Why Take Antioxidant Supplements

People who care about health, care about antioxidants.  They shop for antioxidant supplements,too and they do it for one important reason.  They want the benefits that antioxidants can provide for their life . But the drawback is that those supplements might not do what they want .

  What’s the big deal with antioxidants

Antioxidants are the opposite of free radicals. To understand antioxidants , you need to understand how free radicals- rogue electrons- can harm your health.

Your body is a amazing system. It’s a bunch of organs, like your brain and your liver and even your skin , that each does a specific job . They all need to do their job for you to be truly healthy.  Your organs are made of living tissue, composed of trillions of cells made up of molecules and their component atoms, each with their proper count of electrons. Molecules are formed when atoms, sharing electrons, bind together , but they can become damaged and lose an electron. This makes a free radical and the atom minus an electron will ” take ” it from the closest source , which means there will be another unstable atom.  Now you’ve got a chain reaction that if left on its own , will harm the cells within the organ tissue and will eventually damage the organ.

Antioxidants are molecules that can remain stable, even when they lose an electron .  An antioxidant molecule will not turm into  a free radical itself because it will either stay stable without the electron or won’t be strong enough to take an electron from another atom.  The chain reaction is halted .  What’s crucial to understand – to fullly comprehend the scale- is that, according to a well known scientist who studies antioxidants – whose name is Bruce Ames – a cell in your body will be attacked up to 10,000 times in a single day by free radicals.  And there are trillions of cells in our bodies.

 This attack by free radicals contributes to (and some will say primarily causes) many of the acute and chronic diseases that we associate with aging.  Alzheimers disease, acute and chronic inflammation, coronary disease, cancer, type II diabetes, Parkinsons disease, rheumatoid arthritis and some types of dementia can all be traced back to free radical damage. And thats not the full list.

I believe that it’s really important to cut back your own output of free radicals, increase your antioxidants and deciding to shop for antioxidant supplements is one thing you can do .  But it isn’t the whole picture.  You should also:

1- Wise up .  It’s impossible to reverse the damage when you’re still causing it, so this would be a good time to slow your production of free radicals and there are lots of things you can do to help.  You can avoid smoking and smokey rooms , water and air pollution, junk food , substance abuse and even too much exercise.

 2- Watch your diet .  Eat more fresh vegetables and fruits .  Which ones? This list is long but remember green foods and try blue foods.  Think raw and fresh.

3- Buy antioxidants and antioxidant supplements.  Supplements like Vitamins C and E, Resveratrol and Cordyceps are first-class examples of antioxidants supplements that are easy to buy . Do your homework because sources, quality and usability will vary widely, but you can include them as part of your plan.

 4- Glutathione is the super antioxidant but not effective as an oral supplement .  Oral glutathione supplements unfortunately won’t make it through the digestive system to be added into the bloodstream.  Instead you can choose a Glutathione precursor like MAX GXL.  You can also help to support your body’s production of Glutathione by eating more asparagus and broccoli.