Do Antioxidant Supplements Help Women?

It seems that everyone is jumping on the antioxidant bandwagon and why not? New research is coming out all the time that seems to indicate antioxidants can prevent cancer, strengthen your immune system and even keep you from aging. Antioxidants work by sucking up free radicals that can damage your body’s cells and transporting them to the liver where eventually they exit the body.

Heart Disease in particular has been the subject of recent studies. Researchers in Italy examined three hundred and seven middle aged women for Atherosclerosis. This is the formation of plaques and lesions in the coronary arteries, which can signal the development of cardiovascular disease years before a doctor diagnosis’s it. These women did not take vitamin supplements containing vitamins A, C or E. The researchers took blood samples to measure the women’s baseline level of various antioxidants, took questionnaires and performed ultrasound examinations of their carotid arteries and branches of the heart. They found that women who had plaques building in their arteries had a low intake of vitamin E. Women with the lowest baseline concentrations of Vitamin E in their blood were twice as likely to have plaque build up in their carotid arteries and branches of the heart. Read more