Daily Juice

From NutraIngredients.com:

Increased intakes of vitamins C and E and other antioxidants from the diet may protect against DNA damage in people exposed to ionizing radiation such as pilots, says a new study.

Ionising radiation is radiation from both natural and man-made sources which is energetic enough to create ions from atoms or molecules by removing an electron. At high altitudes, like those achieved by commercial jet airlines, ionising radiation increases because of exposure to significantly higher levels of cosmic radiation than at ground level.

According to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), airline flight crew workers are exposed to higher average doses than any other worker, including those in nuclear power plants.

The detrimental effects of this radiation exposure include potential increased risk of DNA damage, which is considered an important trigger in cancer development, according to scientists from the US National Institutes of Health, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the American Cancer Society.

Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the researchers report that high intakes of a combination of vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, and lutein-zeaxanthin from food “may protect against cumulative DNA damage in ionizing radiation-exposed persons”.