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USDA Study Shows 37% Upward Swing in Immune Cells

GNLD PR gnldpr at aol.com
Tue Apr 1 16:12:25 EST 1997


Participants Take Carotenoid Complex™ Nutritional Supplement for 20 Days

In the March 1997 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a study conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirms that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables containing carotenoids increases immune system cells by 37 percent in just 20 days, and by 10 percent over original baseline levels.

The USDA study was conducted at the Beltsville Human Nutrition Center in Maryland, and at the Western Human Nutrition Research Center, Presidio of San Francisco, California.  Normal, healthy people were fed a low-carotenoid diet, which included beta-carotene supplements.  Later, the subjects also began taking the recommended daily dosage of three capsules of Carotenoid Complex™.  
Within 20 days, a dramatic increase in immune cell count resulted from the Carotenoid Complex™ supplements.  Thus, the researchers concluded that a low dietary intake of carotenoids has a suppressive effect on the immune system, which can be rapidly reversed by taking mixed carotenoids, and not beta-carotene alone, as previously believed.

What are carotenoids and why are they so important?
Carotenoids are one group of phytochemicals--literally, the chemicals found in plants--and are the naturally occurring fat-based antioxidants that provide the yellow, orange, and red colors seen in foods such as squash, carrots, and tomatoes.  Carotenoids are even in many green leafy vegetables--such as spinach--but are covered, or masked, by green chlorophyll.

What makes carotenoids so important is one of their primary functions as antioxidant protectors of the lipid, or fatty, portions of cells such as cell membranes, protecting DNA and other cellular constituents.  In addition, carotenoids appear to be incredibly protective of immune cells, which are particularly susceptible to oxidation.  For this reason, researchers have concluded that immune cells respond positively to a diet rich in carotenoids.

Oxidation damage to cells, caused by unstable molecules called free radicals, results from normal bodily processes as well as exposure to air pollution, tobacco smoke, and ultraviolet rays.  Carotenoids neutralize these free radicals, helping decrease the risk of developing chronic conditions like cancer, cataracts, macular degeneration, and cardiovascular disease.  Carotenoids are also attributed with helping slow the aging process.

How was the USDA study conducted?
USDA researchers T. R. Kramer, B. J. Burri, and T. R. Neidlinger selected Golden Neo-Life Diamite (GNLD) International’s Carotenoid Complex™, a commercially available nutritional supplement, due to an earlier study that showed that GNLD’s Carotenoid Complex™ was absorbed readily into the subjects’ bloodstream and significantly raised their blood levels of carotenoids.

The researchers then conducted a double-blind study using healthy women as subjects.  Base-line samples of blood were taken on the first day of the study.  The subjects, clinically housed, were subsequently put on a carotenoid-depletion diet.  Half of the subjects received .5 mg of beta-carotene daily.  The other half received a placebo each day.

On Day 60, more blood samples were taken.  The whole group lost 12.2 percent of their immune capacity.  All subjects then began taking 1 mg beta-carotene supplements daily.  On Day 100, blood samples showed an immune function decrease of 27.4 percent, a serious immune system compromise.  Also on Day 100, all subjects began receiving the recommended dosage of GNLD’s Carotenoid Complex™, three capsules daily. 

On Day 120, blood samples were again drawn.  The subjects had not only recovered the 27.4 percent immune capacity that they had lost, but had increased an additional 10.2 percent over the original baseline levels taken on the first day of the study.  This is a full 37.6 percent swing in immunity in just 20 days.

Who developed Carotenoid Complex™?
Carotenoid Complex™ was developed by an eminent scientific development team under the direction of Dr. Arianna Carughi and Dr. Fred Hooper, including internationally renowned cancer researcher and toxologist, Dr. Arthur Furst, all of whom are members of GNLD’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Carotenoid Complex™ is an all-natural, antioxidant supplement derived from tomatoes, carrots, spinach, red bell peppers, strawberries, apricots and peaches.  This product delivers a full spectrum of the carotenoid family, including alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, gamma-carotene, zeta-carotene, cryptoxanthin, lutein, lycopene, and more.

The March 1997 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is the second time that Carotenoid Complex™ has been featured in the highly selective, peer-reviewed scientific journal.  Since it was introduced in 1992, Carotenoid Complex™ has been studied by researchers at several universities.  It has also been the subject of worldwide interest in other scientific journals and meetings, including those conducted at the prestigious New York Academy of Sciences.  In 1996, Carotenoid Complex™ was patented in the United Kingdom under Patent Number 2,274,235.

For more information, and to request additional materials, please contact GNLD International at gnldpr at aol.com.




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