Antioxidants: How They Benefit Your Health
Antioxidants have many beneficial effects on the body. Antioxidants have anti-aging and skin clearing properties. In addition, antioxidants have been found to prevent cancer as well as repair cells that have been damaged by cancer. It is recommended that eating foods that have high content of antioxidants can help you reap many of the health benefits of antioxidants.
The Real Fountain of Youth
Over the centuries, man has been in search of the fountain of youth, because let’s admit it…no one wants to get old. Thanks to recent studies, it has been found that antioxidants may just be our ticket to looking young. It has been proven scientifically that antioxidants have properties that can preserve youth. Imagine being 50 years old with nary a wrinkle! And all because you made sure to eat the right amounts of antioxidant-rich foods to help you maintain a fresher and younger looking skin.
The Natural Way to Glowing Skin
Do you have acne-prone skin? Is your skin too dry or too scaly? Is your skin blotchy? Do you have that sickly looking pallor? Try to regularly eat foods that are high in antioxidants and you will see for yourself all the positive effects antioxidants have on your skin. Your complexion will clear and you will have naturally glowing skin…the kind of glow that no cream or medication can give you! Foods rich in antioxidants include berries, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes and wholemeal breads.
Antioxidants are the enemies of free radicals, which are agents that damage cells. Thus, when you consume antioxidant-rich foods, you increase the levels of antioxidants in your body, which in turn act to greatly reduce cellular damage in your body. The benefit shows through on your skin — your skin will be more supple, younger looking and have a natural glow.
The Cancer Fighter
Many tests and studies are ongoing to determine the effects that antioxidants have on cancer cells. It is known that antioxidants can fight free radicals, agents that damage cells and can cause cancer. By consuming foods rich in antioxidants, you are reducing the free radicals or the cancer-causing cells in your body. This greatly reduces your risk of developing cancer.
The health benefits of antioxidants to your body are many; there is practically no logical reason for you not to begin eating foods that are rich in antioxidants. So try eating at least one antioxidant-rich food a day. Make this a habit and you will reap the rewards soon!
What are Antioxidants? How to Add Antioxidants to Your Diet!
When our bodies use oxygen, the cells produce free radicals that cause damage to the body’s cellular make-up. Antioxidants are attracted to free radicals and basically will neutralize them.
Many of today’s health problems such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, macular degeneration and others, can be directly attributed to oxidative damage caused by free radicals ravaging the body. This is not only a theory, the role the antioxidants plays in neutralizing free radicals is well documented in medical journals as far back as the 1950s.
When we are young, the body seems to be blessed and can generally maintain at peek efficiency. By the time we reach the age of twenty five, the disease of aging begins. As the aging process slowly progresses, our bodies begin to need more assistance to stay in shape. We don’t feel this aging process actually happening because this actually begins happening at the cellular level of our bodies. In time, the muscle tissue gets less substantial, the bones start becoming more brittle and our immune system is compromised.
When our immune system becomes compromised, we are more prone to infection and disease. Why do our bodies begin breaking down at the cellular level? The main culprit is free radicals. Without enough antioxidants in our bodies to counter the free radicals, they slowly create the oxidative damage that leaves us open to the opportunistic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and many others.
A little more than fifty years ago, scientists found that heart disease, cancer, strokes, diabetes, cataracts, arthritis and many neuro-degenerative diseases were linked to the destruction caused by free radicals.
Free radicals are formed when weak bonds within a molecule split. These free radicals are highly unstable that attack and capture the closest molecule electron. After this happens, that molecule having lost it’s electron, turns into a free radical and the whole process keeps recycling as a chain reaction. Left unchecked, free radicals create molecular chains that breakdown the bodies ability to regenerate properly. Because antioxidants neutralize the free radicals, keeping enough antioxidants active within the body is paramount.
Antioxidants can naturally be found in many varieties of food sources. There are over 4,000 compounds in foods that have antioxidants. Some of the food rich sources are kidney and pinto beans, blueberries, cranberries, artichoke, blackberries, raspberries, prunes, strawberries, apples, pecans, sweet cherries, plums, russet potatoes and many more.
Also, vitamin A, C and E, the mineral selenium and betacarotene are rich in antioxidants. The non-nutrient antioxidants that come from pytochemicals, lycopenes in tomatoes, athocyanins in cranberries that are believed to have greater effects at fighting free radicals than either vitamins or minerals. Many supplemental vitamins can be purchased through the health and wellness industry.
Many of the experts in health and nutrition all agree that as we get older, we need more antioxidant rich foods in our daily diets to fight off the free radicals from compromising our body and immune system. It is also widely believed that certain antioxidants also aid in slowly down the aging process. Could it be that free radicals play an important role in the aging process itself?
Although nutritionists in the health field have been acknowledging the benefits of antioxidants for several decades, it has only been recently that the medical field has discovered scientific evidence that backs up the role that antioxidants do play in our health.
Today, many medical scientists worldwide are finding strong evidence that antioxidants to play a very large role in the anti-aging process. Many of the degenerative effects of aging can be countered by a combination of nutrients. One of those key nutrients found to be most effective in combating the disease of aging itself is antioxidants.
How much antioxidants do we need in our diet? How much is a recommended daily allowance? To date there is no medical agency within the U.S. that has a set guideline concerning antioxidants in our diet. A few agencies generically recommend 5 servings a day of fruit and vegetables that are rich in antioxidants.
How much is too much? Again, no one medical agency seems to have a figure on this. You could say the jury is still out. Although the medical field agrees on the role that antioxidants play in maintaining our healthy bodies, they do not necessarily agree on how much we should need.
There are some within the health and wellness field that believe we need a lot more antioxidants in our bodies than just consuming from natural sources. There are many nutritional, supplemental vitamins on the market today that provide the healthy antioxidants our body needs to effectively fight off free radicals.
Ron Godlewski has written many articles on health, wellness, and maintaining vitality throughout our lifetime. Read more about the importance of nutrition and the many benefits of vitamins in our daily diets in the article library at the Health and Nutrition Articles Library, and even receive your own complementary copy of a nationally recognized health and nutrition magazine for just visiting!
Antioxidants for Anti Aging
Antioxidants are chemicals that counterbalance external and internal factors such as pollution, sun burn, metabolism problems and the like. Antioxidants help out in repairing the skin and are an effective anti aging skincare.
How does an antioxidant work as an anti aging skin care? Antioxidants slow down the oxidation process which results to the production of free radicals. Free radicals are substances that could damage the body cells, and the skin cells. Therefore free radicals, results in aging. Antioxidants fight aging through the regeneration of cells and inhibition of oxidation in the body. Since they will be the ones oxidized, the skin won’t be exposed to further damage by free radicals. In this way, aging is being slowed down making a person look as young as before.
Examples of antioxidants are reducing agents such as thiols and polyphenols. Foods rich in Vitamins A, C, and E are great source of antioxidant supplements for the body. Phytonutrient carotenoid is another major source of antioxidant supplements. Numerous antioxidants products have been released in the market to aid in anti aging skincare and there are more to come.
Antioxidants not only promote good skin but also a healthy life. The benefits of antioxidants includes the strengthening of the immune system, lowering the risks of cancer, preventing diseases like glaucoma, reducing the risks of heart attacks and strokes and of course, anti aging.
With the discovery of the benefits of antioxidants, has lead to a lot of products released today that offers great deal of antioxidants and anti aging in people. Since antioxidants are mainly found in fruits and vegetables, antioxidant products are mainly comprised of such. Some the examples of these products includes glutathione, ALA, Deva Nutrition, softgels.
Antioxidants are good for the body it helps you achieve fair skin and great health. You can still get your antioxidant supplements from eating plenty of fruits and foods rich in beta carotene and nutrients if you do not wish to spend money buying antioxidants products.
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12 Critical Facts About Antioxidants
We hear a lot today about antioxidants, “free radicals” and what we can do about them. There is much confusion, so it may help to break down the key facts about these important, potentially life-saving and life-extending substances.
1. Oxygen is good and bad. In the human system, this basic element is both a help and a hindrance. Without it, no life. And yet, oxygen can work to break down other substances in the body as it is metabolized, creating what are called “free radicals” that displace electrons from other molecular structures. This is extremely damaging.
2. Oxidation is the name for this damage. An antioxidant, therefore, is anything that works to stop or retard this damaging breakdown by adding back an electron to the free radical and rendering it harmless.
3. We have natural antioxidants. Our bodies can fight this battle naturally, to an extent. Common nutrients such as beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C and selenium have been found to have antioxidant properties.
4. There are serious repercussions. The body actually does need some free radicals to function effectively, but an excessive amount is correlated with such diseases as heart and liver disease, as well as cancer.
5. Environmental factors affect you. Oxidation is exacerbated by stress, tobacco, drinking alcohol, excess exposure to the sun, air and water pollution, and other environmental and behavioral factors. There are things you can do in your lifestyle beyond taken antioxidant supplements to combat this scourge.
6. Antioxidants can be preventive. They work by reducing the number and effect of free radicals may even work to inhibit the spread of cancerous cells. For one example, they are thought to help prevent the beginnings of heart disease due to oxidation. By limiting the number of unstable, electron-deprived molecules, antioxidants can prevent the free-radical “chain reaction” from starting in the first place, in various places and organs in the body.
7. Antioxidants can be curative. We already have evidence that antioxidants can help ameliorate both symptoms and side effects of many diseases that proliferate because of oxidation in our bodies. It is also clear that antioxidants are effective in the treatment of chronic inflammation, and other applications are being discovered all the time.
8. The body’s natural antioxidant mechanisms can be supported by supplementation. Our bodies already circulate many nutrients precisely because of their antioxidant properties. They also create antioxidant enzymes expressly for the purpose of controlling free radicals and the damaging chain reactions. Our systems will utilize any other antioxidant substances in these same processes.
9. Mom was right: Take your vitamins. Vitamin E has been shown to suppress the “stickiness” of blood platelets and acts as an anticoagulant to decrease the formation of heart-attack-inducing blood clots. Vitamin C helps in this as well, by inhibiting a blood factor that is used to build clots.
10. Cancer is the next frontier. Antioxidants may have an important role in the fight against cancer through their ability to neutralize the DNA-damaging free radicals. A huge amount of research is being done in this area right now, all around the world. The good news is that the therapies developed from natural substances will not be limited by the need for a physician’s prescription.
11. Antioxidants are good for the brain, too. Because they prevent injury to blood vessel membranes, antioxidants can help to stabilize and even increase blood flow to the brain and the heart. The additional defense they offer against the DNA damage that is at the root of many cancers also helps lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and even Alzheimer’s disease.
12. The science is evidence-based, not anecdotal. One of the most important things to remember is that reporting on antioxidants is done by some publications and websites that are also touting crystal power and other spurious cures. The fact is that antioxidant research is being done by real scientists in real labs, in both private enterprise and at leading universities and teaching hospitals.
Information on antioxidants and the ongoing research into their applications can fill a good-sized library, and more is being learned all the time. Your best bet is to stick with the news that is being reported by responsible, mainstream journalists, notwithstanding the occasional media bias against treatments that are portrayed as being “alternative” or “complementary.”
Read broadly, think clearly, ask questions of your doctor and always look for the original sources for any claims about the power of antioxidants. There are many reasons for hope, and the role of antioxidants in fighting both disease and the cell degradation that we call “again” is just starting to become clear. The next several years should see some amazing applications for antioxidant therapy, so stay tuned.
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The Importance of Antioxidants in Skin Care Products
Antioxidants fight the free radicals that harm the cells, causing damage and premature aging. In other words, antioxidants skin care products help in preventing future damages and repairing past damages in the cells.
Antioxidants used to be found only in food, oral intake used to be the only way we get to use these. After people recognized the ability of antioxidants, they were combined with skin care products and they became part of how we take good care of our skin. Antioxidant skin care made it possible to counter the free radicals our skin may suffer from. Wrinkles and fine lines can be minimized with the use of antioxidants skin care products.
Skin care focuses in maintaining healthy, youthful dermis, preventing premature aging, reducing the appearance of lines and wrinkles, and keeping proper moisture. With the large number of products available, it is hard to know which ones have the ingredients that can harm the skin.
Vitamins E, A, and C, zinc and selenium are just some of the nutrients found in the properties of antioxidants. The use of antioxidant skin care products will help the body get the nutrients it needs, excluding the conventional way, which is to eat foods rich in antioxidants. All of these are important in keeping a healthy skin. Antioxidant skin care helps in achieving a youthful skin, and maintaining it.
While antioxidants are available in many foods, it is not like we get to obtain and use as much as we can and want. Using antioxidants skin care products make antioxidants available and within reach almost anytime.
Antioxidants also assist in the production of collagen and elastin. As one ages, the production of these two weakens. Collagen keeps the skin firm. Elastin adds and maintains elasticity. In other words, it helps prevent wrinkles and fine lines. It also adds resistance that helps prevent the skin from sagging.
A lot of products have indeed come out. It is best to know which ones are the most beneficial. Antioxidant skin care is approved and recommended because of the abilities antioxidants have. Being able to fight free radicals and being able to apply them topically was an advantage that was brought by this breakthrough.
While there are already antioxidants skin care products our in the market, companies are still trying to come up with the best blend of antioxidants. After all, the stronger the antioxidants are, better care and protection can be provided to the skin. These blends need to be proven as beneficial, that is why companies are taking their time in producing formulas. From the initial target of skin care, which is to help skin retain moisture and keep it firm, the goal has been moved up after realizing that antioxidants can minimize wrinkles and lines, and can even make you skin resistant to damages.
Its not like every other product is not safe, however, antioxidants skin care products are much safer and more beneficial in many ways. Nowadays, knowing what is good for you and your skin is a must. These products are proven effective, and at the same time less harmful. The only danger with these products is the possibility of incorrect usage. Check the instructions carefully, follow them, and if these are not enough, ask a professional for some assistance.
Christy S endorses Lim Cher Sern who is a natural skin care researcher with more than 7 years of experience in natural skin care products. Please visit http://www.BeautySkinCareCream.com for more free information on how to choose the best skin care products.
Antioxidants: Combating Aging and Disease
Wouldn’t we all like to age gracefully (if at all for that matter!) and ward off the wrinkly signs and ill symptoms for as long as possible. Keys to longevity may be more accessible than we think, and it appears our diets play a critical role. Antioxidants are the knights in shining armor that subjugate the attack of free radicals in the body, the hazardous molecules that damage cells and procure aging and disease. Though antioxidants are produced naturally in the body, these decline with age, hence an increasing need to acquire them from the foods in our diet.
Before examining antioxidants more closely, it is important to take a look at the free radicals they serve to neutralize.
Free Radicals
Free radicals are created as by-products in our use of oxygen during metabolism such as the burning of food for energy. They are essentially oxidant molecules that are missing an electron and seek to restore themselves by targeting nearby cells in an attempt to recover this electron, potentially harming enzymes, DNA, proteins and cell membranes in the process. This damage can mutate cells and alter cell function, increasing the risk of numerous diseases and chronic conditions including arthritis, diabetes, cataracts, cancer, heart disease and stroke. Free radical damage is implicated in the onset of aging and its degenerative symptoms and diseases.
As well as generated within the body, free radicals come from environmental sources such as pollution, radiation, unhealthy foods, bacteria, viruses, cigarette smoke and UV light.
Antioxidants
Antioxidants serve to mitigate the harmful effect of free radicals by giving up an electron and stabilizing them in the process. Although we produce many of our own antioxidants within the body, food provides an essential source for these key players of our defense system. Vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients all have antioxidant properties. The most common examples include vitamins A, C and E, selenium and zinc, carotenoids, flavonoids, co-enzyme Q10, alpha-lipoic acid and glutathione.
As there are many different types of free radicals in the body a variety of antioxidants are required to protect against them. Antioxidants function best as a team, with each other and other nutrients and phytochemicals, which is why incorporating a wide range of plant foods into your diet is recommended. Phytochemical groups such as flavonoids and carotenoids correspond to the colour, taste and smell attributes of plants, hence eating a rainbow array of vegetables and fruits can offer a diverse selection of these potent antioxidants.
Antioxidant Rich Foods
Foods especially high in antioxidants include berries, plums, pomegranates, oranges, spinach, green tea, avocado, kale, broccoli, peas, onions, grapes and pure chocolate.
Scientists at the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) have developed a rating scale that measures the total antioxidant capacity of a given food. This is known as the ORAC score (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity).
Of 40 common fruits and vegetables measured by the USDA, top ranking scores were those of prunes(5770), raisins (2830), blueberries (2400 – highest of all fresh foods with other berries close behind), kale (1770), spinach (1260), Brussels sprouts (980), plums (949), alfalfa sprouts (930), broccoli florets (890), beetroots (840), oranges (750 ), red peppers (710 ) and red grapes (739).
Pure cocoa surpasses all these foods with a whopping score of 26,00 units, more than 10 times the prestigious blueberry (though one is likely to eat far less in quantity). The extraordinary goji berry from Tibet also has outstanding antioxidant capacity with a score of 18,500 units; hardly surprising as they contain 500 times more vitamin C than oranges and even more beta-carotene than carrots!
According to studies on animals and human blood at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts in Boston, high-ORAC foods may slow aging processes in the body and brain. Results found that high ORAC foods such as blueberries and spinach could increase the antioxidant power of human blood by 10-25%, prevent loss of long-term memory and learning ability in middle-aged rats, and protect rat blood vessels against oxygen damage.
Antioxidants and Aging
As we age, free radical levels rise and yet the body falls short in producing necessary amounts of antioxidants to meet this challenge. For example, cells generate more of the oxidants hydrogen peroxide and superoxide, yet levels of the necessary antioxidant glutathione required to neutralise these decline. The Free Radical Theory of Aging, first proposed by Harman in 1954, is supported by cross-species examination of animals with regard to life span, free radical damage and antioxidant defence. For example, the white-footed mouse lives about twice as long as the house mouse (8 versus 4 years), and is found to generate less oxidants and have higher levels of antioxidants. As Beckman and Ames write in The Free Radical Theory of Ageing Matures (1998), ‘Together, interspecies comparisons of oxidative damage, antioxidant defences, and oxidant generation provide some of the most compelling evidence that oxidants are one of the most significant determinants of life span.’
Very recent evidence comes from a study on dogs at the University of Toronto by Dr. Dwight Tapp and colleagues who found that ‘old dogs that were on an antioxidant diet performed better on a variety of cognitive tests than dogs that were not on the diet. In fact, the dogs eating antioxidant-fortified foods performed as well as young animals’.
Additional research by Dr. Rabinovitch and his team, studying aging at the University of Washington, Seattle, found that mice engineered to produce high levels of an antioxidant enzyme (catalase) lived 20 per cent longer and had less heart and other age-related diseases than controls.
In light of the role free radicals play in the onset of aging and disease, it is important to ensure our diets include a rich and diverse supply of antioxidants. These protective agents can be found abundantly in vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds and are particularly high in superfoods.
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