The Importance of Antioxidants

Sep 26 2013 posted by ASIHW antioxidants
The Importance of Antioxidants

Most people know that antioxidants are important. We hear about them daily. It fact it seems that almost daily we hear about another new one that has been discovered that claims to promote wellness, sometimes even attacking a specific illness or condition.

The question is, "Does anyone really know why antioxidants are so important, how they work and why they can sometimes affect specific conditions?"

It turns out that antioxidants are important to assist the body in neutralizing free radicals that occur just from living every day of our life. Free Radicals occur from nature, from anaerobic exercise, from poor diet, from toxins in our environment and more! However, antioxidants don't resolve free radicals on their own!

Our body utilizes a number of defenses to eradicate free radicals, but the most important is Glutathione. Reduced glutathione (GSH) neutralizes free radicals. However, oxidized glutathione (GSSG) needs to be recycled. The key function of antioxidants is to recycle glutathione! However, when glutathione levels are low, there is less beneficial (reduced) glutathione to go around. Then you need increasing amounts of antioxidants to overcome the normal oxidation of glutathione!

Since our glutathione levels drop naturally as we age or are exposed to stressors or illness, one way to solve this is to increase our intake of antioxidants. We could also resort to ingestion of "super-antioxidants" to maintain the function of recycling oxidized glutathione (GSSG) back to reduced glutathione (GSH) - then it can continue to protect our body. However, this will only work as long as there are sufficient levels of glutathione available and as long as you can support it with sufficient levels of antioxidants. This becomes increasingly more difficult as our glutathione levels drop.

Doesn't it make more sense to rebuild your levels of glutathione? Help restore your glutathione levels with ASIHW Essential Proteins!