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What are antioxidants?
In order to give a good explanation of what antioxidants are, we first have to take a look at free radicals.
As far as science knows, oxygen is an absolute necessity for life. We need a large amount of it for our metabolism to run and convert nutrients to energy for all the functions we need to live. Energy is essential for everything that goes on in our bodies, as well as for all physical activities, body warmth and movement. We could not make energy without oxygen., yet oxygen has another, less healthy side.
The production of energy, metabolism, also produces called free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules that damage cell structures and ultimately lead to any number of maladies, such as cancer, heart disease and other diseases. The aging of cells and serious conditions that are associated with aging of the body are caused or aggravated by free radicals, which are being produced in the body at a very high rate all the time. Therefore, we need to limit the amount of free radicals we have in our bodies at any given time.
This is where the antioxidants come in. They are a group of compounds that are uniquely suited to limit the damage done by free radicals and, in a way, disarm them before they can do damage to the tissue of the body. Antioxidants are on call everywhere in the body, ready to disarm the free radicals.
There are many hundreds of naturally occurring antioxidants, and some of them are manufactured by the body. Others must be acquired from the diet or from supplements.
When an antioxidant molecule encounters a free radical, it engulfs it, so that the free radical joins the molecular structure of the antioxidant. The antioxidant itself becomes a free radical, but one that is much weaker and a lot less likely to do any damage. The free radical is “taken out of circulation” and can no longer damage the cells.
Network antioxidants
In the body, there is a complex and dynamic interaction between some of the more potent antioxidants. They work together to strengthen the entire antioxidants system, and are for that reason known as the network antioxidants. They are lipoic acid, vitamins C and E, glutathione, and coenzyme Q10. When combined, they greatly increase each others antioxidant capabilities and enhance the activities of one another. One of the most interesting qualities of these network antioxidants is that they can “recycle” or regenerate each other after they have neutralized a free radical, which means that their powers as antioxidants are greatly increased.
The antioxidant network has as its main task to prevent that antioxidants are lost to oxidation. In other words, they act as antioxidants for one another.
Each of the network antioxidants has its own specialty or niche where it works best. For instance, fat-soluble vitamin A can protect the cell membrane, which consists of fats or lipids, but is much less effective inside the cell, where the environment is mainly water and water-soluble antioxidants, such as vitamin C, work a lot better. As far as we know, only the relatively newly discovered antioxidant lipoic acid is allowed in both watery and fatty parts of the cells.
The antioxidant network is a lot stronger than the sum of its parts, and when working together the antioxidants increase greatly in efficiency and their powers in reducing oxidation.
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