Antioxidants a key to 'long life'

[Dover]

Again, nothing new to most of us...but now they are 'proving' it.


Antioxidants a key to 'long life'

Boosting the body's levels of natural antioxidants could be the key to a long life, according to US scientists.
Mice engineered to produce high levels of an antioxidant enzyme lived 20% longer and had less heart and other age-related diseases, they found.

If the same is true in humans, people could live beyond 100 years.

The University of Washington work in Science Express backs the idea that high reactive oxygen molecules, called free-radicals, cause ageing.

Long life

Free-radicals have been linked with heart disease, cancer and other age-related diseases.

Dr Peter Rabinovitch and colleagues bred mice that over-expressed the enzyme catalase.

Catalase acts as an antioxidant by removing damaging hydrogen peroxide, which is a waste product of metabolism and is a source of free-radicals.
Free radical damage can lead to more flaws in the cell's chemical processes and more free radicals, making a vicious cycle.

Dr Rabinovitch said: "This study is very supportive of the free-radical theory of ageing. ..cont'd

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4520727.stm

[NJCher]

1. hmmm

anybody know how to obtain catalase?


Cher

[Dover]

2. Not sure...it's new to me too. Here's a Q&A page on it, though.

http://www.seps.org/cvoracle/faq/catalase.html

[Delphinus]

3. Well,

I certainly don't want to live to be 100 or beyond ... I just want to live a healthy life for as long, or as short, as it may be.