Vitamin E May Cause Cancer In Some People

A study done by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital have made a peculiar revelation on the effects of vitamin E. Depending on an individual's COMT gene, vitamin E can increase or decrease chances of getting cancer. Kathryn Hall, PhD, MPH, from the division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and her colleagues inspected cancer rates of women during a 10 year trial and continued another 10 years after. Those women with the met-met COMT variant who had taken vitamin E had a 14% lower rate of cancer. On the other hand, the val-val variant had a 15% higher rate of cancer.

I am truly stunned at how a vitamin, which is essential to the body, may play a factor in cancer. I learned vitamin E had many benefits such as anti-inflammatory, improves immune system, and prevents heart disease. This prompts the question, do other vitamins or nutrients that are so-called beneficial have the potential to influence cancer and/or other diseases? Further studies should definitely make it clearer as to how to approach this issue.   

Tomatoes with enhanced antioxidant properties created with genetic engineering

Tomatoes with enhanced antioxidant properties created with genetic engineering

                New research has identified a way to make tomatoes healthier by boosting antioxidant properties.  Scientists manipulated the plant isoprenoid pathway to overexpress HMGS in tomatoes.  They were able to find that this increased phytosterols, squalene, provitamin A and lycopene, but also vitamin E by 494%.  The HMGS DNA was found in the Indian mustard plant that yields edible leaves, stems and seeds.  This DNA exhibits higher enzyme activity by ten times.  When the genes were introduced into tomatoes, they found that they were able to simultaneously enhance vitamin E and provitamin A.  There were no differences in size and appearance of tomatoes, but the total carotenoids increased drastically.  There was also a deeper color of carotenoid extracts with higher antioxidant activity. 

                This is very important for the future as our populations continue to grow and the earth becomes more crowded.  Scientists must find new sustainable ways to feed millions of people.  It is also important that they receive the vitamins and nutrients that they need to survive.  I think this field of research is very important as we are already overexploiting our resources in the current day.  Soon, our normal tomatoes will run out and we need foods that are able to sustain large populations.  A sustainable agriculture business is important to a healthy future.  It is good to be researching how we can improve our produce as people will likely want these products in the future.  HMGS is also used in rubber production and an article discusses how it can be used. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171110113955.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26787454