StevePSmith's Blogs

Anti-oxidant enzymes are the body’s first line of defence in the battle against the premature ageing effects of free radicals.

Free radicals are a normal and natural by-product of the energy producing biochemical reactions in the mitochondria of each and every cell in the body. Like other waste products, however, free radicals can cause problems if they’re produced in excessive quantities which cannot be safely disposed of. In the case of excessive free radicals, the problems caused are damage to the very cells and molecules of the body; damage which spreads rapidly through chain reactions as the damaged cells and molecules themselves become free radicals. Left unchecked, these chain reactions can accelerate the process of ageing within the body and even contribute to the development of the characteristic diseases of degeneration - heart and circulatory problems, age-related cognitive and visual impairment, and even cancer.

The so-called superoxide free radicals are a particularly pernicious example and are released upon the metabolism of oxygen within cells, literally with breath we take Superoxide free radicals react with other by-products of energy production to form hydroxyl, the most damaging free radical of all, and to attack the mitochondria of the cells themselves.

Since it is the mitochondria which ultimately produce the energy for all the body’s vital reactions, mitochondrial damage due to free radicals can only mean the production of less and less energy and the gradual deterioration and degeneration of the entire organism. It has even been argued that the rate of mitochondrial damage is the key to the rate of ageing itself.

The antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione, are the body’s first line of defence against superoxide free radicals and work in a closely complementary fashion. It is dismutase that first breaks down the superoxide free radicals into oxygen and hydrogen peroxide, but catalase is then required to break down that hydrogen peroxide into plain oxygen and water. Further free radical attack would otherwise turn the hydrogen peroxide into the dreaded hydroxyl which once formed cannot be neutralised by any enzyme.

So far, so good, but the problem is that catalase is water and not fat soluble and is therefore ineffective at protecting those vital parts of the cell, such as the membranes, which are actually formed of fat. For this the body also needs glutathione to soak up and neutralise any rogue hydrogen peroxide molecules in these areas. Glutathione also acts directly against any free radicals attacking the fatty membranes themselves.

Each of these enzymes is formed by the body from the amino acids in the proteins in your diet and each is needed for the others to function correctly. This holistic functioning of the body is also reflected in the dietary requirements for the successful production of the enzymes. As well as a good supply of first-class protein, ie that containing each of the eight essential amino acids, a wide variety of vitamins and minerals are required to allow optimal levels of enzyme manufacture.

In particular, vitamin C and those of the B complex, together with trace minerals such as manganese, zinc, copper, sulphur and selenium appear particularly important. But it can never be stressed too strongly that the body functions holistically and a deficiency or malfunction of any one of its myriad of incredibly complex and interdependent systems is almost invariably part of a more general malaise.

Damage to cells once done appears to be irreversible. That’s why although there may be ways to slow down the ageing process, nobody’s yet figured out how to reverse it. By the time you see the visible evidence of nutritional deficiencies it’s probably already too late.

So in seeking to ensure an adequate supply of anti-oxidant enzymes, the only sensible policy to pursue is to ensure that the diet is rich in all essential nutrients.

Unfortunately that’s easier said than done in our “advanced” Western civilisation of these days. Intensive over exploitation of farm soils, the modern prevalence of highly refined grains, and the treatment of fruits and vegetables with preservatives, dyes, pesticides and even radiation is a proven disaster for vitamin and mineral retention in food.

This does not for a moment mean that it’s not worth trying to eat a diet rich in anti-oxidants – that’s to say a diet which includes lavish servings of fresh fruit and vegetables. But it does mean that a regime of sensible anti-oxidant supplements may be a wise precaution, and its one increasingly adopted by many well informed individuals, including physicians, as a sensible and cost effective form of health insurance.

Steve Smith

Find out more about liquid vitamins and minerals

Nutritional science is becoming increasingly interested in the potential of certain micro-nutrients, which appear to be of particular significance in the battle against ageing. These so-called anti-ageing micro-nutrients include lipoic acid, and the amino acid, carnitine.

Both lipoic acid and carnitine are manufactured naturally by the body through the normal metabolism of food, but what is particularly interesting to anti-ageing researchers is that the body’s ability to synthesise both these compounds appears to decline significantly with advancing age.

Both lipoic acid and carnitine, the latter in particular, are very important in the complex processes by which food is converted by the body into energy. Lipoic acid is also a significant anti-oxidant, combatting the free radicals which are an important cause of the cellular damage which can accelerate the ageing process and even contribute to the onset of the degenerative diseases which are the source of so much misery in old age. Lipoic acid is quite quickly removed from blood plasma, which to some extent restricts its value as an anti-oxidant in its own right. However, the fact that lipoic acid is quickly taken up by the body’s cells in this way may well be indicative of its significance for other functions. Moreover, there is now good evidence that supplementation with lipoic acid can help reverse the age-related decline in cell concentrations of vitamin C and glutathione, which are respectively the most important water and fat–soluble anti-oxidants, and consequently critical in the anti-ageing battle.

Both lipoic acid and carnitine have also been found to be crucial to the proper functioning of the cell mitochondria, the principal producers of energy within the body. What is particularly relevant in the field of anti-ageing is that the heart is very densely packed with mitochondria; and this vital organ not only consumes enormous amounts of energy, but is unable to store the energy it needs for more than a few minutes. The proper functioning of the heart, and therefore life itself, is very highly dependent on the proper functioning of these mitochondria, which is particularly prone to decline rapidly with age.

The powerful anti-oxidant functions of lipoic acid appear to be extremely important in protecting the cell mitochondria from damage, whilst carnitine works to maintain the delivery of energy to the mitochondria through the metabolism of the essential fatty acids which are the heart’s principal source of energy; a metabolism which otherwise declines significantly with age.

But the potential anti-ageing benefits of lipoic acid and carnitine do not end with the heart. Lipoic acid, in particular, is now widely used by nutritional therapists in ameliorating the nerve damage and pain caused by diabetes, and there is some evidence that carnitine may also be useful in this regard.

Experiments on old animals, including rats and dogs, have suggested that supplementation with lipoic acid and carnitine may also have significant effects in improving brain function, particularly short-term memory, and this is not really surprising given that mitochondrial damage is strongly associated with age-related dementia and conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

There is evidence that mitochondrial damage in brain cells may be in large part due to increased free radical activity caused by the build up of excess iron, copper, and other minerals occurring naturally within the body. Excitingly, it seem that lipoic acid may actually reverse this build up, returning the levels of these minerals to those found in younger animals. More than this; the capacity of lipoic acid to remove excess metals from the body has led to it being used in the removal of more damaging substances such as lead and mercury; and suggests that the substance may have a more general detoxifying capability, of use even in cases of acute poisoning and alcohol or drug damage.

Finally, it is now widely accepted that many cancers are at root diseases of degeneration, becoming consequently much more prevalent as the population ages; and having their origins in the long-term damage to cells caused by free radical activity. Given this, it is believed that lipoic acid’s anti-oxidant function, and role in stimulating the activity of vitamin and glutathione, may also play an important part in the battle against cancer. Lipoic acid is also known to help activate many of the genes which are vital weapons in this battle. It is conceded even by its advocates that much more research is required, but these are nevertheless exciting findings.

Despite all of this, however, orthodox medicine is characteristically reluctant to endorse the use of supplements of lipoic acid or carnitine, although there appear to be no concerns regarding toxicity with either. Suitable doses appear to be in the range 100mg–300mg of lipoic acid and 500mg–1,000mg of carnitine. But whilst these doses should be sufficient to deliver the general anti-ageing benefits in healthy individuals, nutritional therapists and practitioners commonly recommend much higher intakes for the treatment of specific conditions such as diabetes and the promotion of weight loss.

Steve Smith

Find out more about liquid vitamins and minerals

It’s perhaps one of the sadder ironies of our time that the astonishing affluence we enjoy in inessential luxuries should be accompanied by increasing poverty in the most basic necessity of all – the very food we eat.

The one thing in which our modern Western diet is not deficient, of course, is calories, as a glance at our surging rates of obesity and diabetes will quickly confirm. But these calories are largely provided in the form of refined carbohydrates, sugar and fat, leaving little time or space for the consumption of health promoting fresh fruits and vegetables.

Worse still, there’s overwhelming evidence that even our fruits and vegetables are not as nutritionally potent as they used to be. As early as 1936 Senate Document 264 (74th US Congress, Second Session ) noted that 99% of Americans were deficient in necessary minerals and in the light of the continued intensification of farming methods it seems highly unlikely that the situation will have improved in the intervening years.

Indeed, the 1992 Earth Summit reported that mineral concentrations in US farm soils were 85% lower than those of a hundred years ago. The figures for other wealthy Western nations are almost as alarming, and the problem doesn’t just lie in the soil. The modern prevalence of highly refined grains, and the treatment of fruits and vegetables with preservatives, dyes, pesticides and even radiation is a proven disaster for vitamin and mineral retention in our food, as well as a significant toxic assault with which the human organism simply wasn’t designed to cope.

So not surprisingly in the face of this depressing picture, diet supplements have become a multi-billion dollar industry in spite of conventional medicine’s insistence that a well balanced diet including all the main food groups should supply all our nutritional needs.

In a way this traditional view has some sense in it, because there’s a fundamental problem in trying to rectify a very poor diet through supplementation alone.

The problem is that the human body is a wonderfully complex organism which functions holistically. That’s to say that each and every one of its almost infinite number of biochemical processes is dependent upon numerous others for its proper functioning, and no vital nutrient can do its work in the absence of an adequate supply of the others.

So it’s rarely any use to take specific supplements in isolation except in the very short term. And since research has shown that healthy animals, including humans, require at least 45 different minerals as well as essential vitamins, amino acids and fatty acids, trying to take all these as individual supplements would be a time consuming and tiresome process.

As a not very palatable alternative there are of course the torpedo size multis or “horse pills”. The problem is that is that these must be heavily compressed and treated with a binding agent and the tablets produced by this process are inevitably bulky and difficult to swallow.

Laboratory technicians try to help to some extent by wrapping the vitamins and minerals in protein to assist with their metabolism; but according to the 1996 Physician’s Desk Reference only 10 - 20% is absorbed even if your digestive system is extremely efficient. And for those with even slightly sub-optimal health, this bleak outlook is even worse, because digestion is one of the most sensitive and easily upset of all our vital functions.

We all know that when we have any kind of emotional upset or illness, even as minor as a cold, the first thing to go is our appetite. The fact is that the complex and subtle biochemistry required for digestion has been thrown off balance, and your body just doesn’t want to take in food it knows it won’t be able to absorb.

So it’s a cruel paradox that it’s just when you’re most in need of supplements that you’re least likely to be able to benefits from them. But this doesn’t mean you should give up on the idea of supplements. Advocates of liquid vitamin and mineral supplements now claim absorption rates as high as 95-98% from fresh ingredients which in the scientific jargon are much more bio-available. That’s to say they’re much more quickly and easily assimilated into the blood stream and thereby conveyed to the tissues that so urgently need them.

Since the plant-derived ingredients are not powdered or compressed and require no added fillers or binding agents; devotees claim as little as a single fluid ounce may contain all of the body’s daily nutritional requirements. And as many of the minerals we require are needed in trace amounts of 100 milligrams or less, there may be some truth in this.

So although no one suggests that a liquid supplement can take the place of a healthy diet, it may perhaps be worth considering as a convenient and extremely cost effective form of health insurance.

Steve Smith is a freelance copywriter specialising in direct marketing and with a particular interest in health and wellness.

Steve Smith

Find out more about liquid vitamins and minerals