Dietary antioxidants, peroxidation and cardiovascular risks.
Most of the many epidemiological studies in the field strongly suggest that an equilibrated diet such as the so-called "mediterranean diet", is associated with protective effects against major diseases, and particularly, against cardiovascular risks. Since many reports also consider  reactive oxygen species  or  free radical oxidations  to be responsible for the accompanying disorders of most pathologies as well as for ageing, it is conceivable that natural plant metabolites such as polyphenols, are likely to play an important role in insuring this protection. Indeed, not only their presence, in particularly high amounts and varieties in foods of such a diet, but also, inter alia, their very potent antioxidant or radical scavenging properties, make polyphenols best accounting for the parodoxical part of the  french paradox . Therefore, many efforts have been made to assess the mechanisms for such a cardiovascular disease protection. Whatever convincing were the polyphenols properties demonstrated by many in vitro experiments to support those theories, quite a great number of the results appeared somewhat contradictory when transposed to humans, in the in vivo situation. Some people totally refute this explanation, thinking that health benefits, as far as alcoholic beverages are concerned, originate from ethanol but also, with no doubt, some polyphenols even revealing to be  pro-oxidants .
Barbaste
M
M
EA 491, Laboratoire de Pharmacognosie, Faculté de Pharmacie, Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux, France.
Berké
B
B
Dumas
M
M
Soulet
S
S
Delaunay
J-Cl
JC
Castagnino
C
C
Arnaudinaud
V
V
Chèze
C
C
Vercauteren
J
J
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000378:metabolism; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000517:prevention & control; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D005419:Flavonoids; D006801:Humans; D015227:Lipid Peroxidation; D008297:Male; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010636:Phenols / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D011108:Polymers / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D059808:Polyphenols; D012307:Risk Factors; D014920:Wine
D000975:Antioxidants; D005419:Flavonoids; D010636:Phenols; D011108:Polymers; D059808:Polyphenols