December 12, 2024 Bogdan Popa

4 Best Antioxidant Supplements

Antioxidants are critical to the body's defense system, helping to keep cells and tissues healthy. With exposure to processed foods, pesticides, industrial chemicals, pollution, and other modern realities, you may need more antioxidants than your body has on board.

"Antioxidants are critical to the body's defense system, helping to keep cells and tissues healthy. With exposure to processed foods, pesticides, industrial chemicals, pollution, and other modern realities, you may need more antioxidants than your body has on board."

This article will discuss antioxidants and their role in health. Plus, you'll discover the best antioxidant supplement (or supplements) for you. Keep reading as we explore:

What are antioxidants?
Why are antioxidants important?
The best antioxidant supplement

What are Antioxidants?

To understand antioxidants, you'll need to know about free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules. From a chemistry perspective, they have an unpaired electron and are searching for one. This search causes damage to cells and tissues. Free radicals come from normal cellular metabolism, pollution, stress, radiation, and inflammation. (Source 1)

Antioxidants donate electrons to free radicals, stabilizing them so they can't cause damage in the body. In this way, antioxidants are critical to your body's defense systems, including your immune system, cardiovascular system, and more.(Source 1, 2).

Antioxidants include:

Vitamins (vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A)
Minerals (zinc, selenium)
Phytonutrients from plant foods and herbs
Glutathione - made from amino acids

Why are Antioxidants Essential for Health

When you have more free radicals than the body can regulate with antioxidants, it creates oxidative stress. In this state, free radicals can damage lipids, proteins, and DNA, which disrupts homeostasis and contributes to disease. It can be dangerous for health. (Source 1)

"When you have more free radicals than the body can regulate with antioxidants, it creates oxidative stress."

Oxidative stress is associated with chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. It can also accelerate the aging process. (Source 1)

4 Best Antioxidant Supplements

The foundation of robust antioxidant defenses is twofold. First, ensure you get enough antioxidants from a nutritious, whole-food diet and supplementing as necessary. Second, reduce free radical sources as much as possible by avoiding toxins and creating healthy lifestyle behaviors.

Dietary supplements containing antioxidants can provide potential health benefits, including providing antioxidant properties to help support and protect cells, immune health, heart health, and more. Many compounds are considered antioxidants; let's look at four of the most powerful antioxidant vitamins and related nutrients.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C plays a crucial role in immune health; part of its function is an antioxidant. Viruses and other pathogens create free radicals and so does the body's immune response (inflammation). So, it takes a lot of antioxidants, and specifically vitamin C, to fight off a cold, flu, or other infections.

Vitamin C supplements can be used daily for prevention; you might require at least 100-200 mg, which is higher than the RDA (recommended daily allowance) for vitamin C. Much higher doses (1000 mg or higher) may be needed during a cold or infection to keep up with the immune system's demand. A liquid vitamin C is helpful for adjusting dosages to your needs. (Source 3)

Recommended vitamin C products:

Glutathione

Glutathione is one of the most important antioxidants in every cell of the body, often referred to as the "master" antioxidant. Not only is glutathione an antioxidant itself, but it also boosts and recycles other antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme Q10, and alpha lipoic acid. (Source 1, 4)

"Glutathione is one of the most important antioxidants in every cell of the body, often referred to as the "master" antioxidant. Not only is glutathione an antioxidant itself, but it also boosts and recycles other antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme Q10, and alpha lipoic acid."

Low glutathione levels (glutathione deficiency) is associated with an increased risk for chronic disease. Low glutathione levels may result from a poor diet, toxin exposures, stress, and aging. However, research shows that glutathione supplements, particularly liposomal glutathione, can increase levels in the body. (Source 4)

Recommended glutathione supplements:

Curcumin

Curcumin is another powerful antioxidant supplement supported by abundant research. It's the active constituent in turmeric spice and has long been used in traditional medicine for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits. (Source 5)

Curcumin has a direct effect on oxidative stress. In one study, liposomal curcumin protected liver cells exposed to high oxidative stress from heavy metals. Functional medicine practitioners increasingly recommend curcumin supplements as part of their protocols for various inflammatory conditions. (Source 6)

Recommended curcumin supplements:

NAD+

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is the active form of vitamin B3 (niacin). It serves many roles in energy production, DNA repair, and healthy aging. It's also a powerful antioxidant. (Source 7)

As we age, NAD+ levels decline because it's more challenging to produce and recycle. The decline in NAD is associated with aging and affects the heart, brain, and every other body system. (Source 7)

Supplementing with NAD+ may be the "fountain of youth" and protect the body from oxidative stress and other aging processes.

Recommended supplement:

Core Med Science Liposomal NAD+

Why Core Med Science?

Most antioxidant supplements are unstable and poorly absorbed because of the reactive nature of antioxidants themselves. Liposomal formulas encapsulate the active antioxidants, allowing them to be absorbed intact into the body where they are delivered to the cells that need them.

"Liposomal formulas encapsulate the active antioxidants, allowing them to be absorbed intact into the body where they are delivered to the cells that need them."

Core Med Science is a leader in liposomal technology and offers high-quality, physician-formulated supplements to meet your needs and high standards. When it comes to the best antioxidant supplements, choose Core Med Science!

References:

Lobo, V., Patil, A., Phatak, A., & Chandra, N. (2010). Free radicals, antioxidants and functional foods: Impact on human health. Pharmacognosy reviews, 4(8), 118-126.
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/antioxidant-supplements-what-you-need-to-know
Carr, A. C., & Maggini, S. (2017). Vitamin C and Immune Function. Nutrients, 9(11), 1211.
Minich, D. M., & Brown, B. I. (2019). A Review of Dietary (Phyto)Nutrients for Glutathione Support. Nutrients, 11(9), 2073.
Prasad, S., & Aggarwal, B. B. (2011). Turmeric, the golden spice: From traditional medicine to modern medicine. In I. F. F. Benzie & S. Wachtel-Galor (Eds.), Herbal medicine: Biomolecular and clinical aspects (2nd ed., Chapter 13). CRC Press/Taylor & Francis. Available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92752/
Alhusaini, A., Fadda, L., Hassan, I., Ali, H. M., Alsaadan, N., Aldowsari, N., Aldosari, A., & Alharbi, B. (2018). Liposomal Curcumin Attenuates the Incidence of Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, and DNA Damage Induced by Copper Sulfate in Rat Liver. Dose-response : a publication of International Hormesis Society, 16(3), 1559325818790869.
Schultz, M. B., & Sinclair, D. A. (2016). Why NAD(+) Declines during Aging: It's Destroyed. Cell metabolism, 23(6), 965-966.

Filed in: best antioxidant supplements, cellular health supplements, glutathione supplements, liposomal antioxidants, NAD+ supplements, natural antioxidants, oxidative stress protection

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