Antioxidants- anti-aging method #1

ANTIoxidants and ANTIaging, don’t you think that this resemblance in name is good enough to give it a try? In our opinion antioxidants are really worth trying. These molecules are able to prevent free radicals from damaging our cells. We are not going to discuss here the biological processes, but we will focus on a real anti-aging use of antioxidants, but please keep in mind the following information to understand why they are useful:

Our body produces energy in the form of ATP and does it 24h/7days a week, no matter if you sleep, eat, work, relax, watch a movie or anything else. However, the mechanism is not perfect and changes our good, safe friend- Oxygen into our enemy (free radical- oxygen with one free electron). This enemy doesn’t wait, but attacks us immediately to reach its goal- getting second electron! It damages proteins, DNA, membranes, simply everything that is close enough to steal this electron. Our saviour- antioxidant, prevents reactive oxygen from doing a damage. (However, remember that free radicals due to the evolution found their own place in our metabolic pathways, so they can be useful in some cases).

Our role is to keep system in balance. Probably we will use this term “in balance” many times, in many articles, but it is very important, because that might be the key to stop aging process (imagine the system: 0 ̊C, water becomes ice, ice becomes water forming a closed circle – balance!)

Antioxidants for you!

1) Vitamin C, can’t be synthesized in your body, required in a diet... and believe us that vitamin C is good not only in case of illness, but it can promote your long life! Linus Pauling, scientist that won two Nobel Prizes was promoting vitamin C as a way to prolong human life. He even recommended megadoses, reaching 15000 mg/day (Studies indicate that 250 mg/day is enough for antioxidant protection)

2) Vitamin E, there are many conflicting results of studies done by scientists concerning vitamin’s E impact on mortality, but we found for you one study claiming that:
- taking vitamin E as a supplement (in the large dose) – may increase mortality
- taking vitamin E from food – may decrease mortality
Explanation and whole study presented you can find here: http://www.nwhealth.edu/healthyU/eatWell/vitamine.html

3)Carotenoids, yellow and red pigments from plants http://www.supercentenarian.com/archive/carrots.html

4)Flavonoids, also pigments in plants (Usually these with darker colour)

5) Coenzyme Q, there are many published articles about benefits of coenzyme Q action and that is why we suggest you to try Coenzyme Q as your anti-aging method!

These antioxidants form a core that you might consider trying and using on a regular basis. Remember that taking too much can be as ineffective as taking too little.

And now, finally really short explanation why all these compounds are good for your skin (one of the most visible signs of aging, except gray hair):
If we don't prevent free radicals actions, they will damage DNA, proteins, membranes - ALL are parts of cells, in our example Skin cells. This was the first reason. Second, maybe even more important for you than the first one- Wrinkles, free radicals cause cross-linking of collagen fibers and these cross-linked fibers which in turn create wrinkles... Sad but true...

Stay inspired! And check your first anti-aging method today!

To know more:
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/12-26-2005-84845.asp (why are antioxidants good for your skin?)
http://www.vrp.com/articles.aspx?ProdID=art1372&zTYPE=2 (Coenzyme Q experiments prolonging healthy life)

Aerobic exercise and rest - part 1

If you really want to feel and look young ... don't start with any pills, drugs or other treatments, but simply take care of your body! We decided to start with "aerobic exercises" because many people think that leading a couch potato lifestyle + creams/pills/treatments is enough, or maybe even more, they think that's the right way. Wrong.
Some of you could say "well, that's nothing new" and we agree, that is really nothing new, but still thousands of people around the world prefer the couch potato option.

Just to give you some motivation:
Believe or not, but movie or pop stars also train, maybe even harder than average people to look young (there are many examples, but we will mention only one: Madonna, because that's not the point of our discussion)

An aerobic exercise is the exercise with increased use of oxygen (simply, you can pant, if you are not used to it).

Examples: Walking, Jogging, Swimming, Stair climbing etc. Just keep moving for at least 30 minutes!
How: moderate level of intensity, but for extended time
Important: warm up before / cool down after!
Advantages for you:
a)Strengthening of the heart muscle (yes, your heart trains with you!)
b)Blood pressure reduction and improved blood circulation (no more cold feet and hands!)
c)Better mental health ( yes, it really works!)
d)Immune system activation (be healthy regardless the weather and "hungry" viruses)
e)Live longer and better life!
d) And many more!

Lack of rest, for sure, will not have a good impact on you and your young look. Furthermore... lack of exercises (like aerobic exercises) may lead to the problems with sleeping. Yes, it's true. As we can see everything needs to be in balance. If you don't exercise, you may have problems with sleeping (which is a rest for our body). When you get older, you still need 7-9 hours of sleep and by that we mean sleep at night, not during a day. With age it is harder to achieve due to many elements (diseases etc.). We would suggest to read about "aging" and "sleeping" to find out more about this problem.

Sleeping (decreased metabolism) is time when your body has a chance to repair the damage done during a day full of normal activities ( increased metabolism). No sleep= no repairs= increased aging rate (simply written). In the proper sleeping two compounds: melatonin and seratonin take part and now simple explanation of the situation:

Melatonin is done from seratonin.
Seratonin is done from tryptophan.
If your diet is low in tryptophan you may have problems with sleep or even depression.
Source of tryptophan: eggs, beans, poultry, meat.
Melatonin is responsible for circadian rhythms of few biological functions + it is a strong antioxidant which prevents mitochondrial and nuclear DNA damage.

Sleeping gives skin a chance to rebuild and be ready for the next day. Without a proper amount of sleep you can be sure- your skin will tell others about that!. You may ask why it is so important. Imagine that each day millions of cells die, because of the fact that they have smaller or bigger contact with the environment and other cells have to replace them.

Your body has mechanisms to keep you young as long as possible, just give them a chance to show it! Even the best creams may have a problem to achieve that what can give you a proper amount of sleeping ...and dreaming!




Few links to read more:
(aerobic exercise)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobic_exercise
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/aerobic-exercise/EP00002
http://k2.kirtland.cc.mi.us/~balbachl/aeroprin.htm

(rest/sleeping)
http://longevity.about.com/od/sleep/a/sleep_aging.htm
http://www.beauty-and-the-bath.com/anti-aging-needs-sleep.html
http://www.topantiagingtips.com/sleep.html

Let the battle begin

The easiest way to find anti-aging information (except our blog) is to simply google it. Then we will see thousands of pages, most of them trying to sell their incredible products. It is hard to decide which website is the best to start with and that is why we propose to check one of the first positions, which usually is Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aging

There we will find some theoretical information about our subject. However, our main goal is not to read theories, but to check the real, available solutions to our problems. After reading the article from Wikipedia, we can agree that "A comprehensive list of treatments or therapies used in anti-aging medicine" is the part of our interest. Here, we will publish advantages and disadvantages of all (hopefully) available methods, together with their prices and try to find out why cream "A" is better than cream "B". Hopefully (again) with your help we will be able to create a place free of any "incredible" solutions which indeed have nothing to do with improving our look and comfort of life.