Comment · Wed, July 24, 2013
Study: 'Anti-Aging' Antioxidant Actually Seems to Undo Effects of Exercise
Original post in this thread
zipzopzoobitybop · 16 points
Saw this article online, thought you'd all be interested.
Article source: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/study-anti-aging-antioxidant-actually-seems-to-undo-effects-of-exercise/277993/
Study source: http://jp.physoc.org/content/early/2013/07/19/jphysiol.2013.258061.full.pdf+html
Fulltext of article
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PROBLEM: In today's issue of The Journal of Physiology, researchers led by Dr. Lasse Gliemann at the University of Copenhagen report a needling wrinkle in our antioxidant love story.
When some plants (like grape vines) are under stress, they produce a polyphenol known as resveratrol, which you may have heard of as the "anti-aging" chemical. Resveratrol has been shown to improve cardiovascular performance and extend the lives of non-mammals and mice -- specifically improving the lipid profiles and longevity of mice who ate a lot of fat. We believe that's because of its work as an antioxidant.
The mice in that study got a boatload of resveratrol, though. Red wine has 1.5 to 3 mg of resveratrol per liter, so an average person would need to drink 1,000 liters of red wine daily to get that much. Resveratrol does come in supplement form, but is that good for h…
What they were answering
silverhydra · 3 points
There is usually a 'signal' that occurs initially, then the signal causes changes that last over 2-3 days or whatnot; the antioxidants are inhibiting this signal initially.
I haven't seen any reason why taking antioxidants at other times would inhibit muscle growth, just when very high concentrations are circulating in your blood at the time of muscle contraction.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
That signal is the release of interleukin type 4 from eosinophils. The eosinophils migrate to regions of inflammation. In this case, it's caused by the oxidative substances being released from the damaged cells. That release of IL-4 activates fibro/adipocyte progenitors (FAPs), and get them to start myogenesis. It also inhibits them from differentiating to adipocytes, which would cause a buildup of fat in the skeletal muscle instead of regenerating the muscle fibers.
Without the oxidative substance release, there is no inflammatory response. Without inflammation, there is no migration of eosinophils to the region. Without eosinophils, there is no interleukin type 4 release. Without IL-4, there is no myogenesis. So the oxidative substances are crucial to the whole process, unless we can figure out how to instigate a way to release IL-4 selectively in the regions with damage, without inflammation.