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Dr. Whiting on Antioxidants and Free Radical Damage
Hello, this is Doctor Whiting. Today I want to take a few minutes to talk to you about a group of nutrients that have received a lot of exposure in press in the last decade or two and rightfully so and these are called the antioxidants.
Antioxidant really means against oxygen or against oxidation. Anti-oxidant nutrients of which there are herbs, vitamins and some minerals, among their other functions, they also help to prevent the oxidative damage to living cells and tissues of the body.
You see when toxins get into the human body which can occur from a variety of factors, air, water, foods, food additives, chemicals in the environment, over- exposure to chemicals in the work environment and so on and so forth. These toxins break down in the body and in the process of that breaking down, form chemicals called free radicals. Free radicals are essentially chemical ‘buzz bombs’ with a missing electron and they race through the body and they attack certain cells altering the cell’s DNA or genetic makeup. Because they’re looking for that missing electron that they don’t have. So they’re looking to stabilize their ‘being-ness’, their chemistry, their electrical charge and when they rob what they need from the cell of the body, it usually results in a permanent genetic mutation. Which means that that individual cell, forever more, when it replicates or duplicates, it will duplicate in a mutated or altered state.
Well, one cell here and one cell there isn’t a terribly big problem. But over the years of time, rapid amounts and high amounts of free radicals in the human body can lead to such things as hair loss, disorders of the skin, premature aging of the skin, chronic dryness of the skin. It can lead to more serious conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis; in fact the majority of chronic, non-infectious diseases, those that are epidemic in our society today are directly related to the activities of the free radicals in the human body.
Heart disease. The number one cause of death in civilized, industrialized nations, is caused, originally, not by excess cholesterol, but by free radicals formed by the excess consumption of rancid, oxidized vegetable oils. So controlling these free radicals and their activity in the human body is vital to longevity and quality of life. Free radicals can damage all kinds of genetic cells. Each one has their favorite. So that when we look at an antioxidant formula, we need to look at a formula that combines various anti-oxidant factors so that we can get the broadest protection against the widest variety of free radicals.
Michael Murray, a leading anti-oxidant, anti-aging researcher, has often said that by combining various anti-oxidants together, we can achieve much greater free radical protection, then by using each of these singularly or individually. Other researchers since then have confirmed his position as being very valid.
Here at our research institute, we adopt the same philosophy and we battle free radical activity in the human body in a variety of ways.
We tried many different combinations of anti-oxidants and of course we started out with the most common ones; vitamin A, vitamin C, those types of things. Zinc, selenium, these are what we call nutrient anti-oxidants. But there are a group of anti-oxidants that I like to call the ‘heavy-hitting’ anti-oxidants and these are much more powerful. Their chemical substances are usually derived from plants, although not always. And these anti-oxidants which can be found in fruits, vegetables, and so forth, when extracted and concentrated, can provide additional, high-level, high-power protection from some of the most deadly and damaging free radicals in our environment.
We also use our anti-oxidants for people who smoke, because cigarette smoking produces a variety of different free radicals due to the ingestion of potentially toxic chemicals.
Also people who tend to over-indulge in alcohol. Now, one or two glasses of wine, one or two cocktails a day have repeatedly been found to be of great health benefit unless of course, you have an alcohol problem. But often times many of us tend to exceed those optimal benefits simply because we enjoy the taste, we enjoy the sensation, we’re trying to de-stress; there’s a whole wide variety of reasons that people tend to abuse these substances. Well, by taking anti-oxidants, that doesn’t necessarily mean it renders this substances harmless. It just makes them less harmful. And it’s an ideal thing to do if you’re trying to cut down or trying to quit, such as someone who is a cigarette smoker, because this provides some cellular protection in the meantime.
Free radical damage to the body, by environmental toxins, is probably one of the leading causes of chronic degenerative disease. That combined with the altering of the human genial , through free radical activity and mutation can lead to a whole host of health problems, from mild and insignificant to devastating and deadly. There’s no reason why each and every one of us can’t protect the internal chemistry of our body by free radical fighting nutrients. I’m Dr. Whiting. Take care of your body and it will take care of you. Thanks for listening.
Antioxidant really means against oxygen or against oxidation. Anti-oxidant nutrients of which there are herbs, vitamins and some minerals, among their other functions, they also help to prevent the oxidative damage to living cells and tissues of the body.
You see when toxins get into the human body which can occur from a variety of factors, air, water, foods, food additives, chemicals in the environment, over- exposure to chemicals in the work environment and so on and so forth. These toxins break down in the body and in the process of that breaking down, form chemicals called free radicals. Free radicals are essentially chemical ‘buzz bombs’ with a missing electron and they race through the body and they attack certain cells altering the cell’s DNA or genetic makeup. Because they’re looking for that missing electron that they don’t have. So they’re looking to stabilize their ‘being-ness’, their chemistry, their electrical charge and when they rob what they need from the cell of the body, it usually results in a permanent genetic mutation. Which means that that individual cell, forever more, when it replicates or duplicates, it will duplicate in a mutated or altered state.
Well, one cell here and one cell there isn’t a terribly big problem. But over the years of time, rapid amounts and high amounts of free radicals in the human body can lead to such things as hair loss, disorders of the skin, premature aging of the skin, chronic dryness of the skin. It can lead to more serious conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis; in fact the majority of chronic, non-infectious diseases, those that are epidemic in our society today are directly related to the activities of the free radicals in the human body.
Heart disease. The number one cause of death in civilized, industrialized nations, is caused, originally, not by excess cholesterol, but by free radicals formed by the excess consumption of rancid, oxidized vegetable oils. So controlling these free radicals and their activity in the human body is vital to longevity and quality of life. Free radicals can damage all kinds of genetic cells. Each one has their favorite. So that when we look at an antioxidant formula, we need to look at a formula that combines various anti-oxidant factors so that we can get the broadest protection against the widest variety of free radicals.
Michael Murray, a leading anti-oxidant, anti-aging researcher, has often said that by combining various anti-oxidants together, we can achieve much greater free radical protection, then by using each of these singularly or individually. Other researchers since then have confirmed his position as being very valid.
Here at our research institute, we adopt the same philosophy and we battle free radical activity in the human body in a variety of ways.
We tried many different combinations of anti-oxidants and of course we started out with the most common ones; vitamin A, vitamin C, those types of things. Zinc, selenium, these are what we call nutrient anti-oxidants. But there are a group of anti-oxidants that I like to call the ‘heavy-hitting’ anti-oxidants and these are much more powerful. Their chemical substances are usually derived from plants, although not always. And these anti-oxidants which can be found in fruits, vegetables, and so forth, when extracted and concentrated, can provide additional, high-level, high-power protection from some of the most deadly and damaging free radicals in our environment.
We also use our anti-oxidants for people who smoke, because cigarette smoking produces a variety of different free radicals due to the ingestion of potentially toxic chemicals.
Also people who tend to over-indulge in alcohol. Now, one or two glasses of wine, one or two cocktails a day have repeatedly been found to be of great health benefit unless of course, you have an alcohol problem. But often times many of us tend to exceed those optimal benefits simply because we enjoy the taste, we enjoy the sensation, we’re trying to de-stress; there’s a whole wide variety of reasons that people tend to abuse these substances. Well, by taking anti-oxidants, that doesn’t necessarily mean it renders this substances harmless. It just makes them less harmful. And it’s an ideal thing to do if you’re trying to cut down or trying to quit, such as someone who is a cigarette smoker, because this provides some cellular protection in the meantime.
Free radical damage to the body, by environmental toxins, is probably one of the leading causes of chronic degenerative disease. That combined with the altering of the human genial , through free radical activity and mutation can lead to a whole host of health problems, from mild and insignificant to devastating and deadly. There’s no reason why each and every one of us can’t protect the internal chemistry of our body by free radical fighting nutrients. I’m Dr. Whiting. Take care of your body and it will take care of you. Thanks for listening.