My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.

Chapter 4 – Don’t Take Antioxidants— Make Antioxidants

Natural Induction of CDR

A number of natural dietary compounds have been shown to modulate gene expression in hundreds of genes associated with superior health of the heart, colon, and brain—suggesting that our cells possess all the genetic resources required to maintain proper oxidative balance, promote health, and slow the aging process at the genetic level by triggering the CDR pathways.

Interestingly, many “healthy” foods may actually owe many of their health-promoting benefits to the induction of CDR pathways by naturally occurring bioactive compounds. As a nutritionist, I certainly want to encourage everyone to eat as many servings of brightly colored fruits and vegetables on a daily basis (ideally 10-12 servings based on the latest anti-cancer and heart- health recommendations). But as a “realist” I also understand that getting enough fruits and veggies is difficult for many of us. Whether due to cost, convenience, or personal preference, the average person consumes only a little more that two servings of fruits and vegetables (and often, that means a slice of lettuce on your hamburger with a side of French fries).

When we can’t consume those 10-12 servings of vegetables and fruits, the next-best approach is to use targeted dietary supplements to naturally induce CDR—and here we have a wealth of scientific evidence for combinations of herbs that reduce cellular damage by inducing CDR. Many of these herbs have been used for thousands
of years in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and traditional Indian medicine (Ayurveda). Very often, TCM and Ayurvedic blends are synergistic blends of herbs in small doses that, because of their synergy, have a profound effect in the body.

Hundreds of natural bioactive plant compounds are known to trigger the CDR pathways – and dozens more are being discovered every year. In many cases, the main reason that a particular fruit, vegetable, spice, or herb is “good for us” is because of its ability to trigger CDR and set in motion the production of the cell’s own protective proteins. We’ve known for decades that foods like tea, berries, and citrus fruits contain antioxidants (flavonoids) that reduce risk of diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and dementia. Just in the last few years, we’ve learned that these flavonoid-rich foods are “good for us” because they naturally trigger CDRs – thus setting in motion our internal protective mechanisms. Likewise, foods high in carotenoids such as lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and astaxanthin are also known to activate CDR pathways to help cells protect themselves from a variety of stressors. Recent scientific evidence is uncovering that the anti-inflammatory effect of healthy spices such as turmeric (curcumin) and ginger (gingerols) is due to CDR triggering; that the mental-focus benefits of herbs such as ashwagandha (withaferin) and bacopa (bacopasides) are due to CDR triggering; that the anti-cancer effects of green tea (catechin), pine bark (proanthocyanidins), garlic (allicin), and broccoli (sulforaphane), are due to CDR triggering. Unfortunately, even as modern scientific evidence is rapidly accumulating about the health benefits of triggering CDR, we’re eating fewer fruits and vegetables than ever, using lower amounts of spices, and almost completely ignoring the natural herbal medicine chest that is right at our fingertips.

Thanks for reading – be sure to tune in for the next installment about, “CDR Synergy”

My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.

Chapter 4 – Don’t Take Antioxidants— Make Antioxidants

CDR: The Future

The future of CDR is an exciting one for sure. As I’ve mentioned, many in the scientific and health arenas strongly believe that CDR activation is a key player in how we safeguard our cells, tissues, and organs towards the ultimate end of improving overall wellness in all aspects of mind and body. This foundational idea of naturally activating CDR to “solve” the problem of a variety of cellular stressors is a fundamentally different way of restoring balance in the body. In fact, it’s one that enables people to effectively address the root causes of the health problems that are preventing them from feeling, looking, and performing at their best.

Thanks for reading – tune in for the next installment about, “Natural Induction of CDR”

My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.

Chapter 4 – Don’t Take Antioxidants— Make Antioxidants

CDR: The Present

Today, we have a good understanding that CDR is the basic foundation for the body’s cellular protective response. We know that myriad CDR pathways act in concert as a “master regulator” of the body’s antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, stress resilience, internal repair, immune surveillance, and detoxification responses. Soon after scientists identified CDR, a flood of scientific findings began to further reveal how CDR also governs genes responsible for the production of not only a wide range of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, glutathione, and catalase, etc.), but also important anti-inflammatory proteins and detoxification or ‘‘stress-response’’ genes. It’s important to emphasize that these protective pathways governed by CDR are involved in extremely critical areas of health from immune function to tissue repair to cognitive function – so it’s a much bigger and more important discovery than “just” being a more effective approach to reducing oxidative damage. In essence, the activation of CDR allows our bodies’ cells to create the necessary “medicines” that help us survive and thrive in the face of the numerous health threats populating today’s modern world.

Thanks for reading – tune in for the next installment about, “CDR: The Future.”

My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.

Chapter 4 – Don’t Take Antioxidants— Make Antioxidants

CDR: The Past

It can be scary to think that our own body is producing the damaging ROS molecules described above as a normal part of living and breathing, but it’s even scarier when you realize that ROS and other cellular toxins are all around us in the environment in the form of sunlight, car exhaust, air pollution, cigarette smoke, poor diet, and many other sources. Our bodies are constantly being bombarded by free radicals and related stressors, and constantly under threat of cellular damage and dysfunction—unless we do something to protect ourselves.

In the late1960s, researchers at Duke University, discovered that the body produces its own protective enzyme called superoxide dismutase (SOD) that is able to counteract the cellular damage caused by free radicals. For more than twenty years, scientists knew that SOD and other protective proteins, such as catalase and glutathione, could help reduce cellular stress, but nobody knew how to naturally increase levels of these proteins in the body. Attempts to develop oral versions of SOD and glutathione were met largely with failure, because as large proteins, they were quickly inactivated by digestive enzymes in the gastrointestinal system – so none of their protective activity reached the cells of the body. In the mid-1990s, researchers in Japan and around the world discovered the molecular “switch” that turns on the production of SOD and related cytoprotective enzymes. Further research, including thousands of studies published within the last few years, shows us quite clearly that our individual cells possess an entire system of interconnected protective mechanisms that counteract cellular stress, enhance cleanup of cellular damage, and slow the aging process.

Thanks for reading – tune in for the next installment about. “CDR: The Present”

My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.

Chapter 4 – Don’t Take Antioxidants— Make Antioxidants

The question has been asked for generations—what can I do to improve my state of health? From the perspective of maintaining health and wellness, the proper management of biochemical balance and cellular stress is thought by many scientists to be among the most important (if not the most important) aspects of human metabolism.

We’ve known for more than 50 years that the cellular basis of “aging” is directly linked to highly reactive molecules called “free radicals” or “reactive oxygen species” (ROS). These ROS can react with and cause damage to cellular structures throughout the body, especially to cell membranes, DNA (genetic material), and mitochondria (where cells generate energy). As this cellular damage accumulates, our cells cannot function properly, and we recognize the common symptoms of “aging,” such as reduced energy levels, creaky joints, wrinkled skin, and many others that make us feel and look older and worn out. Too many people think that theses age-related changes are “inevitable,” but the scientific evidence shows us quite clearly that by managing oxidative stress within healthy ranges, we can help people not only reduce the signs of aging, but to feel, look, and perform at their best.

As a scientist who has studied biochemical balance and cellular stress for the majority of my career, I can say with conviction that the proper management and balance of cellular stress is often the fundamental difference between a healthy life filled with abundant vigor, and an unhealthy life or feeling burned out and exhausted. Dozens of peer reviewed scientific studies at universities around the world and published in some of the most prestigious scientific journals show how a range of natural ingredients help to activate the body’s own protective mechanisms. The right blends and combinations of phytonutrients have been shown to reduce cellular damage by as much as 40 percent within thirty days (an astonishing amount of protection in such a small period of time).

As mentioned, at the heart of this cellular protective pathway is the Cellular Defense Response (CDR) that serves as a “master regulator” of the body’s antioxidant response. Again, the best way to think of CDR is as a “thermostat” within our cells that senses the level of cellular stress and turns on internal protective and repair mechanisms. Interestingly, while we know that there are numerous CDR-inducers in the natural world, we also know that specific combinations of ingredients can maximize gene expression in hundreds of genes associated with superior health of tissues and organs throughout the body. This suggests that our cells possess all the genetic resources required to maintain proper oxidative balance, promote health, and slow the aging process at the genetic level by naturally activating the CDR pathways.

Thanks for reading – tune in for the next installment on “CDR: The Past.”

My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.

Chapter 3 – Antioxidants are Killing You – by Making Cellular Stress Worse

Final Thoughts

Many scientists, including myself, believe that CDR activation is the “future” of cellular protection and health promotion. This foundation of naturally activating CDRs to “solve” the problem of oxidative stress and other forms of cellular stress is a fundamentally different approach to restoring balance in the body—and one that establishes a solid foundation for healthy living and helping us all to feel, look, and perform at our best.

Much of my research and writing over the past several years has been focused on the general concept of psychological “vigor,” defined as a sustained 3-tiered mood state characterized by physical energy, mental acuity, and emotional well-being. In short, a state of high vigor is how people want to feel on a daily basis—and the maintenance of biochemical balance and management of cellular stress are vitally important cornerstones of improving vigor and helping us to reach our peak potential.

The next chapter explores how cellular stress can be effectively managed throughout the body by natural CDR induction, which ultimately helps lead to enhanced vigor and improvements in our mental, physical, and emotional function – helping us feel, look, and perform at our best.

Thanks for reading – tune in for the next installment where I start Chapter 4 – Don’t Take Antioxidants— Make Antioxidants

My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.

Chapter 3 – Antioxidants are Killing You – by Making Cellular Stress Worse

What Should You Do To Protect Yourself?

Considering the latest studies (and the thousands of studies that have come before them), I still recommend the following when it comes to daily supplementation:

1. Eat Plenty of Veggies and Fruits: Focus your efforts on consuming at least 5-10 servings of brightly colored fruits and vegetables every day. The brighter the better, because brightness indicates a higher (and still safe) concentration of protective phytonutrients.

2. Make, Don’t Take, Your Antioxidants: Forget about “taking” antioxidants (from high-dose “multi” supplements) and start “making” your own antioxidants (by naturally activating the CDR pathways). Effective ways to naturally activate the CDR pathways include:

• Exercise, which “turns on” certain antioxidant systems
• Intermittent fasting also turns on CDR and survival genes
• Many foods have a general activation effect on CDR (blueberries, tea, coffee, broccoli, cabbage, wasabi, Brussels sprouts, onions)
• Focus on spices and herbals as supplements to specifically induce CDR (green tea, turmeric, quercetin, pine bark)

3. Use Other Supplements: Keep taking certain other (non-antioxidant) daily supplements depending on your specific needs, for example:

• Vitamin D (up to 5,000IU/day of vitamin D3)
• Omega-3 fatty acids (1,000mg of EPA & DHA from properly purified and concentrated fish oil)
• Calcium (up to 500mg from supplements)
• Magnesium (up to 250mg from supplements)
• Probiotics (beneficial bacteria to maintain gastrointestinal and immune function)
• Consider further supplementation based on individual lifestyle goals. For example, if you’re an athlete, you may want a supplement to help you recover better/faster from your workouts or if you’re a busy mom, you might want a supplement to help with energy or stress levels – or if you’re trying to lose weight, you might want a supplement to help control appetite and burn fat.

4. No More “Mega”: It bears repeating because it’s so important: stay away from mega-doses of ANY supplement, but especially avoid mega-doses of any antioxidant vitamin or mineral because we already have very good scientific evidence that pharmacological levels of such nutrients can cause more harm than help in the human body.

Thanks for reading – tune in for the next installment for some Final Thoughts from Chapter 3.

My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.

Chapter 3 – Antioxidants are Killing You – by Making Cellular Stress Worse

CDR Activation is the Future of Cellular Protection

So if the so-called antioxidant supplements that we take in huge doses are actually harmful, is there anything we can do to enjoy an optimal level of protection from free radicals and the damage they cause?

Luckily, a growing body of scientific findings is revealing how we can support the body’s own protective measures, primarily by turning on its own internal antioxidant defense systems. This internal network of antioxidant enzymes is approximately one million times more protective compared to typical antioxidant supplements.

This idea of “making antioxidants” (naturally within our cells) compared to the standard approach of “taking antioxidants” (in the form of high-dose vitamin supplements) is a fundamentally different approach to protecting the body from oxidative stress.

As we’ve discussed previously, at the very center of this cellular protective response is a family of coordinated pathways collectively known as the Cellular Defense Response (CDR) that serves as a “master regulator” of the body’s antioxidant response. You might think of the CDR as a “thermostat” within our cells that senses the level of oxidative stress and other stressors and turns on internal protective mechanisms.

Soon after CDR was identified (about 20 years ago), a flurry of scientific discoveries began to show how CDRs also regulate genes involved in the production of not only a wide range of antioxidant enzymes (including SOD, glutathione, and catalase), but also important anti-inflammatory proteins and detoxification or ‘‘stress-response’’ genes. These protective pathways are involved in seemingly unrelated areas of health from immune function to tissue repair to cognitive function—but they all share in common the CDR “switch” that enables cells to protect themselves from both internal and external environmental challenges. In effect, CDR induction enables our cells to makes their own “medicines” to help us survive—and thrive—in stressful situations.

Many CDR inducers are naturally occurring and plant-derived, such as sulforaphane from broccoli and curcumin from turmeric, but some others are synthetic compounds being developed as pharmaceutical treatments. Several CDR inducers have progressed from laboratory experiments to human clinical trials and eventual development into pharmaceutical treatments.

The next section outlines some of the natural options for inducing CDR, which has even been shown to modulate gene expression in hundreds of genes associated with superior health of the heart, colon, brain, and literally every tissue and organ system in the body. These scientific findings suggest that our cells possess all the genetic resources required to maintain proper oxidative balance, promote health, and slow the aging process at the genetic level (provided that those cells can adequately activate the CDR pathways as needed).

Thanks for reading – tune in for the next installment about “What You Should Do To Protect Yourself.”

My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.

Chapter 3 – Antioxidants are Killing You – by Making Cellular Stress Worse

How Can Antioxidants Be Dangerous?

There is no denying that a range of national nutrition surveys show clearly and convincingly that nutrient inadequacies are widespread in the United States – and that multivitamin supplements can help to “close the nutrient gap” that so many people are failing to attain through diet alone. There are also several large long-term controlled research trials where relatively low doses of balanced/mixed blends of vitamins/minerals/antioxidants have shown certain potential health benefits.

Scientists have known for many years that high doses of isolated nutrients can actually cause more problems than they prevent. Recent examples are beta-carotene in smokers (leading to more lung cancer) and vitamin C in cancer patients (which protects cancer cells more effectively than it does healthy cells). The “take-away” message from such studies is not that antioxidant vitamins are always “bad” – but rather that synthetic, isolated, high-dose antioxidant supplements are bad.

Consider several recent examples in prominent scientific and medical journals, showing that high-dose antioxidant supplements can lead to higher rates of lung cancer with beta-carotene and vitamin A (New England Journal of Medicine, 1996), higher rates of skin cancer with vitamins C & E and the mineral selenium (Journal of Nutrition, 2007), and higher overall mortality (death) rates from a variety of antioxidant vitamins and minerals.

In 1994 the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene (ATBC) Lung Cancer Prevention Study was published in the Annals of Epidemiology – and the results shocked the nutrition and medical communities. ATBC was a very large clinical study of more than 29,000 male smokers aged 50-69 years old designed to investigate the protective effects of vitamin E and beta-carotene on preventing lung cancer and other cancers. Subjects took 50mg/day of vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol), or 20mg/day of beta-carotene, or a combination of both, or a placebo, for an average of 6 years. Results showed no benefit of vitamin E and a significant 16% increase in lung cancer risk with beta-carotene.

In 1996, results of the Beta-Carotene and Retinal Efficacy Trial (named “CARET”) were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). CARET involved more than 18,000 smokers, former smokers, and workers exposed to asbestos to investigate the effects of 30mg/day of beta-carotene plus 25,000IU/day of retinol (vitamin A) on the incidence of lung cancer. After an average of 4 years of supplementation, the risk of developing lung cancer was increased 28% with increased death rates from lung cancer (+46%), cardiovascular disease (+26%), or from any other cause (+17%). The results were so dramatic that the researchers (from some of the top universities and cancer research centers in the country) decided to stop the study almost 2 years earlier than planned.

Since those initial studies in the mid-1990s, there have been thousands of research studies on the positive and negative effects of antioxidant supplements – with most of the largest and longest trials coming to the same conclusion that high-doses of isolated unbalanced synthetic antioxidants are increasing risk for cancer, heart disease, and overall mortality (death rates). For example…

• The “SU.VI.MAX” study (Journal of Nutrition 2007) followed more than 13,000 subjects taking supplements of vitamin C (120mg), vitamin E (30mg), beta-carotene (6mg), selenium (100mcg), and zinc (20mg) for 8 years – finding a 68% increased risk of all types of skin cancer and a risk of melanoma skin cancer that was more than 4-times higher in the antioxidant users.

• The Iowa Women’s Health Study (Archives of Internal Medicine, 2011), found increased death rates (mortality) in nearly 39,000 women (average age of 62 years old) among users of antioxidants supplements, including multivitamins (+6%), zinc (+8%), and copper (+45%).

• The SELECT trial (SELenium and vitamin E Cancer prevention Trial) published in 2011 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) followed more than 35,000 men from 427 study sites in the USA, Canada, and Puerto Rico over a period of almost 4 years. Subjects took 200mg/day of selenium, or 400IU/day of vitamin E, or both, or a placebo. Subjects supplemented with selenium alone and the combination of vitamin E plus selenium had an increased prostate cancer risk (9% and 5% higher, respectively), which did not reach statistical significance, but vitamin E users had a significant 17% increase in their development of prostate cancer.

• More than two-dozen recent studies over the last 4-5 years have additionally shown that high-dose antioxidant supplements can actually block many of the healthy adaptations associated with exercise. Regular physical activity is well-known to improve cardiovascular function, enhance insulin signaling (reducing risk for diabetes), accelerate weight loss, reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and increase maximal oxygen uptake – but high levels of antioxidants such as resveratrol (250mgday for 8 weeks), vitamin C (1,000mg/day for 11 weeks), and vitamin E (235mg for 11 weeks) have been shown to blunt these positive effects.

Again and again, we are finding that unbalanced, synthetic, isolated, high-dose supplements fail to keep us healthy and fail to prevent disease (and may actually cause cellular damage that accelerates the disease process in certain cases). This is especially important because more than half of Americans report taking at least one supplement on a regular basis – that’s a lot of vitamin users.

Thanks for reading – tune in for the next installment about how “CDR Activation is the Future of Cellular Protection”

My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.

Chapter 3 – Antioxidants are Killing You – by Making Cellular Stress Worse

In the last two chapters, we discussed how excessive exposure to a variety of stressors, such as free radicals, can lead to cellular stress, damage to cell membranes and DNA, and a host of potential health problems. We also learned about the potential for bioactive nutrients to restore biochemical balance and protect us from the damaging effects of cellular stress. So far – so good.

How then, is it possible that certain antioxidant supplements might actually be “bad” for us? How could the vitamin pills that we think are protecting us are actually causing us harm by accelerating the aging process and even increasing disease risk?

Let me make one point very clear. I am a staunch advocate of the regular use of properly balanced dietary supplements. I’ve written two popular and award-winning textbooks about dietary supplements, taught graduate-level university courses about the science behind dietary supplements, and designed and researched several dozen dietary supplement products for many different companies in the nutrition industry. I’m also a frequent and enthusiastic consumer of dietary supplements—both for myself and for my family.

I very much view supplements as one of the most powerful tools— along with proper diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, balanced stress, and social connection—for maintaining health and improving quality of life. However, when it comes to certain supplements, especially antioxidants, it can be too easy to get too much of a good thing. As alluded to briefly in the preceding sections, a growing number of research studies are showing that high-dose antioxidant supplements, including vitamin E, selenium, and beta-carotene, may have a dark side, upsetting and interfering with our body’s natural protective defenses.

When we consider cellular stress, we need to keep in mind the “Goldilock’s Principle” of biochemical balance – meaning that we want our exposure to cellular stressors to be “just right” – not too high or too low. This also means that while we certainly don’t want to have “a lot” of stress exposure, we also don’t want to have “none” – because optimal health and peak cellular performance is typically found when we have “some” stress as well as ample capacity to adapt to that stress.

It has been estimated that approximately 2 to 4 percent of all oxygen consumed by our body is converted to reactive oxygen species (ROS) with the potential to damage cell membranes, DNA, mitochondria, and other cellular structures. This amount of ROS would be roughly equivalent to an annual creation of nine pounds of free radicals created by the human body. Nine pounds per year is what we might consider to be our “baseline” or “normal” exposure to cellular stress from free radical exposure – but that does not account for the “extra” cellular stress that comes from exposure to free radicals from sunlight, air pollution, secondhand smoke, or stress. If our only source of cellular stress was our normal baseline metabolic production of free radicals, then we could likely adapt just fine on a diet of brightly colored fruits and vegetables. But, if we’re not eating those daily 5-10 servings of fruits/veggies, or if we have “extra” exposure to additional cellular stressors, then we might need the added support and protection from dietary supplements. But, which supplements to choose and which supplements to avoid?

Thanks for reading – tune in for the next installment about – How Antioxidants Can Be Dangerous.