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Antioxidants, Our Natural Protectants |
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Antioxidants, Our Natural Protectants:
Metabolic Regulators, Antitoxins and anti-inflammatories
 ntioxidants protect us. They are the substances
that naturally regulate the fires
within our bodies. The fires are sparked
by metabolic errors in our cells—errors that are
unavoidable as our cells make and use energy for
the business of life. The fires can be managed
when we are young and very healthy but
become harder to control as we get older. Aging
is not so much bad genes as it is a slow, inexorable,
cumulative consequence of tissue
damage from internal fires, sparked by these
unavoidable errors of metabolism.
The sparks of metabolism come from living
with oxygen. Our life forms breathe in oxygen
and use it to do controlled “burns” that extract
energy from our foods. Oxygen-based energy
allows us to become more sophisticated than
amebas, but comes with a big price. Oxygen is
so reactive that it draws single electrons to it,
generating oxygen-free radicals within our cells.
These “oxyrads” are our unavoidable “sparks of
metabolism.” Antioxidants keep them from
destroying our cells.
Our tiny metabolic sparks are generated at a
steady rate, the oxyrads having single electrons
which cause them to attack biological molecules.
Molecules with single electrons are
aggressive oxidants: they steal single electrons to
become paired up. Antioxidants block this
process by donating their own electrons.
The antioxidant defenses dare not fail.
When they do, important biomolecules lose
single electrons, themselves become unstable,
and initiate spreading chain reactions. A chain
reaction that escapes control becomes inflammation,
with cell and tissue death and progressive
loss of functional capacity. Inflammatory
events are our internal fires, opposed by antioxidant
enzymes backed up by our dietary antioxidant
intakes. Our antioxidant defenses give us
power to head off degenerative disease and
achieve long life.
By quenching the metabolic sparks, antioxidants
are also our natural antitoxins. But if the
oxygen-free-radical toxins were the only
problem, we’d likely all live 120 years or more.
Think about cigarette smoke—100 trillion free
radicals per puff. A total 4,000-plus synthetic
chemicals in everyday use; even drugs we buy
over the counter set small fires. Not to mention
the illicit “recreational drugs.” Even emotional
stress can overheat our metabolism. In this crazy
world it’s not good to leave home without your
antioxidants.
Infectious agents are consistently linked to
inflammation. In 1990 I documented inflammatory
depletion of antioxidants by HIV-1.
Then there’s Hepatitis C virus in the livers of
four million Americans. The bacterium
Helicobacter pylori accounts for the majority of
inflammatory stomach and intestinal ulcers.
About half of the chronically ill American veterans
of the Gulf War have mycoplasmal infections.
We also can’t forget Chlamydia
pneumoniae, the fungus Candida albicans and
Giardia and amebic protozoal parasites.
Our own host immune system may trigger
inflammation from over-reaction to resistant
pathogens. The immune cells produce huge
quantities of free radicals when on the attack.
When pathogens are not easily eliminated, the
immune oxidant production can get out of control,
resulting in local exhaustion of antioxidant
defenses and another inflammatory focus.
Almost every toxic substance steals electrons
and therefore can deplete the body’s antioxidants.
Plus, the body’s own efforts to process
some substances can actually make them worse
toxins. The P450 detoxication system, located
mostly in the liver, combines oxygen with
water-insoluble substances such as cholesterol,
estrogens, pollutants, pharmaceuticals, even
herbal constituents. They are made into free
radicals, to be later combined with antioxidants
and made water-soluble for clearance with the
urine or bile. But things don’t always go as
planned.
The P450 system wasn’t designed to deal with the huge mass of toxins that enter the
body. Let’s talk about acetaminophen. This
legal, over-the-counter drug (Tylenol®) is made
highly reactive by the liver P450 enzymes. Then
it burns away glutathione, the major liver
antioxidant, and begins to kill liver cells. Liver
failure can result. Organochlorine pollutants,
indoor pesticides, mercury and other heavy
metals (and let’s not forget alcohol and cigarette
smoke derivatives) all deplete glutathione and
threaten all the tissues.
I recently did a series of in-depth reviews of
degenerative diseases. The major pattern I see
with atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease,
bowel diseases, liver diseases, Alzheimer’s disease,
multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, cataract,
arthritis, osteoporosis, macular degeneration,
prostate diseases, many cancers—is inflammation.
By combating inflammation, antioxidants
are our essential natural defense against premature
suffering and death.
The body relies on foods to replenish its
internal antioxidant stores. From our whole,
unprocessed foods come the antioxidant vitamins
A, C and E; the antioxidant essential minerals,
selenium and zinc and copper and
manganese; the semi-essential antioxidants
coenzyme Q10 (COQ) and alpha lipoic acid
(ALA); lutein, lycopene and other carotenoids;
the polyphenolic flavonoids and various substances
from traditional herbs. These circulate
in our blood and contribute integratively to the
blocking of free radicals. But a growing body of
research indicates we aren’t getting enough from
our foods for optimal protection against disease.
The healthy body tries to conserve the nutritional
antioxidants through metabolic recycling.
But still there is a “burn” on our reserves.
Dr. Robert Cathcart, the foremost authority on
vitamin C , speaks of a “hundred-gram cold,” an
influenza so severe it can burn away 100 grams
(not milligrams) of vitamin C in just a day or
two. A flu attack can be held to just a few days
instead of a few weeks by taking lots of C and
other antioxidants.
Integrative medical practitioners report that
just about all their patients benefit from supplemental
antioxidants. Vitamin E has been known
for decades to be lifesaving against heart disease.
Most of the health food community thinks of
vitamin E as tocopherols. But tocotrienols are
legitimate members of the vitamin E family and
are excellent antioxidants. They are under clinical
investigation for benefit against atherosclerotic
blood vessel disease and experimentally for
the slowing of cancer cell growth and proliferation.
Stephen Sinatra, M.D., a cardiologist and
leader in the practice of integrative medicine,
has long been a booster for COQ. I can relate to
this because I also see COQ’s fantastic promise.
As I read about health care costs soaring
through the roof, I wonder why COQ is not
being fortified in our foods to lower gum disease,
to improve heart and blood vessel health,
to boost immunity and fight cancer development,
even (yes!) to lengthen everyone’s productive
lifespan.
Coenzyme Q10 is unique as a potent antioxidant
and indispensable energy catalyst (only
ALA has a similar double role). Many of Dr.
Sinatra’s patients are very deficient in COQ.
People taking statin drugs, beta-blockers or certain
of the anti-depressants may have their
internal COQ synthesis blocked. For them and
probably for many of the sick and elderly, COQ
is practically a vitamin. Any insufficiency of
COQ can endanger the heart through impairing
its energetic capacity.
Dr. Sinatra has linked much of the heart disease
he sees in women to COQ deficiency. More
than 100 clinical studies document that COQ
improves congestive heart failure, angina,
high blood pressure. About 15 percent of Dr.
Sinatra’s patients do not improve satisfactorily
on COQ alone; these he gives carnitine and then
improvement usually occurs. He also sees in the
clinical evidence a potential link between poor
COQ status and cancers, especially in women.
Selenium is an essential trace mineral,
required through the diet though only in small
quantities. Selenium has importance for human health that belies its plain mineral status. It is specific for the active sites of the antioxidant
enzyme glutathione peroxidase (GP). GP is a
central player in control over free radicals.
In 1996 a major paper appeared in the prestigious
(and conservative) New England Journal
of Medicine, making an almost unbelievable
claim. It described a double-blind, randomized,
placebo-controlled trial in which more
than 1,300 subjects were followed for up to 10
years. Dietary supplementation with selenium
produced a 50 percent reduction in total cancer
mortality. The incidence of cancer was reduced
by one-third. Lung, colorectal and prostate
cancer incidence were markedly reduced. The
material used was SelenoExcell™, an organic
selenium concentrate that resembles the selenium
found in food.
The carotenoids are, like vitamin E, fatsoluble
antioxidants. One of them—lycopene—has been linked to exciting early
results against prostate cancer. A small but
controlled, clinical trial focused on male
subjects undergoing surgery for prostate
cancer. Half were offered a dietary supplement
of LYC-O-MATO®, a standardized natural tomato
extract with four times the typical lycopene
content. PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) levels
and prostate tumor size were significantly
reduced, compared with the control subjects.
More recently, in a placebo-controlled,
crossover trial, LYC-O-MATO® also showed good
results in lowering high blood pressure. Its natural
combination of lycopene with other plant
nutrients may offer a unique synergy for the
protection of our health against free radical and
other toxic damage.
Lutein is the only carotenoid found in high
concentrations in the retina, a thin cell layer at
the back of the eye which constantly takes a
high dose of light radiation. Macular degeneration
destroys the retina and afflicts one out of
four Americans over age 65. Lutein is being
researched for its capacity to protect the retina
and the lens of the eye and it also has anticancer
potential.
Grape seed extracts are concentrates of
flavonoid polymers. When the great scientist
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi received the Nobel Prize
for discovering vitamin C, he commented that
he had expected to get it for discovering the
flavonoids. The small polymers (oligomeric
procyanidins) and polyphenols in grapes work
synergistically with vitamin C to conserve the
functions of the blood vessel linings and walls.
Some of these flavonoids also have antiviral and
possible anticancer actions.
As scientists continue with their dedicated
investigations of food constituents, the latest
phytonutrient star is rosmarinic acid (RA). This
substance is extracted from a naturally highyielding
strain of oregano and also occurs in
thyme and rosemary. All three of these plants
have been revered for their medicinal properties
literally for centuries. RA appears to have antiinflammatory
and anti-allergic properties,
while its high antioxidant potency has proved
useful for stabilizing vegetable oils against
frying. It has been prepared as a powder
without solvents or other processing chemicals.
Antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral effects
are also being investigated.
Antioxidants are, together with phospholipids,
nutrients with profound nutraceutical
potential. Whether supplementation with these
nutrients will extend the maximum lifespan
remains to be proven. Certainly the clinical and
experimental studies suggest that functional
deficiencies of these nutrients result in cell-level
dysfunctions with the potential to spark
inflammation that progresses to life-shortening
degenerative disease.
We need to keep the fires within us at a very
low ebb lest they develop into the raging
infernos of uncontrolled inflammation.
Consumption of a variety of functional foods
and supplements enriched with these nutrients
will help keep that doctor away.
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