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Vitamin E supplements can have a blood-thinning effect and increase the risk of bleeding in people who are already taking blood-thinning medicines. Some studies have suggested that taking antioxidant supplements during cancer treatment might interfere with the effectiveness of the treatment.

Inform your doctor if starting supplements of any kind. One possible reason why many studies on antioxidant supplements do not show a health benefit is because antioxidants tend to work best in combination with other nutrients, plant chemicals, and even other antioxidants.

For example, a cup of fresh strawberries contains about 80 mg of vitamin C, a nutrient classified as having high antioxidant activity. Polyphenols also have many other chemical properties besides their ability to serve as antioxidants.

There is a question if a nutrient with antioxidant activity can cause the opposite effect with pro-oxidant activity if too much is taken. This is why using an antioxidant supplement with a single isolated substance may not be an effective strategy for everyone.

Differences in the amount and type of antioxidants in foods versus those in supplements might also influence their effects. For example, there are eight chemical forms of vitamin E present in foods. However, vitamin E supplements typically only include one form, alpha-tocopherol.

Epidemiological prospective studies show that higher intakes of antioxidant-rich fruits, vegetables, and legumes are associated with a lower risk of chronic oxidative stress-related diseases like cardiovascular diseases , cancer, and deaths from all causes. The following are nutrients with antioxidant activity and the foods in which they are found:.

Excessive free radicals contribute to chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease, cognitive decline, and vision loss. Keep in mind that most of the trials conducted have had fundamental limitations due to their relatively short duration and inclusion of people with existing disease.

At the same time, abundant evidence suggests that eating whole in fruits , vegetables , and whole grains —all rich in networks of naturally occurring antioxidants and their helper molecules—provides protection against many scourges of aging.

The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The Nutrition Source does not recommend or endorse any products.

Skip to content The Nutrition Source. The Nutrition Source Menu. Search for:. Home Nutrition News What Should I Eat? In , a rating tool called the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity ORAC was created by scientists from the National Institute on Aging and the United States Department of Agriculture USDA.

It was used to measure the antioxidant capacity of foods. The USDA provided an ORAC database on its website highlighting foods with high ORAC scores, including cocoa, berries, spices, and legumes.

Blueberries and other foods topping the list were heavily promoted in the popular press as disease-fighters even if the science was weak, from cancer to brain health to heart disease.

However, 20 years later the USDA retracted the information and removed the database after determining that antioxidants have many functions, not all of which are related to free radical activity.

Although this was not a primary endpoint for the trial, it nevertheless represents an important outcome. In the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation HOPE trial, the rates of major cardiovascular events were essentially the same in the vitamin E A recent trial of vitamin E in Israel, for example, showed a marked reduction in coronary heart disease among people with type 2 diabetes who have a common genetic predisposition for greater oxidative stress.

In the Supplementation en Vitamines et Mineraux Antioxydants SU. MAX study, 13, French men and women took a single daily capsule that contained mg vitamin C, 30 mg vitamin E, 6 mg beta-carotene, mcg selenium, and 20 mg zinc, or a placebo, for seven and a half years.

The vitamins had no effect on overall rates of cardiovascular disease. Lung disease A study from the Journal of Respiratory Research found that different isoforms of vitamin E called tocopherols had opposing effects on lung function.

Cancer When it comes to cancer prevention, the picture remains inconclusive for antioxidant supplements. MAX randomized placebo-controlled trial showed a reduction in cancer risk and all-cause mortality among men taking an antioxidant cocktail low doses of vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, selenium, and zinc but no apparent effect in women, possibly because men tended to have low blood levels of beta-carotene and other vitamins at the beginning of the study.

Age-related eye disease A six-year trial, the Age-Related Eye Disease Study AREDS , found that a combination of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and zinc offered some protection against the development of advanced age-related macular degeneration, but not cataracts, in people who were at high risk of the disease.

However, relatively short trials of lutein supplementation for age-related macular degeneration have yielded conflicting findings. The study found that people taking the vitamins were less likely to progress to late-stage AMD and vision loss.

However, the study authors noted that taking lutein and zeaxanthin alone or vitamin E alone did not have a beneficial effect on these eye conditions.

The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial SELECT Eye Endpoints Study, which followed 11, men for a mean of five years, did not find that vitamin E and selenium supplements, in combination or alone, protected from age-related cataracts.

It did not find that antioxidant supplements of vitamin E or selenium, alone or in combination, protected against dementia compared with a placebo.

Early death A meta-analysis of 68 antioxidant supplement trials found that taking beta-carotene and vitamin A and E supplements increased the risk of dying.

It was also difficult to compare interventions because the types of supplements, the dosages taken, and the length of time they were taken varied widely.

The same authors conducted another systematic review of 78 randomized clinical trials on antioxidant supplements including beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium alone or in combination. The study found that both people who were healthy and those with diseases taking beta-carotene and vitamin E supplements had a higher rate of death.

The duration of the studies varied widely from one month to 12 years, with varying dosages. The first inkling came in a large trial of beta-carotene conducted among men in Finland who were heavy smokers, and therefore at high risk for developing lung cancer. The trial was stopped early when researchers saw a significant increase in lung cancer among those taking the supplement compared to those taking the placebo.

Again, an increase in lung cancer was seen in the supplement group. MAX trial, rates of skin cancer were higher in women who were assigned to take vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, selenium, and zinc.

These results came from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial SELECT that followed 35, men for up to 12 years. References National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health NCCIH.

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Marchese ME, Kumar R, Colangelo LA, Avila PC, Jacobs DR, Gross M, Sood A, Liu K, Cook-Mills JM. The vitamin E isoforms α-tocopherol and γ-tocopherol have opposite associations with spirometric parameters: the CARDIA study. Respiratory research. Berdnikovs S, Abdala-Valencia H, McCary C, Somand M, Cole R, Garcia A, Bryce P, Cook-Mills JM.

Isoforms of vitamin E have opposing immunoregulatory functions during inflammation by regulating leukocyte recruitment. The Journal of Immunology.