Oxidative stress occurs when certain lifestyle factors damage our body cells, and is at the route of most serious diseases, including cancer. "Oxidative stress is likely to be involved in age-related development of cancer" (source: Wikipedia). It is widely accepted by medical scientists that oxidative stress is a major cause of premature aging and a shortened lifespan.
Oxidation occurs when oxygen damages (oxidizes) the molecular components of body cells. Antioxidants are molecules made inside the body that inhibit (prevent) the damaging oxidation of other molecules such as free radicals.
So put simply, oxidative stress occurs when our body cells are damaged by free radicals. Oxidative stress is a fact of life. It’s estimated that our bodies’ cells are “hit” by free radicals up to 10,000 times a day, every day. What causes oxidative stress? Daily living – breathing, eating, exercise, and exposure to environmental toxins.
As we breathe, we take in oxygen which our cells require. Our cells then naturally produce unstable molecules as a by-product, and these are known as 'free radicals'. When these free radicals are not stabilized they can cause oxidative damage to our cells and to our DNA (similar to the oxidative damage that rusts metal, or causes the browning of a cut apple).
Oxidative stress also occurs from exposure to tobacco smoke, the sun, poor diet, processed meats, transfats, pollution, drugs, toxins, herbicides, body trauma, and some medical tests and procedures such as x-rays, surgeries and chemotherapy. Antioxidants inside the body protect cells by stabilizing free radicals, thus preventing and repairing the damage that they can cause.
Every time oxidative stress damages a body cell, the telomere associated with that cell is shortened as explained in the previous chapter. So long-term you always want to minimize your telomere damage, and short-term you always want to avoid oxidative stress so as to avoid illness and bad health.
Our natural antioxidant defences generally do a great job in keeping infection at bay and combating a host of diseases such as heart disease, stroke, macular degeneration, diabetes and cancer.
We can give our antioxidant defences a helping hand by following a healthy diet and by avoiding unhealthy lifestyles that generate free radicals inside the body. Antioxidants are abundantly found in brightly coloured fruits and vegetables, as well as in nuts, seeds, sprouted seeds and green tea. They are also present in small amounts in just about everything we eat: all fruits, vegetables, and legumes contain antioxidants, and some grains, meats, poultry and fish contain smaller amounts.
Until recently, the thinking had been that antioxidants can only be good for you and that free radicals can only be bad. But that thinking has changed.
Drs. Cleva Villanueva and Robert Kross published a 2012 review titled 'AntioxidantInduced Stress' in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Their research and other recent studies show that free-radicals are not all bad and that antioxidants are not all good. It's not a black and white picture.
For example, free-radicals are a natural by-product of energy production inside the body. Such free-radicals signal our body cells to make their own home-made antioxidants of many types. These antioxidants then work together synergistically in a kind of cascade effect to protect the whole body.
If there is only one overwhelming type of antioxidant present, say as a result of taking a high-dose vitamin C supplement, then our body's natural antioxidants 'don't get a look in' to provide that protective cascade effect. You could end up with a bunch of reactive vitamin C, which itself can cause what is called “antioxidant stress.”
We do need these endogenous antioxidants that our own body makes. They are very important for good health generally. But we don't need antioxidants from the food we eat and we certainly don't need antioxidant supplements.
"Evidence gathered over the past few years shows that, at best, antioxidant supplements do little or nothing to benefit our health. At worst, large doses could have the opposite effect, promoting the very problems they are supposed to stamp out. Time and again antioxidant supplements have failed the test. True, they knock the wind out of free-radicals in a test tube. But once inside the human body, they seem strangely powerless". Source: Readers Digest Canada, www.readersdigest.ca/food/dietnutrition/antioxidant-myth.
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"A trial in 2011 with 35,500 men found that men older than 50 years of age had a 17% higher risk for prostate cancer when given large doses of the antioxidant vitamin E. Due to these disturbing studies, conclusions point to the possibility that antioxidants at least at high doses may protect cancer cells from free radicals. A recent study gave the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) to mice genetically susceptible to melanoma. In this trial, the dose was similar to those found in human consumption of antioxidants. The treated mice developed more tumors in lymph nodes that suggested a higher rate of metastasis (spread of cancer). In addition, they added NAC or vitamin E to cultured human melanoma cells and found that antioxidants aided the cell’s ability to invade nearby tissues (a sign of increased metastasis). Do not fall for the hype of supplement sellers and manufacturers who ignore the science". Source: Sally J. Feltner, PhD, RDN (University Professor and PhD degree in nutrition science), Antioxidant Supplements and Cancer Cells, article at foodworkblog, Jan. 2016.
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"Diets containing foods [naturally] high in antioxidants have been shown to improve health. However, in supplement form, the prevention of diseases such as cancer or coronary heart disease and the general promotion of health have not been confirmed experimentally. Trials including supplements of beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E singly or in different combinations found no effect on mortality or might increase it. Randomized clinical trials of taking antioxidants including beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C and selenium have shown no effect on cancer risk or have increased cancer risk. Supplementation with selenium or vitamin E does not reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease." Source: Wikipedia.
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"The conclusion is becoming clear: whatever is behind the health benefits of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, you can't reproduce it by taking purified extracts or vitamin supplements. Just because a food with a certain compound in it is beneficial to health, it does not mean a [pill containing the same compound] is." Source: Paul Coates, Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health, https://ods.od.nih.gov.
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"The truth is that there are no studies that prove that plant antioxidants work as antioxidants in our non-plant bodies. After all, they were made for plants, and many of them are destroyed by digestion or transformed by the liver into completely different chemicals. Luckily, Nature, in its infinite wisdom, provided us with our own built-in antioxidants, designed especially for our animal bodies, such as cholesterol, melatonin, urea, and uric acid". Source: Georgia Ede, MD, www.diagnosisdiet.com
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The fact is our own human body makes all the antioxidants that it needs for good health. It could be that some of the antioxidants contained in our food can give the body a helping hand in making its own antioxidants (but there is no scientific evidence to back this up). The latest research is showing that the body does not use the antioxidants contained in the food we eat to combat free-radicals. The body makes its own antioxidants for such battles. But this does not mean or imply that foods naturally high in antioxidants are not healthy to consume (they typically contain a wide range of nutrients that are good for you).
When it comes to antioxidant supplements, a dire picture is emerging from the research. A 2014 review published in 'Nutrition and Food Science' concluded that high-dose antioxidant supplements can effectively snatch up all the free-radicals naturally produced by the body before they have a chance to trigger the synthesis of those beneficial endogenous antioxidants.
Barbara Demmig-Adams, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and one of the authors of the 2014 paper wrote in an email:
“I think it’s a really important realization that the much-maligned [free] radicals have a job to do in our bodies and that a single high-dose supplements can do more harm than good".
In particular you should avoid the antioxidant supplements A, C, and E. These vitamins are easily obtained from the food you eat, particularly fruit, vegetables and salads. Taking these vitamins as supplements causes nothing but ill-health.
Put simply: taking antioxidant supplements puts your health at risk. Our cells practice an elegant balancing act, each component playing an important part: vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, water, free-radicals, other metabolites, and antioxidants (both endogenous and dietary). When we figure out a specific beneficial role that any one of these serves, it’s tempting to say: “Wow, look how important this thing is, let’s make sure folks get a whole bunch of it!” But that can throw off the whole delicate system, leading to some serious consequences.
For example, research is now showing that antioxidant supplements may actually speed up the spread of the potentially deadly skin cancer melanoma. Such supplements can prevent oxidation (i.e. prevent efficient energy production) which in turn can damage cells, leading to cancer.
What about taking other vitamin and mineral supplements? In general you should avoid taking such supplements unless prescribed for a specific medical condition. A healthy diet will provide all the vitamins and minerals needed for optimum health and longevity. The only exception to this is as follows: it is recommended that you take three daily vitamins B12, D3 and K2(MK7) as research shows that however good the diet, these three vitamins are lacking in most people.
Note: take both D3 and K2(MK7), or neither. The body needs D3, but it also needs K2 (MK7) to tell the body where to put the D3. If you take D3 without K2(MK7) you risk a build-up of harmful arterial calcification plus insufficient D3 where it is needed.
"Without Vitamin K2, the body cannot direct calcium to the bones where it's needed; instead, the calcium resides in soft tissue (like the arteries)—leading to a combination of osteoporosis and atherosclerosis". Source: Kate Rheaume-Bleue, Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little-Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life, Wiley, ISBN: 9781118065723, 2011.
It is well known that free-radicals can damage healthy body cells. But free-radicals can also damage harmful microorganisms like viruses and bacteria which have invaded our bodies. We need the free-radicals that our body naturally produces when we burn energy; they are part of our natural defences against illness and disease. If we wipe them out with antioxidant supplements, we also wipe out a major part of our natural defences.
Furthermore, it is becoming clear that the free-radicals that we naturally produce cause minimum damage to healthy body cells, just enough to make such cells produce vital 'home-made' antioxidants.
Clearly, it is important to avoid smoking, air pollution, sun burn, harmful drugs, alcohol, and other substances that give the body an overdose of harmful free-radicals. They can cause cellular damage associated with ageing, heart failure, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and many other health problems. But it doesn't follow that taking antioxidant supplements will help combat such free-radicals. You combat such free-radicals by avoiding the harmful substances (and unhealthy behaviours) in the first place.
While some studies show that antioxidant supplements in the laboratory can prevent cancer, others show that they keep cancer cells alive so as to proliferate. Cells alone on a plate in a lab respond consistently well to antioxidants, but cells in the body are more complicated.
Let us not forget that there is a huge multi-billion dollar food and supplement industry that is always pushing us to buy their antioxidant pills, potions, and health foods. Don't be conned into buying a health-food processed and packaged as being 'high in antioxidants'. We simply don't need these snake-oil remedies.
You don't want to (and don't need to) boost the antioxidant capabilities of your body with antioxidant supplements. But you do need to keep your natural immunity strong so as to fight off disease and illness. You do this by adopting a wholly nutritious diet that equips the body to make its own endegonous antioxidants. So-called 'superfoods' high in antioxidants such as blueberries are indeed good for you, but they can't be used as a cancer-fighting antioxidant weapon.
A major review published in 2012 looked at over 60 studies associated with oxidative stress and its effect on health and longevity, and came to the conclusions that follow. Note: Comments in brackets [ ] are the author's.
Source: Masood A. Shammas, et al, Telomeres, lifestyle, cancer, and aging, Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2011 Jan; 14(1): 28–34.
Author's note relating to above point 11: Another meta review concludes that non-intense exercise and physical activity reduces the rate of telomere shortening and that in contrast, intense exercise can lead to transient increases in single stranded DNA breaks in peripheral blood cells, thus shortening telomeres. Source: Zhangfa Song, Lifestyle impacts on the aging associated expression of biomarkers of DNA damage and telomere dysfunction in human blood, Aging Cell, 2010 Aug; 9(4): 607–615).
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To finish on the subject of oxidative stress, there is a strong and well-researched link between sleep and oxidative stress. When you get enough sleep, this greatly restores the body from the previous day's oxidative stress and minimizes the oxidative stress in the coming day. You are urged to search Internet for the term "sleep well" for ideas and tips on how to improve your sleep quota.
Takeaway message: avoid oxidative stress in your body so as to be healthy and live longer. Limit nutritional supplements to vitamins D3, K2 and B12, unless other supplements medically prescribed.
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The harm caused by glycation inside your body is very underrated and very overlooked when it comes to general good health and longevity. In fact, glycation is at the root of many diseases, pre-mature aging and a shorter life, yet glycation is easily prevented. Here is a quote from Wikipedia:
"Glycation is implicated in many age-related chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (the endothelium, fibrinogen, and collagen are damaged), Alzheimer's disease (amyloid proteins are side-products of the reactions progressing to AGEs), cancer (acrylamide and other side-products are released), peripheral neuropathy (the myelin is attacked), and other sensory losses such as deafness (due to demyelination). This range of diseases is the result of the very basic level at which glycations interfere with molecular and cellular functioning throughout the body and the release of highly oxidizing side-products such as hydrogen peroxide.
Long-lived cells (such as nerves and different types of brain cell), long-lasting proteins (such as crystallins of the lens and cornea), and DNA may accumulate substantial damage over time. Cells such as the retina cells in the eyes, and beta cells (insulinproducing) in the pancreas are also at high risk of damage from glycation. Damage by glycation results in stiffening of the collagen in the blood vessel walls, leading to high blood pressure, especially in diabetes. Glycations also causes weakening of the collagen in the blood vessel walls, which may lead to strokes".
What exactly is glycation?
When you eat food some of it converts to glucose molecules in the blood, and then some of those glucose molecules will bond with proteins that are also circulating in the bloodstream. These blood proteins can be chains of amino acids or they can be protein capsules containing lipids. For simplicity we will refer to them both as 'proteins' or 'blood proteins'.
Glycation occurs when glucose molecules bond with proteins in the blood, forming what is known as AGEs (Advanced Glycation End-products). Put simply glycation causes damaged proteins.
These AGEs (damaged proteins) then circulate in the blood and generate very harmful free radicals known as ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species) that affect all parts of the body. These ROS free radicals bump into body cells just about everywhere the blood stream goes, causing cellular damage. Once damaged, the cells become susceptible to oxidative stress and mutate or die. Hence, glycation and oxidative stress very much go hand in hand.
"AGEs block nitric oxide activity in the endothelium and cause the production of reactive oxygen species". Source: Alison Goldin, et al, Advanced Glycation End Products, Basic Science for Clinicians, http://circ.ahajournals.org.
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"AGEs affect nearly every type of cell and molecule in the body and are thought to be one factor in aging and some age-related chronic diseases" (Wikipedia).
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The sequence of events is roughly as follows:
Food consumption ► blood glucose ► blood proteins ► glycation of proteins ► AGEs ► ROS free radicals ► cellular damage ► oxidative stress ► cellular death/mutation ► disease ► poor health.
Glycation is also the main reason your skin becomes old and wrinkled, and more susceptible to skin cancer. What happens is that glucose molecules come into contact with protein molecules (i.e. collagen) contained in the scaffold below the skin.
Incidentally, taking collagen supplements that you swallow have no effect on improving your skin. Nor do they help with healing and repairing damaged bones. They should be completely avoided as they increase the risk of harmful calcification in your body.
We cannot avoid glycation in our lives because when we eat, this creates proteins in the blood that become a target for glycation. We need to minimize the chances that a glucose molecule will bump into a protein molecule and bond. We do this by minimizing the amount of proteins and/or glucose molecules circulating in the blood.
In a healthy body this low level of glycation is mostly nullified by our natural defenses. The small amount of glycation that escapes such nullification is responsible for our gradual aging with the passage of time.
We always want to minimize glycation so as to optimize good health and live to a ripe old age. We can do this quiet easily by adopting a healthy diet. Some health professionals say that glycation can be minimized by following a low-carb diet so as to reduce blood glucose. The reasoning is that if blood glucose is reduced there will be fewer glucose molecules to cause glycation.
This is false reasoning because the body is compelled to always maintain a given level of glucose in the blood, regardless of what is eaten or not eaten. In other words, glucose is always present in the blood within a very narrow range (not too much, not too little), otherwise we would die. Without glucose, the brain would shut down, red blood cells would die and so on. So the body is compelled to always have a certain level of glucose in the blood regardless of the type of diet.
Adhering to a low-carb diet does not reduce the default level of blood glucose that we must always have. If we over-eat carbs and sugary foods, blood glucose will go up above the default level temporarily but the body quickly brings the level down in a matter of minutes using insulin for the task. In this scenario, the rise in glucose is too brief for any significant increase in glycation to occur.
If we avoid eating carbs and sugars such as in fasting regimes or a ketogenic diet, the body makes its own glucose by stripping protein from muscles and internal organs (including heart muscle). Then, like an alchemist, the body mixes the stripped protein with other materials found inside the body to produce its own 'home made' glucose (a well-known process called gluconeogenesis).
Note: this is a major reason for never following a ketogenic diet; it weakens your muscles and organs, greatly speeding up the aging process. More about this in the chapter "The Biggest Hidden Cause of Aging".