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Exercise is good for you. Antioxidants are good for you. But put them together and it’s not as good as you’d think. Because a recent study shows that some vitamins block the beneficial effects of exercise.
A good workout not only gets your heart pumping, it makes your body better able to process glucose and decreases your risk of diabetes. And it does so, in part, by firing up your cells’ mitochondria. Stoking those mitochondrial flames boosts your metabolism. But it also throws off so-called free radicals, which are usually considered harmful. So adding antioxidants—which get rid of free radicals—should make your workout even healthier, right?
Well, no. Forty men took part in a four-week training program. Half the group also received daily doses of Vitamins C and E. The researchers discovered that exercise on its own improves insulin sensitivity, which keeps diabetes at bay. But taking the vitamins erased that gain—findings that appear in the May 12th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
So you actually need a burst of potentially damaging radicals to reap some of the important rewards of a good sweat. Which means that even on a molecular level: no pain, no gain.
—Karen Hopkin
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8 Comments
Add CommentThis sounds very suspicious to me, like a study done to re-enforce an existing opinion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this4 weeks for 20 men with no indications of other dietary and individual characteristics? That's not a study, it's a worthless study that should not even be reported.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPrecious little detail here. Did the research consider the time of day of exercise and of anti-oxidant intake. If one takes vitamin C at night and exercise in the morning, versus both near each other in the afternoon? Wish you had a link to the original article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPrecious little detail here. Did the research consider the time of day of exercise and of anti-oxidant intake. If one takes vitamin C at night and exercise in the morning, versus both near each other in the afternoon? Wish you had a link to the original article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's well known that getting vitamins from foods is many times better than using supplements. It stands to reason, then, that eating extra portions of certain foods would be better than after exercise. And our bodies ought to steer us in that direction.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAdding vitamins, therefore, would be counter-productive. But no matter how many studies show the futility of most vitamins for most people, they'll continue to justify the use. There are too many self-interests involved.
This information is harmful in its insufficiency of data. The free radicals referred to in the short report are implicated in the genesis and progression of nearly all chronic disease. The reporting here leaves the impression that the reactive oxygen metabolites as a byproduct of energy metabolism are positive for the body when in fact they are the prime drivers of aging and age related genetic changes. Quite unfortunate that this information was reported in this fashion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere's a study worth looking at:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.labmeeting.com/paper/28643357/vincent-2009-effects-of-antioxidant-supplementation-on-insulin-sensitivity-endothelial-adhesion-molecules-and-oxidative-stress-in-normal-weight-and-overweight-young-adults
It doesn't deal with exercise but does come to a very different conclusion. The study subjects who received vit.C, vit.E, and beta-carotene had less oxidative stress and INCREASED insulin sensitivity.
Note that the text is incorrect about the publication date of the study. This study is not in the May 12th issue of PNAS. It is e-published by PNAS as of May 11th, but has not yet appeared in print. It can be accessed via PubMed.
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