A2Z Vitamin And Herbs Guide For Natural Care And Healing

How Antioxidants Work

Antioxidants can be found in many natural sources and are critical to our health.

In particular, they stop the damage caused by free radicals by preventing oxidation which can damage cells and is thought to be a primary contributor of cancer and heart disease.

Antioxidants are so important that much research is being done on antioxidant supplements and how they can potentially lessen the risk of cardiovascular disease. Beta carotene along with Vitamins C and E are being studied, but much of the data is incomplete and shows not much of a benefit to taking supplements although we know eating fresh fruits and vegetables loaded with these vitamins does greatly reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.

Antioxidants are most commonly associated with fresh fruits and vegetables and a diet rich in these foods is shown to reduce the damage from free radicals and enhance your health. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables boosts your immune system and can help your body battle everything from the common cold to cancer.

The main benefit to your health comes from the antioxidants ability to fight free radicals. These free radicals are unstable and “steal” electrons from your cells. In doing so, they make your cells unstable thus turning them into free radicals. These free radicals then go and steal electrons from other cells and so on. Eventually these free radicals can cause serious disease. Antioxidants can help by stabilizing the free radicals and breaking the chain of destruction in your body.

When antioxidants neutralize these free radicals, they themselves are neutralized so you need to have a steady supply of them or the free radicals will be able to multiply unchecked.

In today’s processed food society, it is likely that we are not getting enough antioxidants. Perhaps this is why there is so much disease in spite of the amount of medical research and increased medical technology?

While the best way to get enough antioxidants to keep the body in good health is to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, it might be prudent to also take some antioxidant supplements. You can find supplements in your pharmacy or grocery store, but be sure to buy a good quality brand so that your body digests the vitamin and doesn’t just pass it through.