Why Vitamins C & E Should Not Be Supplemented

Antioxidants have a good reputation. The story goes, antioxidants protect us from the oxidation caused by free radicals. Free radicals are what cause our body to rust from the inside out and lead to ageing. What is not often talked about is the dark side of antioxidants.

Unfortunately, what you’ve been told isn’t 100% true. Increases in free radicals during exercise cause the body to produce more anti-oxidant enzymes (1). These antioxidant enzymes, that our bodies produce, are far more important than antioxidant substances in foods when it comes to protecting us from free radicals (2). The end result is that increasing our antioxidant enzymes leads to living a longer life (3) (4), improves our metabolism (1) and improves our immunity. Antioxidant enzymes play an important part in the functions of the immune system, including the killing of microbes (which includes bacteria and viruses) (5).

By improving our antioxidants enzymes, exercise increases our insulin sensitivity, meaning we make better use of glucose (less diabetic) and our adiponectin goes up (1). Adiponectin is a fat burning hormone. These changes are part of why exercise provides us with a huge host of health benefits.

When you give supplements of vitamin C and vitamin E to people who are exercising, there isn’t the same increase in free radicals and antioxidant enzymes. This prevents the increases in adiponectin and insulin sensitivity (1), meaning the exercise won’t improve our fat burning and use of glucose. This may also prevent the improvements in immunity that come with exercise. As we mention in our other pages, boron, magnesium, copper, zinc and selenium have all been shown to be important for our antioxidant enzymes.

Supplementation with vitamin C has also been shown to slow down recovery from exercise, causing reduced future exercise performance (6).

When exercise was combined with vitamin C, vitamin E and alpha lipoic acid (another antioxidant) it actually increased blood pressure and prevented the blood vessels opening up during exercise (7).

Long term vitamin E supplementation may also increase risk of heart failure in those with diabetes or vascular disease (8).

It also decreases the amount of strength gained from strength training (9).

So, if you are exercising (which you should be) we don’t think vitamins C and E (in supplement form) should be on the table. All that hard work would be going to waste. In fact, even if you are not exercising, we do not recommend them. Why not? Free radicals are not just produced during exercise, they are also produced from just everyday living. Blocking free radicals may reduce our antioxidant enzymes over time because there wouldn’t be as many free radicals to stimulate them. We know that increasing antioxidant enzymes explains why getting fitter translates into greater longevity. This relates to another study. When they pooled the data from 78 randomised controlled trials (296,707 participants in total) (10), it was found that those taking vitamin C supplements had a 6.5% increase in overall risk of death compared to those not taking vitamin C (although this increase was not deemed statistically significant). Those taking vitamin E supplements had a 16.5% increase in overall risk of death compared to those not taking vitamin E.

The author of the study explains: “Free radicals may play dual roles. Free radicals in moderate concentrations are essential mediators of reactions by which unwanted cells are deleted from the body.”

Examples of unwanted cells would include cells that aren’t working very well and are wreaking havoc on the body. These can cause ageing and disease.

Vitamins from foods will act differently from supplements because they come packaged with a huge variety of other substances that can improve the safety and efficacy of the nutrient (11) (12) (13). For example, even merely the calories of a vitamin C containing food would increase free radicals as the calories are burned, thereby changing the effects in the body.

This is why we don’t include vitamins C and E in our supplement and instead give you information about how to get your vitamins C and E from whole foods. We still believe 99% of people would benefit from a supplement with certain vitamins and minerals in it.

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Enjoyed this article? Click here to see our full list of articles and find out which other nutrients you should avoid supplementing.

For more information about how taking ThinkPharm Formula would improve your life check out our other articles about how it was designed.

For a vitamin supplement that doesn’t profit from your misinformation and actually tries to improve your health get your hands on the ThinkPharm Formula. Check out the formula on our product page.

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Disclaimer: Food supplements are intended to correct nutritional deficiencies, maintain an adequate intake of certain nutrients, or to support specific physiological functions. The ThinkPharm Formula (or any other food supplement) is not a medicine and therefore cannot and does not claim to treat or prevent disease. All content on this website is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. None of the scientific studies quoted on this website qualify as proof or implication that ThinkPharm Health's supplements treat or prevent disease. Findings of scientific studies do not always represent reality. It is always difficult for scientific studies to reach accurate conclusions regarding nutrition and its relationship to diseases. Please consult your healthcare professional before making any significant changes to your diet and lifestyle. ThinkPharm Health is not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting on information from this website.