Doctors question claims by Life-Plus. (Phoenix, Arizona doctors)

Life-Plus boasts its antioxidant, now being sold in the Valley, will fight ailments from Azheimer's to arthritic and headache pains, but some local doctors reject those claims.

The Batesville, Ark.-based company is marketing an antioxidant called pycnogenols, which Life-Plus literature calls "free-radical scavengers that are key elements in the defense system which the body uses in order to neutralize the activity of these dangerous and, over the long term, deadly, free-radical enemies."

The idea is that uncontrolled free-radical activity in the body is directly associated with a number of health problems.

Life-Plus says these pycnogenols are 50 times more powerful than Vitamin E and at least 20 times stronger than Vitamin C.

Antioxidents are a nutritional supplement that boosts …