Most powerful antioxidant - antioxidants most beneficial for health

The Most Powerful Antioxidant - scientists still debate

Looking for the most powerful antioxidant is like finding a cure for many diseases, there are a lot of thoughts out there, but none has been conclusively identified. The importance of antioxidants is not in dispute, but determining which one is the most powerful antioxidant remains open to debate.

Antioxidant research

Researchers at Ohio State University, Dr. Jiyan Ma, a research assistant professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry along with David Cornwell, professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry emeritus, took on the task of determining how well the often-touted vitamin E works as an antioxidant. What they discovered, was that vitamin E, seen as the most powerful antioxidant, actually can work both ways.

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Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant

They started with the knowledge that there are two forms of vitamin E, also referred to as tocopherol. There is alpha vitamin E, which comes from olive oil almonds and sunflower seed and gamma vitamin E, found in corn and soy beans. They found the different types had different reactions in the body and that gamma tocopherol actually killed cells instead of protecting them.

The alpha tocopherol offered the benefits sought in the most powerful antioxidant, and did not kill the cells. Their research was conducted using animal cells from mice and monkeys and determined it made no difference in the type of cells used, concluding that the most powerful antioxidant in the form of gamma tocopherol was dangerous to all types of different cells.

Other Best Antioxidants

Dr. Paul Ling Tai, at the Oakwood Medical Hospital in Detroit, Michigan has found that by compounding certain natural known antioxidants, he has formed the most powerful antioxidant for certain aspects of health. For example, N-acetyl cysteine he considers the most powerful antioxidant working against smoker’s cough and lung fibrosis. Others he refers to as the most powerful antioxidant helps with arthritis, preventing cancers, including prostate cancers.

Combination of antioxidants is the most powerful

What appears to be common thread of all the research to find the most powerful antioxidant is that it does not include just one particular antioxidant. Rather it infers that the most powerful antioxidant is the combinations found in fruits and vegetables extracted by the body when eaten in sufficient portions. Recommendations had been to receive antioxidant benefits a minimum of five servings a day should be consumed, but new research indicates that benefits will increase with nine servings a day, without added supplemental sources.