Oxidative stress, free radicals and antioxidants. You probably heard all these terms before. But what do they all mean? We are going to break it down today and explain each one how they impact your skin health.
What is oxidative stress?
In simple terms, it’s an imbalance between the creation of free radicals in the body and the body’s ability to reduce or detoxify their harmful effects through counteracting with antioxidants.
What are free radicals?
Free radicals are organic molecules that play a major part in ageing, tissue damage and some diseases. These are unstable molecules and they look to bond with other molecules. However, by doing this they destroying the health of these molecules and further the damaging process.
Not all free radicals are harmful to the body. Some of them are essential in protecting the body by killing pathogens or microbes. On the flip side of this, free radicals can chemically interfere with cell parts such as DNA, protein or lipids and take their electrons in order to become stabilized. This destabilizes the cell which can be triggering a large chain of free radical reactions.
What are antioxidants?
Antioxidants are molecules that are present in cells and help prevent oxidative stress and damage. They do this by giving an electron to the free radicals without becoming destabilized themselves. (clever little things aren’t they!) It’s this imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants that is the basis of oxidative stress.
You would probably know that Antioxidants, can be found in many foods and be aware of many the health benefits around including them in your diet. But there are also health benefits for external use (on your skin) and Antioxidants can be found in our botanical ingredients such as Acai Berry and Olive Squalene. These antioxidant molecules prevent free radicals from harming healthy tissue.
What damage is caused by oxidative stress?
Oxidative stress leads to many health issues in the body. Some of these include Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, gene mutations and cancers, chronic fatigue syndrome, fragile X syndrome, heart and blood vessel disorders, atherosclerosis, heart failure, heart attack and inflammatory diseases.
How does oxidative stress affect the skin?
Free radical damage causes fine lines and wrinkles by activating enzymes that break down collagen. Oxidative stress can include sun exposure and smoking – you might have noticed fine lines, around the lips of a smoker. Also diets high processed food and animal products can also cause similar damage.
4 simple tips to reduce oxidative stress
Research has shown that whole food based diet that is full of alkaline antioxidant foods, such as the Mediterranean diet can increase the amount and variety of antioxidants circulating in the blood. You can also drink water that is ionized from the sun or from a water ionizer.
Numerous studies have also shown that yoga and meditation have been shown to reduce the free radical count.
3. Avoid environmental pollutants
You can’t completely avoid them, but limit your exposure to environmental pollutants as much as possible and don’t smoke. Choose household products that a made with active botanicals rather than harsh toxic chemicals.
4. Skin care
Wear UV protection when exposed to the sun and take a closer look at the products you’re putting on your skin. Some of the chemicals in these products can be absorbed into your bloodstream. Look for ones that are as natural as possible and avoid products with synthetic fragrances.
Hope you have found this information useful x Rigel
We have two amazing skin serums which help combat oxidative stress- our Olive Skin Serum and Acai Berry Active Antioxidant Serum. These two antioxidant packed serums (valued at $76.90) could both be your this week!
Here is how you enter:
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- You can enter only once
- Open to Australian residents only
- One winner will be drawn at random and contacted via email (provided when you subscribe) and Facebook.
- Competition closes Monday 12 December 2016 at 5 pm (EST)
- Winner announced Tuesday 13 December 2016
This competition is now closed. Congratulations Felicity.