Learn To Psoriasis Free For Life!!!
Click Here
Psoriasis Biologics Side Effects
Acai Berry Side Effects - Latest Results
The main benefit of consuming acai is its powerful antioxidant activity. To better understand how a powerful antioxidant can help preserve health and prevent disease, consider how much harm and suffering is caused by oxidation. In chemistry, free radicals are atoms that have unpaired electrons, which makes them highly reactive. In biological systems like the human body, this reactivity usually translates into damaging effects on the body's cellular structures (for example, cell membranes and DNA). This oxidative damage caused by free radicals in the body has been associated with a staggering number of diseases and disease-promoting processes, notably cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, and cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
Aging in mammals is the result of normal developmental and metabolic processes. Free-radical damage is also one of the major factors affecting how cells age, making it a major determining factor of how fast and how well (or how poorly) our bodies age. A significant amount of research data clearly demonstrates the causative role of free radicals in the aging process. Research also shows that specific antioxidants help the body resist spontaneous oxidation and combat oxidative damage to DNA, which in turn lengthens the life span of mammals. The incidence of age-related diseases and how long good health can be maintained is thus highly dependent on our total production and intake of antioxidants.
Centenarians typically represent the best example of successful aging. A 1998 study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that centenarians had lower blood levels of lipid peroxides (oxidation products) and higher blood levels of antioxidants than did people aged seventy to ninety-nine. Thus centenarians' lower degree of oxidative stress and higher antioxidant defense functioning were directly correlated to their longevity.
On the other hand, major causes of disability in elderly people- including atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), Alzheimer's disease, and rheumatoid arthritis-are caused or accelerated on some level by free radicals and oxidation. Several diseases commonly seen among the elderly are associated with oxidative damage:
Oxidation of LDL cholesterol is considered a primary disease-causing mechanism in the development of atherosclerosis.
Oxidative damage to cells can trigger mutations and malignant growth leading to cancer.
A considerable body of evidence suggests that oxidative stress causes inflammation and tissue damage, for example, in the respiratory system. The lung damage, and later immune damage, experienced by individuals with lowered cellular antioxidant capacity is thought to be a risk factor for asthma.
Free-radical damage to lens proteins damages the eyes and contributes to the development of cataracts. If cataract development in the general population were delayed by ten years through the use of antioxidants, it is estimated that the number of cataract surgeries in the United States would be reduced by half.
Increased lipid peroxidation (a marker of oxidative stress) has been found in the blood of rheumatoid arthritis patients.
Diabetes is known to involve oxidative stress in several different ways. Among patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus there is a significant inverse correlation between levels of glycated hemoglobin (a major risk factor for diabetes) and total free-radical scavenging activity; oxidative damage may also promote non-insulin-dependent diabetes. Oxidative damage is also known to contribute to several of the major complications of diabetes, such as retinopathy, nephropathy, and atherosclerosis.
Antioxidant levels are significantly depressed in fibromyalgia patients.
There is solid evidence that Alzheimer's dementia is associated with oxidative stress.
High levels of the byproducts of oxidation products have been found to be elevated in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of people with multiple sclerosis.
Oxidative stress is a pivotal problem in chronic pancreatitis. Antioxidant therapy has been shown to be a safe and effective medical alternative to surgery for painful chronic pancreatitis.
Oxidative stress appears to play a role in the tissue damage of active ulcerative colitis, and it has been suggested that a defect in antioxidant defenses is a causative factor in the disease.
Abnormalities of antioxidant function and depletion of the body's antioxidant reserves have been shown to contribute to the development of Parkinson's disease.
Many drugs cause or accelerate the formation of toxic free radicals, which are thought to be responsible for a large number of adverse drug reactions, as well as adverse interactions between drugs.
Skin inflammations, including atopic dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis, and sunburn, are all associated with antioxidant depletion in the skin. Supplementation with antioxidants has improved all of these conditions.
http://www.acaiberrysideeffectsreport.com
About the Author
World leading research for health and wellness.
Broad Health Effects
Alteration of the fatty acid content of the diet has much potential beyond just cardiovascular and inflammatory effects. The scientific literature is unveiling new diseases that may be altered, cured, or prevented with fatty acid therapy. The list includes arthritis, cancer, lupus and other autoimmunities, headaches, hypertension, endotoxemia, muscular sclerosis, psoriasis, diabetes, gallstones, and more.1, 2
Increasing the more fluid and dynamic omega-3 levels in the body and decreasing the more stiff and static saturated fats has many biological implications. Lipids are ubiquitous in membranes and make up cell and tissue level regulatory compounds. Altering lipid intake therefore creates a fundamental alteration in the dynamics of many, if not all living processes. Although more natural lipid nutrition is now known to influence blood cholesterol and triglycerides, influence platelet aggregation, decrease platelet count, increase bleeding time, decrease blood viscosity, increase RBC deformability, decrease blood pressure, decrease intimal hyperplasia, and decrease autoimmune manifestations, this list is far from complete.3-5 (Fig. 29)
Lipid malnutrition or deficiency has until recently been blurred by nutritional abundance. The more acute protein and vitamin deficiencies have essentially disappeared in all but "developing" countries. (Actually, truly underdeveloped countries often have excellent nutritional status if natural foods are in adequate supply. "Underdeveloped" here means modernized but undersupplied.) In the place of acute deficiency we now have chronic degenerative disease from more subtle imbalances and toxicities which will increasingly be linked to fatty acid malnutrition. These are nutritional diseases resulting in problems often far removed in time from the cause, thus it is more difficult to determine cause-effect relationships. 6
[ Potential Benefits Of Omega 3 Balance Image ]
http://www.wysong.net/articles/lipid/figures/figure29.jpg
TISSUE OXYGENATION
The ability of phosphatides and the highly unsaturated fatty acids to hold oxygen can affect aerobic efficiency as well as increase tissue oxygen tension resulting in a less favorable environment for pathogenic growth.7 Resistance to disease, athletic capabilities, endurance, metabolic efficiency, energy conversion, recovery from injury, sensory improvement, appearance, sleep-wake cycles, behavior, and all vital life processes can also possibly be beneficially affected by restoring natural balances to lipid nutrition and thus improving oxygen metabolism. (It should be mentioned in this regard that the ability of lipids to hold relatively high levels of oxygen has negative implications for the obese. Increased oxygen in fat reserves can result in lipid oxidation and thus free radical formation, which can then increase various tissue pathologies.)
TISSUE Fluidity
As the omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids increase in the diet, the phospholipids in cellular membranes have the saturated fats replaced with unsaturated fats which increases the fluidity of these membranes, thus restoring their more healthfu1liquid crystal state. If you will recall, the more saturated the fat, the more stiff it is, and the more solid it is at room temperature. The less saturated, the more fluid it is at room temperature. Omega 3 fatty acids likely exert an added beneficial effect for organisms living in Northern climates where low temperatures would tend to congeal tissues if tissues were composed of high levels of saturated fats.
BLEEDING TIME
Some clinicians suggest that bleeding time is a good general indicator of proper fatty acid nutrition. A reasonable goal is a bleeding time of 5 to 8 minutes. Some Eskimos have bleeding times of up to 15 minutes and many Westerners have bleeding times under 3 minutes.8-11 An unusually high bleeding time can increase the risk of cerebrovascular hemorrhage (stroke), whereas a very low bleeding time increases the risk of clotting, atherosclerosis and claudication. Eskimos and individuals consuming excess amounts of omega-3's are thus at risk, as are modem urbanites consuming high levels of arachidonic acid and oxidized fats, although to different diseases.
There is likely an optimal level of the various fatty acids depending upon each individual's environment and unique biochemistry. Determining that level on an individual basis would require elaborate testing and even then the results would be equivocal. The application of nutritional average requirements to individuals is faulty since there is no way of knowing where an individual lies under a curve in a statistical distribution.
Thus allowing the body to select its own optimal levels by supplying it with whole fresh varied natural foods seems wisest. This is not to say prudent supplementation with fresh, properly protected oils may not be helpful under certain circumstances. In certain diseases and when attempting to more rapidly convert the lipid pool in the body to a more healthy profile after a lifetime of abuse, short-term isolated oil supplements may be helpful.
But one lesson to be learned from understanding the broad health benefits possible from lipids is the complexity and interrelatedness of their functions. Food, which is also life, is of equal complexity. The modern tendency to address medical and nutritional problems with isolated chemicals seems to contradict the basic character of life as well as food. The complexity of what we know and the vast unknowns still remaining in lipid nutriture are likely best served by the like complexity and unknowns of fresh, whole, natural foods.
References available within book text, click the following link to view this article on wysong.net:
http://www.wysong.net/articles/lipid/09_article_lipid_chapter_nine_broad_health_effects.shtml
For further reading, or for more information about, Dr Wysong and the Wysong Corporation please visit www.wysong.net or write to wysong@wysong.net. For resources on healthier foods for people including snacks, and breakfast cereals please visit www.cerealwysong.com.
About the Author
Dr. Wysong: A former veterinary clinician and surgeon, college instructor in human anatomy, physiology and the origin of life, inventor of numerous medical, surgical, nutritional, athletic and fitness products and devices, research director for the present company by his name and founder of the philanthropic Wysong Institute. http://www.wysong.net. Also check out http://www.cerealwysong.com.
