Does Taking (or Eating) Antioxidants Really Reverse Oxidative Damage?

Take anti oxidants? Or just don’t create oxidation in the first place!

It is estimated that one-third of Americans take some sort of antioxidant supplement (1).

The word gets tossed around without perhaps really understanding what it really means, other than some vague idea that they are a healthy thing to include in your diet, whether through food or supplements and that they’re somehow tied to cancer prevention and longevity.

But what are they, exactly, and can we get enough through food? Or is there a better approach?

Antioxidants are compounds that inhibit oxidation, a chemical reaction that can produce free radicals. Oxidation leads to degradation of organic compounds, including living matter (2).

In a nutshell, antioxidants protect the body from oxidative stress, which plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer (3). The modern lifestyle associated with processed food, exposure to a wide range of chemicals and lack of exercise plays an important role in oxidative stress induction.

In addition to poor diet, smoking, alcohol, lack of exercise, poor sleep, high stress, excessive exercise, exposure to environmental toxins and some prescription dugs (4) can also contribute to cellular oxidation.

If oxidative stress is occurring, it’s not as easy as just adding an antioxidant supplement to your regime and hoping for the best. Not only does that not address the root cause, it’s not likely going to be a high enough dose to even begin to counter the damage.

When we experience oxidative stress, we set ourselves up for a phenomenon called the Tryptophan Steal, in which the amino acid tryptophan is diverted away from the serotonin pathway and into the kynurenine pathway.

(Steal in the sense that the tryptophan should have gone toward two primary beneficial pathways: the serotonin pathway and protein synthesis. Easy to understand how this leads to mood disorders and a general feeling of subpar health!)

Quinolic acid is a neurotoxin produced in this pathway. Dysregulation of this kynurenine pathway in the context of inflammation leads to the production of neurotoxic metabolites, such as quinolinic acid, which contribute to neuronal damage and the progression of neurological disorders (6)

Is there a way to determine whether or not you have oxidative-related concerns going on within?

Yes… but it’s not as simple as watching what happens when you slice into an apple and leave it on the counter for a few hours and watch it turn brown. Known as enzymatic browning, when an apple is dropped or cut into pieces, the plant tissue is exposed to oxygen, triggering an enzyme known as polyphenol oxidase (PPO) to oxidize polyphenols in the apple’s flesh. This results in new chemicals (o-quinones), which then react with amino acids to produce brown-colored melanins (7).

While we have no simple , DIY way of measuring whether or not oxidation is or has occurred within our bodies the way we can see in a piece of fruit, we can use a number of symptoms to gauge what may be going on internally.

Fatigue, memory loss, brain fog, muscle or joint pain, graying hair, poor eyesight, noise sensitivity, unstable blood sugar levels and susceptibility to infections are just several examples of how oxidative stress may manifest itself (8).

The good news is that a trained functional medicine doctor will be able to listen to your symptoms and determine which quantitive testing will be appropriate for you; from measuring certain biomarkers in blood or urine, enzymatic activity or oxidant capacity test, just to name a few.

More good news- you can do a great deal with preventing oxidation in the first place by making different lifestyle choices as needed and eating a diet rich in naturally occurring antioxidants.

But can you really get all you need from your diet? It depends on two things: what does your diet consist of and what health challenges do you personally have?

Making assumptions about what one should take solely based on age or gender may not be the most accurate approach.

Let’s take a popular example: eating or taking turmeric or curcumin respectively, to reduce inflammation in the body.

Adding a teaspoon of turmeric to you morning match latte will provide you with roughly contains 200 mg of curcumin.

Some pure Curcumin tablets will provide 1,000 mg in one dose.

Another popular example which has become a bit of a joke: drinking red wine for the purpose of getting resveratrol. A 5 oz pour of red wine contains about 2.15 milligrams (mg) of this potent antioxidant.

Some studies show a minimum of 500 mg of resveratrol would be needed to make an impact,

You do the math.

Building your regime responsibly with a food-first approach, based on fresh, local, in season organic produce, mostly veggies, properly sourced portions and ample natural fats as the core of what you eat is a great starting point.

Move often and in a way you enjoy.

Rest properly and spend time with your community,

See how your health improves just by leaning into this if you’re unclear what the ‘ideal’ way of eating is.

Keep track of how you’re feeling and share your symptom list with your functional medicine provider if you’re feeling less than amazing, who can then assess which labs will best suit you.

Collectively, these can reduce the likelihood of causing oxidation in the first place while doing your due diligence to see what, if any supplements you personally will benefit from investing in.

 

 

 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7766648/#:
Helberg, Julian; Pratt, Derek A. (2021). “Autoxidation vs. Antioxidants – the fight for forever”. Chemical Society Reviews
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7347016/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3420138/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinolinic_acid.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39377830/
https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-sliced-apples-turn-brown
https://www.medicinenet.com/what_does_oxidative_stress_mean/article.htm