31864 sci.med #31864 (0 + 28 more) -( )--(1) From: Paula Burch [1] Re: H202, OXYGEN, OZONE... Date: Wed Aug 19 18:44:07 1992 Lines: 28 Nntp-Posting-Host: roc.mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu Originator: pburch@roc.mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu {follow-up to a reprint of a quack pamphlet singing the praises of hydrogen peroxide as the cure to all illness, when taken internally} When I was researching my PhD thesis ("DNA damage mediated by photodyn- amically-produced active oxygen", or words to that effect) at Rice University, someone brought me a similar pamphlet they'd found on an airplane. We found the whole thing absolutely hilarious. To us graduate students it was a joke, like our discovery that Michael Jackson was sleeping in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber so he would live forever, when in fact sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber will make you old before your time, if it doesn't kill you outright. (Maybe he slept in it, but just never turned it on? ;-) ) Hydrogen peroxide is sufficiently toxic to humans that enzymes exist for --MORE--(64%) no other purpose than to protect us from this poison. These enzymes (as you might guess from my thesis title) help us by protecting the integrity of the body's large molecules against damage caused by toxic oxygen compounds. They prevent a lot of cancer, mutations, some heart disease, etc. In fact, you can even buy "dietary supplements" of some of these enzymes in health food stores, for big bucks, if you don't care that expensive enzymes turn to plain old amino acids in the stomach. Adding hydrogen peroxide to one's diet is so stupid, it's funny, unless you think too much about the poor fools who buy into this stuff. Then it's just depressing. Paula Burch pburch@bcm.tmc.edu End of article 31864 (of 31960)--what next? [+npq]