As your brain burns fuel, such as sugar and oxygen, some by-products accumulate, just as soot gradually accumulates in a furnace. The burning is called oxidation; the by-products are particles called free radicals, a form of oxygen altered so that it always wants to combine with substances in the membranes of nerve cells.

This ‘sticking’ to nerve cells not only damages how they function, but eventually kills them. Some substances, particularly vitamin C and vitamin E, can mop up free radicals caused by oxidation. Thus, they are called “antioxidants.”

 

In recent years, advocates of nutritional approaches to health and wellness have encouraged the use of antioxidant vitamins in much larger doses than the minimum daily requirement for the prevention or treatment of brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. On the whole, it’s probably best to say that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, when it comes to grandiose claims for what antioxidants, and drinks and supplements containing antioxidants, can do for you.

 

The most recent studies on these vitamins have pretty much shown that what we held to be true about them for decades in some cases, has not been proven. In fact, in terms of prostate cancer, for example, men taking multivitamins actually had a worse outcome than those who didn’t.

 

Therefore, not all vitamins are safe, just as not all ‘natural’ remedies are either. Buyer, and consumer, beware.