Lycopene Inhibits Asthma-COPD Overlap Syndrome (ACOS)

By Kyle J. Norton

Lung protection is an action in which substances, including herbal remedies, are used to protect the lung against injury or damage.

The lungs are a pair of organs located on either side of the chest (thorax) with a function to bring fresh oxygen into the body and remove the carbon dioxide and other waste gases from the body.

According to the statistics provided by the Lung Association over 3 million Canadians are affected by one of five serious respiratory diseases – asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, tuberculosis (TB), and cystic fibrosis.

In 2017, 28,600 Canadians were diagnosed with lung cancer, represented 14% of all new cancer cases. Lung cancer caused the death of 21,100 Canadians in the same year.

The exact causes of lung disease are not identified. However, epidemiological studies suggested
being overweight, smoking, family history, smoking are some of the most prevalent factors associated with the onset of the disease.

Most common lung diseases in North America including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, and cystic fibrosis.

Asthma is a medical and chronic condition characterized by the long-term inflammation of the airways of the lungs.

Most common symptoms of asthma are episodes of wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath, and reversible airflow obstruction and bronchospasm.

Asthma attack in most cases is triggered by exposure to various irritants and substances that trigger allergies (allergens). However, genetic preposition and family history are also found in patients with asthma.

Asthma not only interferes with daily activities and also can lead to a life-threatening asthma attack. Treatment of asthma is to reduce the frequent episode and severity of the attacks.

According to the statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the US, 1 in 13 people have asthma. In other words, over 26 million Americans have asthma and half of that is children.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of lung disease associated with long-term breathing problems and poor airflow, leading to shortness of breath and cough with sputum production.

COPD is a progressive disease and the third leading cause of death in the United State. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the third leading cause of death in the US.

Lycopene is a phytochemical found in tomato in the class of carotenoid, a natural pigment with no vitamin A activity found abundantly in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables, such as red carrots, watermelons, and papayas,

Tomatoes provide about 80% of the lycopene in the world diet. In plants, lycopene protects the host against excessive photodamage and performs various functions in photosynthesis.

On finding a potential compound for the treatment of asthma researchers examined the effects of ascorbic acid (AA), carotenoids (lutein, zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene, β-carotene, and lycopene), retinol and α-tocopherol levels in patients with allergic asthma compared to healthy elderly in Japanese.

Based on the tested analysis, comapred to other phytochemicals, plasma AA level was significantly lower in of allergic asthma subjects than that of healthy elderly people. 

Levels of plasma lycopene and total carotenoid levels and levels of antioxidant enzymes such as GSH content produced the host was significantly lower in COPD subjects comapred to those of healthy elderly people.

However, levels of plasma lycopene and total carotenoid levels showed no effects in the redox markers such as GSSG, GSH/GSSG ratio associated with the oxidative stress in the lung tissues.

In other words, there is no difference between the redox markers such as GSSG, GSH/GSSG ratio in both groups.

Furthermore, lycopene and total carotenoid levels did not lower the marker of the levels of urinary 8-OHdG detected between ACOS and BA subjects compared to healthy elderly people.

Increased the levels of lycopene and total carotenoid levels in the body do not have a significant impact in reducing the risk of ACOS and BA

Based on the findings, researchers said, "COPD of Japanese patients may develop partly because of oxidative stress derived from a shortage of antioxidant nutrients, especially of AA and lycopene as well as GSH while this may not be the case in both ACOS and BA.".

Taken altogether, lycopene found in tomato may not be considered a remedy for the prevention of overlap syndrome (ACOS) and/or bronchial asthma (BA), pending on the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of lycopene in the form of supplements should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Dietary lycopene supplementation suppresses Th2 responses and lungeosinophilia in a mouse model of allergic asthma by Hazlewood LC1, Wood LG, Hansbro PM, Foster PS. (PubMed)