Ask Dr. Tabares: How Diet Fights Oxidative Stress

Curious about antioxidants, free radicals, and what they really mean for your health? Dr. Amber Tabares, NMD, is answering your most common questions in this quick, Q&A-style guide. No fluff, just clear, science-backed insights into how diet can support your body from the inside out.

What are antioxidants?

Antioxidants are a group of nutrients which prevent free radical damage to cells. Free radicals are implicated in the development of many diseases including cancer, heart disease, arthritis, bursitis, lupus, other auto immune diseases, and any inflammation or swelling. Therefore, antioxidants protect the body and help slow the aging process. They carry an extra electron with them and search the body for free radicals to give it to, thereby quenching these hazardous substances. Antioxidants are then reusable, picking up another electron from a safe source without generating new free radicals and continue to sweep the body for more.

What are free radicals?

Free radicals are very reactive molecules in the body, which can attach to and destroy cellular compounds. They react with these compounds, particularly oxygen, forming more free radicals

in chain reaction. This is known as oxidation. Free radicals can come from the environment, food, or drinks, but the majority of them are natural end products of reactions that produce energy for cells to live. In particular, free radicals can cause damage to cell membranes (make them less functional), and genetic material (RNA and DNA), which can lead to disease. But, they can also be beneficial. For example, the body's immune system forms free radicals to destroy bacteria and viruses when fighting infection.

What are environmental sources of free radicals?

Air pollution, tobacco smoke, excessive radiation, sunlight, X-rays, herbicides, pesticides, anesthetics, aromatic hydrocarbons (petroleum based products), and solvents such as formaldehyde, toluene and benzene found in cleaning fluids, paints and furniture polish. We are exposed to many of these sources often without even realizing it.

What are dietary sources of free radicals?

Fried, barbecued and charbroiled foods, and alcohol.

How do antioxidants prevent free radical damage?

Antioxidants combine with, and neutralize, the reactive free radicals, therefore, preventing them from reacting with other compounds and causing damage.

What are other ways of preventing free radical damage?

By eating a diet rich in antioxidants and reducing the amount of exposure to environmental and dietary free radicals.

What are the major antioxidant nutrients and their dietary sources?

Beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, and the trace mineral selenium. While antioxidants are readily available from our foods, our antioxidant defense systems are vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies. The increased load of toxins that we are exposed to by today's environment and the diets we eat, lead many health practitioners to believe the oxidant/antioxidant balance may be tipped against us, and that prescribed nutraceuticals with targeted mechanisms of action are needed to compensate and can even help slow the aging process.

Some botanical medicines and preparations prescribed by naturopathic doctors and registered herbalists are also known to contain some very powerful antioxidants called bioflavonoids (e.g. quercetin) which may be many times stronger than the vitamins and minerals noted above. They also may have an affinity to particular sites in the body, making them very effective at controlling free radical damage as it pertains to the health of specific tissues in the body.

Did these questions get you thinking about your habits or the risk for health complications due to free radicals? If you would like more information on the naturopathic healthcare approach, call us for more information at (314) 833-4600. You can even schedule an introductory consultation with Dr. Tabares in Missouri today. Just click here to schedule now!