Antioxidants for an Antiaging Brain

Your body “rusts” when exposed to little oxygen fragments called free radicals or oxidants. Our bodies and brains are exposed to these troublemakers when we breathe air pollution and tobacco smoke, eat fatty foods and are exposed to pesticides. Even if you lived in a pristine world, your body will would be making free radicals during normal metabolic processes.

Luckily, your body has an anti-free radical arsenal, called antioxidants. These are the housekeepers that sweep up oxidants and flush them out of the body. Antioxidants defend cells from aging and protect tiny blood vessels that transport nutrients to brain in cells, keeping them elastic and free of “debris”. Since 20% of the heart’s output goes to the brain, all of these benefits mean improved blood flow and better thinking.

The trick is to maintain an antioxidant arsenal equal to or better than the onslaught of free radicals. As we get older, oxidative damage to tissues, including the brain, intensifies, so that a 30-year-old person needs more antioxidants than a teenager, and the required dose increases even more with every passing decade. If you want to protect your brain, you must build a huge antioxidant arsenal, then replenish it daily.

And it works. People who feast on antioxidant-rich foods and supplements throughout the day also have the highest blood and tissue levels of these do-gooders and the lowest risk for developing dementia, depression or even Alzheimer’s disease. They live the longest, they think the clearest and they are the happiest. Even their sex lives improve!