Protect Your Body With Antioxidants

Inside your body, an army of antioxidants protects you from disease and aging. Labels on products such as chocolate or pomegranate juice show you how beneficial antioxidants are. And it's not exaggerated advertising.

They help prevent cancer and heart disease, improve memory function, reduce the risk of degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, protect joints, soothe pain, reduce muscle inflammation and fatigue, prevent cataract blindness and even wrinkles.

What are antioxidants

The news is great, but it also raises questions: what are antioxidants and how can they fight such conditions? It seems that antioxidants travel to every part of your body and "repair" the affected molecules that are responsible for the onset of a disease or the acceleration of the aging process.

Before you know what an antioxidant is, you need to know something about oxidants. If you do not live isolated from the world, somewhere in the mountains where you can breathe fresh air, it means that you are a person who strives to overcome the negative effects of pollution, chemicals, and ultraviolet rays that affect your cells.

Your own body produces toxic and chemical reactions. These toxins weaken your molecules and cause the loss of electrons, elements that help cells work. Odd electron cells are oxidants (free radicals) that can affect healthy ones in a very short time.

Free radicals in blood vessels, usually caused by frying, cigarette smoke, or polluted air, change the structure of cholesterol and can cause both motor disorders and heart disease. Sunlight and polluted air can create free radicals even in your eyes, affecting the retina and cornea, causing cataracts and blindness.

Also, your skin can be affected (especially DNA cells), causing skin cancer and accelerating the aging process. In other words, free radicals can affect everything in their path.

Fortunately, some nutrients work against oxidants and can be found in your favorite foods and beverages: fruits, vegetables, wine, chocolate, even beef. Antioxidants replace affected molecules without harming healthy ones.

The actions of antioxidants are much more numerous, they locate the hostile elements in the environment (isothiocyanates from broccoli, nicotine, and smoke) and prevent cancer.

Vitamin C blocks the uncontrolled division of tumor-causing cells. The mission of antioxidants is to save your body from the inside out.

The magnificent seven

The same process that transformed us from primitive creatures into fine-skinned people who follow teeth whitening treatments also gave us the ability to fight free radicals.

Your body contains a variety of antioxidants, all of which have complicated names that annihilate the free radicals that form. Unfortunately, internal antioxidants are not enough, but they can be supplemented with those in food. Every day, scientists discover amazing new things about how antioxidants take care of your body. Here are the most popular:

• Selenium has a double action on you, it is an antioxidant that accelerates the process in which other elements of this kind take part. You can find it in walnut kernels and shrimp.

• Vitamin E fights heart disease, boosts immunity, and prevents skin cancer. In addition, it slows down the aging process. You can find it in sunflower seeds and peanut butter.

• Vitamin C is not only good for the flu. It protects your DNA, blood vessels and helps your body use vitamin E effectively. Reduces the risk of heart disease and palpitations. You can find it in papaya and broccoli.

• Carotenoids protect your eyes and skin from the negative effects of the sun. You can find them in carrots and spinach.

• Isotocyanates fight cancer-causing enzymes. You can find them in broccoli and cauliflower.

• Polyphenols help improve memory and prevent diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's. You can find them in dark chocolate (the higher the cocoa concentration, the better), red wine, tea, and coffee.

• Coenzyme Q10 prevents migraines and lowers blood pressure. You can find it in beef, chicken or fish.

Prevents free radicals from affecting your body by consuming as many antioxidant-rich products as possible. Now that you've learned that you need to eat them, you need to know that you can wear them. Antioxidants in cosmetic treatments block the action of free radicals from the environment (sunlight and pollution) and prevent them from penetrating deep into the skin.