The Role Of Antioxidants In Preventing Free Radical Damage
Cellular damage is the common cause of many diseases and conditions like cancer, premature aging etc. Antioxidants help prevent such cellular damage. Many mysteries have always surrounded this topic; however the scientific community has begun to reveal some useful information regarding antioxidants. This article will lay down the basic information about antioxidants. What they are and how they help in keeping the body healthy.
Harmful Radicals
Group of atoms consisting of odd (unpaired) number of electrons are known as free radicals. These are formed when oxygen reacts with certain molecules. It is an unstable and highly reactive molecule that stabilizes itself by stealing an electron from another molecule. When this happens that other molecule becomes a free radical resulting in a chain reaction causing cellular damage in the body. The major problem is the damage they can cause when they react with important cellular components such as cell membrane and DNA. This can cause the cells to die or function poorly. The body protects itself from these free radicals with antioxidants.
Oxidative stress, the chain reaction we just talked about can be terminated before essential molecules are damaged, with the help of antioxidants. Antioxidants can safely interact with free radicals without becoming free radicals themselves. Even though there are few enzyme systems present in a human body which hunt free radicals, the principle antioxidants are vitamin C, beta-carotene, lycopene and vitamin E. At times selenium, a trace metal which is essential for the proper function of an enzyme system of the body is also included in this category. These micronutrients can’t be manufactured by the body, so they must be supplied through the diet.
Lycopene: Prevents degenerative diseases by donating its electrons to oxygen free radicals thus resulting in reducing and defusing them before they can damage the cells. It can be obtained by the following fruits: water melon, apricots, pink grapefruit and tomatoes.
Vitamin E: It is a vitamin which is soluble and can be found in sufficient amount in broccoli, nuts almonds, corn oil and safflower oil.
Vitamin C: It is a water soluble vitamin; shortage of this vitamin is the basis of scurvy, a human disease. This vitamin is present in citrus fruits and juices like kiwi, strawberries, cabbage. The preferred intake level of this vitamin is 60 mg per day and intake of this vitamin above 2000 mg can result in adverse reactions.
Beta-carotene: It is an originator (inactive form) of Vitamin-A, and can be found in the following: egg yolk, milk, tomato, cantaloupe, peaches, butter and leafy vegetables such as spinach and kale. Carotenodermia is a side effect of excessive ²-carotene consumption and has nil antioxidant properties.
Do antioxidants help prevent cancer and heart diseases?
Studies prove that people who have high level of fruits and vegetables in their daily diets have lower rates of cancer. This leads people to believe that this diet contains something, possibly antioxidants that help to prevent the development of cancer. However there’s no study or investigation yet which proves that taking extra antioxidant supplements protects us against cancer. In fact, a study showed that male smokers who took antioxidant supplements were more likely to get lung cancer then the male smokers who didn’t take such supplements. Whether this effect was from antioxidants still remains unanswered but it does raise the issue that antioxidant supplements may be harmful for some people in certain conditions.
Antioxidants are considered to play a role in slowing the aging process and preventing heart diseases and strokes. However; the data is inconclusive. That is why it is too early to recommend antioxidant supplements for cancer prevention on a public scale. The data collected from the ongoing studies will shed more light on this subject in the future. The best advice that can be given to people in order to help lower risks of developing cancer is to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day and to use alkaline ionized water which helps in neutralizing the excess acidity instead of consuming acidic bottled or tap water.
Alkaline ionized water provides anti-oxidants to the body that help fight off free radicals. Install a water ionizer today. Please visit: www.ChansonAlkalineWater.com and www.HealingWaterMachines.com By Nedalee Ruiz and Abdullah Salim.
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