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Rust Proof Your Body
with Antioxidants
Charlie Skeen, C.N.C

Take the Personal Antioxidant Profile Questionnaire Below

When you see a metal object rusting, especially iron, that is what is called oxidation. Oxygen from the air we breathe is slowly oxidizing, weakening and eventually destroying, the metal object. This same process actually occurs inside our body. In fact, since the 1980s researchers have found that many of the common diseases caused by this process is due to the lack of sufficient antioxidants which prevent the oxygen from damaging our cells.

Some of the diseases that they feel may be caused by an antioxidant deficiency are:

Alzheimer”s Disease

Cancer

Cardiovascular Disease

Cataracts

Diabetes

Hypertension

Infertility

Macular Degeneration

Measles

Mental Illness

Periodontal Disease

Respiratory Tract Infection

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Oxygen A Double-Edged Sword
While we need oxygen everyday to release the energy in the food we eat to drive all of our body’s processes it can also become our enemy. Because oxygen is so chemically reactive it becomes unstable during normal biochemical reactions causing oxidation to occur to other molecules in close proximity. This leads to cellular damage resulting in diseases and faster aging. If this process isn’t stopped the damaged cells themselves now turn into free radicals damaging other healthy cells and will produce even more free radicals producing a domino effect. Over time you can see how this process can make a person very unhealthy and age them more quickly with visible signs such as wrinkled skin, poor eyesight, stiff joints, and increased pain from the inflammation.

Other Sources of Free Radicals
Besides the oxygen we breathe, we can cause free radicals by taking into out bodies other forms of combustion, or oxidation. These would include breathing car exhaust fumes, smoking, including second-hand smoke, frying and barbecuing our food, radiation, normal body processes, such as digestion, and exercise, especially aerobically because you are breathing in large quantities of oxygen.

Neutralizing Free Radicals with Antioxidants
Antioxidants, as the name implies, are against oxidants. In other words, they protect the body from the damage of free radicals by neutralizing them. Four of the best known antioxidants are vitamins A, C, E, and the mineral selenium. But there are others too, such as Glutathione Peroxidase and SOD, Superoxide Dismutase. They are known as antioxidant enzymes and are naturally produced by the body when there are sufficient amounts of selenium, zinc, copper, and manganese. If you are taking a supplement that contains these ingredients you need to make sure that they are in sufficient quantities to be effective, and in forms that the body can easily absorb. While these antioxidants are more well known, there are over a hundred other antioxidants found in food that have just been recently discovered such as pycnogenol, bioflavonoids, and anthyocyanidins that are not as well known.

Two Important Amino Acids
The amino acids, cysteine and glutathione, are also known as antioxidants because they are required to produce, in conjunction with selenium, one of the body’s most important enzymes, glutathione peroxidase. This enzyme assists in detoxifying the body from harmful chemicals and free radicals that would be produced from exhaust fumes, excess alcohol, toxic metals, carcinogens, cancer causing agents, and infections. Foods that are high in cysteine and glutathione are white meat tuna, lentils, beans, seeds, nuts, onions, and garlic. These foods have all demonstrated their ability to strengthen the immune system and increase the body’s antioxidants.

The Benefits of Antioxidants
Making sure that you are getting adequate levels of antioxidants each day can go a long way in keeping you healthy and slowing down the aging process, while aging more gracefully. Besides reducing your risk of heart and stroke, they will help support your immune system and increase your resistance to infection. They have been known to reduce the symptoms of Aids, increase fertility, reduce inflammation in arthritis, and improve recovering from exercise (muscle stiffness and soreness).

Antioxidant Supplements
There are many fine supplements on the market today. You need to make sure that the supplement is made of high quality ingredients and in amounts that would be effective. A fine addition to anyone's supplement program would be Healthful Greens & Reds™ which contains a combination of organic plants from the sea and land providng essential nutrients that many people are lacking in their diet.

Antioxidants From food
Of course everyone needs to eat better for many reasons, and now you have another one, to get your daily supply of antioxidants. Below is a list of foods that are naturally high in the antioxidants A, C, E, and selenium. The foods with highest number of asterisks should be eaten more often.

Antioxidants Found in Some Foods
Food	A	C	E	Selenium
Sweet Potatoes	***	*	***
Carrots	***	***
Watercress	***	***
Peas	*	**	**
Broccoli	**	***
Cauliflower	*	***
Lemons	*	***
Mangoes	**	**
Meat (Ground beef regular & round)	*			*
Melon	**	**
Peppers	*	***
Pumpkin	**	**
Strawberries	*	***
Tomatoes	**	**
Cabbage	***			*
Grapefruit	*	**
Kiwi Fruit	*	**
Oranges	*	**
Almonds			***	*
Brazil Nuts	*	*	***	*
Pecans	*		*	*
Squash	***
Zucchini				*
Mushrooms				**
Tuna, Mackerel, Salmon			***	***
Cod and Herring				*
Chicken				*
Oyster				**
Eggs Whole	**		*	*
Apricots	**
Beans			*
Whole Grain Rice			*	*
Whole Grains			*	*
Lamb Chops			*	*
Please Note: This list is not all inclusive and just represents some examples of the sources of the antioxidants A, C, E, and selenium. Also, the nutrient content of the foods will depend on the soil that they are grown in.

Personal Antioxidant Profile Questionnaire
This questionnaire will give you an idea of how well you are doing in protecting your body from rusting, or free radical damage.

Personal Antioxidant Profile
Score 1 point for each “Yes” answer.
Symptom Analysis
• Do you frequently suffer from infections (coughs, cold)?	Yes	No
• Do you find it hard to shake an infection?	Yes	No
• Do you have a recurrent infection (cystitis, thrush, earache, etc.)?	Yes	No
• Do you bruise easily?	Yes	No
• Do you easily get exhausted after physical exertion?	Yes	No
• Does your skin take a long time to heal?	Yes	No
• Do you suffer from acne, dry skin, or excessive wrinkles?	Yes	No
• Are you overweight?	Yes	No
• Have you ever suffered from any of the conditions listed below:	Yes	No
Probable Antioxidant Deficiency Diseases
Alzheimer’s Disease
Cancer
Cardiovascular Disease
Cataracts
Diabetes
Hypertension
Infertility
Macular (eye) Degeneration
Measles
Mental Illness
Periodontal Disease
Respiratory Tract Infections
Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Have your parents collectively suffered from two or more of these conditions?	Yes	No
YOUR SCORE
Lifestyle Analysis
• Have you smoked for more than five years of your life, less than five years ago?	Yes	No
• Do you smoke now?	Yes	No
• Do you smoke more than ten cigarettes a day?	Yes	No
• Do you spend most days in a smoky atmosphere?	Yes	No
• Do you have an alcoholic drink each day?	Yes	No
• Do you live in a polluted city, or by a busy road?	Yes	No
• Do you spend more than two hours in traffic each day?	Yes	No
• Are you quite often exposed to strong sunlight?	Yes	No
• Do you consider yourself unfit?	Yes	No
• Do you exercise excessively and get easily “burnt out”?	Yes	No
YOUR SCORE
Diet Analysis
• Do you eat fried foods most days?	Yes	No
• Do you eat less than a serving of fresh fruit and raw vegetables each day?	Yes	No
• Do you eat less than two pieces of fresh fruit each day?	Yes	No
• Do you rarely eat nuts, seeds, or whole grains each day?	Yes	No
• Do you eat smoked or barbecued food or grilled cheese on your food?	Yes	No
• Does most of your drinking and cooking water come from the tap?	Yes	No
• Do you supplement less than 500 milligrams of vitamin C each day?	Yes	No
• Do you supplement less than 100 IU of vitamin E each day?	Yes	No
• Do you supplement less than 10,000 IU of vitamin A or beta carotene each day?	Yes	No
YOUR SCORE
YOUR TOTAL SCORE:
0-10 This is an ideal score, indicating that your health, diet and lifestyle are consistent with a high level of antioxidant protection.
11-15 This is a reasonable score, although you can increase your power of prevention by converting “Yes” answers into “No.”
16-20 This is a poor score, indicating plenty of room for improvement. Consult a nutritionist to upgrade your diet and lifestyle for increased antioxidant protection.
20+ This is a bad score, putting you in the high risk group for rapid aging. Consult a nutritionist and ask for an antioxidant profile blood test, or if available in your area, use the Pharmanex Bio Photonic Scanner. You will need to make changes to your diet and lifestyle, plus supplementing antioxidants, to reverse or slow down the aging process.

Summary
•	Eat plenty of fresh fruits.
•	Eat plenty of fresh vegetables, especially focusing on carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, broccoli and watercress.
•	Supplement your diet with a good antioxidant supplement.
•	Try to avoid polluted and smoky areas as much as possible, long periods of direct exposure to intense sunlight, excess alcohol, chlorinated water, and fried foods.
•	Do not over-exercise, especially aerobically, and gradually get into shape, do not push yourself.
•	Do not over-eat.

References:
Holford, Patrick, The Optimum Nutrition Bible, 1999
Hass, Elson M, M.D., Staying Healthy with Nutrition, 1992
Dunne Lavon J, Nutrition Almanac Third Edition, 1990