Vital Wellness

There’s no doubt that antioxidants play an important role in almost every function of the body, but scientists have been zeroing in on antioxidants’ ability to defend against respiratory illnesses, such as allergies and asthma. Researchers found out where very few children suffer with allergies. They surveyed 690 chil­dren between the ages of 7 and 18 and gathered data from questionnaires that were completed by their parents.

The researchers discovered that those who ate fresh foods high in antioxidants, such as grapes, oranges, tomatoes, and nuts, were less likely to have wheezing and other respiratory symptoms. In yet another British study of over 2,500 middle-aged men, those who ate five apples a week had greater lung functioning than those who ate no apples. The researchers believed that healthy compounds found in apples, like anti­oxidants, have allergy-fighting effects. Read the rest of this entry »

Allergies are versatile. They can show up just about anywhere in your body and create an incredible variety of symptoms. They can affect your nose, eyes, throat, lungs, stomach, skin, and nervous system. They can make you itch, wheeze, and sneeze, make your nose run and your eyes weep, give you a headache or a bellyache, and even bring on fatigue and depression.

Allergic Reaction

Allergy symptoms occur when your body’s immune system overreacts to substances in your environment. Most people can live with a little cat dan­der, dust, or pollen, for example. But people with allergies have immune systems that can react to just about anything that comes along. Read the rest of this entry »

Histamine is usually stored in granules inside mast cells. When a mast cell is exposed to a substance that triggers an allergic reaction, however, the cell releases its histamine into surrounding tissues.

Nose Runs

Histamine plays an important role in certain types of allergic reactions. It causes small blood vessels to widen and become more permeable to fluid, allowing fluid to pass from the bloodstream into sur­rounding tissues, causing nasal congestion, runny eyes and nose, and some­times hives. Read the rest of this entry »

Although the body produces natural antioxidants to neutralize free radical damage, it doesn’t produce enough to handle the free radical bombardment generated by the modern world.

Body Cell

Your body’s natural antioxidant sys­tems were simply not designed to handle rooms full of cigarette smoke, a diet loaded with fat and constant exposure to new and more virulent viruses.

This may change once scientists learn how to alter our genes so that we produce more natural antioxidants. But in the meantime, we do have another option: enhancing our natural antioxidants with synthetic antioxidants—in a word, supplements. Read the rest of this entry »

Although millions of free radicals bombard your cells on a daily basis, the fact that it takes as long as it does for them to cause damage or disease is a tribute to the natural free radical—fighting systems with which you were born. These systems are fighting free radicals every moment of every day.

Fruits

Each system is ingeniously designed to produce an antioxidant, a natu­rally occurring chemical that binds to the free radical (or the oxidant, as it is sometimes called) before it reaches the cells. In doing so, the antioxidant helps preserve your body’s healthy molecules. Read the rest of this entry »