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- Fighting Against Free Radicals
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| If you've read this book from the beginning, you already know a great deal about antioxidants. So before getting into the specifics of supplementation, this chapter just briefly recaps how antioxidants and free radicals behave in the body. One key point that I want to reiterate up front: Antioxidants are absolutely vital to your long-term survival. Without them, free radicals would quickly decimate your body's cells--all 75 trillion or so of them. Instead of shooting for 120 years, you'd be lucky to last 120 minutes. No matter what your current age, antioxidants have gotten you this far--and they'll help keep you around for decades to come
A free radical randomly assaults cells in a desperate attempt to find a partner for its unpaired electron. The highly charged, highly unstable molecular fragment may puncture cell membranes, destroy enzymes, and even break down DNA just to steal an electron from another molecule. Some free radicals occur naturally, as your cells burn food for energy (a process called oxidative metabolism). Other free radicals come from exposure to ultraviolet radiation (sunlight), radon, x-rays, pollutants, pesticides, food additives, alcohol, and other toxins. To give you an idea of how much damage free radicals can do, consider that these renegade molecules strike and fracture every single one of your DNA molecules 10,000 times a day. About 9,900 of these breaks in the DNA strand are restored to normal by DNA repair enzymes. About 100, or 1 percent, escape the enzymes' notice. This unrepaired damage accumulates over time, setting the stage for atherosclerosis, cancer, and other degenerative diseases. You can see why slowing the damage--by increasing antioxidant protection--translates directly into longer life span.
On a global scale, oxidative stress has claimed more lives than all of the wars and plagues throughout human history. It causes all of the degenerative diseases that go hand in hand with aging. Nothing causes more human misery or ends more lives prematurely. Oxidative stress commits its greatest offenses at the cellular level. Rampaging free radicals injure the cell's membranes, compromising the delivery of nutrients and the removal of waste. They damage the mitochondria, impairing the production of energy. They break protein molecules, disrupting crucial enzyme systems. And they fracture DNA, causing the genetic mutations and uncontrolled cell divisions that eventually lead to cancer. Blood fats such as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol also suffer the wrath of oxidative stress. Research suggests that, despite its reputation as the "bad" kind of cholesterol, LDL itself is harmless. Only when oxidized--that is, only when it gives up an electron to a free radical--does LDL cause the arterial hardening and clogging that lay the groundwork for heart attack and stroke. This explains why about half of all people with elevated total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol never experience heart attacks: Their LDL has not undergone oxidation. |
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You can significantly reduce your free radical exposure by eliminating or at least limiting your consumption of foods of animal origin. Meats, poultry, fish, dairy products, and eggs--although devoid of protective antioxidants--have abundant supplies of free radical-forming fats. They're also likely to contain residues of pesticides, herbicides, and other free radical-producing toxins. Other environmental poisons, from pollutants in the air you breathe to chemicals in the water you drink, generate free radicals as well. While you have less control over them than over your diet, you should still limit your contact with them as much as you can. To increase your antioxidant protection, start by rebuilding your diet around the New Four Food Groups--grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. These foods are naturally rich in antioxidants and virtually devoid of free radical-forming compounds. Then fortify your diet with the supplements prescribed in the Anti-Aging Supplement Program. They'll raise your antioxidant intakes to optimum levels and reinforce your body's natural defenses against free radicals and oxidative stress. |
Because free radicals are generated in different areas or compartments of the body, and because antioxidants vary in their ability to penetrate these compartments, an array of antioxidants is necessary to keep free radicals in check. These protective nutrients work synergistically, patrolling different but often overlapping territories within the body. Vitamin C, for example, is water-soluble. It hangs out primarily in the water compartment, or the blood. Vitamin E is fat-soluble, so it stakes out the cell membrane compartment, which consists primarily of fats. Coenzyme Q10 and glutathione position themselves next to the mitochondrial membranes, where they field the barrage of free radicals that's released as the mitochondria convert food into energy. Each of the other antioxidants has its favorite hangout, just as these do. Since different antioxidants have different functions, you want to make sure that you're getting a broad range rather than just one or two. For example, some people take lots of vitamin C, to the exclusion of everything else. Granted, vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant. But it isn't fat-soluble, so it offers little protection to cell membranes and other "fatty" structures. These require vitamin E, essential fatty acids, and carotenoids, all of which are fat-soluble.
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| Antioxidant essential nutrients. Essential nutrients are
those that your body cannot make for itself and cannot survive without. It just so happens
that several of these nutrients also have antioxidant properties. These include vitamins A, C, and E
as well as the essential
fatty acids and certain amino acids. Certain minerals--namely, copper, selenium, and zinc--are often referred to as antioxidants. Technically, that's a misnomer because they lack the ability to neutralize free radicals. They do, however, play key roles in the body's production of antioxidant enzymes. Coenzyme Q10 earns essential nutrient status only once you reach age 30. Prior to that, your body makes enough of this potent free radical fighter on its own. But through your thirties and beyond, production declines markedly. Many researchers believe that this genetically programmed Coenzyme Q10 deficiency shortens human life span considerably by opening the door to chronic oxidative stress. |
| Antioxidant phytochemicals. Phytochemicals number in the
thousands. Though they can act as antioxidants, they have myriad other ways
in which they further reduce oxidative stress. For instance, they can block the
transformation of precursor molecules into free radicals and carcinogens. And they can
enhance the repair of DNA by increasing the activity of antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione. Only foods of plant origin--grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables-- supply phytochemicals. Foods of animal origin do not. For optimum intake of phytochemicals, nothing beats a low-fat vegan diet. To further boost your intake of these "supernutrients," try capsules containing concentrated fruit/vegetable extracts, such as Juice Plus made by NSA and Phytaloe made by Mannatech. |
| Antioxidant enzymes. The human body can manufacture its own
antioxidant enzymes. But to do so, it needs proteins, which it synthesizes from the amino acids in foods. This process evolved thousands of
years ago, as the body sought to maintain its antioxidant supply during periods when
sustenance was scarce. When it wasn't getting enough antioxidants
from dietary sources, it could make its own. Every cell in your body manufactures a trio of special antioxidant enzymes: glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase. These homemade compounds work jointly with other antioxidants, taking on free radicals wherever they might appear. By far the most important of the three antioxidant enzymes is glutathione. It guards a cell's various membranes, including those all-important mitochondrial membranes. |
The goal of antioxidant supplementation is to reduce oxidative stress. By pulling the plug on this free radical free-for-all, you can dramatically slow the aging process. But don't think you have to wait until you're in your eighties or nineties to find out if reducing oxidative stress really makes a difference. You see, it's not just an anti-aging strategy but also an optimum health strategy. It will make you feel better right now. Phytochemicals are probably the least known and least understood of the antioxidants. Yet if the latest research is any indication, these "supernutrients" may turn out to be your greatest anti-aging allies. |
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