What are Antioxidants
and Why Do We Need Them?

Many of us have looked into the mirror and wondered where those fine line and wrinkles came from. What about the laughter lines and crows feet? We all grow older and aging is normal but have you ever wondered why some people seem to have far fewer lines despite being a similar age? There is a reason for this.

Oxidization is the name of the process that leads to aging, in biological systems. What happens is that oxidization produces substances called free radicals. These are highly reactive and react with other molecules, damaging them. Free radicals can attack healthy cells as well as foreign bodies. When the body’s cells are attacked by them, this results in aging.

Luckily, there is a way to slow down the aging process. Antioxidants are the natural enemies of free radicals. Antioxidants destroy the harmful free radicals to counteract the damaging of tissues. This retards aging, or slows it down.

In nature, there are plenty of antioxidants. They are plentiful in common vitamins – for example, Vitamin A or retinol, Vitamin C or ascorbic acid, Vitamin E or tocopherol, and also Selenium. Antioxidants can be either enzymes, which are proteins in the body to assist in chemical reactions, or nutrients, which are vitamins and minerals. It is believed that antioxidants play a very important role in the prevention of chronic diseases developing, such as heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, cataracts, stoke and Rheumatoid arthritis.

Antioxidants cannot totally rid all the free radicals in our body but they are able to minimize the damage. They work by blocking the process of oxidation by neutralizing the free radicals. When the neutralize them, they becoming oxidized themselves. This is why it is important to make sure our bodies receive an ongoing supply of antioxidants.

Antioxidants work in two ways. First of all, they break the chain reaction of free radicals turning other molecules into free radicals too. Another name for breaking this chain is stabilization.

Antioxidants also have a preventative job to do. Antioxidant enzymes such as catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase avert oxidization by reducing the rate of the chain initiation. Rather than waiting for the free radicals to produce a long chain of free radicals, antioxidants look for the initiating radicals and kill them before the oxidization is set in motion.

In this way, the aging process is slowed down and diseases caused by free radicals can be avoided.

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