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Antioxidants play a major role in health improvement and their presence in our daily food is of immense importance. Let us discuss the role of antioxidants a bit more. Natural or man- made substances that may prevent certain types of cell damage are known as antioxidants. Diet rich in fruits and veggies are a serious source of antioxidants. But whether antioxidants as supplements are beneficial or not are still not very clear and researches are going on. Some of the antioxidants include selenium, vitamin C and E, carotenoids including Lutein, β-carotene, lycopene. As per reports, people having more fruits and vegetables in their diet have lower risks of diseases. It is however not evident whether it is contributable to the amount of antioxidants in fruits and vegetables, to other ingredients of the foods consumed, to other dietary factors or to choice of lifestyle.
Extensive scientific research in more than 100,000 people tested for the ability of antioxidant supplements to prevent chronic diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases and cataracts found that antioxidants lack the ability to reduce the risks of these disease development.
However, high-dose of antioxidant supplements may result in increased risk to health in some cases. For example, people who smoke regularly are more susceptible to lung cancer if their diet is supplemented with high doses of beta-carotene. Diet, rich in high doses of vitamin E supplements increases the risks of stroke and prostate cancer. Supplements of antioxidant interact with certain medicines. As for example, supplements of vitamin E increase the risk of bleeding in patients receiving anticoagulant drugs. There is some evidence that antioxidant supplement uptake during cancer treatment can be beneficial, but another suggests that it may be harmful. Therefore, it is important to inform health care practitioners about the condition of health before undergoing antioxidant supplements.
Scavenging of free radicals (highly unstable molecules) is the most important role played by antioxidants. Free radicals are generated through natural process during exercise and formation of energy from food consumed. Several other factors (sunlight, active and passive smoking of cigarette other environmental pollutions) can also lead to formation of free radicals in the body. The oxidative stress brought on by free radicals contributes to various diseases, including diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular diseases and eye related problems such as cataracts and macular degeneration.
Antioxidants have been reported to counteract the oxidative stress. Nevertheless, there is still some doubt as to whether consumption of huge quantity of antioxidant supplement can really have any health benefits or not.