Diseases without Borders: Boosting Your Immunity Against Infectious Diseases from the Flu and Measles to Tuberculosis by Michael Savage

Author:Michael Savage [Savage, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw
Publisher: Center Street
Published: 2016-02-08T19:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4

YOUR BEST DEFENSE: SUPERCHARGING YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM

You’ve probably heard the term “antioxidant,” but just what does that mean and why is it important? Super foods boost your antioxidant quotient, which fortifies your immune system. Antioxidant-rich foods are so important, but are often not fully understood. Antioxidant is a powerful word. Simply explained, during the normal metabolic process (“oxidation”) of burning fuel (food) to produce energy for all the organs and systems, the body’s cells produce free radicals. These free radicals are a normal by-product of the oxidation process.

Briefly, free radicals are molecules with unpaired electrons that often cause adverse chemical reactions in your cells. Lipids, proteins, even your DNA are targeted by free radicals as they search for a missing electron. Antioxidants are your body’s natural defense system, designed to prevent cell damage—namely, sickness and even cellular death—caused by free radicals.

In today’s world, due to our extraordinary exposure to pollution, environmental toxins, carbon monoxide, overexposure to the sun’s rays, and other threatening elements, our production of free radicals has increased beyond what our cells were originally designed to handle. This excessive amount of free radical elements in our bodies leads to the maiming and destruction of our cells’ membranes and genetic material. This can lead to premature aging, neurological disorders, cancer, cataracts, other diseases, and death before our time. So, the key is to diminish free radical production—or better yet, destroy the free radicals!

Let me illustrate the point.

Leave a cut piece of apple on your kitchen counter for a few hours and observe the changes. What happens? There’s the browning of the fruit and the puckering of the skin, right? That’s a form of oxidation and it gives us a picture of how free radicals can ravage our interior and exterior beings. Or, imagine a rusty piece of metal. Same concept. Over-oxidation. Antioxidants are substances that help prevent the production of free radicals. It’s that simple.

Let me identify many of the most beneficial antioxidants. In order of importance they are: vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, coenzyme Q-10, beta- and alpha-carotene (also known as the carotenoids), lycopene, and lutein. Although I’ve already touched on vitamin A and C, let’s dig a little deeper into these and the other invaluable vitamins and nutrients which are the key building blocks of maximum immunity, disease prevention and good health.

VITAMIN A

Although I touched on vitamin A in the last chapter, there is much more worth exploring on the benefits of this nutrient. Vitamin A, or retinol, has long been known to promote nonspecific resistance to a wide variety of pathogens. This is partly due to its involvement in the production of mucopolysaccharide, a component of the mucous membranes. An early sign of vitamin A deficiency is damage to the linings of the respiratory, digestive, and urogenital tracts. By helping to preserve the integrity of skin and mucous organisms, vitamin A helps to maintain the protective barriers against infectious organisms entering the body. Vitamin A is also needed for the production of bacteria-fighting lysozymes in tears, saliva, and sweat.

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