antioxidant

[F4T32008]

from http://www.biology-online.org/articles/antioxidant_overload_may_underlie.html

it's said that antioxidant can lead the heart to failure. It is true or not ? what do you think ?

[MikeS]

Anything in excess can have harmful effects. I think a more accurate way to phrase this is that an "Overload" of antioxidants in the body can lead to heart failure.

From what I learned, the idea behind antioxidants is that they react with free radicals, which are harmful to the body. The antioxidants themselves become oxidized while reducing other species. Too much antioxidants can be thought of as dumping a ton of reducing agents in your body, which would obviously be toxic.

I wonder how much antioxidants were measured in the original study. But I doubt ordinary consumption antioxidant-containing food can cause heart failure.

[F4T32008]

I see.. So. we just consume antioxidant like usual.. But, I wonder how much antioxidant we need just in a day?

[MikeS]

Donno for sure, but it's probably a tiny tiny amount. Maybe someone who knows the precise figures wanna chime in...

[MrMistery]

There are no exact figures for antioxidants, since there isn't only one type of antioxidant, there are many. There's vitamin C, vitamin E, flavonoids etc. Each of them has its own recommended daily usage. Vitamin C, for example, has a 75mg(females)-90mg(males) recommended daily allowance, and a tolerable intake level of 2000 mg/day.