[ExI] another health dilemma

[Stuart LaForge]

On 2024-02-02 14:04, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat wrote:
> An Ocean ofAir, by Gabrielle Walker, a chemist,is really excellent.
> But...
> 
> She says that taking in more antioxidants may interfere with body's
> own production of them.  Now what?  bill w

Preface: I am not a medical doctor and I am not licensed for medicine in 
any state or country. These are merely my personal views based on my own 
experience and therefore YMMV.

In answer to Gabrielle Walker's assertion that exogenous antioxidants 
interfere with the body's production of them, I would ask "So what?"

There are antioxidants your body can enzymatically produce and 
antioxidants your body cannot produce. (I will limit this to human 
physiology as there are species can produce many antioxidants that your 
body cannot.)  An example of an antioxidant your body can produce is 
superoxide dismutase. It is an enzyme that protects you from oxygen free 
radicals that your mitochondria generate in the process of the citric 
acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation that make up aerobic 
respiration. An example of an antioxidant your body CANNOT produce is 
ascorbic acid aka vitamin C. Therefore all of the vitamin C in your body 
comes from either food or supplements.

Because your body has been fine-tuned for metabolic efficiency over 
millions of years of scarcity, your body will not waste energy making 
vital substances that are plentiful in your diet. For example, your body 
can make its own cholesterol from carbohydrates if you are a vegetarian 
say but if you eat enough meat, then your body won't  waste its energy 
making more of the stuff than you need. Therefore if you take an 
antioxidant, or any substance, that your body is capable of producing on 
its own, then the exogenous substance will temporarily shut down its own 
production of the substance in many cases. This is known as feedback 
inhibition and it is a naturally evolved mechanism.

The important thing to note is that this shut down of production is 
temporary in the sense that the body is simply responding to the 
abundance of the substance in your diet, and does not forget how to make 
its own in times of scarcity. So if you taking antioxidants keeps your 
body from making its own, that just means you don't need any more of 
that antioxidant. This is normal and not unhealthy.

That being said, it is possible to overdose on antioxidants and 
vitamins, just like it is possible to overdose on anything including 
water. This is especially dangerous for fat-soluble varieties such as 
vitamin E, vitamin A, and EGCG (green tea extract), because the body 
stores what it doesn't use instead of pissing it away.

Anecdotally however, Linus Pauling was a Nobel prize winning chemist 
that figured out how proteins were structured by discovering the alpha 
helix. He famously megadosed with 5 grams of vitamin C a day, and while 
it is true that he pissed most of it away, this did not interfere with 
him living to 98 years old. So I guess the best thing to do is take 
supplements that you think you need on a case by case basis, using the 
medical studies as a guide, but do so in moderation and pay attention to 
your labs when you go in for blood work.

Stuart LaForge