 The role of antioxidants in preserving
and enhancing your health
Unless you have taken a keen interest in health issues you
could be excused for not being familiar with the term
"antioxidants" but you will certainly know about at least one
kind of antioxidant - vitamins.
Their name is derived from the process
they work against – oxidation – a process that naturally occurs
in body tissue and hastens decay and ageing On the most basic
level antioxidants represent a defense force within your body
working to fight the sources of disease and in particular the
molecules known as free radicals that create oxidative
stress.
Antioxidants can be divided into nutrients and enzymes.
Nutrients are the best known and include vitamins and minerals.
Enzymes are the proteins that help the body maintain a healthy
chemical balance.
Interest in this aspect of health care by conventional
medicine is relatively recent, for example, in 2005 Dr. Peter
Rabinovich and his team at the University of Washington carried
out a number of scientific tests on mice and they found solid
evidence of the role of oxygen molecules in advancing the aging
process.
In this study mice with an excess of the enzyme catalase
antioxidant were bred and their longevity exceeded that of
other mice by 20% and they also suffered markedly less from
diseases associated with aging. The coverage given to this
discovery by the BBC’s Internet site shows the extent that
this understanding of human health has become part of
mainstream medicine and the possibilities of applying the
lessons of this study to improving human health are
receiving serious consideration.
Awareness of the significance of oxidation in aging and the
serious diseases associated with advancing years has increased
greatly over the last few decades. The spread of health
consciousness is easily proven by the rapid rise in demand for
vitamins and foods recognized as high in antioxidants.
However, since although the benefit of antioxidants
to our health has become clearly recognized there is no
consensus on the amount required. In the same way an overdose
of medicine can cause serious health damage, the same may apply
with some antioxidants, particularly fat soluble ones.
In the United States the Food and Nutrition Board has long
been issuing recommendations on the kinds and amounts of
nutrients it is recommended to include in a healthy diet. For
example, they recommend women have 75 mg of vitamin C but
higher intake levels could cause blood clotting and other
serious medical problems.
| 
