One of the biggest benefits of antioxidants is that they can reduce your cancer risk. However, to enjoy this benefit you need to make sure you’re consuming antioxidants in just the right quantities. Otherwise they can have the opposite effect and actually increase your chances of contracting cancer. In this article I’ll be taking a deeper look at the link between antioxidants and cancer and explaining how to effectively lower your cancer risk using these powerful nutrients.
How Antioxidants Can Protect Against Cancer
Oxygen is essential for life and your body uses it to perform a huge range of chemical reactions. Unfortunately, when your body uses oxygen, it also produces harmful by-products called free radicals. These free radicals damage your cells and vital organs and studies have shown that this damage can increase your risk of contracting cancer.
Antioxidants protect against the damage caused by free radicals in the body and help keep your cells and vital organs safe from their negative effects. Therefore, by getting plenty of antioxidants in your diet, you can lower your cancer risk.
How Antioxidants Can Increase Your Cancer Risk
Although antioxidants have protective properties when it comes to cancer, they can sometimes have the opposite effect and increase your cancer risk. A number of studies [1] have found that consuming high doses of antioxidant supplements causes an increase in the development of lung cancer and skin cancer.
In addition to this, ingesting excessively large amounts of antioxidants eliminates their protective properties and actually increases the rate at which free radicals damage your body. This accelerated rate of oxidative damage makes your cells and vital organs much more susceptible to cancer.
How To Protect Against Cancer & Avoid The Risks With Antioxidants
To get the maximum benefit from antioxidants and keep cancer at bay, make sure you source them naturally. The antioxidants found in fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables are highly effective at fighting cancer and come in the quantities that your body needs. However, antioxidant supplements often contain mega doses of these nutrients and it’s these large doses which reverse the protective properties of antioxidants, cause complications and increase your cancer risk.
In addition to cancer prevention, antioxidants also boost your health in countless ways. So make sure your diet contains plenty of antioxidant rich foods to enjoy optimal health and keep cancer at bay.
Sources:
[1] http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/antioxidants/#potential hazards of antioxidants
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