Hi Daniel
Antioxidants are basically part of the body's defense mechanism against free radicals.
There have been a couple of threads on DB in the past dealing with antioxidants and free radicals. This thread had some good information:
http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?threadid=27979&highlight=antioxidant
Eric Fattah has also discussed antioxidants in relation to apnea (is there anything he hasn’t discussed?
) The thread wasn’t specifically about antioxidants so I tracked down the specific post and pasted it in below.
The original thread, which has heaps of excellent information on other issues is at http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?threadid=32010&highlight=antioxidant
"I strongly recommend taking lots of antioxidants during periods of hard training, especially if your training involves profound hypoxia (such as max effort apnea). A good load of antioxidants immediately afterwards, and some hours before, really does help. If you overtrain hard apnea, you may find your thinking processes slowing down the next day, although this may take weeks of overtraining to notice. Taking extra antioxidants can slow or prevent this from happening.
There are an IMMENSE number of antioxidants, for example:
Vit C
Vit E
zinc
selenium
CoQ10
n-acetyl-cysteine (precursor to body's own glutathione)
Alpha Lipoic Acid
Each color pigment in fruits/veggies:
Purple #2: Proanthocyanidin (grape skin / grape seed, others)
Purple #1: Anthocyanidin (blueberries, bilberries, purple cabbage etc.)
Blue: Phycocyanin (various)
Red: Lycopene (i.e. tomatoes, red peppers, etc..)
Green: Chlorophyll (dark green vegetables)
Yellow: ?? (yellow peppers etc.)
Plus, an immense number of other phytochemical antioxidants, such as:
quercetin (mainly in citrus & spinach)
dihydroquercetin (rare)
(also other bioflavonoids under the skin of citrus fruits)
So, a diet high in raw fruits & veggies, along with some antioxidant supplements, will do wonders for preventing damage from too much apnea. Making yourself a liter of fresh grapefruit juice, or spinach juice, or any fruit/veggie juice will contain TONS of antioxidants, but you must drink it immediately after you make it. Store bought fruit/veggie juices have very little antioxidant power left in them.
Eating lots of cooked, processed or junk food also produces oxidative stress, so you might want to minimize these during hard training, or all your antioxidants will just be used up in neutralizing damage from your diet (and/or environment, pollution, etc.)
Only a few years ago I couldn't do hard apnea without noticing side effects of slowed thinking. Now, with a full antioxidant load and a modified diet, I can have several sambas per day without noticeable side effects, although that still doesn't mean that no damage is occurring, and I don't recommend sambas.
Eric Fattah"
I’ll agree 100% with Eric about store bought juices and I’ll go a step further and say that unless you’re eating a diet of organic fruits and veggies, you need to be supplementing, especially if you train hard or dive often. Add in the stress factors in most of our lifestyles and supplements aren’t an option, they are a necessity in my opinion. My wife and I take some of the best supplements available and I can safely say I do notice a difference, they aren’t cheap but at the end of the day, without my health, I haven’t got anything.
Ash
Antioxidants are basically part of the body's defense mechanism against free radicals.
There have been a couple of threads on DB in the past dealing with antioxidants and free radicals. This thread had some good information:
http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?threadid=27979&highlight=antioxidant
Eric Fattah has also discussed antioxidants in relation to apnea (is there anything he hasn’t discussed?
) The thread wasn’t specifically about antioxidants so I tracked down the specific post and pasted it in below.The original thread, which has heaps of excellent information on other issues is at http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?threadid=32010&highlight=antioxidant
"I strongly recommend taking lots of antioxidants during periods of hard training, especially if your training involves profound hypoxia (such as max effort apnea). A good load of antioxidants immediately afterwards, and some hours before, really does help. If you overtrain hard apnea, you may find your thinking processes slowing down the next day, although this may take weeks of overtraining to notice. Taking extra antioxidants can slow or prevent this from happening.
There are an IMMENSE number of antioxidants, for example:
Vit C
Vit E
zinc
selenium
CoQ10
n-acetyl-cysteine (precursor to body's own glutathione)
Alpha Lipoic Acid
Each color pigment in fruits/veggies:
Purple #2: Proanthocyanidin (grape skin / grape seed, others)
Purple #1: Anthocyanidin (blueberries, bilberries, purple cabbage etc.)
Blue: Phycocyanin (various)
Red: Lycopene (i.e. tomatoes, red peppers, etc..)
Green: Chlorophyll (dark green vegetables)
Yellow: ?? (yellow peppers etc.)
Plus, an immense number of other phytochemical antioxidants, such as:
quercetin (mainly in citrus & spinach)
dihydroquercetin (rare)
(also other bioflavonoids under the skin of citrus fruits)
So, a diet high in raw fruits & veggies, along with some antioxidant supplements, will do wonders for preventing damage from too much apnea. Making yourself a liter of fresh grapefruit juice, or spinach juice, or any fruit/veggie juice will contain TONS of antioxidants, but you must drink it immediately after you make it. Store bought fruit/veggie juices have very little antioxidant power left in them.
Eating lots of cooked, processed or junk food also produces oxidative stress, so you might want to minimize these during hard training, or all your antioxidants will just be used up in neutralizing damage from your diet (and/or environment, pollution, etc.)
Only a few years ago I couldn't do hard apnea without noticing side effects of slowed thinking. Now, with a full antioxidant load and a modified diet, I can have several sambas per day without noticeable side effects, although that still doesn't mean that no damage is occurring, and I don't recommend sambas.
Eric Fattah"
I’ll agree 100% with Eric about store bought juices and I’ll go a step further and say that unless you’re eating a diet of organic fruits and veggies, you need to be supplementing, especially if you train hard or dive often. Add in the stress factors in most of our lifestyles and supplements aren’t an option, they are a necessity in my opinion. My wife and I take some of the best supplements available and I can safely say I do notice a difference, they aren’t cheap but at the end of the day, without my health, I haven’t got anything.
Ash