Antioxidants - do you need some too?

As their name implies, antioxidants do just that – act against oxidation. Oxidation is a chemical process that naturally occurs as the cells of the body use oxygen for their everyday processes. However, when not optimally efficient, this process also creates harmful substances known as free radicals.

The best analogy for this process is smoke coming out of an active power plant – the smoke is an inevitable by-product that needs to be dealt with. Lifestyle choices, poor diet, smoking, various drugs, vaccines and polluted air can increase this burden of free radicals by ten-fold.

Free radicals are unstable particles that roam freely through the body changing the structure of substances they encounter rendering them inactive or transformed.

The body’s innate mechanism of counteracting this free radical mayhem is by utilising antioxidant substances that have the ability to stabilise and neutralise these potentially harmful free radicals.

There are many different types of antioxidants; each has slightly different benefits and ‘areas of expertise’ depending on:

1. If they are water or fat soluble – for example vitamins A, D, E are fat soluble, whereas antioxidants such as vitamin C are water soluble
2. The type of free radical they can quench
3. The amount of free radicals they can quench
4. Their interaction with other antioxidants

What the 21st century has to offer

Resveratrol has been deemed the 21st century elixir of youth. This substance has definitely brought the term ‘antioxidant’ to mainstream media. Recent research has shown unparalleled effects on longevity, promising results for cardiovascular health, weight management and blood sugar balance. It is both water and fat soluble, therefore protecting all types of bodily tissue. Whilst pharmaceutical companies are scrummaging for first place in the race to produce a synthetic version, natural health followers are already enjoying the bountiful benefits of Resveratrol. Radiance® Resveratrol provides an efficacious 100mg of this much desired substance per capsule.

What nature has to offer

Mother Nature provides us with an assortment of antioxidants in the form of vitamins, minerals and plant substances found in fresh foods. A number of medicinal herbs are now categorically deemed as antioxidants including ginkgo, garlic, olive leaf and many more.

The Middle Eastern fruit pomegranate has raised scientists’ curiosity due to its undeniably unique antioxidant protection. The “fruit of many seeds” has shown benefits of supporting normal prostate function even when biomarkers indicating dysfunction are elevated. Radiance® Pomoxytrol combines the exotic pomegranate with mighty resveratrol for a powerhouse of antioxidant protection. Since we all live and breathe and would like to do so for a good while longer – let’s make it a fabulous ride by keeping our cells youthful with some added antioxidants.