ANTIOXIDANT / OXIDANT BALANCE:
Antioxidant /
Oxidant Balance:
Antioxidants –“Oxidant damage control - simplified”
Antioxidants -"Oxidant damage control"
•Antioxidants prevent oxidative stress
•Two types of antioxidants -enzymatic and non-enzymatic
•Reaction Age (technical tidbit)
- Preventing cellular damage that initiates many diseases
Antioxidants
are needed to balance the
oxidants produced by and present in the body
- normal biological activities of aerobic
cells and organisms continuously generate oxidants
(e.g. Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), including Free
Radicals) which can inflict cellular
damage when they are generated to the extent that they overwhelm the cells'ROS
" Damage control"antioxidant
systems.Oxidant
/ antioxidant
balance i.e. maintaining
oxygen homeostasis (stability),
is the major factor in maintaining good cellular function and preventing
oxidative stress, which plays a significant role
in the progression of many diseases, including diabetes, Alzheimer disease, and
atherosclerosis/heart disease.
To prevent damage to cells in the body from excess
ROS , there
must be a balance between the formation of necessar y
oxidant
ROS and
the ability of the body's
antioxidant
defense to remove them.
For information on the two "faces"of
ROS :
Life's
Oxygen Paradox
- Meet Dr.
ROS Jeckyll and Mr.ROS
Hyde
Antioxidants
sacrifice themselves to preserve your body parts - basically,
antioxidants
are molecules that
ROS, such as free radicals,
find "more attractive"than cellular components.
Antioxidants readily donate their electrons
to prevent free
radicals from stealing electrons out
of membrane fatty acids, mitochondria, DNA, and elsewhere.
After donating an electron, an antioxidant
becomes a free radical by definition.
Antioxidants in this state are not harmful
because they have the ability to accommodate the change in electrons without becoming
reactive themselves.
Antioxidants
each work in their own unique manner and in
their particular area of expertise, but they also complement each other - in a wonderful synergy that effectively protects cells from
free radicals .
"When vitamin E disarms a
free radical , it becomes a weak free radical itself.
But unlike other free radicals, the
vitamin E radical can be recycled, or turned
back into an antioxidant, by
vitamin C or coenzyme Q10. These network
antioxidants will donate electrons to
vitamin E , bringing it back to its
antioxidant state."
- Dr. Packer, author of "The
Antioxidant Miracle"
Healthy cells and
aerobic
organisms have more protective
antioxidant
enzymes (E.g.
SOD, CAT and Glutathione peroxidase) than
anaerobic
organisms - which are thus more vulnerable to
oxidative damage .
There are two types of
antioxidant
protective mechanisms against
oxidative stress
1. Enzymatic
Antioxidants
2.
Non-
Enzymatic
Antioxidants
All
Antioxidants
need optimal amounts of certain dietary, MINERALS to function properly
Refers to the minimum distance away a
free radical scavenger
must be from a radical
to be able to neutralize the
radical.
E.g. OH•
travels no more than several Angstroms before it interacts with another molecule
and a free radical scavenger must be within this
"cage" to neutralize the radical . Thus, for example,
if an antioxidant is confined to the lipid-rich
membrane of a cell because of its specific solubility, it will be ineffective in
reducing OH•
