Have I mentioned lately I have a high school degree, am prone to error, and frequently jump to conclusions?
I was looking for something else and stumbled across this:
Some studies have demonstrated that supplementation with conventional antioxidants results in deleterious effects that can negate the benefits of exercise training (e.g., mitochondrial biogenesis). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
That comes from this: Chapter 7Supplemental Antioxidants and Adaptation to Physical Training Micah Gross and Oliver Baum. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2...
Further, questions have been raised about the efficacy of high doses of supplemental dietary antioxidants such as vitamins C and E during endurance training. In some cases, counteracting ROS accumulation via acute antioxidant supplementation can positively affect athletic performance. For example, pharmacologically boosting the capacity to convert H2O2 into water protects against ROS-induced fatigue or enhances time to exhaustion (Medved et al. 2004; Reid 2008). However, most such studies employ intravenous infusions instead of common oral supplements. In general, evidence does not support the belief that vitamins and antioxidants are ergogenic or contribute to enhanced training effectiveness. The consensus is that supplemental vitamins C and E and ubiquinone are not ergogenic in normally nourished athletes at low altitude and vitamins C and E and β-carotene do not prevent training-induced muscle damage in humans (Williams 2004).
Moreover, several publications suggest that these may actually be counterproductive (Gomez-Cabrera et al. 2005, 2008; Ji 2008; Ristow et al. 2009; Wray et al. 2009), since it is supposed that radicals such as ROS and NO• play an important signalling role for metabolism, mitochondriogenesis and angiogenesis, and artificial suppression with supplemental antioxidants may weaken these signals. For example, one response to the elevated oxidative stress associated with exercise is increased oxidant defence via up-regulation of antioxidant enzymes such as SOD and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). However, antioxidant supplementation discourages such adaptations by interfering with the radical-mediated signal (Gomez-Cabrera et al. 2005, 2008). The importance of this consequence may not be obvious if one assumes a surrogate protective effect from exogenous antioxidants; however, endogenous mechanisms could be more important when radical production is particularly high. Accordingly, significantly greater oxidative damage has been observed following half and full ironman triathlons in athletes who took antioxidant supplements than in those who did not (2007).
