Antioxidants and Free Radicals
Although this post isn’t hair loss related and it is about an article that is nearly 2 years old, this is an important read for those who buy into the antioxidant solution to anti-aging, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and the like. The question raised here is whether you can get these antioxidants from pills or do you have to get them from fresh fruits and vegetables?
Snippet from the article:
Cranberry capsules. Green tea extract. Effervescent vitamin C. Pomegranate concentrate. Beta carotene. Selenium. Grape seed extract. High-dose vitamin E. Pine bark extract. Bee spit.
You name it, if it’s an antioxidant, we’ll swallow it by the bucket-load. According to some estimates around half the adults in the US take antioxidant pills daily in the belief they promote good health and stave off disease. We have become antioxidant devotees. But are they doing us any good? Evidence gathered over the past few years shows that at best, antioxidant supplements do little or nothing to benefit our health. At worst, they may even have the opposite effect, promoting the very problems they are supposed to stamp out.
Full text at NewScientist — The antioxidant myth: a medical fairy tale
Sorry, but New Scientist is dead wrong on this one.
“I encourage you all to beware when someone tells you there is no research to back up the use of food or nutrients as the primary mode of treatment of disease and prevention of chronic illness. So if you hear from your doctor that eating better and taking supplements has no ‘real’ scientific evidence to support it, ask them if they have read the ‘American Journal of Clinical Nutrition’ lately. The evidence is overwhelming — just ignored.” – Mark Hyman, M.D.
Today there are over 248,000 studies indexed for “antioxidant” in the National Library of Medicine’s public database. One public database. That’s an awful lot of research to dismiss as a “medical fairy tale.”
It’s absurd to lump all antioxidants together and say they “don’t work.” You might as well say food doesn’t work. Antioxidants are a fact of biochemistry. Without them, you wouldn’t be alive to read this.
“The entire evolution of living organisms is characterized by the mutual rivalry of free radicals and antioxidants… The most frequent consequences of oxidative stress are atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, tumors, cataract and ageing.” -Prof. Richard Rokyta, MD, DSc.
Are all antioxidants the same? Of course not. Some are counterproductive at extremely high doses (vitamin A comes to mind). So, don’t take those in extremely high doses.
“We’re learning that antioxidants should be consumed with every meal. If you routinely skip antioxidants in your diet, over time, the excess number of free radicals being produced may begin damaging cellular components, ultimately leading to atherosclerosis, cancer, and other diseases.” – Ronald Prior, Ph.D., chemist at USDA Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center
Whole food or pills? Supplements are just that. They are not food replacements. Of course you need to eat whole food. And of course, you won’t:
“Over 50% of Americans do not eat a single piece of fruit each day and 80% of Americans do not meet the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) recommendations for five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day.” – David Heber, M.D., Ph.D., UCLA
So what good is the constant advice to eat 5 or 7 or 9 or 13 servings of fruits and vegetables a day? The real fairy tale is that we can get enough nutrients and antioxidants from eating a “balanced” diet. If I were you, I’d start eating a great diet, and supplementing it with the right antioxidants.
“It makes perfectly good sense to be taking a prudent amount of nutrient supplements, along with eating a healthy diet, in order not to have problems when you’re older.” – Dr. Roger Steinert, professor and vice chair of ophthalmology at UC Irvine.
Of course it makes sense, if you actually read the research, not just the headlines. The evidence is overwhelming — just ignored.
“Aging itself may be retarded by antioxidants.” – Harvey E. Finkel, M.D.
“Get antioxidants however you can.” -Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., USDA
“Antioxidants, whether they’re found in foods or as supplement pills… improve the outcome in over 100 health conditions.” – Ralph Moss, Ph.D.
“When you study the medical literature, you understand, without a doubt,that patients who take a complete balance of optimal levels of high-quality nutritional supplements have a health benefit over those who don’t.” -Ray D. Strand, M.D.
Exactly. When you study the medical literature, it’s clear. The question is not whether antioxidants work, but how fast can I start getting the right doses of the safest, most potent, most effective and bio-available antioxidants into my diet, my body, my organs tissues and cells right away, and every day, consistently?
Of course, I’ll go even further than most of these respected doctors and scientists in support of antioxidants. Because there are several specific ones, in combination, that are about to change the world. Don’t believe me- just remember.
Yesterday, Glaxo paid $720 million in cash for a startup company whose technology is based entirely on the actions of a polyphenolic antioxidant. Yes, they’re desperately trying to make a synthetic for the big drug jackpot. Meanwhile, pure natural resveratrol does the trick. Many wonderful tricks, actually, one of which has to do with its activity as an incredibly effective mitochondrial antioxidant, for those keeping score. And, you can’t eat enough peanuts or grapes or drink enough red wine to get a viable level of resveratrol. You have to take a pill! Or several.
$720 million. A lot to spend on a medical fairy tale, don’t you think?
David L. Kern
New Health & Longevity