All About Antioxidants

 

AVERY’S FAQ SERIES

 


 

Introduction

As incredible  as  it might sound,  it's true: Antioxidant nutrients can reduce your risk of developing more than eighty diseases, including heart disease, arthritis, and cancer; and can help slow the aging process.

Why are antioxidants so important? You proba­bly know that people are more likely to develop degenerative diseases as they age. These diseases are caused by, or aggravated by, harmful chemical reactions that take place in the body. The process is inevitable—in fact, these same chemical reactions are what make us age. However, the good news is that these chemical reactions can be slowed, so these diseases are delayed for many, many years. For many people, the effects of these chemical reac­tions can even be reversed, enabling you to feel bet­ter and healthier than you have in years. The mira­cle workers in this process are called antioxidant nutrients, and All About Antioxidants explains how you can use antioxidant nutrients to feel healthier.

Antioxidants can reduce your likelihood of developing a multitude of deadly diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, and premature aging. Antioxidants work by destroying harmful chemi­cals in the body called "free radicals." These free radicals are the culprits in many diseases. Quite simply, antioxidants neutralize them. Knowing how to use specific antioxidants in the right combination can bolster your protection against free radicals.

Although antioxidant nutrients are in the news almost weekly now, I was the first scientist to describe them in consumer magazine articles about my research in 1971. I didn't invent or discover antioxidants, but I was the first scientist to demon­strate antioxidant synergism—that is, that antioxi­dants work together—and that a practical combina­tion of antioxidant nutrients could extend the life spans of laboratory animals and prevent cancer. Today, we have numerous clinical studies that veri­fy that this same protection applies to humans as well. The history of research on free radicals and antioxidants actually goes back to 1954 with Denham Harman, M.D., Ph.D. Now, more than forty years later, the evidence is unequivocal. The "take-home message" of this book is that you can immediately put these forty-plus years of research to your benefit now.

 

 

Do you need antioxidants? Among the diseases linked to excess free radicals are:

    Aging.

    Cancers.

    Coronary heart disease.

    Autoimmune diseases.

    Rheumatoid arthritis.

    Alzheimer's disease.

    Cataracts.

    Parkinson's disease.

 

 

If you are at risk for developing these diseases or have a family history of any one of them antioxi­dant supplementation can give you an edge and help prevent, reduce the severity of, or delay the appearance of these and many other diseases. In fact, one study found that the United States health­care system could save $8.7 billion annually from reduced hospitalizations if Americans consumed optimal levels of antioxidant vitamins C and E, plus beta-carotene. The five-year savings would exceed $45 billion. At a time when the American health­care system is nearly bankrupt, you would think that people would start paying attention.

As good as single antioxidants may be, one antioxidant alone cannot fully protect you against the many different types of free radicals. However, a balanced team of antioxidant nutrients very effec­tively helps protect against free-radical damage and thus helps protect you from the different diseases associated with free radicals. By the time you finish reading this book, you'll have a good idea of which antioxidants you should be taking.


 

 

1.

The Basics of Antioxidants

 

What exactly are antioxidants? What are free radicals? And how do they affect your health? In this chapter, I answer many of these basic questions. Generally speaking, antioxidants are good for your health, and free radicals are bad. Although antioxidants are abundant in fruits and vegetables, most people do not eat many of these foods and therefore lack sufficient antioxidants. As a consequence, supplementing with antioxidant capsules or tablets becomes very important.


 

Q. What is an antioxidant?

A. It might sound funny to hear that an "anti-something" is good for you. Quite simply, an antioxidant is a substance that protects your body and other objects from a process called oxidation. The best explanation is to think about why iron turns rusty or butter becomes rancid. Oxygen, which is essential for life, is a very volatile and reac­tive element. It reacts with iron to form rust, and it also reacts with the fats in butter to oxidize them and to make them rancid. A similar process occurs in your body. As you get older, more oxidation occurs—in a sense, it makes your body rusty. Anything that prevents or slows the oxidation process is called an antioxidant. Basically, an antioxidant protects other compounds against oxygen.

Your body produces some antioxidants (called endogenous antioxidants), but you must obtain oth­ers (exogenous antioxidants) from the diet. In fact, some antioxidants, such as vitamins E and C, are absolutely essential for life. The endogenous antioxi­dants are usually enzymes, coenzymes, and sulfur-containing compounds, such as glutathione. The exogenous, or dietary, antioxidants include vitamins such as vitamins C and E, bioflavonoids, carotenoids, and several sulfur-containing compounds.


 

Q. What is a free radical?

A. Free radicals can be bad for your health. Quite simply, free radicals are the bad guys that harm you, and antioxidants are the good guys that pro­tect you.

Want a slightly more technical explanation? As you probably remember from your science classes, the basic or smallest building blocks of chemical ele­ments are called atoms. An atom consists of a nucle­us that contains subatomic particles, such as protons and neutrons. Normally, pairs of electrons orbit the nucleus, kind of like planets around the sun. Molecules consist of groups atoms held together by the actions of these pairs of electrons. Sometimes during chemical reactions, an electron will be pulled away from the rest of the molecule, creating a free radical. Essentially, a free radical is an unpaired elec­tron. Free radicals are highly volatile and reactive, and they seek out another electron to make a new pair. Free radicals cause damage when they pull electrons from normal cells of the body.


 

Q, What qualifies a nutrient to be called an antioxidant?

A. To be considered an antioxidant, a substance must quench free radicals by donating electrons, and a little bit of the substance must go a long way. In other words, a few molecules of an antioxidant must protect many, many molecules.

Among the antioxidants our bodies make are the enzymes catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase (SOD). However, these are not sufficient, and we must obtain others from the diet. Some of the dietary antioxidants include vita­min A and especially the related carotenoid family of compounds, vitamin C, and vitamin E. Minerals are not by themselves antioxidants, but several min­erals can become vital components of antioxidant enzymes made by the body. These minerals include selenium, which is needed to make the glutathione peroxidases; iron, which is needed for catalase; and manganese, copper, and zinc, which are needed for SOD. Sulfur compounds, such as the sulfur-con­taining amino acids cysteine and methionine, help the body produce the most ubiquitous antioxidant within cells, glutathione. Antioxidant coenzymes, such as NADH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), coenzyme Q10, and alphalipoic acid, are made by the body and obtained through the diet.


 

Q. What do the endogenous antioxidants do?

A. The antioxidants your body makes have very specific roles. Many of them are enzymes or coen­zymes, which catalyze reactions in the body. The most called-upon endogenous antioxidant is glu­tathione, which is the primary antioxidant protector within your body's cells. Glutathione is a small sul­fur-containing compound that teams up with seleni­um-containing enzymes called glutathione peroxi­dases. Other heavy-duty endogenous antioxidants are the superoxide dismutases. One type of SOD con­tains the minerals copper and zinc, while another type contains the mineral manganese. SODs specifi­cally break up a harmful form of oxygen called superoxide into hydrogen peroxide. While hydrogen peroxide can damage cell components, it is not as destructive as superoxide. Another endogenous antioxidant called catalase contains the mineral iron. Catalase breaks down hydrogen peroxide into water. The selenium-containing glutathione peroxidases can also convert hydrogen peroxide into water.


 

Q. What do the exogenous, or dietary, antioxidants do?

A. The exogenous antioxidant nutrients are broad­er in their protective actions. For example, vitamin E resides in fat-containing body components, such as cell membranes and lipoproteins (such as choles­terol), and protects against many different types of oxidants. Vitamin C is the most important antioxidant in the bloodstream. Vitamin E is called a fat-soluble vitamin because it is compatible with fats, whereas vitamin C is called a water-soluble vitamin because it is compatible with water. Any of these individual antioxidants are beneficial to health. But they offer greater benefits when taken as a group. This is a key point I'll come back to over and over again in this book.


 

Q. How were the many health benefits of antioxidant nutrients discovered?

A. Vitamin E was once believed to be a vitamin without deficiency symptoms. It was known to be a powerful natural antioxidant, but no one could fig­ure out how it worked in the body. It did not appear to be involved in enzymatic reactions or to be incor­porated into structural components. This vitamin was a mystery that caused many nutritionists to be skeptical that it was indeed essential for humans. Little more was known about it, other than that it was required for the birth of animals. Without vita­min E, laboratory animals would resorb the fetuses before birth.

Thanks to the research on antioxidants and their effects on aging and cancer, scientists began looking at many of the nutrients anew in terms of their antioxidant activities. Studies of antioxidants' effects on the aging process led to the discovery that antioxidant nutrients offered protection against cancer. As an example, I presented my research on antioxidant synergism and life extension of labora­tory animals at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society in 1970. Some scientists felt that life expectancy was not directly extended, but that it was indirectly extended by preventing or delaying diseases, such as cancer. This was an inter­esting concept and my later studies established that this was indeed part of the explanation of the improved life spans.

Later, scientists began studying the incidence of various diseases among groups of people in relation to their intakes of dietary antioxidant nutrients. When I studied the incidence of heart disease in relation to intake of dietary vitamin E, I found that the more vitamin E consumed and the longer that those higher amounts were consumed, the more the incidence of heart disease decreased. Gladys Block, Ph.D., of the University of California conducted several studies in which she found that vitamin C and carotenoids were associated with reduced risk of several cancers. In 1993, Harvard researchers published studies showing that vitamin E supple­ments taken for more than two years were associat­ed with reduced incidence of heart disease.

As people began taking more antioxidant sup­plements, they reported improvements in condi­tions ranging from menopause to arthritis. These reports, coupled with the development of plausible theoretical explanations, encouraged more scien­tists to investigate the possible relationships. Eventually, scientists felt sufficiently comfortable to study the relationship of antioxidants and the inci­dence of Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and other disorders.


 

Q. What are some of the most common antioxidant nutrients?

A. The best known ones are probably vitamins C and E. Beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene are part of the family of antioxidant carotenoids, found in fruits and vegetables. Flavonoids, another group of antioxidant nutrients, are also found in fruits and vegetables. Selenium, an essential mineral, is neces­sary for the body to produce glutathione peroxidase, another antioxidant. Some antioxidants, such as coenzyme Q10 and alphalipoic acid, are found in foods and also produced by the body.


Q. Which is the best antioxidant?

A. When people start debating which antioxidant is most important or powerful, they are missing the idea that antioxidants work together in concert. It is like arguing which link in a chain is most impor­tant. The chain is as strong as its weakest link. The same is true with antioxidants. There are reasons for this. Different antioxidants protect against different types of free radicals in different parts of cells and in different places in the body. In addition, antioxi­dants help each other like members of a sports team. This is what I mean by antioxidant syner-gism—the sum is greater than the parts.


 

Q. Would you explain more about antioxidant synergism?

A. I coined the term in the mid-1960s to explain what I was seeing in my laboratory experiments, and it later became the focus of my 1970 and 1972 patent applications. Essentially, antioxidant syner­gism is when the effects of combining antioxidants are greater than you would expect from adding up the effects of all the antioxidants individually. This concept has become important in nutrition to establish the teamwork effects of nutrients in general, but especially of antioxidants. Antioxidants should not be thought of as individual compounds. They should be thought of as complementary play­ers on a team, or in the way that individual instru­ments form an orchestra. Doesn't a fifty-piece ensemble of various woodwinds, brass, and strings sound better than a fifty-piece ensemble of snare drums? Don't you think that a baseball team con­sisting of various infielders, outfielders, pitchers, and catchers would be more effective than another team of nine players, all of which are first-basemen standing around first base?

At first, I could not adequately explain the antioxidant synergism that I was observing, but some of the mechanisms were clarified with experi­ments. Now they all seem to be understood. Dr. Denham Harman of the University of Nebraska had experimented with single compounds to see if they had a protective effect. His first experiments were with sulfur compounds known to be protective against the effects of radiation on the body. In 1968, Dr. Harman demonstrated that a diet consisting of 0.5 percent of vitamin E increased the life spans of mice by about 5 percent. Soon after, I reported that synergistic combinations of antioxidant nutrients were more protective—with a 30-percent increase in average life span at lower and practical dietary levels. Al Tappel, Ph.D., of the University of California at Davis confirmed the biological synergism of the antioxidant nutrients used in my laboratory animal studies. The reason for the synergism is that some antioxidants are more effective against some free radicals, whereas other antioxidants are more effec­tive against other free radicals. Synergism makes every link in the chain strong.


 

Q. Don't antioxidants also regenerate or recycle other antioxidants?

A. That's correct. Lester Packer, Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkeley, discovered that some antioxidants can regenerate other antioxi­dants, and this is another reason why they are syn­ergistic. To explain a little more, after an antioxidant neutralizes a free radical, the antioxidant becomes a weak free radical. Another antioxidant can help regenerate this "used up" antioxidant. For example, both alpha-lipoic acid and Pycnogenol can regener­ate used vitamin C, which in turn, can regenerate used vitamin E. This means that alpha-lipoic acid and Pycnogenol extend the usefulness of vitamins C and E.


 

 

 

Q. In what foods are antioxidant nutrients found?

A. A varied diet containing at least five generous servings daily of fruits and vegetables forms the foundation of an antioxidant-rich diet. There are thousands of antioxidant nutrients that occur in whole, unrefined foods that are not available in sup­plements. Unfortunately, many of the antioxidant nutrients are removed during food processing. Vitamin E is stripped from vegetable oils in the refin­ing process and from whole grains during their refinement into white flour. Bioflavonoids taste bit­ter, so they are often removed from refined foods. While a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is the foun­dation, supplements are required to achieve the opti­mal levels of these antioxidant nutrients.

Carotenoids, another family of antioxidants, are found in the yellow, orange, and red fruits and veg­etables, and in some greens. Bioflavonoids are found in most fruits, but particularly the blue and purple ones (such as grapes and blueberries). Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits, and bioflavonoids are found in the rinds (skins) of citrus. Vitamin E is found in whole grains, nuts, and vegetable oils. Selenium is found in whole grains, garlic, and Brazil nuts—if there is enough selenium in the soils in which they are grown. So, even eating a diet con­taining the correct foods doesn't guarantee that you will get optimal amounts of selenium.


 

Q. Who discovered that free radicals caused body damage?

A. In 1954, Dr. Denham Harman was the first sci­entist to theorize that the aging process was caused by free radicals. Until then, free radicals were thought to exist only outside the body. The only sci­entists that were familiar with free radicals were organic chemists who utilized the production of free radicals to help synthesize new compounds or make commercial processes for the production of complicated chemicals.

Harman was very familiar with both free radicals and the human body. He was a scientist experi­enced in radiation chemistry while at the Shell Development Company and a physician at the Donner Laboratory of Medical Physics on the Berkeley campus of the University of California. This unique combination gave him the background to have the brilliant insight that free radicals existed in the body and could cause damage.

The discovery of biological free radicals and the damage they cause in living systems is worthy of a Nobel prize. This discovery has led to many advances in helping people live better longer. By applying the knowledge stemming from Barman's research, we have been able to delay many of the deleterious effects of aging, reduce cancer and heart disease incidence, and relieve much suffering. This fact is often overlooked as the tag given to Harman is "the father of the free-radical theory of aging." Unfortunately, the "aging" focus is too narrow and has obscured the broader implications of Harman's research.

In 1968, Dr. Harman demonstrated that a diet consisting of 0.5 percent of vitamin E increased the life spans of mice by about 5 percent. Soon after, I reported that synergistic combinations of antioxidant nutrients were more protective.


 

Q. How often do free radicals attack body components?

A. All the time! Bruce Ames, Ph.D., of the University of California at Berkeley estimates that every single one of your body's cells (and you have trillions of them) suffers about 10,000 free-radical "hits" per day. Much of this damage is done to your deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), or genetic material. One of the consequences is that the mutation rate increases. Elderly persons have nine times the fre­quency of cell mutations as do infants. These muta­tions increase the risk of cancer. In addition, cell membranes, proteins, and fats are also being dam­aged by free radicals. Over a typical seventy-year life span, the body generates an estimated seven­teen tons of free radicals. Your body needs to have its antioxidant defenses optimized at all times.


 

Q. What kinds of damage do free radicals cause?

A. Free radicals can damage all types of substances and tissues in the body. The easiest damage, and thus the most frequent, is to body fats. This is because fats are especially prone to oxidation. Scientists use the term "lipid peroxidation" to describe oxidized fats in the body. Lipid peroxidation sets off a chain reaction that will continue throughout the fatty material until stopped by an antioxidant.

Free radicals can damage the nucleic acid bases (adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine), which together form DNA. This damage prevents DNA from accurately replicating itself. Damaged, or mutated, DNA leads to the replication of incorrect biological information—such as cancer cells.

Free radicals can also damage proteins, meaning that some body components may not function effi­ciently. For example, free radicals can damage the collagen proteins in skin, leading to tougher skin. Damaged enzymes (which are proteins) will not work as efficiently to drive biochemical reactions. Nor will the repaired enzymes be able to repair as much free-radical damage, and a downward spiral causes a snowballing effect leading to faster aging and possibly cancer.


 

Q. How can free radicals cause cancer?

A. There are several ways free radicals can cause cancer. I'll discuss them in more detail in Chapter 3, but here are some brief explanations.

    Free radicals can damage DNA, which causes mutations. Mutated cells can develop into cancer.

    Free radicals can activate so-called cancer genes, also known as oncogenes.

    Free radicals can suppress the immune system, inactivating the body's defense against cancer.

    Free radicals can activate carcinogens or "precarcinogens" to start the chemical reactions that
lead to cancer.

    Free radicals can damage cell membranes and inactivate the sensory mechanisms that limit
abnormal cell growth and reproduction.

 

By quenching free radicals, antioxidant nutrients protect against these undesirable activities.


 

Q. How do free radicals cause heart disease?

A. Free radicals damage the particles that carry cholesterol in the blood and, in a sense, turn "good" cholesterol "bad." This damage changes the choles­terol carrier in such a way that it enters into the wall of the arteries and starts the process that results in cholesterol deposits. Free radicals can also turn on blood platelet cells, which can form abnormal clots and set the stage for a heart attack. Free radicals can damage the lining of the arteries, which can lead to cholesterol deposits forming. The process is far more complicated than the old theories about eating too much cholesterol or fats. I'll discuss it more in the next chapter.


 

Q. Can free radicals cause arthritis?

A. They can certainly aggravate arthritic symp­toms. Arthritis is characterized by inflammation. Inflammation usually involves "superoxide anion" free radical. Arthritis can be treated by reducing inflammation with antioxidants, including SOD. Several studies have shown that dietary antioxi­dants reduce the severity of existing arthritis. One of the promising antiinflammatory antioxidants is Pycnogenol, found in French Maritime pine bark.


 

Q. How do free radicals cause cataracts?

A. Cataracts are caused by free radicals reacting with the proteins in the eye lens. The eye lens is nor­mally clear, so light can pass through it. Sunlight also includes ultraviolet rays, which generate free radicals when they react with proteins in the lens. These free radicals, if not quenched by antioxidants, damage the proteins in the eye. The damaged pro­teins are not clear, but cloudy, forming a cataract. Thus, cataracts can be caused by over-exposure to sunlight. High glucose (blood sugar) levels also generate free radicals and can damage the lens. Antioxidants prevent this damage by terminating free radicals. But because there are no blood vessels in the lens, the fluid around it has to contain suffi­cient antioxidants.


Q. Are any free-radical reactions good for us?

 

A. As strange as it might sound, we couldn't live without free radicals. The body uses free radicals to destroy germs. In addition, free radicals are needed for energy production. The problem is that most people are exposed to too many free radicals, a sit­uation called oxidative stress, and this is not healthy. Antioxidant supplements help restore a balance.


 

 

Q. Can we control the production of free radicals in our bodies?

A. You can avoid things that either increase your exposure to free radicals or increase your body's production of free radicals. For example, tobacco smoke and smog increase free radicals in the body. Sunlight and x-rays also increase free-radical pro­duction. As the ozone layer in the atmosphere diminishes, we are exposed to more ultraviolet energy from the sun. Fats and sugars promote free radicals. Stress increases free-radical production. The increase in oxygen consumption required dur­ing heavy exercise increases free-radical formation. However, most of the body's free radicals are produced as side reactions during the normal utiliza­tion of oxygen to burn food to make energy. There are many things we can't control—you may not be able to move out of a polluted city but you can com­pensate by increasing your intake of antioxidants.


 

 

Q. Why didn't we hear about the benefits of antioxidants until fairly recently?

A. Until about ten to fifteen years ago, there weren't too many scientists studying free radicals and antioxidants. When I began studying antioxi­dant nutrients in 1959, there were fewer than a dozen or so American scientists studying the role of antioxidant nutrients in aging, cancer, heart disease, and health in general. Today thousands of scientists are studying the benefits of antioxidant nutrients, and it's hard to go through a typical day without reading or hearing something about antioxidants.

This did not change overnight. It took the hard work of several scientists to inform the medical pro­fession of the benefits of antioxidant nutrients. Also, until recently, nutrition wasn't taken seriously by the medical profession. Dietary supplements were frowned upon. Anything over the very low Recommended Daily Allowance was considered risky, and anyone educating the public about the exciting research proving the health benefits of supplements was called a "quack."

As more and more evidence was published, it began making the news. Doctors shifted their stance from "Don't take vitamin pills because they may harm you" to "Take them if you want, but they are a waste of money." Now, a high percentage of physicians take supplements and recommend them to their patients. At a 1995 meeting of cardiologists, about 90 percent admitted taking vitamin E supple­ments, though only about 75 percent prescribed them for their patients.


 

Q. Are there some general, simple recommendations for antioxidant supplements?

A. Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., chief of the antioxi­dant research laboratory at Tufts University, helped found the Alliance for Aging Research to help dis­seminate exactly this type of information. At a press conference, this nonprofit research group noted that people could live longer and be healthier if they took daily supplements of vitamins C and E and carotenoids. They recommended that healthy peo­ple should take the following every day:

    10CMOO IU of vitamin E.

    17,000-50,000 mg of carotenoids.

    250-1,000 milligrams of vitamin C.

Dr. Blumberg reported that "We have the confi­dence that these things really do work." Later in this book, I'll provide more comprehensive recom­mendations for antioxidant supplementation.


 

 

 

2.

Antioxidants for a Healthy Heart

 

The common heart attack is due to coronary artery disease in which lesions (deposits of cholesterol and other materials) narrow the lumen (opening) of the arteries. The narrowing of arteries by deposits is called atherosclerosis, and when it affects arteries feeding the heart, it's called coronary heart disease. Since there's a lot of cholesterol in these deposits, many doctors assumed that cholesterol-rich foods would dam­age blood-vessel walls. But there's more to the process—levels of free radicals and antioxidants influence your risk of heart disease.


 

Q. What is a heart attack?

A. Having narrowed arteries (atherosclerosis), per se, does not cause the common heart attack. The narrowed arteries damage blood cells called platelets when the cells are forced to squeeze by. Platelets are the blood cells responsible for clotting, and squeezing and damaging them facilitates the formation of blood clots. The clots can lodge in the narrowed arteries, completely shutting off the flow of blood through that artery. This life-threatening condition is called a coronary thrombosis—a blood clot in a coronary artery.

When a blood clot shuts off the flow of blood in a coronary artery, the region of the heart fed by the artery is starved of oxygen and nutrients. The result is the death of these cells, which is called an infarct. This is the classic heart attack called an acute myocardial (heart) infarction.


 

Q. What are some other common heart diseases?

A. Another common form of heart disease is con­gestive heart failure, in which the heart is too weak to pump efficiently. Usually, the heart itself has enlarged as it has tried to compensate for the reduced output. Angina is the pain experienced in the heart when there is not enough blood reaching all parts of the heart during activity. Then there are disorders of the heartbeat rate regularity—too irregular (arrhythmia), too fast (tachycardia), or too slow (bradycardia) for an efficient pumping action. Spasms can clamp an artery shut and cause a heart attack even though there are no significant choles­terol deposits. High blood pressure (hypertension) affects arteries and is a risk factor in various forms of heart disease.


 

Q. How do cholesterol deposits form?

A.Cholesterol is a fat and not soluble in blood (which is watery), so it is carried in particles called lipoproteins. Two important lipoproteins are low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). The cholesterol carried by LDL is often called the "bad" cholesterol. LDL carries cholesterol to the cells. The cholesterol carried by HDL is often called the "good" cholesterol. HDL carries choles­terol away from cells. Cholesterol deposits seem to form only when LDL becomes damaged by oxida­tion. It's then called oxidized LDL. Oxidized LDL can infiltrate the artery lining and initiate a series of events that trap the cholesterol in the oxidized LDL, attract white blood cells, and form a deposit.


 

Q. How do antioxidant nutrients protect against cholesterol deposits?

A LDL becomes oxidized only when the amount of antioxidants is insufficient to protect the LDL against oxidation. Oxidized LDL is a sign of very low antioxidant levels, because LDL is the medium that transports fat-soluble antioxidants through the body. The prime antioxidant that protects LDL is vitamin E, although other antioxidants help by recycling vitamin E. Other antioxidants can also destroy many of the free radicals before they reach LDL to cause damage. The tendency to form oxi­dized LDL, and hence cholesterol deposits, depends on two factors: the amount of LDL and the balance between antioxidants and free radicals. Both are important, but the antioxidant /free radical balance is the more important of the two.


 

Q. How do antioxidant nutrients protect against other causes of heart disease?

A. While a lot of attention has been focused on cholesterol through the years, the strongest dietary association with heart disease is a deficiency of vita­min E. Cholesterol deposits by themselves don't cause a heart attack. They are a major contributing factor to forming the blood clot (coronary thrombo­sis) that causes the heart attack (acute myocardial infarction). As long as the blood can squeeze by the narrowing caused by the cholesterol deposits in good volume, the heart will receive sufficient oxy­gen and nutrients to keep the heart tissue alive.

A critical factor then is to maintain the proper "slipperiness" of the blood cells and prevent a blood clot from forming in the coronary arteries. Vitamin E, and especially Pycnogenol, have a pro­tective anti-aggregation effect on blood platelets, which are critical factors in the blood clotting process. They are particularly effective against the damage to platelets from stress and smoking.

In addition, the antioxidant nutrient Pycnogenol is a mild hypotensive (an agent that lowers blood pressure), which helps maintain a normal blood pressure. Pycnogenol also acts to maintain ade­quate nitric oxide levels so blood vessels can relax. Recent studies have also linked inflammation to heart disease. Antioxidant nutrients, especially Pycnogenol, reduce inflammation.

Vitamin E is important to the heart and arteries in more ways than protecting LDL from oxidation. As an example, vitamin E is vital to maintaining a healthy lining of the arteries. Tears in the lining of arteries are another way in which deposits can form. Pycnogenol is a secondary factor in every way that vitamin E helps—this is because Pycnogenol regen­erates vitamin C, which in turn, regenerates vitamin E. All of the antioxidants together form one terrific team to prevent heart disease.


 

Q. Can antioxidant vitamins prevent heart attacks?

A. Yes, they can—especially vitamin E. A study by cardiologists at Cambridge University found that daily supplements of 400 IU or 800 IU of natural vitamin E reduced heart attacks by 77 percent. This was a large scientific study involving 2,000 people over about five years. In many respects, this single study was the major turning point in making vita­min E acceptable to physicians.

Antioxidant nutrients slow or reverse heart dis­ease. A mixture of the tocotrienol and tocopherol forms of vitamin E reversed the development of cholesterol deposits in people. In another study, researchers reported that vitamin E supplements, 100 IU or more daily, could slow the formation of cholesterol deposits.


 

 

 

Q. How do antioxidant nutrients protec