In his book The Antioxidant Revolution, Kenneth Cooper, MD emphasizes that excessive exercise is a major cause of oxidative stress.
He became very concerned when he began seeing several of his super exercisers who had been coming to his aerobic center in Dallas dying from heart disease and cancer at an early age.
When we exercise excessively, the production of free radicals goes off the graph, or in other words it increases exponentially.
Dr. Cooper started the exercise craze back in the early 70’s when he coined the term aerobics. He has never recommended excessive exercise to his patients; however, he had previously not discouraged it either. Now he believes it is potentially harmful to your health and should only be done by the serious, competitive athlete who is taking large amounts of antioxidants in supplementation.
Dr. Cooper informs his exercise patients they should be taking adequate levels of antioxidants in supplementation all the time. On the day that they exercise, he feels they should actually increase the amount of antioxidants they are taking.