August 18, 2016 By Dr. William S. Gruss, M.D.
It is generally well known that emotional and mental stress is not good for your health. Family and work challenges, financial stress and other life challenges can take a serious toll.
But there is another type of stress that is just as much a silent killer, and it's one that is relatively unknown. It's called oxidative stress.
It's somewhat of a paradox. We can't live without oxygen and yet it is also inherently dangerous to our existence. Left unchecked, oxidative stress can lead to all kinds of health problems including hardening of your arteries, stiffening of your joints, wrinkling of your skin and age spots, to name a few.
It can get worse, much worse, as oxidative stress is becoming increasingly recognized as a major contributing factor to over 200 diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Think about what happens when you peel an apple and leave it out in the open for a half hour or so. It gets exposed to oxygen and turns brown. The same thing happens over time to the sheet metal on your car or the piping in your home... and the same process is happening inside your body.
In simple terms, oxygen is essential for life. Your body generates energy by combining oxygen with the food you eat. This internal combustion activity has a by-product, however, which is the creation of damaging and potentially life-threatening free radicals.
Free radicals are unstable molecules that damage your cells and over time, create disease in your body and accelerate the aging process.
If your body is unable to stop the spiraling free radical chain reaction (one molecule steals an electron from another molecule, which causes that imbalanced molecule to steal an electron from another molecule, causing that newly imbalanced molecule to steal an electron, etc.) oxidative stress results.
Oxidative stress has the potential to overpower your body's protective systems and cause chronic degenerative diseases, some of which are mentioned above.
It becomes a vicious cycle. Oxidative stress damages cellular proteins, membranes and genes and leads to systemic inflammation. When the damaged proteins, fats, cells, and DNA structures are not properly repaired, they can create further problems in cell function. At the worse end of the spectrum, that could be cancer.
Some free radicals are created internally and some you ingest from air pollution, food additives, cigarette smoke, and high-fat diets. It's difficult in this day and age to not be exposed to them.
Now when your body is healthy, it produces antioxidant enzymes such as SOD, catalase, and glutathione as a defense against the toxic effects of free radicals. As you grow older, however, the production of these antioxidants decreases. Consequently, your body ends up fighting a losing battle.
To fight aging and protect your cells and your health, you've got to neutralize as many free radicals as possible. One of the best ways to do this is by taking a supplement like Oraescin.
Bioflavonoids and antioxidants have been shown in studies to combat and suppress the generation of free radicals which cause oxidative stress and which promote inflammation. Oraescin is a breakthrough formula, used in Europe for decades, that works to strengthen vein walls and circulation by stopping dangerous free radicals in their tracks. It helps prevent oxidative stress and the damage it can cause.