The topic of antioxidants is complex and the jury is right for a collective deep breath to consider our need for antioxidant supplementation to fight the constant onslaught of free radicals that lead to aging and disease.
Our cells are surviving in a hostile world! And if anyone should ever ask me, "Do you like aging?" I would emphatically say, "Hey, no!" I can assure you I am not as concerned with the number of years in life as I am the quality of life in those years.
Do you fear growing old? Have you accepted chronic disease or pain as a given in your future? Are you willing to make necessary life changes to ensure your health? I believe a full and abundant physical life does not need to start slipping away at age forty. Each year of your life can be your best. But first you must understand the war that is waging within every one of our bodies.
Who wants to live to a ripe old age if he or she cannot even recognize close family members because of Alzheimer's dementia? Who looks forward to a decade or two of suffering severe joint or back pain due to degenerative arthritis?
We all want to believe that antioxidant supplements are good for us. I have long been a believer, and maybe you have been, too. After all, we are long past the point of questioning whether vegetables and fruits are good for us - we accept that they are on the basis of remarkably consistent research results accumulated over decades that show how eating a variety of brightly colored produce on a daily basis helps reduce the risk for chronic illness such as heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. Our confidence in this concept is unshakable, even today. We are as confident as our next breath. We all understand the importance of oxygen.
Oxygen is essential for life itself. But did you know it is also inherently dangerous to our existence? I call this the "dark side" of oxygen. And as a result, we are essentially rusting both inside and out. The same process that causes a cut apple to turn brown or iron to rust is the cause of all the chronic degenerative diseases we fear and even the aging process itself.
Free Radical
If this free radical is not readily neutralized by an antioxidant it can go on to create more volatile free radicals, damage the cell wall, vessel wall, proteins, fats, and even the DNA nucleus of our cells. Chemically this reaction has been shown to be so volatile that it actually causes bursts of light within our bodies!
Imagine yourself in front of a crackling fireplace and I'll give you the best illustration I have to explain the process of oxidation. The fire burns safely and beautifully most of the time, but on occasion out pops a hot cinder that lands on your carpet and burns a little hole in it. One cinder by itself doesn't pose much of a threat; but if this sparking and popping continues month after month, year after year, you will have a pretty "ratty" carpet in front of your fireplace.
The fireplace represents the furnace of the cell (the mitochondria), the cinder is the charged "free radical," and the carpet is your body. Whichever part of your body receives the most free radical damage will be the first to wear out and potentially cause one of these degenerative diseases. If it's your arteries, you could develop a heart attack or stroke. If it is your brain, you could develop Alzheimer's dementia or Parkinson's disease. If it's your joints, you could develop arthritis.
Through biochemical research we're learning that we are not defenseless against this attack on our body by free radicals. Antioxidants are like the glass doors or fine-wire mesh we place in front of our fireplace. The sparks are still going to fly but our carpet will then be protected. As you begin to imagine the war that is taking place within every cell in your body, you can envision the two opposing forces: the enemy-free radicals; and your allies-antioxidants and their supporting nutrients.
As the body uses oxygen to create energy, by-products from most of the body's activity-such as breathing, exercising, eating- causes oxidative damage to the cells of the body (just like the oxygen makes iron to rust).
A free radical is an oxygen molecule that has at least one unpaired electron in its outer orbit. When it is unbalanced (lacking paired electron) it literally goes mad and tries to steal an electron from neighboring cells.
Free radical damage is associated with an increased risk of many chronic diseases. Also there are many things that increase the number of free radicals you produce.
- excessive stress
- excessive exercise
- exercise sunlight
- radiation
- medication
- pollutants in air
- food and water
You must have enough antioxidants available to readily neutralize the number of free radicals your body produces. If you don't, "oxidative stress" will occur. When this oxidative stress is allowed to persist over a prolonged period of time, you will most likely develop a serious chronic degenerative disease.
Each of us must ask, "Am I getting enough antioxidants from my diet to protect myself from this onslaught of free radicals or do I need to be taking nutritional supplements?" This is the question that I've had to ask myself as I have spent countless hours researching medical literature.
A concern is when the umbrella term "antioxidants" is applied to a host of compounds that are not one in the same - they function in different capacities, and might enhance our health or even protect us from harm in some circumstances. However, in high doses they could paradoxically lead to harm in other situations. We need to better understand which situation is which.
Linear thinking is comforting. And to top it off, a large number of research trials suggest wide-ranging benefits from antioxidant supplementation. But more often than not, the human body does not behave in linear fashion and unintended consequences from what we assume to be healthy actions can occur. Personally, I would recommend staying away from high doses of antioxidants.
The antioxidants found in vegetables and fruit exist in naturally low concentrations alongside other nutrients that can also promote good health. Even those who do their best to follow a healthy diet could likely benefit from taking an indirect antioxidant as insurance against nutritional gaps in their diet. Others may need additional targeted supplementation based on their unique health circumstances, but the focus for most of us should be on dietary sources of antioxidants along with an all-natural dietary supplement made from organic herbs until we have clarity regarding safety.
Part of the reason that vegetables and fruits are believed to be so good for us, maybe even the primary reason, is that they contain important and all natural antioxidants. Our bodies need an adequate supply of antioxidants to limit the buildup of compounds called reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are normally produced as a byproduct of cellular energy production.
ROS also accumulates when we are exposed to toxins such as tobacco smoke and radiation. When an excess amount of ROS exists, there is said to be a state of oxidative stress, a condition linked to the development of numerous health problems. It only makes sense then that adding safe antioxidants to our systems should help lessen the chance for oxidative stress to occur and, by extension, help prevent illness.
Since balance is the key, we need to look closely at the individual players that are at war within. The number of free radicals you produce each and every day is never the same. All the pollutants in our air, food, and water dramatically increase the number of free radicals we produce. Enormous stress, excessive exercise, cigarette smoke, sunlight, radiation, and every drug prescribed greatly increase the number of free radicals produced in the body. In fact, there has never been a generation on this planet subjected to more oxidative stress than this present one. We are literally under attack from our polluted environment, stressful lifestyles, and over-medicated society.
This ongoing attack is depriving us of our most precious gift-our health. But science has not left us defenseless against this onslaught by free radicals. In fact, we actually have our own army of antioxidants, which are able to neutralize free radicals and render them harmless. In generations past, these defense systems were sufficient. Unfortunately this is no longer the case. Our bodies' defense systems need additional allies.
As I mentioned previously, most antioxidants come from vegetables and fruit. This creates a gap in our protection, because our foods have become significantly depleted in their content of antioxidants and supporting minerals as a result of mineral depletion in our soils, green harvesting, cold storage, foods that are highly processed, our poor food choices and food preparation.
At a time when we are under the heaviest attack from the environment around us, our natural defense systems are becoming overwhelmed and depleted. We must do all we can to rebuild our antioxidant systems with a healthy diet, but too you need to learn how complete and balanced nutritional supplementation with high quality supplements (cellular nutrition) is our best hope in winning this war within and protecting our health.
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