Antioxidants Inc.

Your body only contains 4-5 teaspoons of magnesium, but it is extremely vital to every cell and your body as a whole. Magnesium works to support your bones, helps in the production of cholesterol, helps to activate many vitamins, aids in relaxing muscles, and is an essential factor in protein synthesis.About 60-65% of the magnesium in your body in contained in the bones. Your bones hold on to magnesium pretty tightly. Even when the rest of your body has a deficiency, your bones will keep most of their magnesium. Only in situations of extreme deficiency will your bones give up their magnesium. Without magnesium, your bones would becomes spongy and could not support the weight of your body.

Cholesterol cannot be synthesized without magnesium. Bile, which helps your body digest fats, cannot be produced without cholesterol. Cholesterol is also a vital component of many hormones. Aldosterone is one such hormone, and helps to control the balance of minerals, one of them being magnesium. Aldosterone needs magnesium to be produced and it also regulates magnesium’s balance. Cholesterol is also needed in the production of sex hormones, to keep your reproductive system working correctly. The stress coping hormones produced by your adrenal glands also require cholesterol for their synthesis. Cholesterol, along with lecithin and fatty acids (both require magnesium for their formation), are the main components of the myelin lining on the nerves. Myelin protects the nerves from “cross wiring”, and helps the nerve impulses to travel faster. Without adequate magnesium to produce these three lipids, your nerves can become ragged and worn out before their time. Magnesium has a calming effect on your nervous system. In fact, when taken in large enough doses, magnesium can have an anesthetizing effect.

Magnesium also has a calming effect on your muscles. Calcium stimulates the muscles to flex, and magnesium relaxes them. Without this relaxing effect, your muscles would cramp up. You may also experience muscle spasms and even convulsions, if you don’t get enough magnesium. Remember that your heart is a muscle, and the last thing you want is for it to spasm. Magnesium can prevent painful contractions at the end of pregnancy. It also helps to avoid eclampsia, which is convulsions and coma experienced by the mother after some deliveries.

Magnesium activates vitamins C and E. Therefore, if you don’t get enough magnesium, the vitamin C and E that you eat cannot be used, and your body would suffer symptoms of deficiency for those vitamins as well. Magnesium is vital to the production of parathormone, which regulates vitamin D synthesis from cholesterol compounds in your skin. The B complex also requires magnesium for their proper functioning.Amino acids are the smallest component of protein. Magnesium is needed to properly produce and combine amino acids to make the specific proteins your body needs. Many of the body’s hormones, enzymes, and tissues are made of protein. Your body has to produce a lot of each to keep your body running smoothly. The constant repair of your body requires massive amounts of protein to be produced. Without magnesium, your body could not heal itself on the outside or inside. Thousands and thousands of cells in your skin die every day. Much protein is needed to keep it looking firm and beautiful. Your blood is dependent on magnesium to supply it with new proteins, some of which help to kill infectious bacteria and viruses.

DNA is also protein. Without DNA, life would be impossible; it is the instruction book of your cells. We are constantly reproducing DNA in the replication of cells. If we could not produce DNA, we would die in a few days, if not a matter of hours. The replication of DNA allows us to have offspring. Without magnesium, we could not reproduce. Magnesium helps to digest the DNA from the cells in plant or meat foods that we eat.

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It’s easy to get enough antioxidants by choosing a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables

and wholegrains. Here are some tips on boosting the antioxidants in your diet:

› Top your breakfast cereal with sliced strawberries and kiwi fruit

› Make sure you have two pieces of fruit every day

› Drink coffee in moderation, as a source of antioxidants

› Pack fruit salad for a vitamin and antioxidant-rich school snack

› Keep canned or frozen berries on hand for smoothies, or add to yoghurt for a delicious dessert

› Use tomato-based sauces and tinned tomatoes with your pasta

› Have tomatoes or mushrooms on toast

› Go Mexican and use red kidney beans in your bolognaise sauce

› Snack on mixed dried fruit and nuts

› Include carrots, pumpkin, eggplant, onion, garlic and capsicum in your Sunday roast

› Pile your plate high with red, yellow and green vegetables

› If you want to indulge occasionally , enjoy a small amount (about 20g) of high cocoa dark chocolate or hot cocoa/ hot chocolate.

Government scientists have released a ranking of Foods with the highest concentrations of antioxidants, which research suggests can help prevent heart disease and certain cancers, as well as keep your eyes, mind, and immune system sharp.

To come up with their results, researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) extracted the antioxidants from 100 common foods using special solvents, then ran them through a device that uses fluorescent light to monitor a chemical reaction that measures antioxidant activity. Researchers then took the resulting numbers—what they call the total antioxidant capacity (TAC)—and compared them.

The good news: You don’t have to put your diet under a microscope to reap the benefits of the top 20. Rather than zeroing in on a particular food because it scored high, use the list to help you put a little variety on your plate.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE LIST

Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu, and pig flu) refers to influenza caused by those strains of influenza virus that usually infect pigs and are called swine influenza virus (SIV).^[1] Swine influenza is common in pigs in the midwestern United States (and occasionally in other states), Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe (including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy), Kenya, Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and other parts of eastern Asia.^[1]

Transmission of SIV from pigs to humans is not common. When it results in human influenza, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People who work with pigs, especially people with intense exposures, are at risk of catching swine flu. However, only about fifty such transmissions have been recorded since the mid-20th Century, when identification of influenza subtypes became possible. (Importantly, eating pork does not pose a risk of infection.) Rarely, swine flu can pass from human to human. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort.

The 2009 flu outbreak in humans that is widely known as “swine flu” is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that was produced by reassortment from one strain of human influenza virus, one strain of avian influenza virus, and two separate strains of SIV. The origin of this new strain is unknown, and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in pigs.^[2] It passes with apparent ease from human to human, an ability attributed to an as-yet unidentified mutation.^[3] This 2009 H1N1 strain causes the normal symptoms of influenza, such as fever, coughing and headache.

The situation continues to evolve. As of 23:30 GMT, 1 May 2009, 13 countries have officially reported 367 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.

The United States Government has reported 141 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death. Mexico has reported 156 confirmed human cases of infection, including nine deaths.

The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths – Austria (1), Canada (34), China, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region (1), Denmark (1), Germany (4), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (4), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (8).

Further information on the situation will be available on the WHO website on a regular basis.

WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders. It is considered prudent for people who are ill to delay international travel and for people developing symptoms following international travel to seek medical attention, in line with guidance from national authorities.

There is also no risk of infection from this virus from consumption of well-cooked pork and pork products. Individuals are advised to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water on a regular basis and should seek medical attention if they develop any symptoms of influenza-like illness.

Response actions are aggressive, but they may vary across states and communities depending on local circumstances. Communities, businesses, places of worship, schools and individuals can all take action to slow the spread of this outbreak. People who are sick are urged to stay home from work or school and to avoid contact with others, except to seek medical care. This action can avoid spreading illness further.

Extracts from the leaf of the Stevia plant have been found to be high in antioxidants that prevent the DNA damage that leads to cancer, according to a new Indian study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. “These results indicate that Stevia rebaudiana may be useful as a potential source of natural antioxidants,” said lead author Srijani Ghanta, of the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology in Kolkata.

This is good news for stevia, the natural sweetener that has been suppressed for decades by the FDA, but which is now about to go mainstream thanks to interest from Coca-Cola and Cargill.

Stevia rebaudiana is a South American shrub that grows in semi-arid areas of Brazil and Paraguay. The leaves of the plant have been used for generations as a sweetener, originally by the Guarani people and more recently throughout South America and Asia. A campaign of intimidation against stevia companies by the FDA has so far prevented the sweetener from being approved for use in foods in the United States or Europe, but it is currently sold as a supplement and has gained mainstream acceptance as a safe, natural, calorie-free sweetener.

The FDA, of course, suppressed stevia as a way to propel the sales of aspartame, the artificial chemical sweetener that was pushed through FDA approval by none other than Donald Rumsfeld. Aspartame has never been shown to be safe for human consumption in any honest studies.

Stevia as a powerful antioxidant

In the research on stevia mentioned here, researchers used two different chemicals (methanol and ethyl acetate) to obtain extracts from the leaves of the stevia plant. These extracts were found to contain a variety of antioxidantsincluding apigenin, kaempferol and quercitrin. 

The antioxidant activity of the extracts was tested with a 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay to determine how much extract would be needed to remove half of the free radicals from a solution. For methanol extract, 47.66 micrograms per milliliter extract were needed, while only 9.26 micrograms per milliliter were needed of ethyl acetate extract. When tested against hydroxide radicals, the amount of ethyl acetate needed dropped to 3.08 micrograms per milliliter.

The researchers then tested the extracts’ ability to protect DNA strands against damage by hydroxide radicals. It only took 0.1 milligrams per liter of ethyl acetate extract to inhibit DNA strand damage. DNA damage has been linked to a variety of diseases, especially cancer, reproductive problems and developmental defects. Halting DNA damage is also a key to longevity.

The recent research may add a boost to anticipated efforts to secure FDA approval for stevia as a food additive in the United States. Stevia extract has 300 times the sweetness of sugar, and it mixes easily into foods or beverages. It causes no significant increase in blood sugar levels, making it safe for diabetics. While many stevia extracts have a slightly bitter aftertaste reminiscent of licorice, a number of manufacturers claim to have figured out how to eliminate this.

What is AntiOxidant?

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals, which start chain reactions that damage cells. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions by being oxidized themselves. As a result, antioxidants are often reducing agents such as thiols or polyphenols.

Although oxidation reactions are crucial for life, they can also be damaging; hence, plants and animals maintain complex systems of multiple types of antioxidants, such as glutathione, vitamin C, and vitamin E as well asenzymes such as catalase, superoxide dismutase and various peroxidases. Low levels of antioxidants, or inhibition of the antioxidant enzymes, causesoxidative stress and may damage or kill cells.

As oxidative stress might be an important part of many human diseases, the use of antioxidants in pharmacology is intensively studied, particularly as treatments for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. However, it is unknown whether oxidative stress is the cause or the consequence of disease. Antioxidants are also widely used as ingredients in dietary supplements in the hope of maintaining health and preventing diseases such as cancer and coronary heart disease. Although initial studies suggested that antioxidant supplements might promote health, later large clinical trials did not detect any benefit and suggested instead that excess supplementation may be harmful. In addition to these uses of natural antioxidants in medicine, these compounds have many industrial uses, such as preservatives in food and cosmetics and preventing the degradation of rubber and gasoline.

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