# Antioxidants

Category: Theories & Frameworks

Vitamin E and vitamin C are known as antioxidants, because they stop the harmful free-radical chain reactions which often involve oxygen, but they do not inhibit normal oxidation processes in cells. "Chain breaker" would be a more suitable term. It is often the deficiency of…

10 passages · 1 author · 2012–2020 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/antioxidants

## Synthesis

**Antioxidants** are more accurately described as *chain breakers* that halt harmful free-radical chain reactions, but they do not inhibit normal cellular oxidation. [Source 1] Peat argued that the public understanding of antioxidants has been fundamentally skewed by denying the protective role of carbon dioxide and oxidation, noting that the stronger the oxidation in the normal respiratory route, the safer the organism. [Source 5] The healthy, active cell maintains a highly oxidized state, with roughly 500 times more oxidized NAD than reduced NADH. [Source 10] In contrast, **cancer cells** possess a very powerful intrinsic antioxidant system, and restoring health requires overcoming that antioxidant state. [Source 8]

The body's innate antioxidant network includes **glutathione**, **superoxide dismutase**, catalase, and circulating **uric acid**, which is considered quantitatively the main antioxidant defense inside cells. [Source 4] However, Peat cautioned that an excess of antioxidant enzymes can be pathological; the genetic overdose of superoxide dismutase in Down's syndrome creates accelerated aging, and adding the extra gene to animals replicates this effect. [Source 8] The crucial distinction lies in the cell's redox balance. When a cell is irritated or stressed, it shifts into a *reduced state* where molecules like ascorbic acid and Vitamin E become reduced to sop up toxic fragments, but the system can become stuck in this over-reduced, over-electrified form, preventing a return to normal oxidative function. [Source 10]

The danger of the reduced state is amplified by the presence of **polyunsaturated fats (PUFA)** and **iron**. When oxygen is insufficient, electrons that cannot be taken up by oxygen locate on iron atoms, activating the iron to attack PUFAs and initiate an oxygen-wasting free-radical cascade. [Source 3] This process creates *lipofuscin*, or age pigment, which functions as a powerful oxygen sink that starves mitochondria. [Source 3] In this context, reduced vitamin C becomes a reductant that reacts with iron to produce the highly toxic **hydroxyl radical**. [Source 2] Peat emphasized that lactate should be seen as the polar opposite of carbon dioxide, with higher lactate levels indicating a shift away from the oxidative state and closer to death. [Source 5]

Many plant-derived "antioxidants" are polyphenolic compounds that overlap almost completely with **estrogenic** substances. [Source 6] Peat noted that these same chemicals were historically classed as **tannins** and identified as effective carcinogens in the 1970s after topical burn treatments led to skin cancer. [Source 6] In contrast, Vitamin E and Vitamin C are electrically tuned to specific roles within the cell's tightly organized system. [Source 7] When functioning properly, dehydroascorbic acid—the oxidized form of vitamin C—is eight times more concentrated inside the cell than outside and acts as an oxidant that maintains cell structure. [Source 9, 10] Peat argued that Vitamin E was originally understood as an *anti-estrogen* regulator of sex hormones before being reclassified as an antioxidant, a shift that obscured its primary anti-inflammatory identity. [Source 9]

The fundamental therapeutic goal is not to indiscriminately supply reducing agents but to restore efficient **mitochondrial oxidation** of glucose, which minimizes radical production at its source. [Source 2] As oxidative metabolism is revved up—for example, by adding thyroid hormone—fewer electrons escape to cause dangerous free radicals. [Source 7] Substances like aspirin and bioflavonoids protect against lipid peroxidation not primarily by direct radical scavenging, but by improving the oxidative state of the cell and increasing mitochondrial respiration. [Source 2] The so-called "super" antioxidants marketed as many times more powerful than Vitamin E are tested in vitro and act like dynamite, failing to integrate into the cellular system and potentially causing harm. [Source 7]

## People also ask

### How does Peat distinguish true antioxidants from chain breakers?

Peat argued that true antioxidants halt harmful free-radical chain reactions without inhibiting normal cellular oxidation, and that the body’s health depends on maintaining a highly oxidized state rather than a reduced one.

### Why did Peat consider many plant-based antioxidants dangerous?

Peat noted that many plant-derived polyphenolic antioxidants overlap with estrogenic substances and were historically identified as carcinogenic tannins, making them potentially harmful rather than protective.

### What role does mitochondrial oxidation play in reducing free radical damage?

The corpus describes that restoring efficient mitochondrial oxidation of glucose minimizes radical production at its source, so that fewer electrons escape to cause dangerous free radicals.

## Related concepts

- [Free radicals](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/free-radicals/index.md)
- [Oxidation](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/oxidation/index.md)
- [Albumin](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/albumin/index.md)
- [Cancer metabolism](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/cancer-metabolism/index.md)
- [Carbon Dioxide (CO2)](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/carbon-dioxide-co2/index.md)
- [Activated Charcoal](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/activated-charcoal/index.md)

## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — Glossary

Ray Peat · Glossary

> Antioxidants
>
> Vitamin E and vitamin C are known as antioxidants, because they stop the harmful free-radical chain reactions which often involve oxygen, but they do not inhibit normal oxidation processes in cells. "Chain breaker" would be a more suitable term. It is often the deficiency of oxygen which unleashes the dangerous free-radical processes. Many substances can function as antioxidants/chain breakers: thyroxine, uric acid, biliverdin, selenium, iodine, vitamin A, sodium, magnesium, and lithium, and a variety of enzymes. Saturated fats work with antioxidants to block the spread of free-radical chain reactions.

### Source 2 — 100 Years of Cancer Metabolism

Ray Peat · Newsletter · 2016

> For more than 50 years, the public has been very conscious of the biological dangers of free radical oxidation, and the protective effects of antioxidants. Oxidative damage, such as lipid peroxidation, is a seriously harmful phenomenon. Aspirin and the bioflavonoids are powerfully protective against lipid peroxidation and the DNA mutations and protein damage triggered by the most toxic free radical, the hydroxyl radical. They can act directly as hydroxyl radical scavengers, so it has been assumed that this is the way they work in cells, but their main action there seems to be by improving the oxidative state of the cell. Some radicals are produced in mitochondria, but effective mitochondrial oxidation of glucose minimizes that source of radicals. The most important source of hydroxyl radicals during stress is the ferrous ion, a reduced form of iron, for example the iron released when heme oxygenase degrades heme and produces carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide, or hypoxia, increases the cell's reductive power, keeping iron in the reduced state that produces hydroxyl radicals (Zhang and Piantadosi, 1992). When the cell is in a reduced state, vitamin C is one of the reductants reacting with iron to produce hydroxyl radicals (Hara, et al., 2009). Like aspirin, the antioxidant/pro-oxidant flavonoids typically increase mitochondrial respiration and reduce inflammation. When cancer metabolism increases the amount of lactate in the blood, increased breathing lowers the carbon dioxide in the blood (Gargaglioni, et al., 2003), and the loss of CO2 affects metabolism and physiology at all levels. When CO2 is increased, the redox balance of the cell is shifted in the direction of oxidation (Mel'nychuk, et al., 1977), the use of glucose for growth and fat synthesis is inhibited, and the Krebs cycle is activated (Mel'nychuk, et al., 1978). Inescapable cellular excitation shifts cells into the characteristic cancer-like metabolism, and various anesthetics (e.g., propofol, a general anesthetic, and lidocaine, a local anesthetic) have been found to reduce tumor proliferation and inflammation. Lidocaine can be used systemically in small doses, even by transdermal absorption.

### Source 3 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Antioxidant Theory and the Continued War on Cancer

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 16, 2016 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hy5J-_oS34

> ## PUFA, Iron, and Lipofuscin
>
> **Ray Peat:** Where the actual "antioxidant" function comes in is when you have an oversupply of polyunsaturated fats (PUFA). When you don't have enough oxygen and go into that inflamed state, the electrons that can't be taken up by oxygen are free to locate on iron atoms. The electrons activate the iron, which then attacks any polyunsaturated fats in the environment. That sets up an oxygen-consuming system which produces nothing of value. The electrons go to iron, which gives its electron to the PUFA, which becomes a free radical and consumes oxygen. You get cycles of oxidation without purpose.
>
> **Sarah Murray:** So you want the oxidation to be in the cell producing carbon dioxide using sugar and oxygen—proper cellular respiration. You don't want to be in this reduced state where the PUFA and iron are hungry for oxygen.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yes. In the process of consuming oxygen, they are creating oxygen starvation, setting up the situation to spread.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** It's a very energy-wasteful situation.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yes, an oxygen-wasting system. The PUFA become a trap for oxygen. As they deteriorate, they interact with iron and proteins to create "imitation oxidative enzymes." They act as a short circuit between NADH and oxygen by way of iron and proteins condensed in the form of age pigment, or lipofuscin. This functions as a powerful oxygen sink, keeping the mitochondria from getting the oxygen they need.

### Source 4 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Antioxidants

Ray Peat · Interview · Oct 19, 2012 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3DeeNCBLSQ

> ## The Body's Antioxidant System
>
> **Andrew Murray:** I think most people have a medical understanding of what we commonly know as antioxidants. I know you're going to describe some of the ill effects that some antioxidants can have because they can work both ways. Would you outline the effects of antioxidants and the body's system of antioxidants?
>
> **Ray Peat:** People often talk about the body's innate antioxidant system. They usually refer to the glutathione in cells and the enzymes that reduce glutathione when it has been oxidized. Superoxide dismutase and catalase are considered to be at the center of our own antioxidant system, with uric acid as a circulating major protection against free radicals.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** Can I hold you there for a second? Uric acid is something that I was always led to believe was a cause of gout. Is that true?
>
> **Ray Peat:** It is involved. Being an antioxidant, it's also involved in protecting against inflammation, because inflammation involves things that are thought of as oxidative damage. Molecules get oxidized and changed. Even though uric acid is probably defensive against inflammation, it tends to eventually get crystallized in the process of defending against the inflammation. You often find crystals of uric acid in an inflamed joint, but people can have crystals of uric acid in the tissue with no symptoms at all. Symptoms like gout can occur without the crystals. Crystals of phosphate are probably more common in gout than uric acid crystals, but without analyzing them, people consider them to be uric acid.

### Source 5 — Generative Energy #35: CO2, Ketosis, and Mitochondria | PUFA, Sugar, Iron, and AGEs | Progesterone and Cell Stability

Ray Peat (with Georgi Dinkov) · Interview · Aug 29, 2020 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Iz99Wy5JmrbohNj4OZCxP

> ## Antioxidants vs. Oxidants
>
> **Georgi Dinkov:** So something like methylene blue, which is technically an oxidizing agent, is also an antioxidant because it enables the flow of these electrons throughout the entire chain the way they're supposed to be. It prevents the formation of reactive oxygen species.
>
> **Ray Peat:** I think all of these so-called antioxidants, like ascorbic acid, when it's really protecting you and working the way it should, it's a powerful oxidant. Dehydroascorbate is the predominant form in a healthy working cell, and that shifts in the direction of ascorbic acid (reduced form) in cancer and stress cells. The whole idea of antioxidants has been skewed heavily by denying the role of carbon dioxide and oxidation as a protective effect. The stronger the oxidation in the normal route, the safer you are. If you put in the reduced form of these so-called antioxidants, those will create destructive oxidation. Overloading on vitamin C in the reduced form will interact randomly with iron and create toxic, excited oxidative fragments.
>
> **Georgi Dinkov:** Aren't reductants like estrogen and lactate also these types of "bad antioxidants" that destroy the system?

### Source 6 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Antioxidants

Ray Peat · Interview · Oct 19, 2012 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3DeeNCBLSQ

> ## Polyphenols, Tannins, and Estrogens
>
> **Ray Peat:** The main plant substances that are now being called antioxidants are mostly polyphenolic compounds. There is almost a 100% overlap between the polyphenolics as antioxidants and the polyphenolics as estrogens. I was thinking about that overlap and how 30 or 40 years ago, these same chemicals were classed together as tannins. 50 or 60 years ago, someone discovered that tannins help to seal the skin of a burned person to prevent seepage—called an eschar. After doing that for maybe 20 or 30 years, they started seeing that it was a carcinogen. In the 70s, tannins were identified as very effective carcinogens.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** What do you think about the topical use of tannins? That was big in herbal medicine school.
>
> **Ray Peat:** That's what turned up in the 70s—people who had been treated topically for burns were getting skin cancer in the area treated.
>
> **Sarah Murray:** Can you list some examples of these polyphenols or tannins that are associated with increasing estrogen and carcinogens?
>
> **Ray Peat:** It's almost an endless series, but the famous ones are ellagic acid and gallic acid.

### Source 7 — Thinking Outside the Box – Cancer Treatments

Ray Peat · Interview · 2014

> **Andrew Murray:** Right, because you're advocating, and I know you have not just for the subject in hand, but in general - as good health practice - from advocating plenty of fruit consumption for example, you advocate Vitamin C and Vitamin E as very safe and gentle, relatively gentle in their anti-oxidant capacity to some of the products that I know have been mentioned, you talk about some of [versus] the 'super' antioxidants that are touted on the supplement market that people may have consumed or may have thought were a good thing. In general Vitamin C and Vitamin E are very safe and do the work very effectively?
>
> **Ray Peat:** That's because they are electrically tuned to exactly a certain role or for a group of roles in the cell. And if you put in dynamite instead of alcohol you can have the same overall energy expense but it isn't under control. Some of the anti-oxidants that they're selling are more like dynamite and they don't fit into the system and so they aren't helpful at all. And when the good antioxidants are working properly, the system can run as fast as it wants practically, oxidizing at full speed, and there are examples of experiments in which as you add thyroid hormone or a chemical that uncouples the production of ATP from simply the burning of oxygen and fuel, as you rev up the oxidizing process, you get fewer and fewer free radical productions.

### Source 8 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Brain "Barriers"

Ray Peat · Interview · Oct 18, 2019

> **Andrew Murray:** (51:07) I bet they do. Good. All right, well, I've got plenty more questions I want to ask you. And we do still have about seven minutes. So talking about oxidants, antioxidants might be a good place to finish up questioning you this month. But to start that for next month and then get into the whole issue around tryptophan and how we can cut this out of our diet as best we can. But how obviously it's needed. There's a certain amount of serotonin that is part and parcel of regulating our physiology because there are certain things that implicated in serotonin's, you know, secretion that are quote, unquote necessary. But the other dogma then about oxidants and antioxidants, we're always told, oh, antioxidants are good for you. You know, they kind of mitigate the damage that oxidants cause. And oxidation is a bad thing. You know, if we think about a cut apple, the surface of a cut apple turning brown, that's an oxidation reaction, though. And so it. Oxidation is not a good thing. Right. It's like rust. It's breakdown. It's the kind of, you know, it's kind of a failure, as it were, you know. So in terms of the antioxidant myth, have you got anything to say about oxidants and antioxidants that would better describe them? And then maybe we might not feel quite so confused about the antioxidant myth that is surrounding taking antioxidants per se for health benefits.
>
> **Ray Peat:** (52:48) One thing to keep in mind is that cancer cells have a very powerful intrinsic antioxidant system. And what you want to do to restore health is to overcome that antioxidant system. And the Down's syndrome involves probably the crucial genetic problem is a huge overdose of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase.

### Source 9 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Field Biology

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 19, 2014

> ## Antioxidants and Oxidative Balance
>
> **Andrew Murray:** I want to pick up a loose end from last month regarding antioxidants. I think it's very important that our listeners clearly understand that what they've been led to believe by nutraceutical companies as beneficial nutrients may in fact not be so, and that they should be treated with caution with reference to their action of blocking certain reactive oxygen species in the body.
>
> **Ray Peat:** For example, ascorbic acid functions primarily in the cell as an oxidant, maintaining cell structure and regulating synthetic processes largely by its oxidative form, dehydroascorbic acid. So, you don't want an excess of the reduced form. Vitamin E had a history really starting as an anti-estrogen regulator of the sex hormones. After it was discovered that the unsaturated fatty acids were causing sexual derangement, sterility—especially in males—and brain decomposition, that was when Vitamin E shifted over to be described as an antioxidant rather than as an anti-estrogen. It's gradually being recognized as an anti-inflammatory agent, but it's still stuck in that mold of being called an antioxidant.

### Source 10 — Thinking Outside the Box – Cancer Treatments

Ray Peat · Interview · 2014

> **Andrew Murray:** But you're saying that you want it in an oxidized form; you want the cell not to have access to anti-oxidant activity?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, the healthy, active cell has about 500 times more of the oxidized NAD. When the people who are selling their very powerful antioxidants, a lot of the advertising says it’s “many more times powerful than Vitamin C or even Vitamin E”. But what they're doing is testing the anti-oxidants in vitro, in a test tube, and they will attack and destroy the oxidizing fragments, free radicals, but it happens that just like the NAD/NADH couple which is highly oxidised, the things in balance with that, ascorbic acid and Vitamin E for example, inside the cell, they become oxidized. The dehydroascorbic acid is an oxidant and it's 8 times more concentrated in the cell than outside - it's relatively hydrophobic and it goes to the oily parts of the cell.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** So that will itself break down the antioxidant on the outside of the cell.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah. When you're irritating the cell and turning on the defensive, anti-oxidant/reductive system and producing a lot of the fragments that reduce glutathione, one of the sulphur molecules that exchanges throughout the system, when the cell is irritated, that and the associated ascorbic acid which becomes reduced, and the Vitamin E which becomes reduced, these will sop up the toxic fragments. But the trouble is, that the system which normally should be oxidized, all the way through the ascorbic acid, the Vitamin C, the Vitamin E, the Coenzyme Q10 and so on, these, the whole system gets stuck in an over-reduced, over-electrified form, with not enough oxidation going on to pull it back where it should be and since the 1930s, people have seen that any cell which is dividing - goes into this highly reduced state - in which everything shifts to the sulphydryl rather than the disulphide form.

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