Body Beautiful.ca

Medical

The Four Benefits of Antioxidants

Posted by Admin on Saturday, March 20, 2010 - 06:38 AM

Antioxidants Makes You Look Younger and Help You Live Longer

Have you heard of all the benefits that antioxidants can provide you and your body? It is seriously amazing how important these antioxidants are for your body and health. Antioxidants assist all areas of the body by helping them fight off free radicals, cells that damage our healthy cells and cause diseases. By getting the right amount of the important antioxidants a day, we benefit tremendously!

The first benefit of antioxidants—Building our Immune system

They aid our immune system by preventing and eliminating free radical cells. While in some occurrences our immune system produces free radicals cells on purpose to ward off viruses and diseases, the immune system knows that free radicals are not good for the body.

Free radical cells do damage the immune system, by damaging the immune cells and disconnecting its communication pathway. Antioxidants are known to protect our immune system, while at the same time boost our immunity to viruses and diseases.

The second benefit of antioxidants—Protecting our organs

They protect our organs by preventing oxidation by other cells. When cells oxidize, they form free radicals which can cause damage in our muscle tissue, cardiovascular system, and digestive system, which can cause diseases in these areas along with diabetes or cancer.

Since we are exposed to free radicals everyday through our metabolism, medications, pollution, smoking, and excessive sun exposure, it is very important to take control over cells oxidizing and free radicals forming. Antioxidants help to stop the reaction of oxidation, and they help to neutralize free radicals.

The third benefit of antioxidants—Cancer Prevention

They prevent cancer cells from forming by eliminating free radical cells. In order for a cancer cell to form, there must be an abnormal or radical cell to form it. When we consume antioxidants, they help neutralize the radical cells and dispose of the abnormal cells.

Therefore, if our body has less abnormal and free radicals, our chances of developing cancer decreases. The more antioxidants we eat, the more free radicals cured, and the less chance of cancer we have. (But do not overdose yourself on antioxidants, just take the recommended amounts).

The fourth benefit of antioxidants—Aging Prevention

They assist in preventing the effects of aging by speeding up the process in which old cells are replaced with new cells. The older we get, the slower our body works, so when we become too old, our body can no longer keep up with replacing our old cells. If our old cells do not get replaced, then our skin begins to look older and we are more likely to get sick.

With antioxidants, we can help prevent this from happening by keeping up on replacing old cells with new cells. As long as we do not let the free radical cells and old cells build up too much, we should be able to help prolong the effects of aging.