Life Hacks for Health

This is an old revision of the document!

When it comes to antioxidants, they are not just purely beneficial:
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2013/03/antioxidants-more-is-not-always-better/index.htm
https://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/2012/11/19/anti-oxidants-a-disappointment-or-worse

Vitamin C, has overall good health effects 1 2 when supplemented above the Dietary Reference Intake, but it reduces performance gains from exercising:
https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/87/1/142/4633311
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22777327

Antioxidants are natural or unnatural substances that may avert or block some sort of cell damage. Anti-oxidants work to block the action of free radicals. Some of the antioxidants are vitamins C and E, selenium, and carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Vegetables and fruits are a rich source of antioxidants. The major role of anti-oxidants is to fight against free radicals.

Free radicals are highly unstable molecules that are naturally produced during exercise, while food is converted into energy, and when our body is exposed to some environmental sources such as cigarette smoke, air pollution or sunlight. Free radicals trigger cell damage through oxidative stress and oxidative stress further leads to variety of health complications as cancer cardiovascular diseases, Diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and eye diseases such as cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

Intentional points about Anti-oxidants supplements that you need to know before consuming them

• Scientists have researched anti-oxidant supplements to check whether they help to reduce diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and cataracts. Results indicate that antioxidants didn’t lessen the risk of developing these. https://nccih.nih.gov/health/antioxidants/introduction.htm
• High doses of antioxidant supplements can cause unpredictable harm. When taken in high doses, anti-oxidants can act as pro-oxidants, increasing production of free-radicals. High doses of beta carotene can increase the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Use of high-doses of vitamin E supplements upsurge the risk of hemorrhagic stroke and prostate cancer.
• Certain antioxidant supplements are known to interact with some medicines. Vitamin E can increase the risk of bleeding in people who use anticoagulant drugs (blood thinners).

Too much of a good thing can be problematic as discussed above, so don’t try to amp up your intake with merely supplements. Focus on natural food instead and make sure your diet contains a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes.

Antioxidants and Aging

Anti-oxidants aren’t helpful in aging, according to certain studies they are worse than useless. The magical thing about our body, is that our body lives longer stressed than un-stressed (an effect of hormesis). When our body is stressed it upsurges its defenses. This can be seen with exercise, with starvation, and with many toxins (please specify?).

At an older age, the body isn't doing it's best to protect itself from damage. It willfully allows the damage to accumulate. Defensive programming is turned off and decay is allowed to overtake us. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2685276/

— Humaira Sarfraz 2019/07/15
— Marcos Reyes 2019/07/15