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Health benefits of antioxidantsWhy are antioxidants the baby-boomers’ favourites??!! This section provides a simple explanation of the health benefits of antioxidants - they're for all of us, by the way! Why “baby-boomers” favourites? Well, these substances have a reputation for being anti-aging nutritional supplements. They do this by mopping up free-radicals … but maybe it’s time to just shout “Whoa!” … slow down, and go back to the beginning. “Antioxidant”? “Free radical”? (Isn't that a politician just out of prison …) What have these things got to do with maintaining good health and fighting the effects of aging? Aging, antioxidants and healthIn general, the likelihood of developing illness increases with age. So in our quest to understand how to remainremain healthy longer, it's going to be important to understand the aging process.Briefly, it used to be thought that aging was programmed into us in some way. It now appears that we age due to the accumulation of damage to cells and cell processes with time. One of the main culprits is oxidation, or oxidative damage. So nutritional supplements that protect us from oxidation (so-called antioxidants) will - in some mesaure - protect us fromthe effects of aging. Incidentally, this isn't some hare-brained idea thought up by practitioners of alternative medicine or manufacturers of nutrients. One of the leading lights of this approach to aging is Professor Tom Kirkwood, currently Professor of Medicine the the School of Clinical Medical Sciences at Newcastle University. A brief biography of Professor Kirkwood is available here. What is oxidation?Let’s think about oxidation first. You may remember this from science lessons.When iron goes rusty, some oxygen from the air combines with the metal to form a coating of iron oxide. That’s a common example of oxidation. You can see the change in the form of the iron to iron oxide as “damage” to the iron. It's changed its characteristics. Iron oxide doesn't do the same things as metallic iron. It has become soft and brittle. So a rusty side panel in your car does't give you the same protection as it originally did. Rust eats away at the strength of the metal. A similar type of reaction occurs in the cells and tissues of the body. If oxidation occurs in cells, damage results. The biochemistry, cells and tissues of our bodies naturally have well-developed protection against oxidation. Many of the chemical reactions that life itself depends on – all of which take place within the cells of our body – are defended from the damage caused by oxidation. But this protection can be weakened if it has too much work to do. That happens if we consume too many oxidising agents and too few antioxidants.
Oxidative StressYou'll want to find out about "Oxidative Stress." This phrase is used to describe all the things that make oxidative damage more likely. So doing less of them decreases the impact of stress on your body. Find out what increases oxidative stress here.
Free radicalsFree radicals are chemical substances that cause oxidation of cell structures ... and therfore damage them.They interfere with the chemical processes that life and healing depend on. These are unstable molecules that are highly reactive … that “high reactivity” is the source of harm. These molecules are trying to reach a more stable state. To do so, they give up a negative charge (electron) to another substance or molecule in the cell. These “oxidised” molecules cannot function properly. We're going to take a brief journey into cell chemistry - stay with it!
Free radicals, cell damage, aging and diseaseResearch has shown that people with high levels of damage from oxidation also have high levels of disease. Some diseases are very likely to be associated with particular kinds of damage.For example disease of the heart and blood vessels (for example, the formation of fatty deposits inside the blood vessels) occurs after a long chain of events. But that chain starts with oxidative damage of a particular sort. Damage takes many forms. This includes damage to the genetic material in the cells. Damage to this could cause harmful cancer-causing changes to cell DNA (called mutations). Death of cells themselves is another possible outcome of oxidative damage. It also includes damage to the “chemistry” – meaning all the chemical reactions occurring in cells - that life depends on. Those biochemical processes we rely on do not work as well in the presence of free radicals. All cells naturally contain antioxidants whose presence provides protection from these changes. Health benefits of antioxidantsIn order to be adequately protected from the damage caused by free radicals, there must be sufficient quantities of antioxidants present in the cells.These substances “mop-up” the negative charges, preventing them from damaging cell structures and cell chemistry. Antioxidants help to protect us in the following ways: If you would like to read a report of recent research into the cholesterol-reducing properties of noni, click here. Antioxidants of all types seem to offer us the opportunity to manage the aging process, to some extent. That's why we baby-boomers like them! We like the protection they offer our children and grandchildren, too. Return from this "Health Benefits of Antioxidants" page to the Home Page
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