Media Review: Wisdom of the Heart

摘要

It is now more than half a century since the hypothesis caught thescientific and public imagination that the toxicity of free radicalsand reactive oxygen species was a major underlying factor inhuman aging.1 The correlate of this idea was that treatment withantioxidants would improve health and prevent aging. Despitethousands of research studies (and according to the PubMed.govinternet databasemore than 85 000 articles on oxidative stress andnearly 350 000 articles on antioxidants), there is still uncertaintyabout the benefits of antioxidant therapy.One of the prolific skepticsconcerning antioxidant treatment is Randolph M. Howes,who summarized some of his thoughts in a recent article in theJournal of Evidence-Based Complementary & AlternativeMedicine.2 Howes has now produced a catalog of his evidencesuggesting that antioxidants are not only of no benefit in maintaininghealth and preventing disease but actually can be harmfulto many important normal cellular functions. This treatiseis actually divided into 2 books, with book 1 describing ‘‘antioxidantvitamin studies for the layman’’ and book 2 describing‘‘antioxidant vitamin studies for the medical scientist.’’ The textraises a number of good points, but its unconventional style(multiple sentences in boldface type and numerous font sizechanges) will be off-putting to many readers. Nonetheless,this book is a treasure trove of references and summariesof material that will be important to anyone interested inunderstanding the unfulfilled promise of restoring health andpreventing disease through antioxidant therapy.