Antioxidants:
Can You Afford to be Without These Nutrients?

 

Oxygen, the element that sustains life, is the same element that ages, damages and destroys cells and ends life itself. Recent data has shown that antioxidants can protect against chronic degenerative diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis as well as promoting longevity.

Antioxidants consist of certain enzymes, vitamins and minerals that inhibit free radical ability. Free radicals are the short-lived chemical by-products of oxidation resulting from an unpaired electron in the molecular outer orbit. In excess they have been shown to peroxidize unsaturated fatty acids damage cell membranes and cause mutations by attacking the DNA. Cellular metabolism; however, is only one source of free radicals. Other factors include ionizing radiation, sunlight, tobacco smoke, alcohol, pesticides, insecticides, preservatives and other environmental pollutants.

Studies reveal that higher intakes or blood levels of antioxidants are directly related with reduced free radical damage to tissues and reduced incidence of disease.

Time Magazine’s April 6 cover page story "The Real Power of Vitamins" highlighted the potentiality of antioxidant nutrient supplementation. According to the article, supporters feel that one-day antioxidants will revolutionize health care. Articles such as this reveal a raised awareness in both the public and scientific communities regarding the benefits of nutritional supplements. Although encouraging, the industry still has a long climb before it can surmount the governmental and clinical opposition.

Despite worldwide research suggesting higher dosages of vitamins, the FDA is proposing to drastically reduce the RDA’s for many vitamins-A,E and C by 10-80 percent according to the Time article.

Vitamins—Scavenging Free Radicals
Vitamins, specifically vitamin C, beta-carotene and vitamin E, have various ways of halting or preventing free radical damage.

Water-based vitamin C neutralizes free radicals in the aqueous compartments of the cells and in the blood. Several experimental, clinical and population studies have shown that an increase in vitamin C intake reduced cancer rates, boosted immunity, protected against pollution and cigarette smoke and increased life expectancy.

Beta-carotene, precursor of vitamin A, has been shown to be the most potent quencher of singlet oxygen, particularly noxious form of free radical.

In the sixth year of the 10-year Physician’s Health Study being administered by the Harvard Medical School, the study has found a link between beta-carotene and heart disease. Of the 22,000 male physicians involved, a sub group of 333 men with a history of cardiovascular disease who were administered 50 milligrams of beta carotene every other day suffered half as many cardiovascular problems than those taking the placebo.

Another study underway, the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study in Finland involving 30,000 male smokers is expected to substantiate the claim that beta-carotene and possibly vitamin E protect against lung and perhaps other types of cancer.

Fat-soluble vitamin E protects the cell membranes from the peroxidative chain reaction of lipids as well as functioning as an immune booster. It has been administered to patients who have undergone coronary-bypass surgery and it appeared to speed recovery reported the Time article.

Vitamins have the ability to either work independently or in tandem with antioxidant enzymes. Enzymes, for the most part, inactive free radicals by employing them to produce safer chemical reactions or by catalyzing the reactions that lead to their deactivation.

Vitamin E assists the enzyme superoxide dismutase by scavenging free radicals before they reach polyunsaturated fats and cause peroxidation. Other primary antioxidant enzymes include glutathione peroxidase, methione reductase and catalase.

Supplementation is Key
"It may be true you can get the RDAs if you can improve your diet, but if you believe pharmacologic levels of vitamins can protect against disease, you’re talking about supplements." Said William Pryor, a biochemist at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge in January’s Consumer Reports.

Furthermore, data from the Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey shows nearly 91 percent of the American public does not meet the daily USDA/DHHS fruit and vegetables guidelines of two or more fruits and three or more vegetables. In fact, 45 percent ate no vegetables or fruits at all.

In light of the ongoing research, antioxidant supplementation offers considerable promise for prevention of degenerative diseases and the aging process. Can you afford to be without these nutrients?

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