Life and Damage in a Breath

Antioxidants: managing free radicals is as natural as inhaling air.

Life and Damage in a Breath

by Iske Conradie

Hold your breath for the truth about free radicals and antioxidants.

Since the 80's many studies have linked free radical damage to the death of cells and diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, heart fibrillation and cancer.  Scientists also pinpointed the means to counter free radical damage: antioxidants.

Free radicals are unstable and highly reactive molecules that love to bind with particles like DNA, proteins and lipids. When they do, they meddle with the structure and functionality of these particles, which can ultimately cause cellular death.

Antioxidants inhibit these free radical reactions.

These scientific breakthroughs along with pharmaceutical opportunism sparked the popularity of antioxidant supplements.

Shelves and shelves with various antioxidant supplements market antioxidants as the hero’s in the fight against free radicals.

You can thank your life-source, oxygen, for your inevitable dose of oxygen related free radicals.

As free radicals come without saying and with a gulp of air, your body has a natural management plan to keep the radicals in check. High dosages of antioxidants in supplements may disregard the natural balance of antioxidants and free radicals in your body.

The management system

Every waking or sleeping moment, at least 2 to 5 % of the oxygen you breathe potentially converts to reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS are potent free radicals that derive from oxygen.

This happens naturally within cells when some of the oxygen molecules accept one or more unpaired electrons from other particles.

With their newly acquired unpaired electrons these oxygen molecules (O₂) change into ROS radicals like superoxide water peroxide (H₂O₂), superoxide (O₂^-) or the radical (O₂^.).

ROS free radicals are very eager to connect with other particles; electrons hate being single.

Your body uses antioxidants to take up single electrons to inhibit free radicals hooking up with unsuitable partners.

It produces uric acid, protein thiols and melatonin which act as antioxidants to neutralise free radicals.

Your body is also an expert in putting your food to work. It will harvest all the edible antioxidants or elements, which aid antioxidants from your lunch.

Getting enough antioxidants

Your mango juice and whole grain beef, mayonnaise and tomato sandwich serves up vitamin B, C and E; beta-carotene; selenium; zinc and plant flavonoids.

Dietitian, Andrea Fick, believes well-fed people will get sufficient antioxidants from their day-to-day diet.

"Most things you eat: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, most breakfast cereals and breads contain antioxidants. The amounts of various antioxidants you need per day are really small. For example a woman can get her daily intake of vitamin C for the day, eating one orange. After about four oranges your body is satisfied with vitamin C and excretes the rest.

"However if you don't eat your whole grains, two fruits and three vegetables per day and mostly refined starches and takeaways you won't consume sufficient antioxidants".

The term Oxidative stress is used to describe the harmful  state when the amount of ROS produced exceeds your bodies' ability to remove them.

There is a beneficial function of ROS free radicals in your body as well. It is used to reduce inflammation and to attack bacteria.

An too much antioxidants

Medical practitioner, Dr. Herman Kotzé, believes people should take antioxidant supplements. He uses high dosages of antioxidants himself.

"I believe in preventative medicine. It is proven that free radicals can cause various diseases and cancer. The amounts of free radical exposure that we are exposed to in the last decade or two manifest later in our lives.

"If you can use antioxidants to inhibit diseases and antioxidants causes no harm, why not? Free radicals may cause people to suffer and die from certain diseases, sooner than expected".

Fick points out that water-soluble antioxidants are excreted when the body is saturated while fat-soluble antioxidants, like beta-carotene and vitamin E, may be toxic in an overdose, because they aren't excreted. 

Recent studies suggest that an overdose in vitamin E and zinc may be linked to certain types of cancer and some indicated that vitamin E is only useful and beneficial when there is a deficiency.

South Africa has no have a formal regulatory system for dietary supplements, which might put people at risk who take label indications for granted. Furthermore the maximum and recommend daily allowance of many nutrients are still in debate.

Both Fick and Kotzé agree that health begins primarily with a healthy organic diet.

Breathing easily

"I don't think people should be a big fuss about not getting in enough antioxidants, people who eat lot of fruits and vegetables definitely get enough. Fruits and vegetables usually have a bit of most antioxidant in," says Fick.

Sufficient antioxidants are your natural means to control free radicals.

"You should use supplements to give you what your diet lacks," explains Kotzé.

Supplements cannot outsmart ROS.

"ROS is natural byproduct in your body. It's always there, but where scientist identified it as a bad is where it binds to molecules it shouldn't." says scientist, Dr. Izabeth Conradie

The only way to eradicate free radicals completely is by not breathing ever again, which is also known as dying.

"If you end free radicals, you end the life of cells. You will produce free radicals from your first day to your last," explains Conradie. 

Prof. Lieberman and Prof. Marks, authors of Mark'd Basic Medical Biochemistry: A clinical approach, dub oxygen as "both essential to human life and toxic".

Take a breath; there is no way around needing oxygen. It's a vital irony. Keep eating your five fruits and veggies a day to control those radical few.

Here's a guideline how to consume sufficient antioxidant through your diet:

How to consume Antioxidants
	Food you get it in	The Daily Dosage you need	Watch out
Beta-carotene (molecules of vitamin A)	Dark yellow, orange, dark green colored fruit and vegetables (like pumpkin, carrots, sweet potato, spinach, apricots, broccoli, papaya, mango and tangerine).	Men: 600-900 mcg Women: 600-700 mcg	Smokers should avoid getting high dosages of beta-carotene. It increases their risk of developing lung cancer..
Thiamin (B1)	For breakfast you’ll find it in fortified cereals, oats, dried milk powder and eggs. Legumes, brown rice, whole-grains, nuts, cornmeal, enriched flower or bread, wheat germ, green peas and seeds are rich in Thiamin. Meat lovers can dish up pork or lean meat for vitamin B1.	0.9-1.1 mg/d	If you eat a lot of carbohydrates you also need consume more B1. Raw fish, tea, coffee, blueberries and red cabbage damage Thiamin molecules – eat more Thiamin rich food in combination with these food types.
Vitamin C	Fruits like oranges, grapefruit, lemons, tangerines, clementine, peaches, papayas, apricots, nectarines, pears, pineapple, yellow raisins, grapes, all berries and watermelon are rich in vitamin C. You’ll get this antioxidant from vegetables like yellow pepper, broccoli. red cabbage, red pepper, radishes and tomatoes.	Women: 75 mg Men: 90 mg Smokers: 100mg
Vitamin E	Wheat germ, whole grains, mayonnaise, creamy salad dressings, pistachios, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, fortified cereals, meat and egg yolks all contain Vitamin E.	15 mg	High doses can cause internal bleeding, because it thins blood. Avoid using Vitamin E supplements if you use blood-thinning medication.
Selenium	Seafood, fish, chicken, egg yolks, whole grain breads and cereals, wheat germ, dairy products and onions.	40-55 mcg
Zinc	Beans, seafood, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, peanuts, oatmeal, whole grains and yeast.	Women: 8 mg Men: 11 mg	In combination with high doses of vitamin C, it may increase the risk of lung cancer in postmenopausal women. It may also be linked to prostate cancer in men.
Flavonoids	Brightly colored fruit and vegetables