A study conducted by the University of Western Australia School of Medicine and Pharmacology shows that high doses of antioxidant supplements produce no positive benefits to their users and in fact can cause negative results like increased blood pressure with some patients. The lead scientist of the research said that the vitamin C and vitamin E supplements were not going to give good health results and advised that a healthy and nutritious diet would be better for you than the supplements.

Traditionally antioxidants like vitamin C or vitamin E are said to protect cells from the damaging effects of free radicals that are one of the other byproducts of energy metabolism. According to scientists these free radicals may damage cells as well as contribute to heart disease or even cancer. It did appear from the large population studies that have been going on for years and years that a connection between antioxidants in diet and a smaller risk of heart disease was evident. This link meant that a huge business of selling vitamin C and vitamin E supplements was created and is now worth millions of pounds.

However more recent studies that looked at the effects of high doses of these vitamins showed no better health and in fact even sometimes showed adverse health effects. The researchers noted that patients who were at risk of cardiovascular disease and were using big doses of vitamin E were seen to have higher blood pressure than otehr people.

The researchers believe while the benefits of vitamins C and vitamin E were obvious to all the supply of these essential nutrients did not need to come from supplements and that a healthy balanced diet would easily provide the right amounts of the relevant vitamins. The researchers even went on to conclude that people who had had a heart attack or were at risk of heart disease should not use antioxidant supplements especially in high doses. The way forward they said was to eat well and to include a variety of fresh fruit and veg, wholegrain foods and protein from beef, poultry and especially fish.