Antioxidants

THE ROLE OF ANTIOXIDANTS

Antioxidants act as "  free radical scavengers"   that prevent and repair damage done by free radicals. Antioxidants are nutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as enzymes (proteins in your body that assist in chemical reactions).

To appreciate the value of antioxidants, you must first understand the oxidation process. 

For example, if you cut an apple, it turns brown, this is an oxidation process. The surface of apple reacts with the oxygen in the air which causes the surface to turn brown gradually. Oxygen can work to break down other substances, creating what are called free radicals(for details ref earlier post) which are extremely damaging. Similarly When you perform any activities, your body is burning and producing toxins by reacting with oxygen (which is oxidation: just like the apple cut in half and turns brown).

How Do Antioxidants Work?

The mission of antioxidants is to find out these free radicals inside your body and make it impossible to attach to your body so that your cells are being protected from the damage of these free radicals. If you are lack of antioxidants and unable to neutralise these free radicals they can escape into surrounding tissues and further damage your cells. To prevent this damage, balance is the key.

The number of free radicals that you produce everyday is not the same. The pollution in the air, the foods you eat and the activity you perform determine the number of free radicals. Definitely, you must have enough antioxidants to neutralise these free radicals. Although your body can produce antioxidants, however, when the number of free radicals is too high, you will need to obtain extra antioxidants from your normal diet or supplements. 

Watch out next for……What are the foods that contain good source of antioxidants? What kind of benefits can antioxidants offer to you?

Free radicals

All About Free radicals!!!!!!

One of the most frequent types of damage done to your body is caused by molecules known as free radicals. What are free radicals? Let’s look at the current typical daily lifestyle. You are constantly exposed to the outside world environmentally, physically and mentally. Environmental wise - sun rays (ultra violet rays), air pollution, water pollution, preservative food or poor nutrition diet choice and medications; Physical wise – excessive exercise; Mental wise – stress due to work, relationship and financial problems. All the above factors cause free radicals andyour body is continuously being bombarded by these free radicals.

Free radicals, also known simply as radicals, are organic molecules responsible for aging, tissue damage, and possibly some diseases. These molecules are very unstable, therefore they look to bond with other molecules, destroying their health and further continuing the damaging process. 

Free radicals are "free" because they float around until they stabilize, and "radical" in the sense that there are a wide variety of molecules from which they can take an electron. The damage doesn't stop there, however, as the new molecule, say a piece of a cell wall, is now also missing an electron and has become another free radical. This snowball effect can wreak havoc on healthy tissue. Scientific studies now show that all of those symptoms we normally associate with aging, as well as just about every disease there is, are caused by the damage of free radicals on your body.

Let's look at how the free radicals damage your cells. Here is an analogy: imagine yourself in front of a burning charcoal. What happen to the burning charcoal? The charcoal produces ashes and occasionally cinders. Let’s say the cinders and ashes land on the wooden floor, the sparkling cinders burn a hole on the floor, ashes covered the floor. May be a one cinder or one time burn of ashes does not pose so much of the problem to the floor but if the situation continues day after day, month after month, year after year, without doing any cleaning and removing of the ashes on the floor, the floor will be spoiled and eventually have to change a new one.

Your body is much the same thing like the burning charcoal, just that we never see the ashes or cinders, but they are there! The ashes or cinders are called the free radicals, the more you stress, the more you exposed to UV sun rays, the more free radicals your body produce. The floor represents your body. The part of body receives the most free radicals is the first one to break down and lead to degenerative diseases. If there's more free radical damage in your blood vessels, you'll get heart disease. If there's more in your eyes, you'll get cataracts. If there's more in your brain, you'll get dementia or Alzheimer's. If there's more in your breast tissue, you'll get breast cancer. And so on and so on...Unfortunately, your body or organ does not have spare part, unlike the floor which is replaceable.

If you think about it, it makes sense. For example, why are smokers more likely to get lung cancer, asthma and COPD (all diseases of the lungs)? Because cigarette smoke is a major source of free radicals.

Antioxidants, present in many foods, are molecules that prevent freeradicals from harming healthy tissue.

Watch out next for…..what are antioxidants…how they work!!!

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CANCER PREVENTION - WORLD CANCER DAY

World cancer day 4^th feb 2013 

CANCER PREVENTION

CONCERNED about cancer prevention? Take charge by making small changes in your daily life, from eating a healthy diet to scheduling regular cancer screenings.

Here are some pointers to help you cut your cancer risk

Dairy products: drinking one cup of skimmed milk a day cuts your risk of ovarian cancer by 40 percent. Dairy products (especially when combined with vitamin D) are also linked to a lower risk of developing colorectal cancer.

Eggs: women consuming six eggs a week cut their risk of breast cancer by 40 percent.

Green Tea: two cups a day can cut your risk of digestive cancers by 32 percent, and can also reduce your risk of skin, lung, kidney and liver cancers.

Exercise: working out 30 to 60 minutes per day protects against bowel and breast cancers.

And, breastfeeding for at least six months has been shown to reduce risk of both breast and ovarian cancer by about 7 per cent for every baby you feed.

EAT HEALTHY STAY HEALTHY