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Many people who care about health spend lot’s of   time studying antioxidants.  They will buy antioxidant supplements and they do it for one important reason.  They want the benefits that antioxidants can provide for their health . But the little wrinkle in that plan is that taking antioxidant supplements might not do what they want .

  So what’s all the fuss about antioxidants?

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

Your body is a complicated system. It’s made up of organs, like your skin and liver and lungs , that each performs a certain task . Each must perform their role 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. Electron sharing binds atoms together into molecules , but they can become damaged and lose an electron. This forms a free radical and the atom minus an electron will ” take ” it from the nearest molecule , which means there will be another unstable atom.  What you end up with is a chain reaction that if left to continue , will damage the cells within the organ tissue and will inevitably damage the organ.

Antioxidant molecules are special . They can lose an electron and not need to replace it .  An antioxidant molecule will not morph into a free radical itself because it will either stay stable with the missing electron or it will be too weak to take an electron from another atom.  The chain reaction is halted .  What’s important to understand – to get a feel for the scale- is that, according to a well known scientist who studies antioxidants – his 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 onslaught 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 total list.

I believe that it’s actually important to reduce your own yield of free radicals, up your level of 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 reduce the creation of free radicals and there are lots of things you can do to help.  You can stay away from 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 go for green foods and think blue foods.  Think raw and fresh.

3- Buy antioxidants and antioxidant supplements.  Supplements like Vitamins C and E, Resveratrol and Cordyceps are excellent examples of antioxidants supplements that are afforable . Choose carefully because sources, quality and usability will vary widely, but you can include them as part of your plan.

 4- Glutathione is the body’s Master Antioxidant, but not something you can take as a supplement .  Oral glutathione supplements unfortunately can’t make it through the digestive system to be added into the bloodstream.  Instead you can opt for a Glutathione precursor like MAX GXL.  You can also help to support your body’s production of Glutathione by eating more asparagus and broccoli.