Carotenoids Articles
High Rate of Heart Disease in CEE May Be Due To Lack of Folate & Carotenoids
Carotenoids Play Role In Cell Communication
Raw Material Research
(Carotenoids and Cataracts)
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High Rate of Heart Disease in CEE May Be Due To Lack of Folate & Carotenoids
A dramatic increase in heart disease in Central and Eastern Europe is responsible for the strong decline in life expectancy in this region, writes the team from the US-based Oregon Health and Science University in this month's issue of the Journal of American Dietetic Association.
However, traditional risk factors like smoking, obesity and high dietary saturated fat do not explain this escalation.
Data used from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the researchers assessed food consumption in 19 different countries grouped into four regions based on their cultural patterns - Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the US, Mediterranean countries and Asia.
Death from heart disease in the CEE countries - Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania and the Russian Federation - was six to seven times higher than in Japan, three to four times higher than in the Mediterranean countries, like France, Spain and Greece, and one and a half times higher than Western Europe.
Backward elimination multiple regression analysis was used to identify independent predictors of mortality. Intake of folate, fibre and omega-6 and -3 fatty acids played a major role in the variation in coronary mortality, shows the study, but folate played the greatest role.
A lack of the B vitamin has been linked to raised levels of the heart disease risk marker homocysteine.
Folate was however intercorrelated with the carotenoids lutein/zeaxanthin and beta-carotene. "All three nutrients tend to be present in the same foods derived from plants; they could even play a synergistic role in the protection against heart disease," note the researchers.
Indeed the researchers point to the 'unique situation' of Poland in this region - it has low coronary mortality and high intake of folate and other protective nutrients. This suggests that an increase in such foods in other countries could prove beneficial.
While heart disease cannot be explained solely by diet, it may have had a significant impact on lives already, according to the scientists.
"The terrible toll from sudden death that is particularly striking in men aged 30 to 50 years [in Central and Eastern Europe] is likely the result of a combination of factors."
"Still, the diets in these countries that are high in pathogenic dietary factors and low in protective dietary factors, especially folate and carotenoids, may help explain the very high death rate from coronary disease in both men and women in Central and Eastern Europe."
Journal of American Dietetic Association (vol 104, issue 12, pp1793-9).
Nutraingredients.com
Carotenoids Play Role In Cell Communication
Researchers at the University of Hawaii have produced further evidence to show how pigments in yellow, red and green vegetables, known as carotenoids, may work to prevent cancer. Dr. John Bertram has reported that carotenoids stop tumour growth by restoring communication between cells. And by keeping cells 'talking' to each other, they may also prevent cancer from developing in the first place.
The findings are further evidence of the potential value of carotenoids to the food industry, which so far has been slow to push the health benefits of the ingredient. Mostly used as a natural colouring, carotenoids have been 'under-utilized' by Europe's health food industry, according to a recent Frost & Sullivan report, and consumers are still unaware of their health benefits.
Speaking at BioScience2004 in Glasgow today, Dr John Bertram stated that dietary carotenoids increased the activity of a molecule called connexin 43. This molecule forms small channels between cells and, by doing so, connects virtually all cells in the body. Through these channels, cells exchange nutrients and many vital signals that ensure normal cellular growth.
Most tumor cells have lost this ability to communicate and, as a result, have isolated themselves from their normal neighbors. But when Bertram's team treated normal mouse cells with isolated carotenoids, they prevented the formation of cancer by cancer-causing chemicals and increased communication in these cells, he said.
Then they treated three different types of human tumors with carotenoids. Communication between cells was restored and the tumor cells behaved more normally, both in culture and when grown in laboratory animals.
"We've looked at five or six carotenoids and they all appear to have this ability to restore communication between cells," Dr Bertram told NutraIngredients.com.
"We're now working on the mechanism. A lot of work has been done on gap junctions but we were the first to discover that dietary compounds play a role here too.
"Maintaining efficient communication between cells may also be how carotenoids and retenoids stop cancer forming in the first place. Studies have shown that up to 70 per cent of human cancer is preventable and 40 per cent of this can be attributed to diet. Dietary carotenoids have been associated with lower risk of cancer and heart and eye diseases.
The Hawaii scientists are also developing novel versions of water-dispersible carotenoids that they say are up to 100 times more potent in cell cultures, largely through their enhanced absorption.
Although carotenoids are available as dietary supplements, they typically do not dissolve well in water and are not readily absorbed by the body.
In collaboration with Hawaii Biotech, Dr Bertram has chemically modified the carotenoid molecule to make them water-dispersible. An ester linkage allows the ingredient to get in to cells and liberate the natural compound.
While the highly absorbable carotenoids are being targeted at clinical use - in prevention of cancer, chronic liver disease, eye disease, and damage to the heart due to short of blood supply- Bertram said they could also be used in food supplements.
"Most of vitamin E is synthetic and so is ascorbic acid. In any case, the ester allows the natural compound to be liberated," he said, adding that previously published research on animal models have found these new compounds to be very effective in protecting the heart after an artificial heart attack.
"If you look at the amount of lutein in dietary supplements, it probably isn't enough to do the job. We have developed a much more efficient delivery system that increases absorption and therefore could increase the protection," he added.
Bertram is currently developing water-dispersible lycopene to use in pre-clinical studies on human tissue to investigate prevention of prostate cancer and a new version of lutein, which has strong evidence of protection against age-related macular degeneration.
NutraIngredients.com
July 20, 2004
Raw Material Research (Carotenoids and Cataracts)
Raw Material
Carotenoids
Indication
Age-related cataracts
Source
Opthalmology, 2001;108:1992-1998
Research
Researchers studied 372 men and women, ranging in age from 66 to 75 years. Of these people, 245 had at least one of several common types of cataracts. The researchers measured blood levels of cartenoids and vitamins E and C.
Results: In this study, the lowest risk of nuclear cataracts (located in the central part of the lens) was in people with the highest blood levels of either alpha-carotene or beta-carotene were 50% and 30% respectively, less likely to develop nuclear cataracts. In addition, people with high lycopene levels were 60% less likely to develop cortical cataracts (in the outer layer of the lens). Finally, people with the highest lutein levels were 50% less likely to develop posterior sub capsular cataracts (located toward the bottom back of the lens). High plasma concentrations of vitamins C and E or the cartenoids zeaxanthin and betacryptoxanthin were not associated with decreased risk.
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