Preserving Your Health: The Antioxidant

Your body needs to use vitamins and minerals in order to function at a high level. In order to gather these vitamins and minerals, your body needs to find them in natural and synthetic sources, such as plants and manufactured vitamins. One very important element of your biological health is the antioxidant.


Here is some background information on the antioxidant:

What It Is

An antioxidant is a chemical that reduces the amount of oxidation in your body. They are also the cells that are stored in your muscles to help contain the damage that can occur with oxidation. Oxidation occurs when highly reactive oxygen particles form chain reactions or DNA adducts which can cause cancer-like mutations and/or cell death.


Origins

An antioxidant originates mainly from earth grown plants. Examples of antioxidants would be beta-carotene, vitamin E and lycopene. Beta-carotene comes from carrots; vitamin E from leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds; and lycopene from red-ripe tomatoes. It was also discovered that coffee, tea and chocolate contain antioxidants. Although these aren’t as beneficial to your health as the vegetables, they still contain an enormous amount of antioxidants.


Effects on Health

Because an antioxidant fights the harmful oxidation that can attack your body’s cells, it has an overall positive impact on your well-being; the antioxidant reverses the impact of carcinogens (cancer causing elements) and atherogenics (heart problems) which are caused by oxidation damage. Thus, antioxidants help to prevent cancer, heart-related illnesses; supports eye health and boost the immune system. There even have been recent studies linking high levels of antioxidants to anti-aging. This means that antioxidants help prevent dementia and other types of neurological damage due to age.


The Need for the Antioxidant

An antioxidant is one of the best vitamins your body can have. It keeps you from getting sick. It even helps prevent premature aging and deterioration of the brain. With a combination of healthy eating (including antioxidants) and exercise; you will live a long and healthy life.

No one can control what his or her body does. Millions of harmful bacteria and toxins inhabit our bodies; sometimes they affect us, sometimes they don’t. But if you care about your health, then you would want to fight off the bad and keep yourself strong. That is why you need to consume foods rich in antioxidants. Give your body the nourishment it needs to live a long, prosperous life.