The first one didn't appear to use an antioxidant and seemed to just jump to the conclusion that antioxidants are bad. I don't know if less vasodilation during exercise and preventing post-exercise reduction in blood pressure is a good or bad thing. This was the topic of two of them. Is a 1 hour lowering of blood pressure worth anything? Doesn't vit C's preventing vasodilation place the body under some sort of safe stress (like making less oxygen available) that could cause an improvement? If given the choice of exercising at altitude or increasing the oxidation in my body, I'll choose altitude. What was the long term effect on resting blood pressure in the two groups? Did one group see more gains in reps or weight? They don't say. I don't know if decreasing the need for heat shock proteins is good or bad, but I do know massive vit C reverses an in-process case of heat stress, so it doesn't surprise me that you would need fewer heat shock protiens when taking vitamin C. I couldn't evaluate the meaning of the one on "vitamin C and N-acetyl-cysteine increases oxidative stress".
So none of these, except this last one I can't evaluate, seem to address the issue at hand. I agree with all of them that Vitamin C will reduce the stress you experience when exercising. I propose that protecting the body from too much stress is a good thing. None of these reference evaluate if it is a good or bad thing in the larger 24 hour or 3 month context, except for the one I can't evaluate, and the one in this thread concerning insulin sensitivity (which had a big error).
I'm sure we're all aware of the irony that all these major benefits of vitamin C are being twisted around and used as some sort of evidence of harm. I imagine an old grandfatherly dude looking at this and saying "You guys are thinking too much. Why don't you go get a glass of orange juice after your workout?"
Not using antioxidents during exercise certainly appears to increase the body's adaptive response including more anti-oxidant abilities. Let's assume increasing these abilities does not cause aging via higher cell turnover to create these abilities. OK, so its seems to be a good thing for the other 24 hours when the excess oxidation only lasts maybe 2 hours after exercise. But I believe having the supplements in your blood stream will provide more of an overall antioxidant effect and 24 hour benefit.
Edited by zawy, 21 May 2009 - 06:08 PM.