I don’t know about this study. No doubt supplementing with antioxidant vitamins, especially at high doses has risks and downsides. This has been known for a long time, and the effect on exercise has been mentioned in this study.
But what does this study bring to the table? First of all, it’s worth asking whether the rat is a good animal model for vitamin C studies. Rats don’t need vitamin C in their diet in the way humans do, because they make their own endogenously. That is why for vitamin C, guinea pigs are used as those animals don’t make their own. I don’t know if that physiological difference between rats and humans makes a difference in this case, but it’s worth noting. The fact that it wasn’t even mentioned anywhere in this study, and not in the discussion section, is disappointing.
Second, about the dosages used. C’mon, people. For vitamin C, 100mg, 200mg, 500mg PER KG of body weight! So for a 70kg human, the equivalent dose of vitamin C would be 7g, 14g and 35g respectively. Daily. I mean, I know Linus Pauling at one point was taking something like 6g a day, but he was a pretty big/tall guy and the lowest dose here far exceeds that per kg of body weight. How many people do you know who take 14 or 35g of vitamin C per day? Most supplements don’t exceed 1g, and I know of fanatics who take 3g a day (which I think is crazy), but 14 or 35?? How realistic is that in the real world?
For vit. E, they had 50mg, 100mg, 200mg PER KG of body weight. So a 70kg man, would be taking 3.5g, 7g, and 14g per day. Vitamin E RDA is 15mg/day and upper tolerable limit is 1g a day. I would hope there are not too many people out there who gobble up 14g of vitamin E per day, or even 3.5g a day, but maybe I live in a bubble.
I don’t know, friends. I mean, it’s good to know that taking astronomical amounts of vitamin C or E, is, shock, surprise, not optimal. Maybe we need a study showing that slamming yourself in the head with a hammer is unhealthy, but I remain a wild optimist and hope that not many such people walk around, because they’d hardly be able to walk - and frankly I doubt there are many hammer head hitters who would, first, read a study like this, and second, have a moment of enlightenment from it. Same for the 35g/day vitamin C and 14g of vitamin E gobblers out there.
If you take such sci-fi levels of these vitamins, then insulin resistance is going to be the least of your health problems. In the end, I guess the study authors get a pat on the back for effort, but the study gets filed on the other shelf, in the horror section next to Stephen King. Still, the year end budget gets utilized and author credit given, publication numbers topped up, so there is that. Being a grumpy old man, I want those minutes spent reading this study back though.
A PSA: I read it so you don’t have to, and took one for the team.
