Free Radicals and Antioxidants: 17 Ways to Optimal Health

When you heat the the oil, it becomes rancid. When you cut the apple in half and leave it out for a while it goes brown. Free radicals can do a similar thing inside our bodies.

Free radicals can damage DNA, alter biochemical compounds and destroy cells and cell membranes. And  they play a major role in the ageing process as well as other diseases such as heart disease, stroke, arthritis and other allergic reactions.

There are four primary sources of free radicals

– the environment  – air pollution, cigarette smoking, pesticides, exhaust, toxic waste, herbicides, UV light, radiations, drugs and certain foods

– Internal Production – free radicals are produced as a byproduct of normal metabolic functions.

– Stress factors – ageing, trauma, medications, diseases, any stress physically or emotionally

– Chain reactions – When a free radical steals an electron to balance itself, it creates a new free radical, which will seek another electron  to balance it out – and so on

Your body is constantly repairing and replacing  free radical damaged cells. but with how we live and the environment that we live in, our bodies are faced with more damages than they could handle.

That is when antioxidants come in.

the antioxidants scan come from

– several metabolic enzymes produced by our bodies

– from the food we eat

Because of the facts that the ability to produce free radical fighting enzymes decreases dramatically in our late twenties we need to be specially conscious to include more antioxidants from the foods.

it is essential to obtain many different oxidants because the way they work as specialists. Most of them work on certain parts of the bodies. For maximum protection it is vital that you get an antioxidant complex for an individual need.

These are some of the main and well known antioxidants

Beta carotene

alpha carotene

billberry

lycopene

selenium

vitamin E

vitamin C

quercetin

alpha lipoid acid (ALA)

SOD (superoxide dismutase)

tocotrienols

grape seed extract

catalase

many berries, raisins, prunes and green vegetables such as broccoli, brusslels sprouts, kale are very high in antioxidants.