No tags yet.
In 1999, the renowned Dr. Lester Packer,founder of the Packer lab at the University of California at Berkeley, published his years of research about antioxidants in an amazing book called The Antioxidant Miracle published by John wiley & Sons, New York.
Dr Packer reveals just how important antioxidants are in fighting diseases, and not only living longer, but adding life to your years. Reading with endorsements from experts in the field of nutrition, health care and medicine, The Antioxidants Miracle reveals exactly how antioxidants work and definitively shows how antioxidants are even more important than previously thought in fighting cancer, heart diseases and other serious diseases.
"Finally, a book by a renowned and active researcher that proves the value of nutritional supplements. The Antioxidant Miracle provides a shield protecting us from disease and ensuring health. The information in this book could save your life!"
----Julie Whitaker, M.D., founder, Whitaker Wellness Institute and editor, Helath and healing
Now key concepts of The Antioxidants Miracle are available in this article. The article is divided into 4 parts.
Part 1 An overview about the antioxidants and free radicals
The words Antioxidants and Free radicals have been floating around the media now for a quite few years. But many of us have only the vaguest of notions about what these words mean and just what these two things have to do with our health? And because we may have only the vaguest notion about the danger of free radicals and the importance of antioxidants, we may take a very haphazard approach to the concept that can literally change the outcomes of our lives.To be perfectly clear, maybe no greater discovery in the 20th centre than how important antioxidants truely are.
In the Antioxidant Miracle, Dr. Packer writes " As we move into a new millennium,the Antioxidant Miracle makes it possible for each of us to have greater control over our health, and ultimately our destiny, than we ever had before. We now have the power to prevent and perhaps even eradicate many of the degenerative diseases that were once considered and inevitable part of ageing". If you are suffering from an illness or disease, if you worry about your health, if you like to live longer or age more gracefully, you need to understand the power of antioxidants.
Dr. Packer affirms that we now know the key to preventing disease and extending life is as simple as maintaining the right level and combination of antioxidants in our bodies. Dr. Packer calls it "the antioxidants advantage". But before we begin to explain antioxidants, let's talk about their nemesis, the free radicals.
Free radicals (自由基 ）
When we talk about free radicals, we talk about free electrons and unstable atoms and molecules in our bodies. In a nutshell, free radicals are structures that can ultimately lead to cancer, heart disease and numerous other illnesses. Dr Packer warns "don't underestimate the threat free radicals pose to our health and well-being. Scientists now believe that free radicals are causal factors in nearly every known disease, from heart disease to arthritis to cancer to cataracts. In fact, free radicals are the major culprit in the ageing process itself."
So what is a free radical?
Pause for a moment, and think back to your high school or collage biology classes. Remember how we learned that all living things are all made of cells. In fact, our human bodies are made of trillions of cells. We can think of cells as little building blocks. But even smaller than cells are molecules, and even smaller than molecules are atoms. Atoms themselves are basically two parts, a nuclear in the centre and a shell spinning electrons on the outside. The electrons spin around the nuclear like satellites orbiting the earth. Electrons are picky little things. They love to spin in pairs. But they don’t like to be alone. Some atoms have uneven numbers of electrons spin around them. The one electron that is the odd man out is constantly seeking to pair with another electron. Lone electrons that seeking a mate are called free radicals.
So what’s the big deal anyway?
The problem is, the free radicals can quickly steal an electron from otherwise normal molecule, making it abnormal molecule. In this way, free radicals can attack and oxidise DNA, the genetic materials that controls cell growth and development, which can increase the likelihood of cancer. When free radicals attack fat molecules traveling in the blood stream, they set the stage for heart disease and stroke. Therefore, free radicals can promote the downward spiral of disease and premature ageing. While some free radicals can actually do the body good, the type of free radicals produced by a process called oxidation, cannot only be dangerous, but they happen to be plenty of. While you are listening to this program, the process of oxidation in your body is creating millions of harmful free radicals.
Sorry, I have to pause for a moment. It reminds me a cup of g3 is necessary for me to proceed. HAHA…
So what is oxidation, and why does it occur?
Dr Packer explains this way “To understand the process of oxidation, all you have to do is think about what goes on in your kitchen every day. At the end of a meal, you wrap up leftovers to keep them from spoiling. One reason wrapping food works is that, at least for a while, it keeps oxygen from attacking that uneaten drumstick or grapefruit half.” Oxidation is the result of living on a planet that has oxygen in abundance. We can see the effects of oxidation everywhere around us. Rust on metal is caused by oxidation, cooking oil goes rancid is caused by oxidation. Cut an apple in half, and leaving it on the kitchen counter, the reason it turns brown is…. You guessed it, oxidation.
Biological oxidation is taking place right now through out our bodies. As our blood carry oxygen to all the tissues in our body. All of those tissues are exposed to the effects of oxidation. Dr. Packer writes,” Oxygen is the fuel that turns on energy production. Without oxygen, we could not make energy. Yet the production of energy can wreak havoc in the body because it also produces free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules that can damage cell structures…” so now we understand free radicals can damage cells, free radical are caused by the process of oxidation in our bodies. So what can we do about it? It’s simple. If you have oxidation, you need antioxidants to combat it. Dr. Lester Packer put is this way:
“The job of defending the body against free radicals falls to the antioxidant defence system, a group of compounds that are uniquely qualified to disarm free radicals before they can attack their target tissue. Antioxidants are the free radical police of the body, on call whenever necessary to “quench” free radicals wherever they may be, so that they cannot spread their destruction to other cells…
When an antioxidant encounters a free radical, it engulfs it, and the free radical then joins its molecular structure. They antioxidant itself becomes a free radical. So what have you gained? These newly created free radicals are relatively weak and are not likely to do further harm. Therefore, you are sparing your cells and tissues from the destructive path of a free radical out of control.”
You maybe wondering where can you find those incredible antioxidants and who produces them? The answer is that most antioxidants are found in good wholesome food. Antioxidants are found in fruits, vegetables and grains. There are vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Eating a healthful diet as recommended for years by nutritionists will provide our bodies with good supply of antioxidants. But often that is not enough. To get the full protective effect of antioxidants, it’s a good idea to supplement out diet.
Dr. Lester Packer continues, “ It is virtually impossible to get the optimal amount of antioxidants through food alone. For example, I recommend taking 500 I.U. of vitamin E daily. In order to get 500 I.U. of vitamin E from food alone, you would have to eat more than 100 lbs. of broiled liver or 125 tbsps of peanut oil – or you could take a vitamin E supplement, as I advised.”
According to Dr Packer’s years of research at the state of art packer lab at Berkeley, there are five antioxidants that have been identified as the A team of antioxidants. Dr Packer calls them the Network of Antioxidants. Because they frequently work together to produce far more powerful effects than any one of them can do alone. You will recognise the name of some of these powerful antioxidants, certainly you heard of vitamin C, and its likely you heard of vitamin E, the three others you may have never heard of, they are the Glutathione, Lipoic Acid, and Co Enzyme Q10. These five powerful antioxidants are considered by many to be the key to prevention, cessation and recovery from many of the diseases that can endanger our health, lower our quality of life, age just prematurely or even cause death.
Dr Packer writes: “we have discovered that network antioxidants have special powers that set them apart from other antioxidants. What makes network antioxidants so special is that they can greatly enhance the power of one another. As a result, they are particularly effective in slowing down the aging process and boosting the body’s ability to fight disease. The antioxidant network is a shield that protects the body against the forces that age us before our time and rob years from our lives….
Thanks to our new understanding out antioxidants and the role of the antioxidant network, we can live not just longer, but live well, in bodies that stay healthy, strong, and vigorous, with minds that are alert and memories that are intact. I am not talking about just adding years to our lives; I am talking about adding life to our years.”
Solid scientific research has found that antioxidants can be powerful allies in keeping our bodies healthy. Here is just few examples. As we age, our immune system decline, the result means we may get sick more often. Research shows that antioxidants can revitalise our aging immune systems. Even if we have a pre-inherited disposition to get certain diseases, like cancer and heart disease, antioxidants have shown to have the amazing ability to turn off those bad genes. Helping us to avoid ill health. As you age, are you worried about your memory? Does it seem like you can’t remember things like you used to? Age related memory loss is fairly common, but the good news is that antioxidants have been shown to help prevent even reverse this type of memory loss. Antioxidants have been shown in scientific research through out the world to help fights cataracts, strokes, heart disease, diabetes, skin ageing, common colds. And new research has giving some temporising hope for the value of antioxidants in the battle with Alzheimer disease.
In Summery, we have learnt a lot about oxidation, free radicals and antioxidants. We leant that oxidation is taking place all around us, even inside our bodies. An unfortunate result about oxidation is the creation of some rather dangerous free radicals. These free radicals can damage DNA and cells, which can lead to a host of problems, including caner and premature ageing. Luckily, years of research by scientists at the Packer Lab, named after Dr Lester Packer, and many other scientists at leading universities and labs throughout the world has resulted a great understanding of the power of the antioxidants, and how they can neutralise free radicals, and even prevent, stop and reverse disease.
In the next few posts, you will find out the amazing way that Antioxidants can help fight cancer, heart disease, and even protect your eye sight by fighting macula degeneration.
Antioxidants, they truly are miraculous!
抗氧化剂，实在是太神奇了！
