If you have been following the skin care research for any length of time, you’ve probably heard of antioxidants. As they sound, antioxidants are substances which prevent (or at least slow down) the damaging effects of reactive oxygen on the skin.
This reactive oxygen is one type of free radical. Free radicals are produced by normal human metabolism, and are increased in the presence of radiation, heavy metal exposure, smoking, and alcohol.
Left unchecked, free radicals damage the body’s proteins, DNA, and cell membranes. For the skin, they lead to aging and potentially skin cancers. Free radicals also have negative impact on the rest of the body, too, as they have been linked to heart damage, cancer, and a weakened immune system.
Eating a healthy diet, rich in fruits and vegetables is a natural way to build your antioxidant reserve. Antioxidants can be eaten (as in fruit, vegetables, or in supplements) and can also be applied to the skin (as in Vitamin E cream).
Some of the best known antioxidants are Vitamin E, Coenzyme Q10, lipoic acid, Vitamin C, glutathione, green-tea, and the soy isoflavones.
Each of these work differently to improve and protect the skin, but any diet should include these substances in order to be healthy, well balanced, and skin beneficial.
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So you look in the mirror one day and notice that your skin is starting to wrinkle. You’re showing laugh lines around your mouth and crow’s feet at the corners of your eyes.
You might brush these aside as facets of the normal aging process. They are. But what causes aging anyway? And is there any way to slow it down?
In our bodies, the normal processes of oxidation are what lead to aging. Oxidation leads to the production of free radicals, which are highly reactive.
These free radicals easily react with and damage other molecules. Free radicals don’t make the distinction between foreign bodies and healthy cells. When free radicals start attacking the body’s own cells, this causes cellular breakdown, leading to the visible signs of aging.
Now if only there was a way to get rid of those harmful free radicals….
Luckily, there are: antioxidants. Antioxidants are the natural enemies of free radicals.
In fact, antioxidants’ sole function is to destroy harmful free radicals, thus counteracting their damaging effects.
Put simply, antioxidants mean better skin for you.
Antioxidants are naturally occuring. They are abundant in more common vitamins such as retinol or Vitamin A, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), tocopherol (Vitamin E), and selenium. They can be nutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as enzymes (proteins in your body that assist in chemical reactions).
Antioxidants are believed to play an important role in preventing the development of such chronic illnesses as heart disease, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, and cataracts.
Although antioxidants cannot completely rid our bodies of free radicals, they can significantly diminish and slow down the damage caused.
Antioxidants block the process of oxidation by neutralizing free radicals. Through this process of neutralizing free radicals, antioxidants themselves become oxidized. For this reason, our bodies are always in need of a constant source of antioxidants.
Antioxidants work in a two step process. The first step is chain breaking, where the antioxidant stops the chain reaction process where free radicals destabilize other molecules, turning them into free radicals too.
Left unchecked, free radicals will destabilize everything they come into contact with, and high levels of rampaging free radicals can cause significant damage to the cells and tissues which keep our skin healthy. Antioxidants stop this chain reaction and therefore stabilize the free radical, preventing it from further destruction.
Antioxidants also stop free radicals before they start. Antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase prevent oxidation by reducing the rate of chain initiation. This time, instead of waiting for the free radicals to make a long chain of free radicals, antioxidants scavenge initiating radicals and destroy them before oxidation is set in motion.
Thus, aging is delayed and other diseases and other illnesses caused by harmful free radicals are avoided.
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