Alternative Health Blog

In a study involving 80 patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP) and 20 healthy subjects, low plasma lycopene concentrations were found to be quite prevalent in patients with CP. 85% of patients were found to have at least one carotenoid deficiency and 27.5% were found to have more than 4 carotenoid deficiencies. CP patients with vascular disease were found to have even lower concentrations of lycopene as compared to CP patients without vascular disease. All subjects with low lycopene concentrations were given 40 g/d tomato paste (containing approximately 24 mg lycopene), and after 8 (+/-2) months, lycopene concentrations increased from 67.5 to 121 microg/l. The authors point out that patients with CP may suffer from malabsorption of carotenoids, but despite this, "it is possible to increase lycopene plasma concentration by increasing heated tomato consumption."