The Harmful Effects Of Antioxidants On Cancer

Since cancer is a multifactor disease, there is not a specific cause for the development of it, and there is not a specific way of preventing it. However, since 30 to 40 % of cancers are influenced by diet, it make a lot of sense to follow diets are thought to be protective against cancer. Some of the characteristics of theses diets are:

Now here’s where it gets complicated, a majority of the free radicals currently swimming around in your body right now are created by your own metabolism, which means as harmful as they are, they are a completely unavoidable byproduct of life. Our bodies actually create free radicals just by breathing and digesting food. As we age, the creation of free radicals accelerates as the basic mechanics of our metabolism are themselves damaged by the free radicals they have created. Talk about a vicious cycle! And all of this free radical activity is what causes our bodies to age and become diseased.

Did you know that diets rich in anti-oxidants have been shown to prevent disease, inflammation and improve immune systems in studies dating back to the 1960’s!

Your body is in a constant battle against infection, diseases and the formation of free radicals. However, there's a secret weapon that can help you fight against these things: antioxidants! Antioxidants are elements such as vitamins A, C and E that counteract the damage caused by free radicals and help protect your healthy cells. Free radicals are the molecules that contain unpaired electrons, which make them highly reactive. In this form, they can cause damage by attacking healthy cells, and when these cells grow weakened, you become more vulnerable to disease.

The roles of antioxidants( Endogenous compounds) are to neutralize the excess of free radicals, to protect the cells against their toxic effects and to contribute in disease

In this day in age, it is not uncommon to know at least one person with cancer or know someone who’s family member is going through cancer, so it’s very useful to know which habits or objects around us could actually be increasing our chances at one day developing cancer too. There are multiple causes of cancer that plenty of people have heard about such as smoking, inconsistent exercise, or genetics, but there is one lifestyle choice that seems to be overlooked which would a person’s diet. In order to maintain sound health an adult should be consuming around 55 micrograms of selenium (Appleby). The effects of selenium and its correlation on the hiatus of the development of cancer is something that should be communicated amongst many people.

Natural Antioxidants are abundant in fruits and vegetables such as, apples, blueberries, broccoli, cherries, cranberries, Grapes, spinach, and Spirulina a blue-green algae.

Anti-oxidants are substances capable to mop up free radicals and prevent them from causing cell damage. Free radicals are responsible for causing a wide number of health problems which include cancer, aging, heart diseases, gastric problems etc. A free radical is an atom or molecule with a single unpaired electron. Examples: Nitric oxide (.NO), superoxide (O2.-) hydroxyl radical (.OH), lipid peroxy radical (LOO.). Although, molecular oxygen (O2) has two unpaired electrons in two different orbitals, it is not a free radical (23). After donating an electron, an antioxidant becomes a free radical by definition. In this state, antioxidants are not harmful because they have the ability to accommodate the change in electrons without becoming reactive

Antioxidants can normally neutralize a radical molecule before it damages a cell membrane or a DNA strand, but one of the facts of age is that older skin has fewer antioxidants. As a result, there are more free radicals and more damage

There are unhealthy and health foods that are linked to cancer like soybeans ,they are used for diets and other healthy foods like granola bars . In order for the processed foods to be packed the need to be paced with oils and fat , although those two ingredients are unhealthy . There are the two types of foods the unhealthy and the health , these two foods can both be linked to cancer. The problems with chemicals are just starting , the (EPO) and the (WHO) are both predicting that soon enough the producers will add more of the chemicals to make the food last even longer.

Cancer is one of the most ambiguous diseases. As Jenny Phillips, a researcher in the thoracic oncology field, said, “I think the thing you need to know most about cancer is that we don’t know that much about it.” Yes, it is known that cancer is the uncontrollable division of abnormal cells, but how can it be stopped? That is the question. There are a number of treatments for this disease. There are the traditional treatments: chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. There are also nontraditional treatments such as the use of oncolytic viruses, acupuncture, and the targeting of matrices. Aside from these treatments, are some other treatments that have recently been on the rise: personalized medicine, targeted therapy, and stereotactic radiosurgery. However, despite the number of treatments available for cancer, it is yet to be determined which is the most effective. Part of the problem lies in the fact that cancer is an individualized illness; each cancer is different and acts differently. Gliomas are difficult to treat due to the low accessibility of tumors inside the brain due to the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB). Lung cancer can be difficult to treat, because blood flow to the lungs is very different from that of other organs in the body (Jenny Phillips). In addition to the specifics of each location of the body, each person is different and has a unique genetic make up. This means each cancer will manifest within a certain set of genes which makes the task of finding a

When addressing nutrition and the prevention of cancer one of the hottest topics in this arena at this time are antioxidants. The primary reason that antioxidants have received increasing attention is based on the very nature of cancer cells themselves, how they are started and more importantly how they can be eliminated before becoming detectable. For most forms of cancer, they get their start when your cell 's DNA becomes damage in some form. Keep in mind that your body is generating new cells on a daily basis and that these new cells are being created based on the blue print of how they should be constructed. That blue print is your DNA. When your DNA has become damaged or during the creation process of these new cells they come in contact with free radicals they are damaged. Unchecked that damage begins going through an uncontrolled growth and at some point this once damaged cells has now become a tumor.

Alpha lipoic acid is a potent antioxidant that regulates gene expression. Lester Packer, Ph.D., scientist and professor at the Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California, refers to lipoic acid as the most powerful of all the antioxidants. He says that if he were to invent the ideal antioxidant, it would closely resemble lipoic acid, because it’s one of the antioxidants that independently scouts out free radicals, including the hydroxyl radical, the radical involved in all stages of the cancer process and linked to metastasis.

Antioxidants also help keep you young. They neutralize the "free radicals". A chain reaction of free radicals can kill cells, tear holes in cell membranes and mutate DNA which is the mastermind of cell activity.

Chocolate has two groups of antioxidants called flavonoids and polyphenols. Antioxidants fight against free radicals in the body. Free radicals are unbalanced compounds created by the natural cellular processes in the body and from environmental toxins. Antioxidants are compounds including vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that neutralize free radicals and protect the body from their damage. The substances in antioxidants counteract with the damaging normal effects of the body’s process of oxidization. Research shows that antioxidants help in preventing the development of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s, rheumatoid arthritis, and cataracts.