Natural Antioxidants: Clearing the Controversy
Nabil Khoury
Copyright 2006 Nabil Khoury
Clearing the controversy of natural antioxidants.
Contrary to what people believe, free radicals are not always harmful to your body, but also benefit it in some ways. Free radicals (which are unstable oxygen forms), when present in the desired quantities, help to fight infections in your body and also decrease the amounts of cancer cells in your body, It is only when the free radicals get out of control, start multiplying and are present in very high quantities in your body, that they start to harm it.
High levels of free radicals can lead to atherosclerosis, osteoarthritis, hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and even cancer. Thus, it is imperative to control the presence of free radicals in the body, which is where antioxidants come in.
Antioxidants are nutrients that help to lower the amounts of free radicals in your body by providing them with the oxygen molecule that they are missing and making them stable. There are five main kinds of natural antioxidants, which are:
* Vitamin C
* Vitamin E
* Coenzyme Q 10
*
Lipoic acid
* Gluthatione
Together, these 5 antioxidants make up the network of natural antioxidants. Although each of these antioxidants has its respective benefits individually, their best and safest use is when they are used in combination with one another.
Here, I need to elaborate on the use of the network of natural antioxidants. It is the belief of many people, and some recent medical studies have also supported this belief, that using natural antioxidants can be very dangerous as the natural antioxidants have serious side effects which can increase your risk of health problems. However, what most people do not understand is that the problem does not lie with the natural antioxidants per-se, but in how they are used by people.
When people do not consult natural health care practitioners and use the natural antioxidants on their own, they typically take only one or two of the natural antioxidants depending on what specific benefits they are trying to achieve. If you take a high dose of any particular natural antioxidant without taking proper doses of the others, this is when the problems start and the antioxidants begin to harm you instead of benefiting you.
But, if you consult a natural health expert and then take the appropriate combination of the network of natural antioxidants, instead of taking high dose of only one antioxidant, then you will see that they do not harm your body but give you tremendous benefits, including protecting your body from serious illnesses and delaying the aging process.
About the author:
Dr. Nabil Khoury is a medical doctor who practices integrative
medicine combining allopathic medicine and natural health. Visit
his website Natural health and longevity bible at
http://www.get-healthier.com to learn more about natural
antioxidants at
http://www.get-healthier.com/natural-antioxidants.html