Antioxidant Protocol
“Food is the fastest-acting and most powerful medicine you can take to change your life.” Doctor Mark Hyman MD
“The greatest protective effect against iron-induced lipid peroxidation occurred when vitamin E, glutathione and NAC were combined. The combination reduced lipid peroxidation by 94%.” Milchak et al 2002, Note here is a key to atherosclerosis stop the oxidation
“NAC has been found to be an effective preventive and treatment for a variety of conditions involving glutathione depletion. There is overwhelming evidence that NAC has the ability to modulate a variety of DNA damage and cancer related end points.” De Flora et al, 2001
”Low magnesium is associated with dramatic increases in free radical generation as well as glutathione depletion.” Doctor Russell Blaylock
“Overly high iron levels not only increases the oxidation process but also reduces antioxidants including glutathione.” Young et al
“Cholesterol can act as an antioxidant if you have let your mineral and vitamin antioxidant levels fall too low. High levels of oxidized cholesterol are found in LDL and HDL transport packets when low levels of food antioxidants are present.” Udo Erasmus PhD
”Curcumin offered kidney protection by suppressing oxidative stress and increasing kidney glutathione content and glutathione peroxidase activity.” Venkratesan et al
“Studies have shown that antioxidants work best in combination. Although there is value in supplementing with extra amounts of one or two antioxidants, better results are always obtained when a “cocktail” is administered. The reason for this is simple logic: different antioxidants neutralize different free radicals. If you take a combination, then more free radicals will be neutralized. You can, however, “slant” the antioxidant effect towards a particular ailment or organ if the nutrient has a particular affinity to them. For example, glutathione would be recommended for hepatitis, Parkinson’s, AIDS and liver disease; vitamins E and C would be recommended for arteriosclerosis; CoQ10 would be recommended for heart disease; and alpha lipoic acid would be recommended for diabetes.” Stephen Byrnes
“Prevention and treatment of cataracts are probably the more scientifically documented and beneficial uses of dietary supplements, Free-radical action has been directly linked to and accepted as one of the major causes of cataracts and damage to the healthy eye.” Life Extension
“No one antioxidant may be effective and total antioxidant capacity is important in reducing the risk associated with fibrinogen and cardiovascular disease.” Ceriello et al
“Taking 800 IU of vitamin E daily for three months lowered LDL cholesterol oxidation by 40%. It’s very clear that vitamin E is the most potent antioxidant against LDL oxidation. Anyone with a family history of heart disease would be foolish not to take vitamin E.” Ishwarlal Jialal, University of Texas, Note anyone is foolish not to take vitamin E
“The study showed that severe vitamin E deficiency causes impaired Natural Killer cell activity but that the condition is reversible with alpha-tocopherol supplementation.” Adachi et al
“High levels of vitamin C can protect levels of vitamin E in tissue and may contribute to the immune-enhancement of vitamin E.” Niki
“Cholesterol, produced by the liver, is another major antioxidant, which the body uses to repair damaged blood vessels. It is probably for this reason that serum cholesterol levels rise as people age. With age comes more free radical activity and in response the body produces more cholesterol to help contain and control the damage.” Stephen Byrnes
“Of all the antioxidants, glutathione appears to be pivotal. Made up of three amino acids (cysteine, glycine, and glutamic acid), glutathione is part of the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase and is THE major liver antioxidant. It is a basic tenet of natural medicine that health cannot exist if the liver is toxic. Not surprisingly, extremely low levels of glutathione are found in people suffering from severe Oxidative Stress. People with AIDS, cancer and Parkinson’s disease, for example, typically have very low glutathione levels.” Stephen Byrneshad
“Vitamin E added to their diet their arterial blockage dropped by one third. Adding some vitamin C along with the vitamin E to their diet for a couple of years reversed their arterial blockage by an additional 8 to 33 percent.” Anthony J. Verlangieri Ph, D. University of MississippiAtherosclerosis Research Center
“Looking at the broader picture, one can easily surmise that the culprit of many degenerative diseases, including high cholesterol, premature aging, and arthrosclerosis, rest with the imbalance of two simple elements – oxygen and sugar. Oxidative stress, from excessive free radical damage in the oxygen respiratory chain, damages vascular walls. This leads to the excessive production of LDL cholesterol by the liver as the body tries to repair the “damaged vessels” which are undetectable by current laboratory measurements.” Doctor Michael Lam MD
“A research team investigated whether Garlic’s allicin could be as effective as claimed. Through experiments with synthetically produced allicin, they found that sulfenic acid produced when the compound decomposes rapidly reacts with dangerous free radicals. Researchers said that the reaction between the sulfenic acid and radicals is as fast as it can get, limited only by the time it takes for the two molecules to come into contact. No other compound has been observed to react as an antioxidant so quickly.” Science Daily January 31, 2009
“Pomegranates have received considerable attention due to their powerful antioxidant capacity; they have show promise to improve atherosclerosis-related conditions such as erectile dysfunction and are effective at preventing cell damage.“ Doctor Michael Ozner MD
“Cocoa and the curry spice turmeric are other examples of natural antioxidants. Cocoa has been shown to directly benefit endothelial function and to lower blood pressure.” Doctor Michael Ozner MD
“Prevention and treatment of cataracts are probably the more scientifically documented and beneficial uses of dietary supplements. Free radical action has been directly linked to and accepted as one of the major causes of cataracts and damage to the healthy eye.” Life Extension
“It is now apparent that many traditional spices in addition to adding interest to our food can provide vital anti-inflammatory and antioxidant function that is having an impact on how we think about chronic illness and aging.” Aggarwal et al
“Far from being an “inevitable” consequence of aging, we now understand that cognitive decline and memory deficits are the predictable results of a lifetime of oxidative and inflammatory injury that damages brain cells’ ability to communicate with each other.” Life Extension
“Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant supplements that may help protect against cancer include curcumin, green tea and gamma tocopherol.” Doctor Eric Braverman MD
“Cholesterol is not the bad guy. I’ve said this for years. What’s important is what your body does with the cholesterol. When cholesterol oxidizes, it promotes significant inflammation and is very atherogenic. LDL cholesterol is extremely vulnerable to oxidation.” Doctor Robert Rowen MD
“In Dr. Joseph’s studies, oxidative stress markers were only modestly reduced by these antioxidant rich foods. The polyphenols in berry fruit like strawberries may be responsible for other mechanisms including enhanced neuronal communication and reduced stress signals due to enhanced neuroprotective stress shock proteins. According to Dr. Joseph, you can protect yourself against the two major villains of aging, oxidation and inflammation, by including the following foods in your diet regularly: Strawberries, Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, Walnuts. Fish , Turmeric.” Polyphenols slow aging
“Rosemary contains carnosic acid which provides multi-faceted protection against free radicals that can impair healthy memory function.” Life Extension, Note hey this may be a way to get some of the benefits of Carnosine on the cheap.
“Flavonoids are remarkable natural compounds that have a wide range of healing effects on your body. In the test tube flavonoids have up to five times the antioxidant power of vitamin C. They hunt down and absorb free radicals before they cause aging and disease.” Doctor Victor Marchione MD
“CoQ10 powerfully safeguards mitochondria from age related decay and death through two principal pathways. It plays an essential role in the electron transport chain. CoQ10 also acts as a powerful free radical scavenger naturalizing and dramatically reducing their oxidative damage.” Life Extension
“Scores of studies show that chronic heart conditions including congestive heart failure are characterized by diminished levels of CoQ10 in heart tissue. CHF patients taking 600 mg/day of the ubiquinol form of CoQ10 saw their heart pumping action improve by 77% over those taking the standard CoQ10.” Life Extension
“Plants evolved lignans to defend against disease. Their health-promoting benefits are passed on to us when ingested.” Life Extension, Note FLAX is 100 times higher than the next best lignan source
“Skin surface lipids (SSL), a very complex mixture of sebum mixed to small amounts of epidermal lipids, mantle the human epidermis, thus representing the outermost protection of the body against exogenous oxidative insults. The present work is a systematic and quantitative analysis of upper-chest SSL and their content in antioxidants in 100 healthy volunteers. Squalene, vitamin E (vit. E) and Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) were found to increase from childhood to maturity to decrease again significantly in old age. Vitamin E and CoQ10 were the only known lipophilic antioxidants present in SSL. In spite of their low levels they were found to synergically inhibit the UV induced depletion of squalene, cholesterol and of unsaturated fatty acids of SSL. In fact, exposure of SSL to increasing amounts of UV irradiation led preferentially to lowering of the levels of vit. E and CoQ10. Four minimal erythema dose (MED) (5.6J/cm2) were able to deplete 84% vit. E and 70% ubiquinone, and only 13% squalene. Diunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids as well as cholesterol were unaffected even following 10 MED UV exposures, which produced a 26% loss of squalene. The same UV dose when applied in the absence of vit. E and CoQ10 produced a 90% decrease of squalene.” Free Radic Res. 2002 Apr;36(4):471-7, Note the bottom line is make sure you get your vitamin E and CoQ10 to protect your skin and your body which is protected by your skin
“Uric acid outside the cell is an antioxidant; inside the cell uric acid is a pro-oxidant. If you keep your uric acid below about 4.5 mg/dl it remains outside the cell and acts as an antioxidant.” Doctor Richard Johnson Professor Medicine
“I just read nine studies that show a connection between your aches and pains and something called “oxidative stress.” That’s when rogue electrons – a.k.a. “free radicals” – break away and attack healthy cells. In one study, fibromyalgia patients were treated with antioxidants. Magnesium and malic acid improved pain levels by 59% in only 4 weeks. Symptoms continued to improve. By 8 weeks, pain levels improved by 69%. The placebo group had no improvement. Their pain got worse.” Doctor Al Sears MD
“Garlic and onions contain allyl sulfides, powerful antioxidants, that protect our genes, promote detoxification of carcinogens, lower blood pressure, and boost immune defenses.” Doctor Al Sears MD
For more research on Antioxidants (See Antioxidant Protocol Research Section)
“The antioxidant enzyme defense system consists of hundreds of different substances and mechanisms. This is why only an adequate combination of whole foods, such as sprouted food concentrates, will contain all of the known and unknown nutritional factors that the body requires to enhance its antioxidant enzyme supply.”
Antioxidants Keeping you from Self-Destructing
This is a diagram of an antioxidant donating an electron to neutralize a free radical.
“Flavonoids are remarkable natural compounds that have a wide range of healing effects on your body. In the test tube flavonoids have up to five times the antioxidant power of vitamin C. They hunt down and absorb free radicals before they cause aging and disease.” Doctor Victor Marchione MD
“System-wide free radical damage to healthy cells is an age accelerator. In experimental models when genes are inserted that boost internal defenses against free radicals, life span can be extended nearly 100%. Natural compounds found in certain plants, polyphenols, can exert similar effects in ageing humans. They have been shown to favorably modulate gene expression that blunts free radical injury at the molecular level.” Life Extension
There are over one hundred body products, foods, vitamins, minerals, Supplements and procedures that have known high antioxidant properties. Antioxidants keep Free Radicals from destroying your body by donating an electron and quenching the free radical rendering it harmless. An antioxidant value of foods has been measured (See ORAC Protocol)
A recent study showed that women taking a daily antioxidant supplement had measurably longer telomeres than the controls. This indicates a probability of a longer live.
Acute Disease is Oxidation
“All toxic damage can be repaired by a high enough dose of antioxidants.” Intravenous Vitamin C
All serious viral and many bacterial infections can be controlled by IV vitamin C. Oral vitamin C will often help solve an acute medical problem. Taking LARGE amounts of antioxidants as a preventive strategy has always made good sense to me. Now we see taking LARGE amounts of antioxidants as a combative and restorative process is required. The next paragraph tells us acute and chronic problems are at base not that different and taking LARGE amounts of antioxidants as a combative and restorative process will help in both the acute and chronic cases.
Chronic Disease is Oxidation
“Chronic disease can be viewed as a process in which the oxidative stress proceeds at a much slower pace than is seen with acute infectious diseases and acute toxin exposures. Vigorous antioxidant therapy goes a long way in reversing the clinical manifestations of such diseases as well, as long as the dose administered supplies enough electrons on a daily basis to reverse the ongoing oxidative damage from the disease process.” Intravenous Vitamin C
Food can Supply LOTS of Antioxidants
Antioxidant value of Foods (ORAC)
ALA a KEY Antioxidant Player
Vitamins C et al Can Recycle Antioxidants
Flavonoids: Chemical Compounds Derived from Plants
20 Important Antioxidants Make sure you supplement or assure daily all of these antioxidant workhorses.
“Whey has been shown to increase your body’s stores of the antioxidant glutathione, or GSH. Glutathione is known to increase the integrity of telomeres. Telomeres are bundles of DNA found in every cell, and they shorten with age.” Doctor Joseph Mercola MD
“Another scientific fact is that cholesterol acts as an antioxidant in the body, dealing with free radical damage.5 Any wound in the body contains plenty of free radicals because the immune cells use these highly reactive molecules for destroying microbes and toxins. Excess free radicals have to be neutralized, and cholesterol is one of the natural substances that accomplishes this function.” Doctor Natasha Campbell-McBride MD
“Lignans may have powerful antioxidant properties that can help block the damaging effects of harmful oxygen molecules called free radicals. these free radicals are thought to cause changes in the body that can lead to cancer. Lignans subdue cancerous changes once they’ve occurred rendering them less likely to race out of control and develop into full blown cancer.” Prevention, Flax seed provides 100s of times the phytoestrogen lignans as the next food source
“Antioxidant supplementation significantly increased large and small artery elasticity in patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors,” Nutrition and Metabolism
“SOD makes every cell in your body more resilient and able to fight off attacks from the outside better. No other antioxidant even comes close to that kind of power. What’s more, SOD protects your DNA, the blueprint your body uses to build every organ, tissue and cell in your body.” Doctor Al Sears MD
A wide diversity of different types of antioxidants assures all parts of your body receives antioxidant protection. IMO these are absolutely required daily or near daily, to provide this antioxidant protection throughout your body.
“When’s the last time you kicked off your shoes and reveled in the feeling of the Earth under your feet? Been awhile? It may sound hard to believe, but engaging in this simple pleasure could give your health a much-needed boost.” Why Walking Barefoot Might Be an Essential Element of Good Health
“Do you notice you feel better when you walk barefoot on the Earth? Recent research has explained why this happens. Your immune system functions optimally when your body has an adequate supply of electrons, which are easily and naturally obtained by barefoot contact with the Earth. Research indicates that electrons from the Earth have antioxidant effects that can protect your body from inflammation and its many well-documented health consequences.” Doctor Joseph Mercola MD
“The earth itself is the original anti-inflammatory. And the planet itself is the biggest electron donor on the planet.” Martin Zucker
The Biologic Effect of Earthing
Earthing can be your most powerful antioxidant source.
1) Vitamin C the prime water soluble antioxidant which operates external and internal to the cell
2) Vitamin E the prime fat soluble antioxidant which operates in the cell membrane including the often oxidized LDL packet membrane, crosses your blood-brain barrier and operates within the fatty parts of your brain, which constitute over 60% of your brain mass and your central nervous system .
3) ALA which is both fat and water soluble and crosses your blood-brain barrier and has access to your entire body
4) Enzymes (See Enzyme Protocol) form MANY complete self-contained antioxidant systems in your body
5) Cholesterol is your bodies’ all around healer. Cholesterol repairs cells in damaged blood vessels and damaged cells anywhere in your body. Cholesterol acts as an antioxidant as it floods the site of an infection, trauma or any massive free radical pool and sops up free radicals, sacrificing itself to rid the area of free radicals. Cholesterol acts as an antioxidant of last resort should you be so foolish as to neglect topping up your antioxidants continually.
6) Glutathione (See Glutathione Protocol) is your liver’s chief antioxidant and your bodies’ universal antioxidant, work to increase it. When your glutathione is gone so are you. NAC is a super way to increase your glutathione.
7) Copper (See Copper Protocol) your bloods chief antioxidant, assure balanced zinc and copper
8) SOD (See SOD Protocol) your cells chief heavy duty internal antioxidant
9) CoQ10 important cellular antioxidant and energy transport essential
10) Curcumin (See Curcumin Protocol) in a plant class of its own; don’t miss out on this antioxidant plus.
11) Spices (See Seasoning Protocol) spices are the age old food antioxidants, very relevant today.
12) Pomegranate (See Pomegranate Protocol) key atherosclerotic antioxidant plus.
13) Cocoa (See Cocoa Protocol) key atherosclerotic antioxidant plus. There is NO question 100% pure cocoa, overflowing with polyphenols is one of the BEST foods you can eat for your heart AND I figure you will not forget this tasty antioxidant.
14) Carotenoids ( See Carotene Protocol) 700 plus MANY, such as (lycopene) strongly anti-oxidant
15) Selenium (See Selenium Protocol) strongly anti-cancer and an immune system requirement.
16) Zinc (See Zinc Protocol) a sexual function requirement, zinc is an immune system requirement.
17 Quercetin (See Quercetin Protocol) vitamin C component, anti-cancer cellular protection
18) Flaxseed is THE source of the powerful antioxidant lignan.
19) Berries See List Berries Berries as a class are POWERFULLY antioxidant.
Continuation of Antioxidant Protocol (See Antioxidant Protocol Continuation)
