Did Pope John Paul II seem a little perkier than usual during his trips this summer to Poland and the Americas? The French daily Le Monde thinks so, and it thinks it might know why: During an audience with the pontiff last June, the paper reported in its 1 September edition, HIV co-discoverer Luc Montagnier gave him some antioxidants. Antioxidants, some researchers say, can protect against cancer, aging, and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, which afflicts the 82-year-old pope.
Montagnier confirms that he did indeed meet with the ailing pontiff and that following a discussion of the AIDS epidemic, he gave him two types of pills that 70-year-old Montagnier himself takes regularly. One was glutathione, an over-the-counter tripeptide; the other, a fermented extract of papaya. "I take these, and I am in pretty good shape," Montagnier says. "The pope said, 'If you take these, then I will take them too.' "
But if the Holy Father is indeed feeling peppier, antioxidants won't get the credit. According to Vatican sources, the pope has not been taking the pills.
