Antioxidants Working Together
In many observational studies, a fraction of which are presented below, intake of individual antioxidants reduces the occurrence of many smoking-related health risks. The past two decades have seen increased understanding that there are biochemical interactions and interdependencies among antioxidant nutrients; therefore, use of multiple antioxidants simultaneously has gained attention.

In the body, there are two systems of antioxidants, micronutrients and enzymes, and both systems are linked together in a complex biochemical chain to scavenge and destroy radical oxygen species.  When an antioxidant donates an electron to a radical oxygen species, it becomes a prooxidant and needs a replenishment of the electron to revert to its antioxidant status.

This phenomenon occurs readily in a balanced system of micronutrients, which suggests that antioxidant supplements may work better when provided as a formula that incorporates vitamins and trace elements, in order to provide of the optimum environment for the networking required in their action.

The National Academy of Science (NAS) has offered no daily antioxidant regimen for smokers, so Tabacur has worked with the medical research community to develop ReplenishMints™  Mints dosages.  It is noteworthy that, in most studies, doses must exceed the NAS recommended levels for any benefit to be observed. We recommend that smokers consume from 8 to 12 mints per day (and no more than 25 mints per day), levels that exceed the daily levels recommended by the NAS for healthy people (persons not under oxidative stress), but are below the NAS upper limits for healthy people.  Long-term use of an optimum antioxidant regimen may help mitigate health risks associated with exposure to tobacco smoke.

The Research
A combination of dietary antioxidants reduces lung cancer risk in male smokers. Yale University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Combined supplementation with vitamins C and E significantly restored endothelial function (the layer of thin, flat cells that lines the interior surface of blood vessels ) in chronic smokers; the effect disappeared 4 weeks after the vitamin supplementation ended. National Defense Medical College, Saitama, Japan.

Combined antioxidant supplementation significantly diminishes oxidative damage in smokers. Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Lipid peroxidation concentrations are inversely correlated with plasma antioxidant concentrations; smokers have insufficient concentrations of antioxidant vitamins in plasma and supplementation with antioxidants might protect smokers from oxidative damage. Sungkyunkwan University, Korea.

Multiple antioxidants given as a dietary supplement significantly prevented oxidation and inflammatory responses in mice. The University of Arizona Health Science Center.

Supplementation with antioxidants (C, E, selenium) was associated with a seven-fold decrease in the percentage of cells with chromosome aberration, and the largest effect of supplementation was seen in smokers. The results support the hypothesis that antioxidants decrease genetic damage. Institute of Preventive and Clinical Medicine, Limbova 14, 83301 Bratislava, Slovak Republic.

 

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