If you are in an accident, you can reduce your risk of dying by 28% by taking antioxidants

Added 09.12.2008

Unfortunately, many trauma victims who survive the initial injury will often die in the hospital of multiple-organ failure following an operation. But that can be overcome. A recent study says you can reduce your risk of dying following an injury by as much as 28%.

Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons

In a study presented at the 2008 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), Bryan A. Cotton, MD, FACS, reported that "Supplementing trauma patients with high-dose antioxidants (vitamins C, E, and selenium) results in a reduction of pulmonary complications, in general, as well as infectious complications that may result in death."

The worse the injury, the better the effect of antioxidants

Dr. Cotton, who is assistant professor of surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, USA, also observed a remarkable decrease in abdominal wall complications, such as hernias and post-operative infections. "This is a high mortality, high morbidity, may-never-return-to-work-again problem that you even may see in a young healthy patient. Abdominal wall complications are enormous, yet we noted a reduction in some of these complications when supplementing these patients with antioxidants. Importantly, the biggest effect of antioxidants was seen in the most traumatized patients of whom you might expect to see mortality exceeding 50 percent," he said.

Reduce your risk of dying by 28%

Dr. Cotton and his colleagues at Vanderbilt found that high-dose antioxidants reduced the risk of dying by an astonishing 28 percent in acutely injured patients. Also patients' length-of-stay in both the hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) were reduced.

What happens when you are seriously injured?

Dr. Cotton explains that whenever you have an acute injury, an operation or infection, it places a huge stress on the body. This stress results in the release of free radicals (highly reactive molecules). These aggressive free radical molecules roam around, causing considerable damage to vital organs. This damage is called oxidative stress.

When you are traumatised you quickly become depleted of antioxidants

Antioxidants on the other hand are able to neutralise the damaging oxidant effects of free radicals. Unfortunately, research shows that critically stressed, injured patients quickly become depleted of these vital antioxidants unless they are supplemented in high dosages.

Antioxidants are like an army protecting you

As Dr. Cotton explains, antioxidants act as an army of soldiers that rush to the site of an injury to fight infection. But many of these warriors perish early on in the battle so when the invaders return, patients are highly vulnerable to infections. Depletion of antioxidants is one of the mechanisms that explain why we are vulnerable and antioxidant therapy restocks us with soldiers to help keep us healthy and safe.

Antioxidant therapy is simple and inexpensive

"Antioxidant therapy is so simple and that's what throws people off," Dr. Cotton said. He acknowledges that he initially had doubts about antioxidant therapy himself. That all changed however, when he saw a randomised trial conducted by Avery B. Nathens, MD, MPH, that impressed him. The trial showed that some inflammatory states and responses were significantly improved in patients who had received antioxidants versus those who did not.

"Based on these results, we were inspired to initiate a study with vitamins C and E. When we looked at the literature, however, there were some concurrent studies showing that selenium had an impact too, especially on sepsis and other infectious complications. So we combined all the existing research and did a cost analysis. When we learned it would cost only $11 a patient for a seven-day course of antioxidants, we decided to give it a try," says Dr. Cotton.

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