It's not always as cut and dry as we want it to be. What are you currently doing on your antioxidant journey?
Vitamin C is one of those vitamins you can’t get enough of. Next to Vitamin B, Magnesium, Turmeric, and Calcium on the top five most sold supplements worldwide— even if you did consume too much “C”, your body will just excrete it. And you need the antioxidant effect that vitamin C provides to combat the effects of aging. While many think that too much of a good thing can be wonderful, is that truly the case here?
What do antioxidants do?
One important function of vitamins such as Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E is to act as antioxidants. Antioxidants work to protect our bodies from the oxidative effects of free radicals. Our bodies make free radicals (unstable molecules that cause oxidative stress) during our normal metabolic functions or when we are exposed to stressors like air pollution, cigarette smoke, or even sunlight. When our bodies are overexposed to free radicals, we are at risk for increased exposure to free radicals and their effects on the cells and tissues that make up our bodies.
What is the best kind of antioxidant?
We get antioxidants from different sources, and each source provides a different type of antioxidant.
Supplementary antioxidants:
Often synthetic forms of vitamins that are not always in the most bioavailable form. They may come in massive doses, for example, 1000% of the daily recommended dose. Researchers have found that these gigantic doses may actually interfere with the body’s delicate balancing act between free radicals and antioxidants.
Dietary antioxidants:
These nutrients come from the foods we eat. Eating a “rainbow” of foods gives you the best chance of getting the most variety of the best kind of antioxidant nutrients, like vitamin C in its most natural form.
Antioxidant enzymes:
Produced in the body, these are far more powerful than dietary antioxidants at stabilizing free radicals. The antioxidant enzymes that your body produces are reusable—your body can use them over and over again to defend against free radical molecules. Your body can regulate the production of these enzymes depending on the balance between antioxidants and free radicals that’s currently happening in your body.
Here’s how supplementary antioxidants (for example, Vitamin C) and antioxidant enzymes compare:
- Taking 2,000 mg of Vitamin C each day can neutralize about 0.01 moles (units of measurement) of free radicals.
- One antioxidant from a supplement removes one toxin.
- If you can increase your body’s production of an antioxidant enzyme like superoxide dismutase (SOD) by 2,000 mg per day, it can neutralize up to 5,270,000 moles of free radicals per day.
- One antioxidant enzyme can be used over and over to remove thousands of toxins!
This means that if you really want to get rid of the free radicals that jumpstart the aging process in your body, you need to figure out how to get your body to produce more antioxidant enzymes.
How do I stimulate my body to create reusable antioxidant enzymes?
Avoiding high-dose antioxidants and getting plenty of dietary antioxidants can help. But to create the strongest defense against free radicals, your body needs to activate its body system that creates powerful antioxidant enzymes according to your body’s circadian rhythms.
Rather than flood the body with outside antioxidants, a powerful new product called Protandim® Nrf2 Synergizer™, tells your body to start making hundreds of different protective molecules, including antioxidant enzymes, whenever your cells are under stress. It stimulates your body’s response to cellular stress by supporting the normal clean-up process for damaged cells, maintaining healthy cell function, and activating a response that protects cells against future stress.
Here are five helpful tips that trigger the Nrf2 protein and your body’s antioxidant enzyme production system:
- Stop taking high-dose antioxidant supplements like vitamins A, C, and E.
- Get active!
- Try intermittent fasting—once a month, consume only water for 24 hours.
- Eat the right variety of foods (blueberries, onions, broccoli, cabbage, apples—remember a “rainbow”).
- Boost Nrf2 with properly balanced phytonutrients (nutrients found in plants that combine to activate Nrf2 even further than when the nutrients are consumed alone).
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of LifeVantage or any other agency, organization, employer or company
