WORLD
Taking high doses of vitamins could reduce your life expectancy by up to a quarter
Baku, August 22 (AZERTAC). Taking vitamin pills in high doses could be bad for your health, say scientists.
A study found that voles who were given a lot of vitamins C and E had a reduced lifespan of up to a quarter.
Researchers said the findings, published in Biology Letters, raise questions about the benefits of popping the supplements.
The human body does not make or store vitamin C and gets its supply from fruit and vegetables. It only needs 40mg a day to keep cells healthy and promote healing.
Vitamin E helps maintain the structure of cells and is found in foods such as nuts, seeds, and cereals.
A man needs just 4mg a day and a woman should have 3mg. But tablets containing up to a hundred times this amount are available in health food shops.
Researchers fed field voles large quantities of Vitamin E or C from the age of two months and compared their longevity to groups given a regular diet.
They say that voles were used for the study as giving such high quantities of vitamins to humans would be unsafe.
High doses of dietary antioxidants, such as vitamins, are commonly suggested to slow the process of cellular ageing by lessening the damage to proteins, lipids, and DNA.
Previous research had shown the lives of mice could be extended by giving them supplements, but the opposite was found to be true in voles. They had much shorter lives on average if given extra Vitamin E or C.
But despite these effects, the vitamin supplements had some effect in decreasing damage caused by aging.
Professor Colin Selman, of Glasgow University, said: ‘When we began our research we expected voles' lifespans would be boosted by the vitamin supplements in a similar way to the mice we had tested previously so we were surprised to see that was not the case.
‘Our findings suggest major differences exist in the effects of high doses of antioxidants on oxidative damage and lifespan across species.’
Britons spend £175million a year on supplements and pills containing antioxidants claimed to help combat disease.