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Lycopene

Proposed Uses
  • PREVENTION:  Cancer Prevention; Cataracts; Exercise-induced Asthma; Heart Disease; High Blood Pressure; Intrauterine Growth Retardation; Leukoplakia; Macular Degeneration; Preeclampsia
  • TREATMENT:  Cancer Treatment; Male Infertility

Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant found in tomatoes and pink grapefruit. As an antioxidant, it is about twice as powerful as beta-carotene. There is some evidence that lycopene may help prevent cancer and other diseases, but conclusive proof is lacking. Thus far, the best evidence for lycopene has to do with preventing complications during pregnancy.

Sources
Lycopene is not a necessary nutrient. However, like other substances found in fruits and vegetables, it may be very important for optimal health.

Tomatoes are the best source of lycopene. Happily, cooking doesn't destroy lycopene, so pizza sauce is just as good as a fresh tomato. In fact, some studies indicate that cooking tomatoes in oil may provide lycopene in a way that the body can use better, although not all studies agree. Lycopene is also found in watermelon, guava, and pink grapefruit. Synthetic lycopene is also available, and appears to be as well absorbed as natural-source lycopene.

Therapeutic Dosages
The optimum dosage for lycopene has not been established, but the amount found helpful in studies generally fell in the range of 4 to 8 mg daily.

It has been suggested the lycopene is better absorbed when it is taken with fats such as olive oil, but one study failed to find any meaningful change in absorption.

Therapeutic Uses
Some but not all observational studies suggest that foods containing lycopene may help prevent macular degeneration, cataracts, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. However, observational studies are highly unreliable means of determining the effectiveness of medical treatments; only double-blind studies can do so, and few have yet been performed that relate to these potential uses of lycopene.

The best study of lycopene thus far evaluated its possible benefits for pregnant women. The results of this preliminary double-blind trial hint that lycopene supplements may help prevent preeclampsia (a dangerous complication of pregnancy) as well as inadequate growth of the fetus.
Preliminary controlled trials have found suggestive evidence that lycopene or a standardized tomato extract containing lycopene might be helpful for the prevention or treatment of prostate cancer; Tomato extract has also shown some promise for high blood pressure.

Leukoplakia is a precancerous condition of the mouth. A small study found that lycopene supplements might help reverse this condition.

One highly preliminary study weakly suggests that tomato extracts containing lycopene might be helpful in the treatment of breast cancer, while lycopene alone is not. Tomato extracts have also shown some promise for hypertension.

Very weak evidence also suggests that the same tomato-based lycopene supplements might be helpful for treating male infertility and for preventing heart disease.
Results of studies have been inconsistent regarding the effects of lycopene and exercise-induced asthma.

Safety Issues
Lycopene is believed to be a safe supplement, as evidenced by the fact that researchers felt comfortable giving it to pregnant women. One evaluation of the literature concluded that long term use of lycopene should be generally safe in doses up to at least 75 mg per day.

Note: We suggest that pregnant women should consult with a physician before taking any herbs or supplements.

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