| | |  Health & Beauty 
Oxidative Stress: What's REALLY Aging You
 Roberta Rand - SF Productions
January 28, 2010
And you thought it was your mouthy teenagers. In fact it's something called Oxidative Stress (OS). OS is the wear and tear on your body that occurs on a cellular level when the toxic chemicals (free radicals) in the foods you eat overwhelm your body's system of natural detoxifiers - anti-oxidant enzymes like Catalase and Glutathione Synthase.
As those nasty free radicals chomp away at your body's defenses, you're set up for a catalog of the diseases of aging: atherosclerosis, heart failure, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, liver disease and Diabetes. In other words, OS = aging.
With a blood test designed to measure Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances (TBARS) in the body, a doctor can assess the extent of damage and exactly how far along you are in the aging process. Traditionally, we've tried to up our intake of fruits and veggies high in anti-oxidants, along with added vitamins like D and E to counter-act the damage done by free radicals. But scientists now believe that these steps are not enough to reverse oxidative stress.
New research has yielded hopeful news of a dietary supplement composed of five highly synergistic "indirect antioxidants" that can reverse oxidative stress - and may actually inhibit aging. The supplement Protandim contains some familiar herbals like green tea and the spice tumeric. Others are less familiar, but have been used in Chinese herbal medicine for centuries.
In a peer-reviewed manuscript published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, Dr. Norbert Voelkel and researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University demonstrated the ability of Protandim to protect the heart in a laboratory model of pulmonary hypertension in rats.
Protandim was shown to protect the hearts of the rats by increasing the expression of protective genes and preventing the formation of scar tissue, or fibrosis, in the heart.
The study showed that Protandim also prevented capillary loss in the heart muscle of the animals, preserving right heart function despite the continuing stress of pressure overload. Protandim also prevented the death of heart cells and significantly lowered osteopontin (OPN-1) levels by more than 50 percent.
Osteopontin is a factor that leads to scar tissue formation, a cause of heart failure. The researchers in this study described the ability of Protandim to effectively activate the transcription factor Nrf2, a signal to the cell's DNA to increase expression of a network of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fibrotic genes.
"These results illustrate the unique antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fibrotic properties of Protandim," stated David Brown, President & CEO of LifeVantage, the makers of Protandim. "Scientists have long known of the involvement of oxidative stress in disease processes, and this study is a significant example of how oxidative stress affects susceptibility to right heart failure in animals. Although it would be premature to conclude that similar benefits would be seen in humans, these remarkable results open the door to the possibility of future research on pulmonary hypertension and Protandim in humans."
According to the supplement makers' literature, Protandim works by stimulating the body's production of its own powerful antioxidant enzymes. It triggers cells to naturally increase production of protective antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione synthase.
A peer-reviewed human clinical study showed that after Protandim was taken for 30 consecutive days, important biochemical markers of aging were decreased by an average of 40 percent. The study also reported that these markers of aging were reduced in the subjects taking Protandim to the level of a typical 20-year-old. Protandim is currently the subject of approximately 20 scientific studies at universities and research facilities. The nature and stages of the studies vary.
Sources: ABC News; American Heart Assn. publication Circulation; Wikipedia; LifeVantage.com
 Protandim is now available in Mexico. For more information about ordering or the opportunity to be one of the first Protandim distributors in Mexico, click HERE, visit Lifevantage Puerto Vallarta Team Paradise or contact David Tarr at (322) 209-0092 in Puerto Vallarta or (561) 337-5879 in the U.S.
 Prior to relocating to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico from Colorado Springs with her dog, Bo, Roberta Rand worked as a magazine editor, web editor and marketing copywriter. She is also an essayist and author, whose book "Playing the Tuba at Midnight" explored the quirks of living single. |
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