Dr. Scott Levine explains Free Radical and Antioxidant Biology.

Free Radicals 101

      What you’re about to read may seem like something from a bad sci-fi movie. It may sound unrealistic or even crazy. You may have never thought about it. But just because you can’t see it happening in front of you doesn’t mean it isn’t real. I can assure you free radicals are real and the damage they do is silent, extensive, and ubiquitous. Free radicals are a real source of disease, aging and death. This is scientific fact. The National Cancer Institute and a variety of medical universities are spending millions of dollars trying to prevent a variety of diseases by halting free radical damage. This is not just a medical concern. Free radicals affect nearly every aspect of your life. Free radicals cause food to spoil; paint on your house or car to peel, crack or "oxidize"; metal to rust; pipes to leak; clothes to fade; etc. (Food to spoil? YES. To combat this there is a new antioxidant food wrap on the market.) Even though you don’t see free radicals they are all around you---creating damage to you and your environment, costing you money, and eventually killing you. Free radicals are everyone’s problem. The government and business community spends millions of dollars a year trying to prevent damage to food, infrastructure and the environment. Do not underestimate the damage free radicals can do.

What Is A Free Radical?

      Free radicals are nothing more than unstable molecules. Everything is made up of matter, and matter is made up of molecules. Molecules in turn are made up of atoms that have paired electrons spinning around them. If the atom loses an electron it becomes electrically unbalanced and the molecule is said to be "unstable". The unstable molecule is very active and demands to re-stablize itself. The only way it can re-stabilize is to replace the electron it lost. The free radical regains its stability by robbing its neighbor. It physically rips an electron from another atom. It literally steals an electron from its neighbor. The free radical becomes a stable molecule at the expense of creating a free radical in its neighbor. This sets off a chain reaction whereby neighbors steal from neighbors and a dangerous game of hot potato is played, eventually creating a million or more free radicals from a single unstable molecule.

What causes the initial free radical to develop? A variety of things induce free radical formation. Sunlight, radiation, chemicals, pollution, and fumes can all induce free radicals in the environment. Within your body stress, exercise, and the very act of metabolism and cellular respiration can all cause free radicals to be created.

What Do Free Radicals Do?

      Free Radicals are synonymous with DAMAGE. They damage everything they come in contact with. They do their damage insidiously, SILENTLY, and invisibly. This damage is also called "OXIDATION" (oxidation just means loss of electrons). Free radicals attack everything --including you and your body. Everything in your body is at risk-- proteins, lipids, hormones, cells, tissues, genetic code, etc. Free radical damage leads to loss of energy, disease, pain, aging, and eventually death. Free radicals are scientifically proven to cause heart disease, cancer, a variety of degenerative diseases, and aging itself.

Where Do Free Radicals Come From?

      Free radicals come from a variety of sources. They come from "normal" body metabolism, exercise, stress, sunlight, air and water pollution, and a variety of other sources (i.e., electromagnetic radiation {your computer monitor}, fumes, chemicals, additives, etc.). Even food preparation causes free radical formation. Cigarette smoke is filled with free radicals ---even passive smoke is scientifically proven dangerous to your health. Vigorous exercise produces a lot of free radicals. Dr. Cooper, the doc that got everyone walking for health 20 years ago now speaks out against high intensity exercise—it causes too much free radical production.

So How Do We Protect Ourselves From Free Radicals?

      We can do our best to avoid free radicals by staying away from smoke, fumes, sunlight, pollution, etc. Obviously, this is something we have limited control over. Many things that cause free radicals are a part of our everyday life--we can't avoid them. (You can’t avoid sunlight, air and water pollution, preservatives in food, or stress.)

      There are other free radical generators we can't avoid because we can't see them (i.e., pesticides and chemicals in our food, radon, fumes, vapors, and toxins in the environment.)

      We can, however, minimize and prevent damage from these dangerous free radicals by taking antioxidants.

What Are Antioxidants?

      Antioxidants are simply substances that prevent, neutralize, or kill free radicals.

      More specifically... antioxidants are vitamins, minerals, coenzymes and herbs that help your body fight and prevent damage from toxins and free radicals. In doing this, they protect cells, genetic code, and your immune system. By preventing free radical damage, antioxidants help prevent heart disease, cancer, and a variety of degenerative diseases.

The antioxidants can halt, slow, and even to some degree reverse aging.

How Do Antioxidants Work?

      Antioxidants prevent free radicals from doing their damage in several ways. Antioxidants can:

• prevent free radicals from forming
• protect cells from free radical damage
• bind to free radicals and inactivate or kill them
• enhance your body's own defense system

      It is critical to understand that different antioxidants work in different ways and have their own unique abilities to protect us.

Proof

      Here are two examples of the free radical/antioxidant connection:

How Antioxidants Prevent Heart Disease

      Cholesterol is essential to life. Your body uses cholesterol to make hormones, bile acids (digestion), and cell membranes. There are different forms of cholesterol. The bad cholesterol is called LDL cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is floating in your blood stream every minute of the day. That in itself is causing no problem. The problem occurs when the LDL cholesterol sticks to a vessel wall. That is the kiss of death. The LDL cholesterol causes inflammation in the area and damages the vessel wall. This sets off a chain of events that leads to plaque formation and ultimately, heart disease.

      Free radicals enter your body silently and inconspicuously--simply through daily living, stress, exercise, diet, exposure to sunlight, fumes, chemicals, and pollution. These free radicals attack the LDL cholesterol traveling in your blood stream and actually change the molecular configuration of it. This is called lipid peroxidation. This structural change in the LDL molecule causes the LDL cholesterol to become STICKY. Now, the LDL cholesterol sticks to the vessel and begins the cascade of events that lead to heart disease, hardening of the arteries, and ultimately death.

Free radicals also attack the plaque that has formed on the vessel wall. The free radicals cause inflammation and damage to the plaque. The plaque becomes "unstable", which means it can crack or fissure. When blood is then exposed to the crack or fissure in the plaque, your blood sets off a cascade of events that will lead to a blood clot forming in the vessel wall. This process can take seconds to minutes. This is an acute heart attack!

Antioxidants To The Rescue!

Antioxidants such as Vitamin E protect the LDL cholesterol by shielding it from free radical attack. For simplicity, imagine that the antioxidants form a protective bubble around the LDL molecule that keeps free radical damage away. This prevents the LDL cholesterol from undergoing the dangerous structural change and becoming sticky. Non-sticky LDL cholesterol is free to be shuttled around your body without causing damage. It happily travels through your blood stream, reaching all compartments so that it can be used in cell membrane formation, among other uses.

Antioxidants have been scientifically proven to prevent lipid peroxidation and heart disease. The 1996 Cambridge University Heart Antioxidant Study is just one proven example. They used a very specific type of vitamin E (the same exact vitamin E used in DLUAF) and studied people who had already suffered from heart disease. The results: the researchers found a 77% reduction in heart disease in patients taking the vitamin E.

How Antioxidants Prevent Cancer

Cancer is a disease process that occurs over a period of time. There are three main steps that take place before a cancerous tumor is produced.

First, Initiation must take place. Here the free radical damages the cell membrane and then damages the DNA (the genetic code and control center of the cell). The cell will either die or, if it lives, it may act strangely. Because the DNA is damaged the cell cannot do its programmed functions, and if not repaired will result in the formation of a neoplastic cell.

Second, the neoplastic cell undergoes Promotion, or cell growth. Here the neoplastic cell makes more (bad) cells like itself. When it makes enough cells it becomes visible and it is called a tumor.

The third step is Progression. This is where the cancer spreads from the original site to other sites throughout the body.

The good news is that each of these three steps can be prevented or terminated by a strong immune system. Taking antioxidants can prevent Initiation. This is because antioxidants protect cells and prevent damage to your DNA. Antioxidants refers to a class of compounds. Each antioxidant is different and each has it’s own unique ability to protect certain cells at certain sites (i.e., Ginkgo Biloba-brain, Bilberry-eyes, CoQ10-heart, Silymarin-liver etc.,) The more and varied antioxidants you have working for you the more and varied protection you have. This is why antioxidant diversity is the key to preventing disease.

The overall goal is not just to take antioxidants to prevent heart disease but to take a variety of antioxidants so that you can help prevent blindness, dementia, and various cancers as well. What good is it if you only took antioxidants that protected your heart and then later became blind, demented, or riddled with cancer? You need to treat the whole body by protecting it with a variety of antioxidants that covers all the bases.

Antioxidant diversity is a prerequisite for maximal health. You also need the specific structural form of each antioxidant that is best absorbed and utilized by your body, and you need the proper dosage. Dr. Levine's Ultimate Antioxidant Formula uniquely offers you these benefits. This is why Dr. Levine’s Ultimate Antioxidant is

The best health insurance you can buy…in a bottle®

For more information on how antioxidants can help prevent cancer and heart disease, please read the Nov. 30th 1998 issue of Newsweek. The article is a good starting point to understanding how antioxidants in your diet can legitimately enhance your health.

Antioxidants Are Your Key To Good Health And Longevity.

Buy Dr. Levine's Ultimate Antioxidant Formula™ today and begin enjoying better health tomorrow.

Dr. Levine’s Ultimate Antioxidant Formula is a great value. You get over 30 of the finest antioxidants specially formulated to provide maximum potency for optimal health benefits. Buying these antioxidants individually would cost 4-5 times more and still not give you the quality of ingredients or manufacture you get with DLUAF. Buy It Today!

Copyright © 1998-2003 Physicians Select® All Rights Reserved.