At this very moment a silent defense network circulates within and through every body cell as a united front against disease and deterioration. What it is and where its members come from varies, but they share one powerful aim: to neutralize dangerous fractions of oxygen known as free radicals.
The following section describes both sides of the conflict: aggressors and defenders alike. First, you'll be introduced to the wild ones within, the free radicals. Next, you'll meet The Four ACES, a team of free radical fighters whose members work better together than alone and which includes vitamin A (and its sidekick beta-carotene), vitamin C (and its partner, the bioflavonoids), vitamin E, and the mineral selenium.
Coenzyme QIO (an enzyme), melatonin (a, hormone), and cysteine (an amino acid) are also potent defenders of the realm within and ate individually spotlighted. Finally, you'll greet the Special Forces from the gardens of the world: bilberry, garlic, ginkgo biloba, green and black tea, and milk thistle. Just when you thought staying healthy was so difficult, you'll discover that how well your body functions is greatly determined by how you answer one simple question: "What's cooking?"
The High Cost of Free Radicals - Imagine picking up a fine red apple from a bowl on the kitchen table. You slice it up and eat a piece. Then the phone rings, the clothes dryer goes off, and the mail arrives. Two hours later, you return to your apple. The slices left on your plate are brown. They have been attacked and spoiled by molecules of oxygen in the kitchen air, the same molecules that .will rust the metal of automobiles. Since it is, oxygen doing the dirty work, we say the apple and the car have been oxidized. The molecules doing the oxidizing are called oxidants.
Let's imagine you've left a bottle of cooking oil un-refrigerated in a hot kitchen for a week or two. When you use the oil, you'd probably smell or taste a difference and say the oil has gone rancid. This is another case of oxidants at work. The medical term for oil or fat is lipid. Scientists call the process of fat turning rancid lipid peroxidation. Unfortunately, you have fat within every cell of your body, which Dr. Roy Walford, a UCLA gerontologist, terms "your own bodily butter," and there are times when you, too, turn rancid. The result can be as benign as wrinkled skin or as lethal as malignant cancer. How much damage results depends. on many factors, including how long the reaction continues and in what tissue it occurs. It also depends on the genetic predisposition, nutritional status, current health, and emotional stress level of the individual.
When the damage occurs in a blood vessel, it can initiate cardiovascular disease. When it happens to DNA, your unique genetic inheritance found within every cell nucleus, birth defects or cancer can result. When it happens to the lipids within the eye's crystalline lens, cataracts are formed. Thus, oxygen has earned the title "universal toxin"! and it seems the list of diseases and conditions caused by it just gets longer every day.
Free Radicals Are to Blame - Oxidants are often free radicals, Free what? Chemists call the smallest unit that maintains its own uniqueness a radical. In your body, a free radical is "free" because it is missing an electron. Perhaps you have seen a picture of an atom with something whirling around the nucleus. That something is an electron. Electrons are negatively charged particles that usually move in a fixed orbit around the nucleus of an atom.
Molecules are happiest when they have even pairs of electrons. When a molecule is missing one electron, it is a free radical, and it eagerly an dirndls crirninately steals the electron it needs. Unfortunately, the victim of theft then becomes a free radical, and it immediately seeks an electron to steal, which will then create yet another free radical. Eventually there is a cascade of electron thefts, resulting in tissue damage. In addition, this explosive chain reaction creates new compounds which also contribute to the mess. Just as the best place to pickpocket is in a crowd, so also the free radical prefers area where lots of electrons congregate. Free radicals are especially partial to polyunsaturated fatty acids, which comprise about half of the fat content of the membrane surrounding every cell in your body. If we take early antioxidants for our skin layer, the skin will look more younger and natural
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