Abstract
It is now more than half a century since the hypothesis caught the scientific and public imagination that the toxicity of free radicals and reactive oxygen species was a major underlying factor in human aging. 1 The correlate of this idea was that treatment with antioxidants would improve health and prevent aging. Despite thousands of research studies (and according to the PubMed.gov internet database more than 85 000 articles on oxidative stress and nearly 350 000 articles on antioxidants), there is still uncertainty about the benefits of antioxidant therapy. One of the prolific skeptics concerning antioxidant treatment is Randolph M. Howes, who summarized some of his thoughts in a recent article in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine. 2 Howes has now produced a catalog of his evidence suggesting that antioxidants are not only of no benefit in maintaining health and preventing disease but actually can be harmful to many important normal cellular functions. This treatise is actually divided into 2 books, with book 1 describing “antioxidant vitamin studies for the layman” and book 2 describing “antioxidant vitamin studies for the medical scientist.” The text raises a number of good points, but its unconventional style (multiple sentences in boldface type and numerous font size changes) will be off-putting to many readers. Nonetheless, this book is a treasure trove of references and summaries of material that will be important to anyone interested in understanding the unfulfilled promise of restoring health and preventing disease through antioxidant therapy.