This may interest my exercise physiology network.
It’s been close to 15 years since I worked in that field, so not sure if this is now widely known, but the war against free radicals and inflammation may be misplaced in many situations.
This review paper concludes that:
“there remains the perception that antioxidants can counterbalance oxidative stress and benefit exercise adaptation and performance in athletes. It is likely that the negative effects of high doses of antioxidant supplementation exceed their potential benefits“.
A main issue is that antioxidants blunt free radical functioning, which are essential for cell signalling, gene expression and other functions which result in adaptive responses to exercise.
This has also been studied in the context of resistance training and hypertrophy, with some research highlighting that some types of antioxidants in some concentrations effectively blunt protein synthesis and other adaptive mechanisms.
Study link: https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.jesf.2022.06.001
Link to the LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_potential-harms-of-supplementation-with-high-activity-7045144229236375552-Yvbz?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
SafetyInsights.org 