Anti-Aging Strategies for Health and Longevity
The Quest for the “Fountain of Youth” Part IV
By Steven and Rose Novil

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Dietary Supplements, also labeled as nutritional supplements or nutracueticals.

In order to discuss the first category of dietary supplements, antioxidants, we need to define free radicals. The first thing that you should know is that free radicals have nothing to do with any political party! Humor aside, you need to know that free radicals cause the progressive deterioration of biological systems over time and help to accelerate the aging process. This is the predominant theory of how we age!

     Now you may ask, “What are antioxidants and how can they help with anti-aging?” They are any of a large class of substances that neutralize free radicals before they cause damage, or they can be a substance added to a product to prevent or delay its deterioration by oxygen in the air, and also can be a substance that blocks or inhibits destructive oxidation reactions.

     What does all this mean? Here’s a simple example to help you understand how antioxidants work in your body. If you cut a piece off of an apple and let it sit out on a plate in the open air, you will soon notice that it begins to turn brown and if left out longer, it will begin to deteriorate rapidly. This illustrates how oxidation is related to free radical damage. To understand how the antioxidant process takes place, try sprinkling a few drops of fresh lemon juice on another apple as soon as it is cut open. Immediately cut open a second apple and do not put the lemon juice on it. Compare the two after a day or so. You will observe that the apple with the lemon juice takes a much longer time to turn brown than the second apple without the lemon juice on it. Lemon juice is extremely high in vitamin C. This is a good illustration of how one dietary supplement that is an antioxidant, vitamin C, works. The obvious change of color in the apple as it turned brown is a highly visible example of how cells are damaged by free radicals. When lemon juice is added, the phenomenon of anti-oxidation is well illustrated. Cooks often use lemon juice to keep food fresher longer. Just as the cells of the apple are prevented from quickly turning brown by adding the lemon juice, antioxidant dietary supplements will work in a similar fashion on the many trillions of cells in your body.

Vitamin C

This vitamin has been researched for over fifty years and there have probably been several thousand trials on its efficacy as an antioxidant. It is unquestionably the best known of the antioxidants. Vitamin C is a complex of ascorbate and related compounds that have antioxidant and anticancer effects. Natural vitamin C is much more than ascorbic acid, and to get the full benefit of the vitamin, the entire complex should be taken. This insures effectiveness with much lower doses and fewer side effects such as gastrointestinal irritation. It also reduces the pro-oxidant effect of large doses of ascorbic acid, particularly in the presence of iron. Ascorbate is the primary water soluble antioxidant and a key player in the antioxidant network whereby oxidized vitamin E is regenerated. Ascorbate is the first line of defense against free radicals in body fluids.

     Vitamin C is an antioxidant that is required for at least 300 different metabolic functions in the body including tissue growth and repair, adrenal gland function and healthy gums. It also aids in the production of anti-stress hormones and interferon, an important immune system protein, and is needed for the metabolism of folic acid, tyrosine, and phenylalanine. The following are some major benefits attributed to vitamin C:

• Reduces cataract risk

• Free radical scavenger that enhances immunity

• Reduces levels of low density lipoproteins (the bad cholesterol) while increasing levels of high density lipoproteins (the good cholesterol)

• With selenium effective treating colds and flu

• Flavanoids which are part of the natural Vitamin C complex protect against several chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, lung and prostate cancers, cerebrovascular disease. They can block proteins implicated in prostate cancer.

• can reduce symptoms of asthma

• protects against harmful effects of pollution

• protects against infection

• increases absorption of iron

• can combine with toxic substances, such as certain heavy metals and render them harmless so they can be eliminated from the body

• helps lower blood pressure and prevent atherosclerosis

• helps form collagen

• protects against abnormal blood-clotting and bruising

• promotes healing of wounds and burns

Vitamin C works synergistically with both vitamin E and beta carotene—that is, when these vitamins work together, they have a greater effect than by themselves, and taking them together may counter potential adverse effects of taking these vitamins alone.

     Vitamin C deficiency can cause a disease called scurvy which results in anemia, edema, extreme weakness, respiratory infections, poor digestion, tendency to bruise easily, spongy gums, tooth loss and leg and calf muscle pains. You have probably heard about the scurvy epidemics that sailors used to get on the sailing ships in the 1800s. As the cause of their illness was discovered, limes were included in their diets and as a result, the sailors were teased and often called “limeys,” but at least, they didn’t get scurvy anymore.

     A vitamin C deficient child came to our office displaying many bruises on his arms and legs without any apparent reason. The Mother also had many bruises. After investigation of their eating habits and diet, changes in food consumption from the following list were recommended and adding 1,000 mg. of vitamin C (Emergen-C Lite) resulted in the bruises disappearing.

     Natural sources of vitamin C include berries, citrus fruits and green vegetables. Since so many foods include vitamin C, it is an easy vitamin to add to your diet. Just add some yummy foods from the following: asparagus, avocados, beet greens, black currants, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cantaloupe, collard and dandelion greens, seaweed, grapefruit, kale, lemons, limes, mangos, mustard greens, onions, oranges, papayas, green peas, sweet peppers, persimmons, pineapple, radishes, rosehips, spinach, strawberries, swiss chard, tomatoes, turnip greens, and watercress.

     Did you know you can get vitamin C in herbs? Here are some of them: alfalfa, burdock root, cayenne, chickweed, eyebright, fennel seed, fenugreek, hops, horsetail, kelp, peppermint, mullein, nettle, oat straw, paprika, parsley, pine needles, plantain, raspberry leaf, red clover, rosehips, skullcap, violet leaves, yarrow and yellow dock.

     Linus Pauling, Ph.D, a renowned world expert on vitamin C won a Nobel prize in chemistry for his work with the vitamin. He personally took up to 18,000 mg. of vitamin C daily. He lived to be 94 in relatively good health.

     The recommended dosage that helps to prevent significant free radical damage is between 1,000 and 3,000mg daily. The best commercial source besides food or herbs that we have found is a powdered vitamin C called Emergen-C. It can be added to water or juice and includes the full spectrum of natural vitamin C including flavanoids, rutein as well as ascorbic acid. It is called the champagne of vitamin C because it fizzes when placed into a glass of liquid and also because it is so readily absorbed and digested. It comes in many flavors, but we recommend the unsweetened version called Lite, but our Mother loves the strawberry flavor sweetened with fructose. Until next time, do enjoy your wonderful antioxidant, vitamin C.

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