ANTIOXIDANT LOAD BALANCE

Lost in the above theory and resulting marketing blitz was the true nature of free radicals.  The wisdom of the body developed a way to use some actions of radicals for beneficial body processes before it steps in and stops or controls any disruptive potential with natural antioxidants. ref** ref  Imagine that this is similar to firemen setting a controlled fire burn on a non windy day to protect the surrounding areas from a future destructive out of control fire on a hot windy day.  ref  ref 

One positive way the body uses free radicals is when cold causing viruses attack. Immune system blood cells produce a free radical that captures and kills the virus to prevent developing into a full blown cold illness or flu.

QUESTION: Would taking a high dose antioxidant supplement help or hinder this vital body protective function?

If you thought, hinder, you would be correct. This has already been demonstrated by research. Have you ever heard of this relationship from Nutritionists and Doctors? ref  <very important info on supplement effects. Plus this one. 

Yet the vitamin industry puts high dose antioxidant vitamins and minerals in cold formulas showing almost a complete lack of understanding for this vital antioxidant load balance principle. Current and past research studies on isolated antioxidant vitamin supplements for the most part fail to show consistent benefits. These studies rather then showing that antioxidants did not work, may actual reveal that they simply worked too well and defeated the body's set point to maintain the redox balance effect. Early studies of just food sources of antioxidants exhibited greater positive benefits, because they did not overwhelm the system.

The current theory is that the body has a set point for antioxidant activity and any added extra supplements simply may block the body's production of its own antioxidants to maintain this set point. This could interfere with the mix and balance between needed antioxidants and pro-oxidants, called Redox Reactions. Science needs to find out how supplements can work with the body and not against to maintain this vital Redox balance.

Antioxidants in balance with redox loads help to regulate the resulting consequences of controlled radical actions and this might be the real way antioxidants work to prevent disease and support exercise benefits. Both limiting oxidative stress from improper foods and the appropriate use of certain antioxidant supplements in controlled dosages might be beneficial.

   ...antioxidants may end up protecting cancer cell growth...     

Important link between cancer and antioxidants > ref ref  Antioxidants may be protective before cancer develops, but after cancer starts, too many antioxidants may end up protecting cancer cell growth by limiting the body's free radical defense system, or by interfering with chemotherapy drugs. ref ref on p53                             

SIDEBAR: While Scientists search for drugs to increase p53 to defeat cancers, drugs that so far have shown damaging side effects, mother nature already has safe and natural ways to do this, such as with SGS from broccoli, IP6 from rice bran extract pages, article, and Beta Glucans from mushrooms.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT ANTIOXIDANT EFFECTS ON CANCER

This point needs to be stressed about how antioxidants affect cancer start up and growth. Many antioxidants help prevent oxidation damage to cells that could trigger mutations and start up cancers. But due to the working pathways of certain antioxidants, once cancers have started, the cancer cells hijack the antioxidants to help the cancer cells growth faster. Evidently these antioxidants do not know they are harming the body. They simply have a task to perform. The main antoxidants in this category include N Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), Folic Acid, Glutathione, and vitamin E as d'alpha tocopherol by itself. Remember higher dosages of vitamin E suppress levels of the other family members of E arriving in food, possibly by blocking out digestive channels. Folic acid helps cells divide and prevent damage to DNA material. In this way it prevents cancer start up. But once cancer is present, excess folic acid helps cancer cells divide faster. Glutathione breaks apart during digestion, so really only supplies the three amino acids it contains. But, these aminos include NAC builders. There is a class of cancer drugs called folate inhibitors. Vitamin B1 should also be mentioned here too as it has similar actions at different amounts.

These facts reveal why it is necessary to use the precautionary principle in taking vitamins. And to follow the guideline vitamin criteria presented here and work with a Nutritionist or other Health Professional when disease is present.

More on Antioxidants, Radicals, Cancers, and Diabetes

Another example could help clarify. It appears the body uses some radicals to turn on the mechanism of glucose and insulin uptake into cells. Cells that develop insulin resistance to uptake lead to diabetes. A rather large study, SELECT, testing if vitamin E and selenium help protect against prostate cancer was stopped at its midpoint analysis after slightly more cancers were found in the vitamin E group and in the selenium group, slightly more diabetes. Selenium participates in the production of Glutathione Peroxidase, one of two vital antioxidant enzymes used by cells to control free radicals. Evidently, in the test subjects already naturally high in selenium, adding more pushed their production of GP to an over reactive level which rapidly neutralized the free radical needed to switch on glucose insulin uptake by cells.                                                      

SIDEBAR: Antioxidant vitamins E & C exhibit a catch 22 on exercise. While these vitamins reduce the ROS effects of oxidation in muscles after exercise, an action thought to be beneficial, they also prevent the positive effects of exercise on controlling insulin resistence, a factor for diabetes control. ref

Still not convinced? Here is an example regarding cancer cell destruction by radicals which limits DNA damage. Too many antioxidants could hinder this action and allow damaged DNA cells to develop into cancer.  ref  Curcumin acts as antioxidant to protect healthy cells, but as a prooxidant (free radical action) to kill cancer cells. Balance is the name of the anti-oxidant game. Antioxidants are needed in just the right amount to help protect healthy cells from turning cancerous due to DNA damage.

One more study about the antioxidant SOD on the control of the oxidation process in cells. SOD, superoxide dismutase, is one of two major detox enzymes in cells ref Too much SOD upsets delicate balance with the other detox enzyme, Glutathione Peroxidase, and has an opposite effect on the mechanisms the body uses to control inflammation and protect cellular DNA from damage due to hydrogen peroxide and O2 radicals.

CAUTION: Many antioxidant formulas include mostly vitamins. This may not be the best use as these amounts have to be added with amounts in multiple vitamin products. Remember to limit total vitamins in multiples and antioxidants to the amounts or even lower than found in the new vitamin criteria. This is one of the reasons the vitamin amounts appear to be low, but are more than adequate. Antioxidant products should contain more foods and food nutrients than vitamins. There nutrients include: Bilberry. Blueberry, Grape seed extract, Pycnogenol, Tumeric root, Ginger, Lutein, Lycopene, Milk Thistle, and CoQ10 to name a few. (While Green Tea Extract would fit here, recent linking of high amounts to liver damage sidelines it) Products with mostly vitamin formulas have shown mixed results in studies while the food source antioxidants have exhibited mainly positive actions.

In food, the elements with antioxidant activity are found at low levels plus there are other phytonutrients that most likely have synergistic actions with the antioxidant. Vitamins C and E are best taken with family of related members. In addition, the fiber and matrix elements in whole foods control the release of nutrients in a slow steady pace rather than all at once like most supplements. MORE IS NOT BETTER for many vitamin supplements.

At a modest amount, Lycopene (from tomatoes) prevented oxidative stress in test animals, but at double that amount, all the test animals died. Food for Thought. 

BOTH SIDES: In the interest of presenting both sides, here is a Doctor view. ref Note that the first part of article explains how body functions, while specific supplement examples are given last. Percentage of absorption for vital supplement nutrients and protection of forms against breakdown during digestion are both critical aspects. This explains why some supplements using better absorption forms and mechanisms are more expensive. ref Look into research on curcumin phytosomes. ref ref

**Copy below from reference above. Dosage and form of nutrient are vital to results.

Why Don’t Antioxidant Supplements Work?

Most clinical studies of antioxidant supplements have not found them to provide substantial health benefits. Researchers have suggested several reasons for this, including the following:

• The beneficial health effects of a diet high in vegetables and fruits or other antioxidant-rich foods may actually be caused by other substances present in the same foods, other dietary factors, or other lifestyle choices rather than antioxidants.
• The effects of the large doses of antioxidants used in supplementation studies may be different from those of the smaller amounts of antioxidants consumed in foods.
• Differences in the chemical composition of antioxidants in foods versus those in supplements may influence their effects. For example, eight chemical forms of vitamin E are present in foods. Vitamin E supplements, on the other hand, typically include only one of these forms—alpha-tocopherol. Alpha-tocopherol also has been used in almost all research studies on vitamin E.
• For some diseases, specific antioxidants might be more effective than the ones that have been tested. For example, to prevent eye diseases, antioxidants that are present in the eye, such as lutein, might be more beneficial than those that are not found in the eye, such as beta-carotene.
• The relationship between free radicals and health may be more complex than has previously been thought. Under some circumstances, free radicals actually may be beneficial rather than harmful, and removing them may be undesirable.
• The antioxidant supplements may not have been given for a long enough time to prevent chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases or cancer, which develop over decades.
• The participants in the clinical trials discussed above were either members of the general population or people who were at high risk for particular diseases. They were not necessarily under increased oxidative stress. Antioxidants might help to prevent diseases in people who are under increased oxidative stress even if they don’t prevent them in other people."   

Or, maybe the wrong form and/or just isolated alpha tocopherol was used. ref ref