Antioxidant: The definition emanates from the Greek “anti,” meaning “against,”  which means oxidation. Loosely translated, suggests to rust. So simply put, antioxidants are substances that employ the method of oxidation or maybe more bluntly…rusting, aging, decaying, degenerating, or simply plain old falling apart.

Certain oxygen molecules produced within the body, identified as free radicals, are normally produced by your body’s metabolism. But too many free radicals can and do cause cellular degeneration.

Various factors can cause your body to unnecessarily produce more free radicals than are truly requisite. These may include stress, smoking, alcohol, improper diet, excessive sun, obsessive exercise, and pollutants within the air we breathe. When your body produces too many free radicals, the “extra” free radicals feed on healthy molecules.

Free radicals contain an unpaired electron and since electrons exist normally in pairs, attacks other molecules within the body to urge an electron to pair up with, leaving the attacked molecule short of an electron. This causes a molecular change (oxidation) which will eventually cause disease.

Antioxidants prevent this process by releasing unpaired electrons to “neutralize” the harmful, excess free radicals, which subsequently don’t get to attack healthy molecules and cause oxidation.

Free radicals are simply extremely reactive molecules, created as a waste by-product by the body’s metabolic processes. Free radicals are so potentially destructive that they’re now considered primary agents of degeneration and death in nearly all living things and are shown to be liable for the initiation of heart condition, aging, cancer, and other degenerative diseases. antioxidants do is neutralize the free radicals, reducing their ability to wreck the cells

Antioxidants scavenge free radicals before they cause damage, or prevent oxidative damage from spreading out.

The antioxidant defense systems within the physical body are extensive and contain multiple layers that protect at different sites and against different types of free radicals.

Small molecule antioxidants are often separated into lipid-soluble and water-soluble antioxidants

The lipid-soluble antioxidants are localized to membranes and lipoproteins, whereas the water-soluble ones are present in extracellular and intracellular fluids.

Antioxidants can slow; block or reverse oxidative changes in body substances and cells. for instance, vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) prevents the conversion of nitrates (from tobacco smoke, smog, bacon, lunch meats, & some vegetables) into cancer-causing substances. vitamin E retards cellular aging thanks to oxidation. It also helps to dam oxidation that converts LDL cholesterol from a form that stays within the blood to a form that will stick with and clog arteries (atherosclerotic plaque build ups). Beta carotene has been shown to reverse precancerous changes in cells that line the mouth and cervix.

Fundamentally, antioxidants have the power to trap organic free radicals and/or deactivate excited oxygen molecules. Practically speaking, they play a big role within the prevention of aging, atherosclerosis (heart disease), certain sorts of cancer, cataracts, inflammatory-immune injuries / auto-immune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, lupus), ARDS (Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome), AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), etc.