Thread: Oxygen vs Antioxidants ??

I often hear or read about the need for antioxidants to prevent such things as cancer. Doctors recommend eating lots of foods rich in antioxidants.

But then I see articles such as this on http://www.cancersalves.com/checklist/red_blood.html that talks about too little oxygen not being healthy and the need for lots of oxygen.

I even see water machines that are supposed to add more oxygen to your drinking water.

So is there a fine line between the amount of oxygen we need?

Or do antioxidants work in a different way?

Do we need a lot of oxygen? Should we have oxygen generators or hundreds of plants in our homes? Should we practice breathing techniques and taking deep breaths? Where do antioxidants come into play while doing all this?

First of all, be careful not to let marketing schemes get in the way of actual science.

It is kind of ironic to realize that the same element that allows life as we know it is also responsible for our aging process. On the one hand, we need oxygen to produce significant amounts of energy from food. On the other hand, however, and because oxygen is reactive, it sometimes goes on a spree and causes cellular damage. This accumulated damage is responsible for our aging, but can also have more pronounced consequences, such as cancer.

That's where antioxidants get in - they neutralize the reactive oxygen species and, as so, prevent damage.

Now, about atmospheric levels of oxygen. There's no benefit in increasing the level of oxygen from the 21% it regularly appears in. In fact, quite the opposite. There are benefits in having a proper breathing technique, but that's a much broader subject.

EDIT: I was reading the "article" you linked to a bit more carefully, and I cringed. That's absolute rubbish. It's full of wrong information and blatant misinterpretations. I wouldn't look at it for anything.

I can't comment on the link about a lack of oxygen causing cancer, though I'd probably tend to agree with cgomes not to take that article too seriously.

As for antioxidants, it's not so much that they react with oxygen gas (O2), but that they react with "reactive oxygen species" that are produced in our bodies (such as hydrogen peroxide). These reactive oxygen species are capable of reacting with DNA and causing cancer. Antioxidants can react with these reactive oxygen species and render them harmless. Exactly how much (if at all) this protects against cancer is debatable.

For more on reactive oxygen species: Wikipedia article