death rate was up 17 per cent. “It was a shock. It not only did no good but had the potential to do harm,” Halliwell says.

Still, i’m going to keep at the red wine just in case. And cigarettes. After all in ‘Sleeper‘, when Woody Allen gets out of the freezer in 2173, the first thing that he’s handed is a cigarette. “Take this” they say, “it’s good for you.”