Antioxidants: What Are They, and How Do They Work?

You probably have heard this word tossed around a lot: "Antioxidants." But what does it mean, really? What are antioxidants, and what do they do?

A simple illustration is this. Think of a car, sitting out in the great outdoors unprotected, exposed to rain, snow, sleet, dirt, air -- everything. What happens to it after a while? That's right; it begins to "rust" away, or oxidize.

That's what happens inside of our bodies to a great extent as the aging process and the stresses of everyday life (and our own behaviors) take a toll on us. In other words, we "oxidize," or begin to "rust away," slowly, as the vagaries of age and unhealthy lifestyle habits, among other things (including stress) catch up with us.

Here's the thing, though. We can't avoid oxidization altogether, since it's simply a product of everyday life. The key is to neutralize this oxidization as much as possible, so that it doesn't completely overwhelm us and take us over. There needs to be balance, and this oxidization process needs to stay in check; in effect, there has to be something that neutralizes the oxidization so that it doesn't simply become rampant completely destroy us in short order. Is there help?

You bet. This "help" comes galloping along in the form of antioxidants. Antioxidants are substances that are "anti-oxidant." That is, they neutralize the products of oxidative stress and activity, which are called free radicals. Free radicals are molecular fragments or atoms that have a charge because they either have too many or too few electrons. That's a bad thing, because these free radicals are very unstable (and want to become more stable). To stabilize themselves, they rampage around your body, either trying to find extra electrons (if they've too few) or get rid of an excess of electrons (if they have too many). This is a problem, because when they try to either take up or throw away electrons, they damage cells, DNA, and proteins.

We can't completely avoid free radicals, as explained earlier. Much of the time, free radicals are simply a product of living, although we can also do things to ourselves with our own behaviors that lead to more oxidative damage. Fortunately, though, we can neutralize those free radicals we can't do anything about. We can protect ourselves to a great extent by ingesting antioxidants.

Antioxidants neutralize free radicals

Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, and by doing that, the antioxidants become oxidized themselves, and thus no longer useful. That's why we need a constant supply of them. They work in one of two ways. Certain types of antioxidant enzymes, like superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase prevent oxidization by thwarting free radicals' actions.

Other antioxidants are what are called "chain breaking" antioxidants, like vitamins C and E. If free radicals have already begun to release or steal electrons as they need them, they create a "chain reaction" whereby the molecules they steal electrons from or release electrons to need to be stabilized too. So those molecules turn around and steal from or release electrons to other molecules, which then turn around and steal or release electrons other molecules, and so on. Antioxidants like vitamins C or E stop this process and stabilize things either by stabilizing free radicals or by converting them into harmless products.

Where do antioxidants come from?

There are antioxidant nutrients and antioxidant enzymes. Nutrient antioxidants are those that you can get from the diet, like vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, and minerals selenium, zinc and manganese.

Then, there are also antioxidant enzymes. The major antioxidant enzymes are superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase.

"Dietary antioxidants" come from the diet. For example, phytochemicals are becoming known as a very important "soldiers" in the antioxidant army both because of their antioxidant activity and because of their other nutritional health benefits.

Balance is a "good" thing

Although it's generally accepted that you really can't get too many antioxidants from your diet (such as those gotten from fruit and vegetables), it's become known that you absolutely can overdose in antioxidants, especially in supplement form. You'd think that because antioxidants pulverize free radicals, you should ingest as many of them as possible -- including in supplement form. However, it's now known that too much of a "good thing" is in fact a bad thing, because overdoing it on antioxidants (especially in supplement form) can be toxic; in fact, they can become "pro-oxidant" instead of "anti-oxidant" when taken in amounts that are too large.

How much do you need when it comes to antioxidants?

Again, it's really, really hard to overdose on antioxidants when you get them in your food. For example, it's probably almost impossible to get too much beta-carotene because you eat a lot of carrots. However, you absolutely CAN take too much vitamin A in supplement form, and you could probably take too much beta-carotene in supplement form, too.

That's why experts are now cautioning restraint. They still don't quite know just what the upper levels of "safe" are for various supplements, although in most cases, they do believe that most of us need more than the current recommended daily allowances as set forth; in other words, they think those are not adequate. Even so, experts are saying that while taking modest amounts of supplements is probably fine for most people, you should get most of your antioxidants from the food you eat.

And hey, exercise counts, too

Finally, shoveling in the antioxidants -- even through dietary means -- isn't going to keep you young and healthy by itself. You have to exercise, too, keep the stress down, and in general practice healthy lifestyle practices, including getting enough sleep. THAT is what will really make antioxidants' magic work.



Subscribe To This Site
XML RSS
Add to Google
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Subscribe with Bloglines

Enjoy This Site?
Then why not use the button below, to add us to your favorite bookmarking service?

Copyright© 2007-2010.