Antioxidants Explained

You may have heard that antioxidants are good for you, but what do they for you anyway?

You have probably also heard of oxidative stress, but it may not mean much to you. After all, oxygen is good for us, isn't it? But stress isn’t, so how do those two concepts fit together? Let’s take a quick look at chemistry to understand how oxidative stress causes physical effects, including wrinkles!

Oxidation is a reaction between oxygen and another chemical: they bond to make something different. You see this process when metal rusts.

Free radicals are chemicals that trigger oxidation. They are produced in the course of our healthy biochemistry. For example, the body uses their oxidizing capabilities to attack infectious microbes. As with so much in the human body, there is a goldilocks zone: enough but not too much oxidative stress, is healthy.

Free radicals are also produced when we are exposed to pollution, radiation, and other toxins. Although each oxidation reaction triggered is tiny, a big part of the problem is that free radicals don’t just trigger one reaction and then fizzle out. Instead they bounce from one destructive event to another, leaving a trail of damage behind them. This chain reaction causes ongoing oxidation on a large enough scale to create big problems in the long run.

To balance free radical production we need antioxidants, sometimes referred to as “free radical scavengers”.

Antioxidants react with free radicals, neutralising their reactive capability and stopping the chain of damaging oxidation. One antioxidant molecule can prevent a whole trail of damage to many of your cells. But each antioxidant molecule can only quash one free radical, and then it is used up.

Too many free radicals produced, or too few antioxidants to quash them, results in chronic oxidative stress, which causes chronic inflammation.

That chronic inflammation damages our cells and their mitochondria (energy producers) * beyond their capacity to restore themselves. If your mitochondria are damaged, you don’t produce as much cellular energy. Much too much oxidative stress and our mitochondria and cells die.

Conditions associated with oxidative stress and the chronic inflammation it causes are everywhere:

• High blood pressure and ischemic heart disease due to inflammation of the linings of blood vessels

• Osteoarthritis due to inflammation of joints

• Depression due to inflammation of brain cells

• Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative diseases due to chronic inflammation of brain cells

• Chronic kidney disease due to inflammation of the blood vessels and tubules of the kidney

• Auto-immune diseases

• Cataracts

• Diabetes is promoted and worsened by oxidative stress

• Cancer is also promoted by chronic inflammation

The development of these conditions is slow, and invisible at first. A visible sign of oxidative stress occurs when skin becomes less flexible, over time creating wrinkles. But unfortunately the effects aren’t just skin deep: what’s happening to the skin is mirrored in many other organs. That’s why you’ll see anti-oxidants suggested as an anti-aging treatment.

Given our exposure to environmental pollutants, we all need more antioxidants. And where do you find them? You guessed it, in your colourful fruits and vegetables. Yet another reason to eat fresh, vibrant plant foods in lots of different colours.  *

“The nutrient antioxidant deficiency is one of the causes of numerous chronic and degenerative pathologies”

Free Radicals, Antioxidants in Disease and Health, International Journal of Biomedical Science 2008, Jun;4(2):89–96.

Curious about the connections? Check out these links:

*Mitochondria: Power Up!

**Why Eat The Rainbow

***Polyphenol Rich Foods Chart