The body’s antioxidant defense mechanism is designed to deal with free radicals before DNA, LDL cholesterol, cell membranes, or other substances are damaged. By using its antioxidant defenses, the body is able to increase the stabilization process of free radicals by a factor of ten million. This means that free radicals should be neutralized before they do any harm. As long as the body’s defenses are able to keep up with free radical exposure all is well; damage occurs when the body’s defenses are outnumbered by free radicals and become overwhelmed.

I often see articles recommending the use of vitamin E and vitamin C as antioxidants. Some may add selenium. This is overly simplistic. Medical studies looking at the supplementation of a single nutrient such as vitamin E or beta carotene have demonstrated that the outcome is actually worse with supplementation than without. This has led people to believe that nutritional supplementation, specifically antioxidant supplementation, is harmful or dangerous. This is an incorrect interpretation of the study findings. Actually, supporting the body’s antioxidant defense system is appropriate and necessary, provided that support is comprehensive. The body’s antioxidant defense system needs privates and lieutenants as well as colonels and generals.

The outcome of single nutrient studies should have been anticipated in advance for they provide an incomplete solution. When vitamin E, for example, donates an electron to disarm and balance a free radical, vitamin E itself becomes unbalanced. Unless it is quickly rebalanced, it will act as any other free radical and attack surrounding molecules. This is a challenge because, being fat soluble, vitamin E will remain in the body for extended periods of time. Vitamin C, on the other hand, is water soluble and therefore washes out of the body very quickly. In the short time it is in the body, however, vitamin C works to balance and neutralize free radicals. It is even capable of recycling the wounded vitamin E so vitamin E can return to the front lines as an antioxidant rather than as a free radical. Supplementing vitamin E without providing a means for it to be recycled has the potential to do more harm than good, as the single nutrient studies have shown. As in the case of vitamin C and vitamin E, multiple antioxidant defenders are needed to watch each other’s backs.

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