Stressed Out and Rusting From The Inside Out

May 1st, 2011 by Angela

The Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz couldn’t move because of oxidation. Likewise, our health can suffer as a result of oxidative stress, and we need something other than an oil can to keep us in good repair!

You know what oxidation does to a piece of metal . . corrosion and rust! Our bodies are under the same kind of stress. Even though oxygen is necessary for life, it can generate harmful by-products during normal cellular metabolism. These by-products are known as free radicals.

The oxidation process is necessary, but it produces free radicals, oxidized molecules that are missing electrons. These molecules are unstable and agitated. They stay unstable until they seize new electrons to replace the missing ones. They prowl through our bodies taking electrons from our cells, even our most critical ones like electron-rich DNA.

When free radicals pull electrons out of our DNA it no longer functions properly. DNA keeps our genetic information and controls the reproduction of all new cells, including the cells that make up our organs, heart, brain and other tissues which are vital to our health.

Left uncontrolled, free radicals might cause over 50 health problems including abnormal development of new cells; ruin to vision; increased aging of skin, organs, and bones; ruin to heart and blood vessels; ruin to the nervous system and brain cells; enzyme malfunction; cancer; and a weak immune system.

Several things increase our metabolic activity and therefore increase our body’s generation of free radicals:

Strenuous physical activity
Mental stress, depression, and recurring anxiety
Toxic industrial chemicals in our water, air, food, and beverages

Our blood streams contain 300 – 500 toxins, most that didn’t exist prior to World War II. This is regardless of what section of the country we live in. One researcher tested people around the U.S. and found that 100% of the people tested had 100% of the toxins tested for.

Our drinking water has been polluted by chemical fertilizer runoff, pharmaceutical drugs flushed down our commodes, and pollution from manufacturing facilities.

Perhaps the primary way to protect ourselves from free immoderate ruin is by intake foods high in antioxidants. Antioxidants easily give up their electrons to “hungry” electron deficient free radicals. The way that antioxidants work is that they either bind to the free radicals and convert them into non-damaging compounds or by repairing cellular damage.

Antioxidants found in food include vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and the carotenoids. Our bodies can also produce antioxidants. However, the antioxidant content of our modern diet has been seriously decreased due to soil depletion, “green harvesting”, and today’s farming methods. Any antioxidant nutrients in fruits and vegetables that make it through our modern-day growth and harvesting methods then suffer due to the cooking, processing, preserving, and packaging common today.

Therefore to ensure antioxidant endorsement it is necessary that we consume foods high in antioxidants and to include a reliable antioxidant supplement in our regularly diet. This pdf document, A comparative list of antioxidants, shows the free immoderate endorsement provided by each of 91 different antioxidant products based on their ORACo value. ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity. The original ORAC assay was a measurement for only water-soluble antioxidant activity. ORACo assays both fat and water-soluble antioxidant activity.