By James Barber M.D.
We have all seen anti-oxidants on the news, on the labels of foods and vitamins,
and on charts at our doctor's office. With so much exposure, it would be assumed
that everyone would have a pretty good understanding of what it is that anti-oxidants
do. That, however, is not the case. The general populous takes anti-oxidants because
they are "good for you" and they are; but when we begin to understand how and why
they are "good", we can make them better.
To understand ant-oxidants we must first understand free radicals. Free radicals
are negatively charged oxygen ions created by the mitochondrion, the structure within
your cells that creates energy. Because of their negative charge, the free radicals
will spend their entire existence looking for another electron to balance themselves
out. During this quest, they will bombard every cell and organ in your body, doing
a tiny bit of damage. This tiny bit of damage is duplicated millions of times per
day, leading to serious problems. The accumulation of free radical damage to brain
cells can lead to such things as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. They wear upon muscle
cells, decreasing strength and causing atrophy. Meanwhile, their attacks on the
spleen deplete the immune system's ability to fight off all these other diseases.
Specifically, the free radicals damage our cells in four different ways:
1. They obstruct the transport of nutrients and food sources. This robs our bodies
of the things they need to function, and puts to waste much of the effort we spend
trying to maintain a healthy diet.
2. They damage the sites in the cell where our hormones dock to communicate. When
these sites are damaged, the hormone is unable to talk to the cell and initiate
the cell's function.
3. They permeate the sensitive membranes that surround our cells. This causes the
fat inside these cells to become rancid, releasing toxins into our bodies. This
process, called lipid peroxidation, leads to the clogging of our arteries and blood
vessels.
4. Once they have broken through the cell membrane, they begin to attack the lysosome.
This is a bag within each cell that contains lytic enzymes. When these enzymes are
released, they initiate the cell's death by digesting it.
The first step to reducing the free radical damage in our bodies is reducing the
number of free radicals we produce. This involves a series of lifestyle changes
that everyone needs to listen to and no one wants to hear about.
First, stop smoking. The gases you take in from smoke, including second hand smoke,
weaken the lining of your cells. This makes them much more susceptible to the attacks
of the free radicals. Smoking also diminishes the immune system, allowing other
diseases to move in.
Second, make smarter decisions in your diet. Age accelerating foods such as sausage,
red meat, and alcohol cause your cells to produce more free radicals than they typically
would. This is in addition to all of the other damage they do to your body. It is
also worthwhile to mention that the same food that accelerate the aging process
also accelerate the waistline, giving you an added incentive to cut back on them.
Next, relax and get some sleep. Worrying too much and sleeping too little weaken
your body, making each free radical attack a little more potent. This may be the
most difficult change for most of us to make, but the benefits are well worth the
effort.
While you make a reasonable effort to curb the amount of free radicals in your body,
you can start fighting the ones that will inevitably be produced. This is where
anti-oxidants come into play. Anti-oxidants donate an electron to the free radicals,
ending their search and all the damage that comes along with it.
By maintaining anti-aging levels of anti-oxidants, which are much higher than the
government's RDA's (Recommended Daily Amounts) that you see on "Nutritional Facts"
labels, you can make a very significant difference in the amount of free radical
damage your body sustains. The key is to understand how different anti-oxidants
work and take the proper amounts of each. Using a shotgun approach will end up wasting
your time and money without producing the best results.
To make developing a system easier, we will take a look at the most powerful anti-oxidants
and how they should be taken: