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
How to Enhance CDR to Reduce Cellular Stress: A Summary
When it comes to optimally protecting your body—and actively improving how we feel/look/perform—we can all take a range of proactive steps to induce our body’s own protective mechanisms:
1. Stop Taking High-Dose Synthetic Antioxidant Supplements: The research shows that taking high doses of isolated, synthetic antioxidants (like vitamins A, C, E, beta-carotene, etc.) actually causes harm to the body.
2. Get Active: It’s clear that exercise “turns on” the CDR pathway and its family of internal antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, cellular repair, and detoxification systems.
3. Practice Intermittent Fasting (IF): At least once per month consume nothing except water for 24 hours. Research shows that this type of intermittent fasting can turn on CDR pathways and increase the production of cellular survival genes.
4. Eat the Right Foods: Many foods have a general induction effect
on CDR, meaning they help spur the production and activity of cellular protection and repair. These foods include blueberries, tea, coffee, red wine, apples, onions, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, wasabi, and many others.
5. Boost CDR with Properly Balanced Herbals: As mentioned, there are several proven and powerful botanical ingredients that act specifically to induce and activate CDR for the production of antioxidant enzymes and protective proteins in the body. These herbals include pine bark, green tea, turmeric, quercetin, CoQ10, cannabidiol, and many others. The antioxidant enzymes and other protective agents activated by the CDR pathways provide far-greater safeguarding properties than “standard” antioxidants, which means you’ll enjoy a significantly wider spectrum of health benefits.
Final Thoughts
When you consider the studies outlined above (as well as the hundreds of similar studies being conducted, published, and presented every month), a very clear picture emerges whereby:
1. Free radical imbalances and related sources of environmental and other stressors lead to cellular stress and cellular damage within cells throughout the body and in every tissue measured.
2. Induction of the CDR pathways effectively reduce cellular stress, prevent tissue damage, enhance internal cellular protective mechanisms, and restore cellular balance (homeostasis).
3. The spectrum of health benefits created by CDR-activating herbs is extremely impressive, bestowing aid in the areas of skin, heart, brain, antioxidant activity, genetic expression, and general anti-aging benefits—the list goes on and on.
While it’s very logical to assume that cells that are “less damaged” and “more balanced” would also be associated with “superior function” as well as with feeling, looking, and performing at our best, such studies are currently underway and have yet to be reported in the scientific literature. It just makes sense that healthier cells equate to more efficient bodies and minds— but at this point, we simply don’t have specific research data to point to. These types of longer-term lifestyle studies are currently underway in research laboratories and universities around the world. We expect these studies to show a clear link between the prevention of cellular stress and the enhancement of myriad lifestyle factors including increased energy and mood, enhanced weight loss and beauty, and superior mental and physical performance.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not inclined (even as a scientist) to wait for the specific study that “proves” to me that it’s better to have cells with less cellular stress and lower levels of damage—I think there’s more than ample evidence for a health benefit of naturally inducing CDR pathways. I think you’ll agree with me that naturally “making” antioxidants is a healthier and more effective approach than “taking” antioxidants.
Thanks for reading – be sure to tune in for the next installment about “The Pillars of Health – oxidation, inflammation, glycation, and allostation.”
