Saturday, August 05, 2006

Free Radical Antioxidant and The Fight Against Time

Our body, to function properly, does many do many things, such as, cellular metabolism, also known as body-cell function. While doing this, the cells in our body produce a waste-like element called free radicals. These radicals get electrons from proteins, DNA and cell membranes, thus damaging the tissues. Free radicals lead to aging, muscle damage, weak immune system, diseases and many more, if left untreated.


Antioxidants in our food

To counter the actions of the radicals, we need to have free radical antioxidant in our body, either by food or supplement intakes. This free radical antioxidant counters this process by fixing the free radicals and converting them into harmless elements in the body; at the same time repairing the muscle, tissue or cell damages.

Free radical antioxidants are mostly comprised of common antioxidant foods, such as fruits, vegetables and plants. Some of it would include spinach, carrots, red bell peppers, tomatoes, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries, plums, grapes, soy, apples, dried fruits, peaches, mangos, melons and many more.

Basically, free radical antioxidant elements can be found in any food containing vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium or carotene, lipoic acid, ubiquinone or coenzyme Q10, glutathione, tea polyphenols (mainly green tea) and many more.


Fighting against Radicals


Vitamin C, which is also known as ascorbic acid, is a very strong free radical antioxidant and also helps in wound healing and enhancing our immune system. Generally, the lack of vitamin C in our body leads to scurvy, a painful disease. This causes fragile skin and bleeding gums. Thus, we need intake of common fruits such as papaya, apples, oranges, bananas, grapes and oranges, and all kinds of vegetables, especially those with bright colours.

Ubiquinone, or also known as coenzyme Q10 is a type of nutrient that we necessarily need in our body to keep our cells, especially skin cells clean, fair, smooth, clear and healthy. This nutrient can be found in certain fishes and shell fishes.

Glutathione is another type of antioxidant, which is produced by amino acids, eysteine, glycine and glutamic acid. Basically any food that contains high level of protein has this free radical antioxidant agent inside.

Lipoic Acid is another type of nutrient required by our body to fight against all the radicals. This acid is converted into dihydrolipoic acid in the cells, thus helping to protect the cells from any damage and distortion.

To conclude, free radicals in our body should be killed, or at least kept tame, because if they are not controlled, they cause severe damage such as genetic mutation, heart and blood vessel diseases, cellular enzyme damages, nerve and brain damage, arthritis, asthma, infertility and many more. For this, we need to take free radical antioxidant agents that can be found in many natural resources.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home