Antioxidant Prescription : How to Use the Power of Antioxidants to Prevent Disease and Stay Healthy for Life

Chapter 1 THE HUMAN HEALTH THRESHOLD We live in an era strangely cursed and blessed. We're increasingly surrounded by invisible dangers our great-grandparents could not have dreamed of. In fact, until recently, most of us hardly dreamed of them ourselves. But what we once suspected or heard rumoured, we now know for certain: Our air, our water, our food and many of the everyday objects we employ are a constant threat to our health and safety. And yet and this is the blessed part this same knowledge is our hope for a bright future for ourselves and for humanity at large. The subject of human health is almost unimaginably vast, and our body's interactions with our surroundings are almost too complex to grasp. But in this book I'm going to zoom in and focus on the meaning of human health through the lens of a single natural phenomenon I'm tempted to say "drama" that plays out at a scale so tiny that ordinary microscopes cannot see its workings. There are villains in this drama but, as in any good story, these characters are dynamic. The fact is they often spend much of their time doing us a tremendous service. Even if we were able to round every one of them up and do them in, we'd be the ones to suffer in the end. That's why our task will be to understand them first, then deal with them wisely perhaps I should say "humanely," since they're a necessary part of life. This gang of wild molecules are called "free radicals." They're notorious these days and almost everyone has heard their name. Wanted posters appear regularly advertising methods for their capture and execution. I recently saw a video game devoted to a free radical mission. Yet a great deal remains to be conveyed about their behaviour and how we need to respond to that behaviour in order to stay healthy or to regain our health. Much of thishasn'tbeen conveyed, in part because it's a breaking science story. We hear even more these days about antioxidants, the molecules that neutralize free radicals and are supposed to be on our side in this battle. Are they the cure-alls they're made out to be? Are some antioxidants better than others? Can we swallow too many antioxidants? To establish your knowledge level about both free radicals and antioxidants before you carry on, take a moment to do the quiz you'll find in Appendix A. In this book, I'm going to set out what you need to know about free radicals. I'm going to show you how and why free radicals lie at the root of all disease. I'm not just talking here about chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and allergies. I'm also talking about diseases that stem from infectious agents bacteria, parasites and viruses. I'm then going to show how and why the antioxidant family of molecules works to offset the destructive impact of free radicals. Finally based on the latest science I'm going to show you how you can determine your own free radical and antioxidant levels and provide you with a simple prescription for supplements, diet and lifestyle that will balance your body's supply or burden of both these families of potent molecules. THE SPROUTS AND I I grew up in Toronto, Canada, a vegetarian and unvaccinated. I had the sort of mom who you could imagine treating the common cold by putting garlic between her son's toes, covering his feet with cold, wet socks to bring down a fever and maybe administering a twice-daily concoction of eye of newt and bat wing. In fact she did practise the cold-sock therapy and it turned out to be one of her good ideas. I also began every morning byWylde, Bryce is the author of 'Antioxidant Prescription : How to Use the Power of Antioxidants to Prevent Disease and Stay Healthy for Life', published 2008 under ISBN 9780307355850 and ISBN 0307355853.