16th Oct 2012
Antioxidant Supplements
About 30 percent of Americans take antioxidant supplements. Despite this, there is still a lack of accessible information about the health promoting components of these supplements.
Presently, several medical researchers are focusing their research on learning how antioxidant supplements can the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
What exactly is antioxidant and how important is it in promoting good health?
Antioxidant supplements are available in two forms, as vitamins or minerals. These supplements help to prevent oxygen from reacting with several other chemicals in the body cells. This kind of reaction, commonly known as oxidation, can lead to cell destruction which can then result in heart disease as well as cancer.
Antioxidants can be found in foods, specifically fresh fruits and veggies. Eating a healthy diet that emphasizes fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables means higher levels of body antioxidant. This results in fewer free radicals in your body and a healthier you.
How do antioxidants work?
They help your body destroy harmful free radicals, essentially breaking the free radical chain.
Free radicals harm the body by altering the cells’ ability to properly make proteins and by impairing the DNA. They can also damage the proteins that have already been produced, resulting in the body being unable to produce the energy it needs. This leads to a higher risk of disease, which can ultimately result in premature aging and even death.
Additionally, free radicals make it much harder to fight off infections and diseases; impaired DNA speeds up the aging process and worse, can lead to cancer and lowered resistance to heart disease. Free radical damage places the system into a ‘stress’ state.
The body sees this stress as a threat and the metabolism moves into disaster mode. This means that hormones cause the system to stop burning fat and instead store fat.
Your body needs a consistent source of antioxidants for it to combat harmful free radicals and prevent them from multiplying. But, most of us don’t eat an adequate supply of fruits and veggies, and so we don’t get enough antioxidants to keep the body at optimum health. Thus it is imperative that you supply your body with these necessary antioxidants from another source, such as a high quality supplement.
Although there is no doubt that antioxidants from fresh fruits and veggies are superior, these antioxidant supplements will help greatly in increasing your body’s level of free radical-fighting antioxidants.
Find out more about antioxidant supplements at: http://www.lifefoodpro.com/