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We all know the importance of consuming enough fish in our diet, especially the fish high in Omega 3 and low in mercury such as wild salmon and tuna and the advantages this will have to our overall health.  The problem is most of us don’t eat our 3-4 servings of fish per week and this can wreak havack on our bodies causing heart disease, diabetes, joint pain, learning disorders and skin problems to name a few.  Omega 3 fatty acids are  important for us since our bodies do not produce this source on it’s own.  By eating enough fish or supplementing with Omega 3 we can avoid alot of unnecessary health problems. 

PharmaOmega makes this easy for us.  They have created different formulations of Omega 3 for specific needs like keeping our heart healthy, fighting inflammation, for pregnancy, children, focus etc.  Omega 3 is great for children of school age who have difficulty with concentration.  It helps to improve their behaviour and attention span. For mom’s it ensures a healthy pregnancy and after. Omega 3 is great for aches and pains and it’s also called “brain food” for a reason, it helps to keep our minds healthy.  Omega 3 has also been known to inhibit cancer and diabetes.  The list goes on… you’ve heard the benefits now make sure you get your daily dose.

So as i mentioned in my last post I was going to expand a little on each of the network antioxidants that were mentioned in the book “The Antioxidant Miracle” by Lester Packer, Ph.D.  Dr. Packer focused many years of his research on the powerful effects of Lipoic Acid as an antioxidant. His findings on lipoic acid have shown incredible protection against aging including stroke, heart disease and cataracts.  The levels of lipoic acid in our bodies decline as we age and therefore cause the aging process to occur but supplementing with lipoic acid the levels of the entire antioxidant network - vitamin C, Vitamin E, CoQ10 and Glutathione were increased. Lipoic acid in fact has been able to turn off the bad genes that can cause premature aging as well as cancer.   Also an interesting fact about lipoic acid – the other network antioxidants are either water soluble or fat soluble.  Lipoic acid is both which means that it is not only able to recycle the other antioxidants that have conquered free radicals but also itself keeping our cells healthy and free from damage.  No wonder it is called the superantioxidant. 

Moving on to CoQ10 — Coenzyme Q10 offers protection against the harmful UVA and UVB rays therefore protecting us from skin cancer and skin damage or premature aging.  COQ10 helps to rejuvenate brain cells, regenerates vitamin E and is used in treating gum disease… so anyone who has bleeding gums you need to take this.  It’s available in toothpaste and mouthwash as well. 

Vitamin C another network antioxidant is water soluble and not produced by the body so you need to either get enough from fruits and vegetables or take a daily supplement.  Vitamin C aides in the production of collagen which helps to keep our skin looking youthful. It is also beneficial in boosting our immune system so colds are kept to a minimum and also works by increasing levels of Vitamin E. 

Taking daily supplements of Vitamin E helps to protect skin from UV radiation and ozone and keep it looking healthy as we age.  Vitamin E is beneficial for arthritis sufferers and for men at risk for prostate cancer and in women it may stop the growth of breast cancer cells. Vitamin E is also good for the heart.

The last network antioxidant is Glutathione.  Produced in the body and is a water soluble antioxidant. It’s important for healthy liver function and a strong immune system.  Instead of supplementing with Glutathione, taking daily doses of lipoic acid will increase your levels of this antioxidant.

It’s really amazing to see how each of these antioxidants can have an effect on the other and i’ve only mentioned the basics.  For more detailed information on the Packer Network Antioxidants pick up a copy of The Antioxidant Miracle. It might do your body good.

I picked up an excellent book a couple of weeks ago at the drugstore that I couldn’t put down called The Antioxidant Miracle by Lester Packer, Ph.d.  Dr. Packer is a scientist who specializes in antioxidants and how they function in our bodies.  He is the director of the Packer Lab at Berkley, California State University, and who for the last few decades has focused on 5 key antioxidants that when combined produced increased effectiveness than when just taken by themselves. The network antioxidants include Lipoic acid, CoQ10, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and Glutathione. 

If you are interested in reversing or preventing the signs of aging, keeping skin supple and wrinkle free, preventing cancer, diabetes, gum disease, increasing your energy, not to mention your sex life! as well as reversing bad genes you need to read this book.  Even though it’s been years since it’s been written the information still holds true and knowledge is power and if taking antioxidants will keep you healthy and strong way into your older years then we all need to know about it.

Lester Packer goes on the explain the benefits of each antioxidant in the antioxidant network.  His main focus was on the effects of lipoic acid and even though I won’t go into too much detail here on each I will touch upon what he mentions… sorry too much information to write in one post.  Firstly, in order to understand antioxidants you need to understand their opposite side “free radicals”.  Free radicals are in all of us and they are necessary - they can be helpful or hurtful.  When free radicals attack we need antioxidants to neutralize their effects.  Antioxidants are basically stopping the free radicals from destroying your healthy cells.  Now since the antioxidant has stopped the free radicals and eaten it up it is able to recycle and regenerate itself with the help of other network antioxidants. I find this completely amazing.  With age our body does not produce enough antioxidants to do this therefore it is necessary to supplement.  Certain antioxidants are not even produced by the body such as Vitamin C so taking a daily dose is recommended especially if you are not getting it from nutritional sources. 

Through Dr. Packer’s work, Lipoic acid was shown as being the most powerful antioxidant in the entire network - it actually helped to increase the levels of effectiveness of Glutathione, Vitamins C and E and CoQ10.  In another post we will go on to discuss each of these antioxidants, their importance and how it affects the other network antioxidants.  But I highly recommend picking up a copy of The Antioxidant Miracle since the information is so vast but easily read and understood.