It has long been known that blood levels of carotenes directly predict longevity in all mammalian species. A comprehensive review of 62 human carotene studies sought to develop a carotene health index, showing cutoff lines for disease risk and mortality. As expected, as carotene levels go down then mortality rates rise. Interestingly, only the highest levels of carotene provide reduced risk for the diseases of aging.

Carotenes either slowly accumulate in your body tissues, including your eyes, or they slowly decline, indicating your antioxidant savings account is running low and with it your health. Regular intake of carotenes keeps them in your blood and potentially moving in the direction of your tissues. The greater your supply of carotenes the longer you are likely to live. And this new study points out that if you keep them at a very high level then the longer you are likely to live in a healthy condition.

Carotenes include beta carotene, alpha carotene, lutein, lycopene, zeaxanthin and many others. In your food most carotenes are found in greens of different types, with lycopene in high amounts in tomatoes. Never consume synthetic beta carotene as a supplement, it is made from acetylene gas. Products selling it omit the natural source of the carotene from their labels, indicating synthetic by default. There are over 600 carotenes in nature. When you get carotene supplements from natural sources they contain a spectrum of many of these, even though they may be standardized for beta carotene. A good antioxidant formulation for basic health will contain a wide variety of carotenes at useful levels (such as for eye health), along with other synergistic antioxidants. Many antioxidants work in tandem with each other, thus you always want comprehensive antioxidant support as your foundation. Then you can boost specific antioxidants as desired to provide additional support for a given health interest.



More...