From: "Steve Harris" <SBHarris123@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition
Subject: Re: Calcium/Magnesium and Cancer
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 19:35:25 -0600

"John 'the Man'" <DeMan@NaturalHealthPerspective.com> wrote in message
news:wilG6.240$7V4.29887@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...

> > > Any sugested mechamisms for Calcium/Magnesium in preventing cancer?
>
> Well, after reading your Reply, ... I am going to add my own two cents
> worth.  :-)
>
> SOD ie, superoxide dismutase
>
> Magnesium is a 'trace element' required by SOD.  :-)


You are confusing magnesium with manganese. Which I suppose is okay, since
the ancients did also, and that's why the words look so similar (they are
all tied up with ores from "Magnesia"-- another confuser was "magnetite," an
ore which was black like manganese oxide but which was "magnetic" (same
word).

Anyway, Mn2+ is a natural dismutation catalyst for .O2-  There's even a
species of bacterium that uses Mn2+ directly for this job.  All other
aerobic organisms (including all other species of aerobic bacteria) have a
manganese-containing enzyme (ie, a specialized protein) for this. That is
the Mn-SOD. Since it's a bacterial invention it's found in mitochondria in
eukaryotes like yourself. It's essential for life in an oxygen atmosphere.

There's also a Cu/Zn SOD, but it's a later invention of more complicated
critters, and has no common origin with the Mn version, so far as I can
tell.

SBH




--
Steve Harris