Anti-Aging and Anti-Oxidants

Many people live well into their 80s-and beyond. As the body ages, however, various systems slow down, and the risk of disease increases. Even though you can’t stop time, you can forestall some of the negative effects of aging with a healthy lifestyle and well-chosen supplements.

What it is

Put simply, aging is the process of growing old. Every part of the body is affected:

Among other changes, hair turns gray, skin wrinkles, joints and muscles lose flexibility, bones become weak, memory declines, eyesight diminishes, and immunity is impaired.

What causes it

Cells in the body divide a set number of times; then they die and are replaced by new cells. With age, this process slows, and a progressive deterioration of all body systems begins. Though some of this decline is normal and inevitable, many researchers believe that unstable oxygen molecules called free radicals accelerate the process, making us old before our time. Some damage is unavoidable because free radicals are produced during the normal course of cell activity. But you may be able to slow aging by avoiding outside factors that foster free-radical formation cigarette smoke, pollution,
excessive alcohol, and radiation from X rays or the sun and by enhancing your body’s own antioxidant defenses. Manufactured by the cells and obtained through diet, antioxidants are powerful weapons that can disarm free radicals.