Reducing the Effects of Free Radicals ...

Why More Than One Type of Antioxidant is Optimal

Antioxidants are often misleadingly lumped together in how they protect your cells from free radical assaults... discover why understanding this could be vital to your health.

Antioxidants are nature's way of defending your cells against attack by reactive oxygen species (ROS) free radicals. Due to free radicals generated by everyday exposure to pollutants in your food, water, and air, your body requires micronutrient antioxidants to help you resist aging. If you don't have adequate antioxidants to help squelch these free radicals, then oxidative stress tends to lead to less-than-optimal health. Your body can manufacture some of these antioxidants, but not others. And your body's natural antioxidant production tends to decline with age.

somewhat dierent from the rest. It not only helps you neutralize free radicals, it can cross the blood-brain barrier to help protect your brain and nervous system as well.* Plus, resveratrol benets you by how it protects your cells from free radical damage, helps you maintain your blood pressure already within the normal range, keeps your heart healthy and helps improve blood vessel elasticity, boosts your protection against the spread of abnormal cell activity, and helps you better control the aging process.*

So what types of antioxidants do you need?

Astaxanthin with ALA

Lipid - Soluble Antioxidant Formula
Potential benets of lipid-soluble Astaxanthin with ALA... reduces the existence of wrinkles, dry skin, age spots, and freckles, helps protect skin from overexposure due to sun-induced free radicals, boosts your brain and nervous system protection from free radicals, helps reduce the visible signs of aging, supports your joint and skeletal system health, increases your strength and stamina, improves your endurance and enables faster recovery from exercise, helps reduce your joint and muscle soreness following a workout, and enhances your visual acuity and depth perception.* I must admit, Ive never seen a natural lipid-soluble antioxidant as powerful as this, with free radical scavenging strength as much as 65 times greater than vitamin C and 54 times greater than beta-carotene...and even 14 times more powerful than vitamin E.

What Are Free Radicals?

Your body produces free radicals as a result of normal metabollism and energy production. Free radicals are biological responses to environmental toxins, such as cigarette smoke, chemicals, sunlight, cosmic and manmade radiation. They are also produced when you exercise. A free radical is a highly reactive metabolite missing one or more electrons it has at least one unpaired electron. This missing electron is largely responsible for the process of biological oxidation. These partial molecules aggressively look to replace their missing parts by attacking other molecules. Free radicals seek to steal electrons from many of the proteins in your body, potentially causing damage to your DNA and other cell structures. Free radicals can have a snowballing eect in which molecule after molecule steals from its neighbor, each one becoming a new free radical once it's been electronrobbed leaving a trail of biological carnage. Is it any wonder why Ive spent years reviewing and analyzing these pesky free radicals to nd out the most natural ways to help reduce their eects?

Two Distinct Types of Antioxidants

One important categorization of antioxidants is based on whether they are soluble in water (hydrophilic) or in lipids (hydrophobic). You need both types to protect your cells. The interior of your cells and the uid between them are composed mainly of water. But your cell membranes are made largely of fat. As you know, oil and water don't mix. Substances that are soluble in water are not soluble in fat, and vice versa. Free radicals can strike the watery cell contents or the fatty cellular membranes. So, your cells need defenses for BOTH. The fact that antioxidants are so complex and multifactorial has confused people about what antioxidants they should be taking. For example, I have been asked on more than one occasion if it's necessary to take Purple Defense and Ubiquinol if you are already taking Astaxanthin with ALA (and vice-versa). The straight answer is...YES! The antioxidants found in Purple Defense (anthocyanins, polyphenols, resveratrol) are water-soluble antioxidants. Both Astaxanthin and Ubiquinol contain lipid-soluble antioxidants. Each type of antioxidant has its own special function in helping repair and protect your cells from free radical damage. Water-soluble Purple Defense helps repair the interior of cells, lipid-soluble Astaxanthin helps repair fat/cell membranes, and lipid-soluble Ubiquinol acts as an antioxidant recycler for vitamins C and E.*

Ubiquinol
Lipid - Soluble Antioxidant Formula
Not only should you consider complementing your diet with Ubiquinol because its a lipid-soluble antioxidant, it also can boost your heart health, help you produce more energy for your cells, reduce the signs of normal aging, aid in maintaining blood pressure already within the normal range, give your immune system a boost, and help provide support for your nervous system.* If you or someone you know is taking a statin drug, it could be essential to start taking Ubiquinol to help replenish your CoQ10 levels.* As always, verify this need with your healthcare professional.

Why Antioxidants Are Important

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of another molecule. Antioxidants break the free radical chain of reactions by sacricing their own electrons to feed free radicals, without becoming free radicals themselves.

Purple Defense
Water - Soluble Antioxidant Formula
Purple Defense is formulated with the powerful watersoluble antioxidant resveratrol. This potent antioxidant is