Antioxidants: do we really need them?
In recent decades, a group of substances known as antioxidants has been widely studied. Their properties and mechanisms of action are of interest to chemists and biologists, doctors and pharmacists, as well as aesthetic medicine specialists. The main question is - are antioxidants beneficial? Or is this topic, again, nothing more than a marketing ploy?
The question of the appropriateness of the use and dosage of antioxidants is one of the most discussed topics among scientists and practitioners. There are also discussions around the advisability of taking antioxidant drugs: the arguments "against" are based primarily on the fact that our body is able to produce its own antioxidants, which normally work properly without outside help.
Antioxidants are oxidation inhibitors, natural or synthetic substances capable of inhibiting oxidation (considered mainly in the context of the oxidation of organic compounds).
The mechanism of action of the most common antioxidants is to break reaction chains: antioxidant molecules interact with active radicals to form inactive radicals. In this case, the rate of free radical formation decreases.
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