The Importance of Aging Properties of Antioxidants
The aging or more correctly termed anti-aging properties of antioxidants vary greatly and work in different ways within the body. Antioxidants can slow the progression of aging which shows up as “oxidative stress”, a number of neurodegenerative diseases, and so forth. Aging may be something we see in a person or do not see as it takes place inside the body on a cellular level. Good examples would be the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, heart disease, cancer and more.
Oxidative stress works like this: Your body’s cells are composed of molecule containing protons and electrons. A healthy cell will have a proton surrounded by electrons, which are in pairs. When oxidation of a cell occurs, the oxidation strips the cell of 1 of the electrons from a pair, thus damaging the cell and keeping it from functioning properly, for example communicating important information to other cells, passing on and sharing of important nutrients and so forth.
Antioxidants help to fight free radical damage or oxidation of cells in the body, thus, their importance. Foods high in antioxidant capability would be blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, grapes, plums, dates and prunes. there are more. The deeper color red and purple fruits seem to have the highest antioxidant factor.
I would be remiss not to mention Mangosteen and Acai, both high in antioxidants. Vitamin E has shown to be a key antioxidant for the brain.
Especially in our modern society, many of us don’t consume enough of these foods regularly in our diets. Our world today is filled with more and more pollutants, and stress. We eat too much processed foods as a convenience, loaded with chemicals and stripped of nutrients. Soils in which we grow our foods become more depleted and loaded with more chemicals, and water supplies deteriorate. all sources of oxidation and free radical damage. I recently read a study that stated the next generation is not expected to live as long, due to the aforementioned.
My advice is to eat as much of the above foods as possible and make use of good high quality supplements from reputable companies. I have a doctor friend (Certified Doctor of Chinese Medicine or DOM) who offers an inexpensive in home lab test that will tell you, quite accurately the amount of free radical damage, I’ve used it myself .
The aging properties of antioxidants have never had more significance than today, please make use of them as often as possible!
