Friends and Foes: The Story of Antioxidants and Free Radicals
from Horizons, September 2002
“Formulated with antioxidants to fight free radical damage.” How many times have you heard something like that? But, what are free radicals? What makes them so dangerous? And antioxidants? Why are they popping up in everything from multivitamins to beauty lotions?
The body naturally generates free radicals as a byproduct of energy production. Free radicals are molecules with at least one unpaired electron. Paired electrons are stable, while unpaired electrons are always looking for a mate. As free radicals move through the body, they steal electrons from other molecules, damaging the cells they touch. Free radical damage has been linked to many common health concerns, from wrinkles, to abnormal cell replication, to heart disease.
Antioxidants are molecules that “deactivate” free radicals. They quench unstable free radicals, preventing damage to adjacent cells. The body produces antioxidants to combat free radicals. But its natural production cannot address the added free radical stress caused by pollution, tobacco smoke, ultraviolet light, radiation and other factors. The good news: antioxidant supplementation can.
Because no two antioxidants are exactly alike, Nature’s Sunshine offers an array of free radical quenchers. Antioxidants have an affinity for specific parts of the body. While one might work best in the liver, another helps protect the eyes. In addition, some antioxidants are fat-soluble, some are water-soluble and a few are both. Antioxidants also have different capacities for scavenging free radicals. Nature’s Sunshine boasts the technology to test our products’ oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) values; in other words, their ability to quench free radicals
The information and products on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Information found at www.alternativehealthshoppe.com is for educational use only and not to be regarded or relied upon as medical advice. Those with health concerns should always consult a health practitioner. Alternative Health Shoppe is not engaged in rendering medical advice.
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