Cause of Free Radicals

Cause of Free Radicals - In this article I will address the cause in Free Radicals. No doubt you’ve heard the term “free radicals”! Understanding and combating the action of free radicals is a vital step in avoiding premature aging, premature death from major degenerative disease and for maintaining healthy, clear and firm skin as you age.

Despite the fact that they age us, free radicals are natural and play an essential role in a healthy human body ! If you’ve every cut open an apple and left it exposed to the air then you’ve seen free radicals at work. They attack the apple and the skinless parts quickly turn brown as they decompose. This is a process called oxidation the very same process that’s going on inside you with every breath you take.

Free radicals are a class of molecules in your body. Unfortunately, as far as aging is concerned, they are unstable. So, your body makes an effort to balance the problem. To do this, the unstable molecule swipes a part (an electron) from a neighboring stable molecule and so becomes stable. But in a catch 22 situation the healthy molecule which lost an electron now in turn becomes a free radical. Free Radicals can attack DNA, leading to dysfunction, mutation, cancer and create the conditions for the onset of debilitating degenerative diseases including heart disease.

Since many chemical reactions in your body inevitably produce free radicals, their production is continuous and inescapable. They’re not only inside you but outside as well. Twenty first century living means your health is impacted by environmental and dietary toxins and stressors every single day. Free radicals are one such example!

Now, let’s look at the impact of free radicals on your skin. If you’re well read you will no doubt be aware of the critical importance of maintaining high levels of healthy collagen in your skin. But free-radical attacks on your collagen cause cross-linking of protein molecules which leads to stiffness in your tissue. As a result your skin begins to lose it’s suppleness and tautness. Since collagen stays in your skin for many years these free radical attacks continue and the damage is cumulative- it builds up, up, up and your skin deteriorates and ages more, more, more!

Since we can’t stop free radicals completely, that leaves us with the option of managing their numbers so as to reduce the destructive impact from oxidative stress on your health. That’s where anti-oxidants come in. We all know that anti-oxidants are the good guys because they ‘give up’ a spare electron to the free radical thereby eliminating it! So, it seems obvious then that we need to take lots of antioxidants into our bodies!

But anti-oxidants are not all equal. Some are really powerful while others are far weaker. And it’s important to understand that there are different types of free radicals in different parts of your body which can only be neutralized by different antioxidants. So, it makes sense to take in a wide range of antioxidants so you have the dynamic synergistic effects of a large network of antioxidants working throughout your body.

To be significantly more successful with your anti aging efforts you should make sure to prioritize the most powerful antioxidants into your daily nutritional intake. So, which are which? The well known vitamin antioxidants, like Vitamin C and A, are fairly weak (and cheap). Vitamin E is a well established exception – it’s a potent antioxidant and crucial to skin health. There are numerous antioxidants but the following 8 have been established as the MOST POWERFUL:

• L-Glutathione
• CoQ10
• Grape Seed
• Green Tea
• Gingko Biloba
• Alpha Lipoic Acid
• Lutein
• Bilberry

The problem here however is that most of these are either not present or exist only in insufficient quantities in our diets. That’s why 21st century nutritional intakes must be supported with a multi nutrient nutritional health supplement.

The market’s most effective health supplement formulas contain ALL of these powerful antioxidants. But commonly you’ll be lucky to find just two or three of them in most multi vitamin or nutritional vitamin supplement formulas. The type of nutritional supplements you use ultimately makes a huge difference in the results you’ll get. If your budget allows you should use science-based, premium grade health nutritional supplements

Now, let’s relate this to your skin. As you have probably figured out, what we are looking for is the inclusion of these strong antioxidants in skin care formulas. This is a key point of difference between the most effective anti aging skin care treatments and the less effective ones. The antioxidants from our list above which are used in anti aging skin care products are:

• CoQ10
• Grape Seed
• Green Tea
• Alpha Lipoic Acid
• Lutein

THREE KEY CRITERIA TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU PART WITH YOUR CASH

When comparing brands before buying you need to consider three crucial factors:

• Safety
• Effectiveness
• Price

There’s many nasty industry secrets that you absolutely need to know when it comes to skin care product safety! 

When looking at the 'effectiveness' angle of anti aging skin care treatments, your most important task is to make sure a product contains ingredients to address all three fundamental causes of skin aging.

For starters you now know the most effective ingredients for treating one of these causes – free radicals. In my next two posts I’ll discuss what to look for in respect of the other two causes.

Finally, you have to consider the PRICE and VALUE FOR MONEY.

Are you a savvy shopper who none-the-less has spent a small fortune over the years yet failed to see any tangible and significant anti aging benefits in your skin.