Antioxidant supplements may harm

by Dr Norman Swan

A review of antioxidant supplement trials has found that they don't seem to do any good and may shorten your life.

20 03 2007

A review of antioxidant supplement trials has found that they don't seem to do any good and may do harm - in fact so much harm that they might shorten your life.

The systematic review was of antioxidant versus placebo trials for a wide range of reasons from preventing diseases in the first place to reducing subsequent problems once you already had a condition. The researchers came up with 68 trials involving 230,000 people and after analysing the best trials, there was no evidence of benefit. And when they looked at harm, beta carotene and vitamins A and E were associated with increased chances of dying prematurely either when used by themselves or in combination. The jury's still out on vitamin C whereas selenium just might be linked to reduced death rates.

These findings don't necessarily mean the story about antioxidants preventing free radical damage is wrong. It's just that swallowing antioxidants in tablets doesn't seem to be a good idea - at least compared to taking them in whole foods such as red vegetables, just as they do round the Mediterranean.