Vitamin C Reduces the Risk of Esophageal Reflux and Cancer

Americans pop antacid medication like it is going out of style.  The medical push behind this strategy is to prevent a highly inflamed esophagus from developing cancer.  While the source of the problem is linked to how well your digestive tract is functioning, which involves many potential factors for any one person, a new study shows that antioxidants, especially vitamin C¹, can protect your esophagus from developing cancer.

The researchers found that those with the highest intake of vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenes, and selenium had a 43% reduced risk of developing esophageal cancer once they already had reflux problems.  Vitamin C as a single nutrient really stood out.  It reduced the cancer risk by 63% as well as the risk of developing reflux esophagitis by 54%.

The take home message of this study is that if you do have some inflammatory indigestion going on, then in addition to working to solving the underlying source of the problem you also want to boost up your antioxidant intake to help prevent the progression of inflammation as well as the risk for that the inflamed tissue could eventually turn to cancer.