What is an Antioxidant?

There are many claims being made about natural elements and compounds that perform either integral or miracle duties in the human body.  The antioxidant is one such element. It is being bandied about in the media, and is the subject of many health marketing campaigns.  The antioxidant is an important part of the world of chemistry, affecting both living things and non-living materials.  The antioxidant is a molecule that through a chemical process protects the molecules surrounding it from the ever-present process of oxidation.  Oxidation can happen to anything exposed to it.  In metals like steel, you see the physical representation of the oxidation process in the form of rust.  When electrons are stripped from the iron molecules by the present oxidizing agent, it creates the ruddy iron oxide that you see develop on the surface.  Antioxidants interrupt this chemical change by giving themselves up to the oxidation. They expend the supply of the agent before it has a chance to strip other molecules surrounding the antioxidant of their precious stabilizing electrons.  In living materials, the process of oxidation leads to the release of free radicals. These react with the living cells surrounding the reaction, setting up possible chain reactions that ultimately lead to the demise of the cells affected.  Oxidation has been touted as one of the primary causes of aging in living organisms.

Oxidation is occurring everywhere. It has always been a challenge to the preservation of the future in the form of major construction projects and public works of art; but it wasn’t the subject of prime time programming outside science-based TV genre until the 1970s when our collective health became far more important to our societies than ever before.  The press on antioxidants was positive and made claims that the antioxidant would reverse the oxidation process, eliminate all of the free radicals, and in effect, allow us to live a long and healthy life with a minimum of aging.  Of course, everyone wants that; no one wishes to become immobile and confined to bed; they wish to live long lives and pass away peacefully in their sleep.  So, antioxidants became an important staple for the fitness world, the pharmaceutical industry, and health food producers.  Foods, fruits, and vegetables that were high in antioxidants became the rage as blueberries and their derivative products flew off supermarket shelves in the name of good health.  We were all very concerned about staying fit and living a long life.  So, we filled our fridges and stocked our shelves with antioxidant products and consumed them faithfully day in, day out, hoping for the desired limited immortality we wished for as children.

Now we are waiting to reap the benefits of our continued efforts to extend that final day for another week.  Are you feeling healthier for having taken your antioxidants?  Is your lifestyle showing that your body is regressing to that of an active young adult?  Is your mind becoming more alert and creative?  You might answer ‘yes’ to any of those questions and be right, but your good fortune probably isn’t based on the antioxidants you consumed in your lifetime.  Experts in medicine have carried out exhaustive studies to scientifically confirm the effectiveness of antioxidants on the living subject.  At the conclusion of all of these recognized medical studies, the researchers agreed that antioxidants’ sacrificial function in the human body is vitally important to our very existence as living beings.  However, after many double blind experiments, it was determined that increasing the number of items that contain antioxidants in the diet or the addition of antioxidant supplements beyond the living requirement, added no measureable benefits. In fact, if you decide to push the limits and eat well beyond your needs, stuffing your face with huge doses of beta-carotene while enjoying an occasional cigarette to reward yourself for your consumption of antioxidants, you will have done nothing more than increase the chance that you will get lung cancer.  It seems that antioxidant supplements can also interfere with cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. Because cancer cells are already causing oxidation stress, they are far more likely to be affected by the oxidation stress generated by the chemo or radiation.  Antioxidants give these cancerous cells a fighting chance against treatment.

You, as an informed consumer, should understand the claims made on anything are not beyond impunity.  Just because your fitness instructor and your nutritionist may think you can stockpile antioxidants in your body and be better for it, does not mean it has been scientifically proven.  You should consult with your doctor about what you require for a healthy life with a minimum of life-threatening oxidation.  Eat in moderation and you will have the best chance for eliminating the harmful free radicals in your body.  Now you need to find out how to eat right and exercise; Attention to those two areas of your life can radically improve your health and well-being.