How Do Antioxidants Help Your Heart?

Answer 1

CJ - you ask a very good but very controversial question. There are many ways in which antioxidants are theorized to reduce a person's risk for heart disease (specifically heart attacks), and some of these proposed mechanisms can get very complicated. Two important ones are:

1) Ischemia-reperfusion injury: When a person has a heart attack and part of the heart muscle is starved for oxygen, the tissues release reactive oxygen species which cause "oxidant stress" which further injures the jeopardized heart muscle. It if thought that antioxidants can reduce this ischemia-reperfusion injury.

2) Oxidation of LDL: LDL-cholesterol, which everyones talk about as bad, is really not so bad until it becomes oxidized. Oxidized LDL is felt to have a key role in the formation of atherosclerotic plaques that lead to angina and heart attacks. It is felt that antioxidants can prevent LDL cholesterol from being transformed into the more harmful oxidized LDL.

Studies do seem to suggest that people with a diet richer in antioxidants are less likely to have heart disease. However, there have been many studies done to see if administration of antioxidants (vitamins A, C and/or E among others) in varying doses and combinations can reduce a person's long-term risk of cardiac events. To date, none of the studies have been able to definitively show a benefit to antioxidant supplementation.

This has not discouraged the believers, however, who feel that the lack of benefit can be attributed to various shortcomings in the studies such as the formulation of the vitamins, the doses, the combinations, etc. In short, the jury is still out on whether antioxidants really DO help your heart.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

basically, antioxidants help and protect your cells from harmful elements caused by pollution from the environment that can cause certain ailments..

ergo: antioxidants help the cells of your heart by acting as protection for your heart to be functioning well..

Answer 3

they prevent the creation of homocysteine which is the factor that makes cholesterol stick to the inside of your veins and arteries, especially those feeding the heart muscle.