Seasonal variations of antioxidant imbalance in Cuban healthy men

Abstract

Objective: To determine the antioxidant imbalance in healthy Cuban men 2 y after the end of the epidemic neuropathy (50 862 cases from 1991 to 1993) and to evaluate its change over 1 y. Design: Prospective study. Setting: La Lisa health centres (Havana, Cuba). Subjects: One-hundred and ninety-nine healthy middle-aged men were selected and 106 completed the study. Subjects were studied at 3 month intervals over 1 year. Interventions: No invervention. Main outcome measures: An assessment of dietary intake and the determination of blood lipid peroxides (TBARS), glutathione, diglutathione, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, vitamin E, carotenoids, copper, zinc and selenium were performed at each period. Results: While dietary zinc, vitamins C and E, carotenoids and fat dietary intakes and blood concentrations were low for adult men compared to international reference ranges, serum TBARS concentrations were high at every period. Some signi®cant seasonal variations were observed. The lowest carotenoids (P`0.002) and vitamin C(P 0.0001) intakes, serum b-carotene (P 0.0001) and luteinazeaxanthin (P`0.05) concentrations, and the highest blood TBARS (P 0.0001) and diglutathione (P`0.001) concentrations were observed at the end of the rainy season (October). This period seemed to pose the greatest risk of antioxidant imbalance. Conclusions: Cuban men still represent a vulnerable population in terms of antioxidant imbalance. A national program of vegetable growing and increase in fruit and vegetable consumption is now evaluated in Cuba.

Vitamin B intake and status in healthy Havanan men, 2 years after the Cuban neuropathy epidemic

“…The reasons for drop-out were illness, moving or a different job site at the time of clinical, nutritional and biological assessment. However, those volunteers who completed the study and those who did not were similar in termes of age, BMI, race, smoking habits, vitamin supplement use, years of education and employment (Arnaud et al 2001).…”

Antioxidant Nutrition and Immunity

“…Doyle et al (9) reported that school children in East London had a high percentage of marginal to deficient blood levels of vitamin E and ~-carotene. Furthermore, seasonal (e.g., rainy vs dry), changes in dietary antioxidants have been observed in the Gambia and Cuba (10,11). These findings demonstrate that populations can vary in their antioxidant nutrient status that may influence the clinical, immunological, and biochemical outcome measures of a nutritional intervention program.…”

Intake and status in healthy Havana men, 2 years after the Cuban epidemic neuropathy

“…This is the background to the paper by Arnaud and colleagues in the current issue of this Journal (Arnaud et al 2001b), and to two other linked papers from the same group, published elsewhere (Barnouin et al 2000;Arnaud et al 2001a;). They describe a 1-year (March 1995± February 1996) multidisciplinary study of healthy adult men aged 25±59 years, randomly recruited from the medical registries of the La Lisa district of Havana City, under the auspices of`Seguridad Alimentaria y Buena Alimentacion in Cuba' (SECUBA).…”

“…It is clear that both the estimated daily intakes, and the status indices, for a considerable number of key micronutrients, especially vitamins, were poor by western country standards (although not necessarily by those of developing countries). The dietary instrument used may have underestimated the intake of total food (energy) DOI: 10.1079/BJN2001373 British Journal of Nutrition (2001, 85, 641±642 q The Author 2001 (Arnaud et al 2001a), which implies a possible underestimation of at least some of the micronutrient intakes, but the status measurements do not suffer from this uncertainty. They are supported by previous studies of similar groups in Cuba during the 1990s (The Cuba Neuropathy Field Investigation Team, 1995;Macias-Matos et al 1996).…”