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Antioxidants and Long Life

With all the news going around about chronic diseases (cancer, heart disease, diabetes, you name it) it seems like whatever you touch can increase your risk of getting them, slowly ceasing to be possibilities in your distant future and more and more like inevitabilities sooner than you think. But is there really no hope for the future of man?                 

Enter antioxidants—the new favorite buzzword among nutritionists, health experts, researchers and health buffs alike. According to Dr. Richard Cutler, former Director of the National Institute of Aging, “The amount of antioxidants in your body is directly proportional to how long you will live.” In arguably one of the most influential books ever written on nutrition, The China Study, leading nutrition expert T. Colin Campbell, PhD, discusses why.

Antioxidants are substances that can counteract the damaging effects of a physiological process known as oxidation. Almost exclusively found in plants, antioxidants are responsible for giving fruits and vegetables their bright colors. It is also what soaks up free radicals that result from oxidation and protects plants from the damage that they cause. These free radicals are highly unstable and highly reactive and can wreak havoc in plants. Antioxidants neutralize them, thus protecting the plant from potential harm. Now what does this have to do with humans? It is precisely the fact that we are humans and not plants and therefore our bodies cannot manufacture their own antioxidants.

According to Campbell, “we produce low levels of free radicals throughout our lifetime. Simply being exposed to the sun’s rays, to certain industrial pollutants and to improperly balanced nutrient intakes create a background of unwanted free radical damage.” In humans, free radicals can tamper with cell function and damage our DNA, which creates the seed for diseases. Since the human body does not produce its own antioxidants, it has to obtain it from rich sources of the substance like vegetables and fruits, or in the form of health supplements. While a regular diet rich in antioxidants will help keep you healthy, supplementing with antioxidants will help balance your antioxidant load.

Antioxidants can be carotenoids, like beta-carotene and lycopene, or chemicals, like ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and vitamin E. Campbell’s 27-year-study assessed antioxidant status in several cancer-prone families in China by recording intakes and blood levels of several different antioxidants. He found that among all the antioxidant biomarkers, it was evidence from vitamin C that were the most impressive, particularly its relationship with cancer. He cited, “When levels of vitamin C in the blood were low, these families were more likely to have a high incidence of cancer.”

Antioxidants were also found to have the capability to slow some of the physical signs of aging and some studies suggest that antioxidant supplements can help protect the skin from sun damage.

While it’s far too early to declare that antioxidants like vitamin C are definitive cures for cancer and other chronic diseases, studies like Campbell’s can open doors to what is potentially a medical breakthrough in modern science.