Crucial and Contradictory Inquiries Concerning Antioxidants

Considering the visibility we all have regarding the rewards of antioxidants, you would hope
that there would be a better awareness of the chemistry involved. The important truth
regarding antioxidants is that they DO INDEED make a contribution to the benefit of our health.
The misunderstanding comes about when we believe all the marketing hype that we are
exposed to by manufacturers of antioxidant supplements. They try to encourage us that we
need a whole lot more antioxidants then we are getting by way of our typical food consumption.
They are correct in that premise, but they are using that fact to persuade you to take high ORAC
value supplements which sad to say are incompatible with our digestive system in most cases.
There is also the probability of unfavorable side effects when overdosing on direct antioxidant
therapy. The best instruction is to investigate and eat foods that are high in antioxidants. Our
bodies produce antioxidants in good supply until we are about 20 years old. Then we begin to
lose the struggle of the free radical due to the overpowering production that develops within
our bodies as a result of normal metabolic processes. We are also exposed to pollutants, sun
burn, smoke, and other external factors which seem to cause amplified levels of free radicals as
well. One avenue of recent analysis and clinical verification is that of taking a supplement that
will greatly enhance your body’s ability to make its own antioxidants. Check out information on
this maturing market at: antiagingmiracalesite.com.

At any rate, the analysis is clear: Large, carefully controlled studies and trials have routinely
found no benefit to antioxidant supplements, says Alice Lichtenstein of Tufts University.* “You
have to take the totality of the data, and that’s what we normally do [in science],” she says.
“Why are they popular? I don’t know. Maybe, it’s because it sounds like the easy answer.”

Here’s the hypothesis: Just as the name proposes, antioxidants reduce oxidation, a process that
is part of normal bodily functions but can also destroy cells. Oxidation can even enhance the
stickiness of cholesterol increasing the chance that it will prohibit circulation and lead to heart
attacks or strokes. Early studies in the 1990s revealed that most people who ate more
antioxidants had a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, but those conclusions didn’t hold up
for antioxidant supplements. In later studies, such supplements did not affect risk of - and in
some studies actually amplified- heart attacks and strokes.

Nancy Cook, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a co-author of
one of these studies, proposes two possible reasons for these results: It could be that studies of
supplements are using the wrong doses and combinations of antioxidants, or people who eat
lots of antioxidants-in foods, not supplements-are already executing the kinds of things that
lower heart disease risk, such as exercise and, well, eating a sufficient amount of fruits and
vegetables. Sadly, we do not have any scientific data to verify either of these results.

Once again we are faced with sticking to the really real data that is born out of studies and
clinicals. It is here that I find a safe harbor. Marketing can change the landscape and make it
look like a logical syllogism: If antioxidants are a good thing in the body, then, if we overwhelm
the body with antioxidants directly, we will surely destroy the ravaging Oxidants or Free
Radicals. Well, it is just not that simple. Biochemistry does not allow for that kind of logical
equation. Our digestion is too complicated a system to reduce it to a formula. There is a true
saying: The truth will set you free. Don’t be a prisoner of the antioxidant marketer. For more
valuable and Really Real information, go to: antiagingmiracalesite.com.