Benefit Of Exercise On Diabetes Risk May Be Undone By Vitamin Supplements, Study

More bad news for antioxidant fans.

"A team of scientists from Germany and the US found that vitamin C and E supplements may undo the benefits of exercise on diabetes risk and glucose metabolism. It would seem that exercise-induced oxidative stress helps the body defend itself against stress and metabolize carbodydrates more effectively, said the researchers.

The study was the work of scientists from Germany's Leipzig and Jena Universities and Harvard Medical School in Boston, US, and was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS on 11 May...

'Exercise causes repeated boosts of free radicals, which - according to our results - induce a health-promoting adaptive response in humans.'

'Subsequently, our body activates molecular defense systems against stress, and metabolizes carbohydrates more efficiently, both of which prevents diabetes, and possibly other diseases,' he added.

'Blocking these boosts of free radicals by antioxidants accordingly blocks the health promoting effects of exercise,' explained Ristow, adding that short term doses of free radicals may behave like a vaccine, helping the body to boost defences against chronic stressors and building a long term adaptive response.

The researchers concluded that:

'Exercise-induced oxidative stress ameliorates insulin resistance and causes an adaptive response promoting endogenous antioxidant defense capacity. Supplementation with antioxidants may preclude these health-promoting effects of exercise in humans.'

In other words, the positive effect of exercise on metabolism is undone by taking antioxidants."

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature.