Is it Enough to Buy Antioxidants?
Many people who care about health spend a lot of time learning about antioxidants. They will also often buy antioxidant supplements too and they do it for one simple reason. They want the benefits that antioxidants can provide for their health. But the little wrinkle in that plan is that taking antioxidant supplements might not do everything they want.
Why Antioxidants are Important to Your Health
One most coins there are two sides – heads and tails. On the health coin, these opposing sides are made up of antioxidants on one side and on the other – free radicals. Think of them as electrons gone bad. To understand the role of one – lets look first at what free radicals do.
The body has a system of organs like your heart, lungs and liver which perform certain specific functions, every one of which is essential for your health. The organs are made up of living tissue and the tissue is made up of cells literally trillions of them. The cells are composed of molecules which are themselves composed of atoms which have neutrons, protons and electrons. The electrons of most atoms are in pairs and the paired structure is essential for them to remain stable. If, for some reason, an atom loses an electron (and it happens all the time) a free radical is formed. The atom will steal an electron from another atom. When this happens, a new atom- which is part of a molecule, in its turn, becomes unstable (a free radical) and is off to steal another electron from somewhere else.
This sets off a chain reaction that damages the structure of many molecules and will eventually damage the cell. When enough cells are damaged the tissue of the organ will begin to deteriorate.
An antioxidant is a molecule that is capable of donating an electron to stabilize a free radical. An antioxidant molecule however will not become a free radical itself because it will either remain stable with the missing electron or it will be too weak to steal an electron from another atom. The chain reaction is stopped. What’s important to understand – to get a feel for the scale- is that according to a well known scientist who studies antioxidants – his name is Bruce Ames – a cell in your body will be hit up to 10,000 times in a single day by free radicals. And there are trillions of cells in our bodies.
Does free radical damage really pose a serious risk to your health? You bet it does! Here’s a partial list of some of the conditions that are brought about at least in part, by the damage caused by free radicals – Alzheimer’s, some types of Canada, rheumatoid arthritis and other acute and chronic inflammatory conditions, Parkinson’s and type II diabetes. There are more, too.
If you want to reduce your own production of free radicals and get more antioxidants into your body to help clean up the mess they cause, deciding to buy antioxidants supplements isnt enough. You need to:
1- Clean up your act. It’s hard to correct the damage when you’re still causing it so this would be a good time to reduce the creation of free radicals and there are many things you can do to help. Some things to avoid would be smoking and second hand smoke, air and water pollution, junk food and an absence of good foods, substance abuse and even too much exercise.
2- Eat Better. Naturally, if you don’t have a healthy diet – you won’t be healthy. Fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and legumes. Honestly, the list of antioxidant rich foods is very long and you’re bound to find something you’ll love.
3- Research the best quality antioxidant supplements you can find and add them to your health plan. Vitamins C and E are almost universally available with Cordyceps and Resveratrol almost as easy to find.
4- Glutathione is the body’s Master Antioxidant, but not something you can take as a supplement. Oral glutathione supplements apparently can’t make it through the digestive system to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Instead you can take a Glutathione precursor. You can also help to support your body’s production of Glutathione by eating more asparagus and broccoli.

