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The Benefits of Vitamins and Smoke Cessation for your Health

Vitamins C and E Team to Protect Smokers from Cancer

The best way for smokers to lower their risk of lung cancer is to quit, period, but vitamin C supplements may help as well. Researchers at Oregon State University recently found that taking 1,000 mg of vitamin C daily increased protective levels of vitamin E in smokers. lungs. Smoking can deplete the levels of vitamin E that protect lung membranes and defend against the production of destructive free radicals generated by tobacco smoke.

In a study published in the February 15, 2006 issue of Free Radical Biology and Medicine, the Oregon team reported that vitamin C could reduce the depletion of one form of vitamin E by 45 percent. They also found that vitamin C helped protect the function and levels of vitamin E found elsewhere in the body. Another study, reported in the February 15, 2006 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that vitamin E reduced the risk of prostate cancer among men who smoke but didn.t affect risks among non-smokers.

Sources: http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=531007 http://jncicancerspectrum.oxfordjournals.org