Antioxidant Protection – Part 1

Antioxidants are a great way to protect your body against free radicals. OK, this is all well and good if you know what free radicals are, what they do and where to find antioxidant protection. So let’s start with free radicals.

Free radicals are highly reactive molecules in our bodies that can cause damage to our brains, neurological systems, and other tissues. They are a common by-product of normal reactions. Fortunately, our body has a couple of ways of deactivating these free radicals.

Free radical damage is caused when the free radical does damage to cells and kills them. Kill enough cells and you can kill the entire organism. Kill just enough cells and you can cause disease and illness. This cell damage is also linked to aging.

For instance, with increased sun exposure and constant tanning your skin will break down faster because of free radical damage. The same is true of smoking. Cigarette, pipe and cigar smoking will break down the skin faster causing you to appear older than you really are.

Antioxidant protection is one way your body can protect you against free radical damage. The good news is that antioxidants are found in abundance in nature and whole foods. The bad news is that most of us don’t eat whole foods, fruits and vegetables.

Older blood tests weren’t able to fully evaluate if our body’s were using antioxidant protection against free radicals. Scientists knew that antioxidants would protect against free radicals in the test tube but they appeared to disappear in the body. With more recent testing, researchers are able to find these in the plasma.

Resources:

Journal of American Academy of Dermatology: Cutaneous Photodamage, oxidative stress, and topical antioxidant protection

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12522365

National Cancer Insitute: Antioxidant and Cancer Prevention

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/prevention/antioxidants

Circulation: Antioxidant Protection of LDL by Physiological Concentrations of 17B-Estradiol

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/95/6/1378.full

ScienceDirect: Lipid Peroxidation, Antiosicant protection and Aging

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925443997000677

Chiro: Sustaining the Brain with Antioxidant Protection

http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/FULL/Sustaining_The_Brain.shtml

The Lancet: Antioxidant Protection