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Understanding Antioxidants and Free Radicals
The free radicals health war is occuring every minute of every day in your body! Is your body winning or losing the war? Only you can answer that question, but your body will give you some clues based on how good you feel and any ailments or symptoms you may have. Consuming antioxidants is the answer to winning this war.
Let's start with a simple, non-technical definition of the term. While this is not a medical explanation, hopefully it will give you a general understanding of what they are and how they work.
Causes of Free Radicals
Our bodies are comprised of billions of molecules and for a number of reasons, many of those molecules split apart and become unstable because they lose one of their paired electrons. When that happens, they become a "free radical," it even sounds kind of bad doesn't it. That process is also called oxidative stress.
They can be caused by many things:
stress
toxins, chemicals, pesticides, pollution
processed foods prescriptionsalcoholsmoking
lack of sleep
radiation (including sunlight)even
exercise
This is only a partial list, but you can see how our bodies can become overwhelmed with those "bad guys." The reason they're being called the "bad guys," is because they are now at war with all your healthy cells. They are scavaging about trying to steal an electron so they will be "whole" again.
This occurrence is actually a normal process that our bodies are equipped to handle. Under normal circumstances, they aren't supposed to cause any long term effects. But because of our lifestyle and uncontrollable environmental factors, our bodies are just bombarded with too many of the little buggers to effectively fight them off. This overload of activity in the body creates a chain reaction of cellular damage causing oxidative stress which leads to all kinds of chronic and life-threatening diseases.
Harmful Effects of Free Radicals/Oxidative Stress
Research in this area is consistently confirming the relationship of oxidative stress and
inflammation
with many chronic diseases. While not an extensive list, it does include the top two diseases that are causing the greatest numbers of deaths in this country,
heart disease
and cancer.
Asthma, Alzheimer's, Arthritis, Cataracts, Cancer, Cavities, High Cholesterol, Heart Disease, Immune Dysfunction, Infertility Issues, Macular Degeneration, Neurological Disorders, Premature Aging, Parkison's Disease, Respiratory Dysfunction, and Rheumatoid Arthritis are just a few of the conditions that have been associated with oxidative stress.
Now for some good news on winning this war. Arm yourself with
antioxidants.
Increasing your antioxidants is easy. For more information on healthy choices in antioxidant rich foods,
Click Here.
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