Anti-Aging Supplements- 5 Reasons You Need to Take Them

Your skin reflects your inner well-being. As such, your anti-aging regime should start from the inside out. Begin by providing your body with nutrients that are known to slow the aging process, maintain overall good health and promote longevity. In the 1990s major studies were conducted on antioxidants and analysis of foods to determine their specific chemical makeup and their benefits to our health.

What causes our bodies to age?

To understand how supplements and antioxidants can reverse aging you must understand what aging really is. In short, it is caused by damaged cells. Every year our cells and immune system are exposed to chemicals, the environment and other harmful elements. The more exposure we get, the more damage we incur and the older we begin to look. Degenerative diseases (diseases of old age) such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis and Alzheimer’s are often the result of the cumulative effects of life’s stressors on our immune system, nervous system and our DNA.

We are born with the ability to regenerate healthy cells to replace damaged ones at a fairly rapid rate. As we age, this ability slows and often becomes impaired. Often our metabolism becomes less effective so we may not absorb as much of the nutrients from our food as we did in our youth. As we age we also build up free radicals in our system. Free radicals are now linked to damage to our DNA leaving us open to the illnesses mentioned above.

The introduction of antioxidants and anti-aging supplements to your diet can reverse this aging process by giving your cells additional nutrients specifically to aid them in repairing themselves at a more rapid rate as well as neutralizing the free radicals in our body.

What are free radicals?

Free radicals are the by-products of our exposure to pollution, smoking, chemicals and toxins found in cleaners and pesticides and a variety of other hazards we are exposed to every day of our lives. Even the oxygen we need to survive will create free radicals so it is impossible to completely prevent them from happening but we can stop the damage they do.

Free radicals are unstable atoms and molecules that float around in our bodies and are responsible for aging, tissue damage and are often associated with degenerative diseases. They are unstable because they contain an odd number of electrons. Their main goal is to stabilize themselves. They do this by attaching to and stealing electrons from healthy cells. The cells they have stolen from now become free radicals themselves and this whole process will just continue to snowball until significant damage is done.

According to the world renowned cell biologist, Dr Lester Packer, PhD, “Scientists now believe that free radicals are causal factors in nearly every known disease, from heart disease to arthritis to cancer to cataracts. In fact, free radicals are a major culprit in the aging process itself.”

What are antioxidants and how do they work?

Antioxidants are vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals or plant chemicals found in fruits, vegetables and nuts. Generally speaking they are the chemicals that give plants their colors. Lutein makes corn yellow, lycopene makes tomatoes red, carotene makes carrots orange, resveratrol makes grapes purple and anthocyanins make blueberries blue. Those fruits and vegetables that have the most color generally provide you with the most antioxidants.

These phytochemicals are the substances that protect plants from the harsh effects of the sun, viruses, bacteria and fungal infections. When we eat these foods they provide the same protection for our bodies. Each phytochemical plays a different role in preventing disease so it is important to consume a wide variety of them for optimal effect.

Antioxidants help to reduce free radicals by providing a ready supply of electrons they can bind to instead of your healthy cells. The more antioxidant rich foods and supplements you take in, the less unstable free radicals you will have floating around in your body causing damage. This results in a significant reduction in your risk of developing degenerative diseases, slowed aging and an increase in longevity.

Which antioxidant supplements should you take?

First you should aim for a balanced diet containing lots of antioxidant-rich foods such as:

• Vitamin C: oranges and grapefruit, red sweet peppers, kiwi, grapefruit, and strawberries
• Vitamin E: cereals, sunflower seeds, almonds, vegetable oil, turnip greens, tomato paste, and fish liver oil
• Lipoic acid: organ meats, broccoli, spinach, and extract of yeast
• Glutathione: asparagus, garlic, whey powder
• Carotene: sweet potatoes, carrots, cantaloupe, mango, apricots, chard, spinach, turnip and collard greens, and broccoli
• CoQ10: the skin of fresh mackerel and herring
• Polyphenol: all kinds of berries such as acai berries, blueberries and coffee berry as well as red or purple grapes, green tea, red wine, olive oil, and chocolate.

Since the majority of us are fruit and vegetable challenged, taking supplements is a good way to ensure that you get lots of antioxidants in your diet in sufficient amounts on a daily basis.

5 reasons you need to take antioxidant or anti-aging supplements:

1. Cancer and degenerative disease prevention
2. Slow the aging process and increase longevity
3. Reduce inflammatory diseases and improved joint health
4. Preventing Alzheimer’s disease and improved brain health
5. Boosted immune system to prevent viruses

Now that you know the reasons you should take anti-aging supplements, how should you get started?

You could just go to the health food store and the super market and randomly pick and choose which would probably work to a certain degree.  Or you could get professional input and get a specialized program put together.

If you are interested in the latter, CLICK HERE to get your personalized anti-aging supplements profile.  You will be forwarded a series of questions to answer and once the answers are reviewed, you will receive your individualized recommendations.