Alpha-carotene, closely related to beta-carotene and found in large quantities in carrots, reduces the mortality rate in adults. In people with a high BMI, a high alpha-carotene intake can practically halve the risk of dying, epidemiologists at the American Centers for disease manage and Prevention discovered.

The researchers followed about fifty thousand Americans from the period 1988-1994 up to 2006 as part of the third national health and Nutrition evaluation survey (NHANES III). At the start of the study the NHANES III participants were 20 or older, and the researchers determined the concentration of alpha-carotene in their blood. In 2006 they identified which participants were still alive, and whether there was a relationship between survival and the previously determined alpha-carotene level.

The best source of alpha-carotene is the common-or-garden carrot. Camiseta Celta de Vigo about 75 percent of the alpha-carotene in a western diet comes from carrots. two hundred grams of cooked carrots include about 7.5 mg alpha-carotene, and about 16.5 mg beta-carotene.

Like beta-carotene, alpha-carotene can convert into vitamin A, but this happens to a lesser extent than in beta-carotene. Smokers or people who work with asbestos are better off avoiding supplements that include high amounts of beta-carotene or vitamin A, as they increase their risk of developing lung cancer.

Vitamin A is a hormone that steers process of differentiation in cells, and it’s probably a increased vitamin A level that makes beta-carotene supplements risky. However, beta-carotene from food sources has only positive health Camiseta CF Monterrey effects.

The researchers discovered that the higher the level of alpha-carotene in their subjects’ blood, the lower their risk of dying, as the figure below shows.

Alpha-carotene had above all pronounced positive cardiovascular effects, as the figure above shows. but in fact, the high alpha-carotene intake decreased the mortality risk for all common triggers of death.

When the researchers analysed their data much more closely, they discovered that alpha-carotene decreased the mortality risk slightly much more in people with a BMI of 30 or higher, in people aged between 45 and 65, and in people with healthy blood pressure. For these groups the reduction in mortality was about a half. but a high alpha-carotene level also decreased mortality by a few dozen percent in other groups too.

If you click on the table below a larger version will appear.

To summarise: alpha-carotene has a positive effect on everything in everybody. and that’s special, say the researchers.

“Our findings showed that serum alpha-carotene concentrations were inversely connected with the risk of death from all triggers and death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all triggers other than cardiovascular disease and cancer”, they conclude. “They also showed that the inverse association was independent of demographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, and conventional health risk Camiseta Sport Club Internacional factors.”

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