Natural Health Concepts For Your Health

An Introduction To My Action Health Strategy

We live in a society, today in which far too many of us are not healthy, and unfortunately, our conventional health care providers are not helping to make us healthy. Actually they are profiting from the state of illness that we so frequently experience.

There are a vast number of pharmaceutical ads on TV, selling drugs, that treat symptoms not causes of illness, that attest to this profit-making conclusion. Our medical doctors prescribe these "symptom treating" drugs, and, while they help us feel better, they must be taken on and on. There are increasing efforts in the conventional medical establishment to encourage us to practice preventable medicine, but these efforts are not sufficient to help us keep healthy. Our medical doctors all too frequently scoff at our efforts to use natural foods, vitamins, minerals and herbs for our health problems, because there are no "clinical trials" to demonstrate their effectiveness.

My philosophy is, if it works use it. And I know what works, from my own long-term, "street smart" use of natural foods, nutrients, vitamins, minerals and herbs. In my research articles I will provide a step-by-step plan for better health. Before embarking on this plan for general health, as well as, specific health problems, I will explain the infrastructure of good health in a simple, easy-to-understand description. This article focuses on the most important antioxidants. My additional articles will center on:

• free radicals
• specific sources of antioxidants
• natural super foods
• natural vitamin and mineral supplements

The Basic Body Infrastructure Overview

Every, minute, each day of our lives, there is a war being waged in our bodies. The combatants on the battlefield are antioxidants (our heroes), and free radicals (the villains).
Who wins the battle will determine how healthy we are, and how quickly we age. For so many of us, unfortunately, the villains - free radicals - are winning the battle, leading us into poor health, accelerated aging and premature death.

Who are these combatants, and how can we enlist more of our heroes - antioxidants - to enter the fray, so we can feel better and live a longer, healthier life? To better understand the war going on in our bodies, we will have to take a short trip through the jungle of medical jargon. But I will focus only on some of the most basic and important terms, which will serve to enhance our understanding of this issue.

Antioxidants

An antioxidant is any substance that retards or prevents deterioration, damage or destruction by oxidation. We age and experience poor health because oxidation is an ongoing process in our bodies. During normal respiration oxygen free radicals cause cumulative damage to our cells and organs, and ultimately led to our death. This is a stunning catch 22. We must breath oxygen in order to live, yet this same oxygen we must have to survive, leads to oxidation, poor health and ultimately our death.

Our body naturally produces antioxidants, including compounds that inhibit the production of free radicals or destroys them. Four of the most important antioxidants include, cysteine, glutathione, polyphenol, and anthocyanins. 

• Glutathione is a very small molecule that is produced by the body and found in every cell. "It's the body's most potent antioxidant because it's within the cell and protects fatty tissues from the damaging effects of free radicals. The antioxidant activity of glutathione is enhanced by the presence of cysteine which is an amino acid. The highest concentrations of glutathione are found in the liver and eyes. It is also in the cells of the immune system, which assists in fighting disease. As we age, the production of glutathione by the body declines, so we need to add it through supplements.
• A polyphenol antioxidant contains a polyphenolic substance, and there are over 4000 distinct species, that are instrumental in fighting oxidative stress. The main source of polyphenol antioxidants is nutritional, and they are found in most fruits, whole grains, and vegetables. This is why we hear, over and over, from our health gurus, that we must eat our fruits, vegetables and whole grains every day.
• Anthocyanins are antioxidant flavonoids, and 4,000 different flavonoids, from plants, have been identified. Of these, anthocyanin flavonoids have the strongest antioxidizing power, making them the most important antioxidant of the plant pigments. Here we go with fruits, vegetables and whole graiins again.

Other naturally-produced antioxidants that inhibit the formation of free radical molecules or destroy them, include two important vitamins. Tocopheral - vitamin E - which is fat soluble, and vitamin C, which is water soluble. The fat soluble vitamin E is important because most of the basic free radical damage in the body is to the fat molecules in cell membranes. The water soluble Vitamin C, is distributed to all parts of the body. These two vitamins are very efficient at destroying free radicals.

The body also has naturally-produced antioxidant enzymes, which are highly active protein substances. Thousands of these different enzymes assist our bodies in the battle against free radicals. One of the most significant is the antioxidant enzyme, super-oxide Dismutase (SOD). It changes the dangerous superoxide free radical, and along with other enzymes breaks it down to water and oxygen. It is an enzyme that repairs cells and reduces the damage done to them by superoxide, the most common free radical in the body. SOD acts as both an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory in the body, but it's levels drop, while free radical levels increase, as we age, so we need to supplement in order to keep the level of SOD high in our bodies.

In my next article we study free radicals in order to understand what they are and their source.

D. Quentin Webb, Ph.D., earned three university degrees, not online, during eight years of university studies. This background provides the tools and mindset for the research and writing that he is currently undertaking.

During his 40 years in the employment stream, he spent considerable time studying and using, in a "street smart" manner, the healthy living information that he found during his practical research. Diet, nutrition, natural foods, vitamins, minerals, herbs, alternative medicine were the areas of research and practical use. The author is well over 65 years old, and is a testament to his healthy living efforts. He has a vast reserviour of energy, very alert, no aches or pains, is very active, never gets the flu or colds, and is slender and athletic. In short, he is quite healthy. His primary web site is [http://www.squidoo.com/naturalhealthconcepts/]

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