Is there not a risk of consuming too many antioxidants?
Is there not a risk of too many antioxidants?
Yes, I am aware of research showing that high doses of vitamin C can reduce an athlete's training progress -- because reactive oxygen species and inflammation are part of the body's natural process of overcompensating for training demands. Overcompensation is how we get stronger and faster.
However, interestingly, that negative effect was not found for equivalent amounts of vitamin C activity when it came from food, in the research I read.
I seriously doubt a glaucoma patient can consume too many antioxidants in the form of berries. (You might need to watch the sugar, but that's different -- and the extracts don't present that problem.)
Glaucoma patients generally suffer from too much oxidative stress and too much low grade systemic inflammation. I am not aware of any evidence that a glaucoma patient could (or has) taken too many antioxidants from the perspective of their optic nerves. I'm not even sure we can take enough antioxidants as supplements to completely counter the excessive oxidative stress and low grade systemic inflammation of glaucoma -- but finding out would be a very interesting research study!
We do have some FitEyes members who are pretty serious athletes, so they may want to pick more of the natural antioxidants (like berry extracts) and fewer of the nutraceutical antioxidants -- if they prioritize athletic performance relatively higher and their glaucoma is not progressing, etc.
As someone who does value exercise and fitness, I especially like supplements like tart cherry extract -- and really, all the berries.
Coming back to your question again:
is there not a risk of too many antioxidants for glaucoma patients?
I would say "no" if those antioxidants are coming from foods, superfoods and truly natural supplements like full spectrum berry extracts.
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In fact, I would still say that it is not likely that a glaucoma patient could take too many antioxidants even if they use nutraceutical antioxidants. But I am not aware of any published research on this exact question.