Antioxidant Dietary Supplements

Aging is a fact of life but there is a way to slow it down and perhaps even cure it. The aging process gives you tired joins and muscles and loose, wrinkled skin. This is part of life. Disease however is not natural – a disease is a disorder caused by unnatural conditions existing in the body.

Aging is caused by free radicals, which are harmful molecules. Denham Harman MD first proposed this theory in the 1950s. Since that time, researchers and scientists have tried to understand the oxidization process which happens in the body and how free radicals contribute to accelerating this process. It turns out that free radicals are rogue oxygen molecules which are very unstable and can have harmful effects on the body.

There is plenty of evidence that the production of ROS (reactive oxygen species) including free radicals is behind the aging process and starts off age-related illnesses. Free radicals are unstable because they have an unpaired electron. They try to steal an electron from a stable molecule to stabilize themselves. This starts a chain reaction which can damage the cell membranes and proteins in the body, weaken the natural defenses of the cell and disrupt its DNA. This damage, when it is accumulated, can lead to degenerative conditions.

Luckily nature has given us a system to help control these free radicals. The natural enemy of free radicals is antioxidants. One of the functions of antioxidants is to break this chain reaction and destroy the free radicals.

Antioxidants can be found in vegetables and fresh fruit but it is also worth taking an antioxidant dietary supplement in case your diet is deficient. The most famous form of antioxidant supplement is probably Vitamin C. This is also called ascorbic acid and is found in almost all health food stores and pharmacies. Research has proved that this form of antioxidant dietary supplement helps a lot with boosting the body’s immune system, which in turn can prevent the onset of degenerative diseases and age-related illnesses.

Vitamin E is also another common antioxidant dietary supplement. This works well in conjunction with Vitamin C because the vitamins have a synergistic effect when you take them together.

Apart from vitamins, you can find antioxidant dietary supplements in the form of botanicals. A good example is green tea, which is a great source of the flavanoid derivatives epicatechin gallate (ECG), (polyphenols) epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). All these contribute to green tea being a very good antioxidant dietary supplement.