The “Free-Radical” Paradox

When it comes to understanding the role "Free Radicals" and "Antioxidants" play in our body I turn to Lester Packer, Ph.D.  Not only are his views similar to my own but he is regarded by his peers as the world’s foremost antioxidant research scientist and Director of the Packer Lab at he University of California Berkeley.

•          Fighting infection
•         Controlling the flow of blood through the arteries
•         Sexual arousal
•          Keeping our brains sharp and in focus
•          Experiencing pain and pleasure

In other words, if we eliminated free radicals we would die!

•  Many of the necessary chemical processes in the body, especially neurotransmitter processes require and produce free radicals.
•  When the body is in homeostasis, excess free radicals are regularly quenched by networking antioxidants, which then become weaker free radicals, which then are recycled by other network antioxidants.
•   Good health is not so much a battle against free radicals, as the balancing act… of keeping them within certain optimum levels

The key “free radical” optimization system in our bodies is the ebb and flow of “nitric oxide” and other “functional free-radicals” and their management by complementary “network antioxidants”. 

TopTenHealthProducts Nitric Oxide Pathway Formulations balance the production of much needed free-radicals through providing necessary and specific anti-oxidants that maintain order in the free radical environment.

NO produced Free Radicals + Network Antioxidants 

         = 

      Optimum Functioning

Nitric oxide also plays a key role as a neurotransmitter and NO production and availability activates and drives specific Neurotransmitter Pathway Systems (NPS).

Neurotransmitter Pathway Systems regulate our inner biological intelligence, including:

·  ensuring appropriate immune response

·  directing blood flow

·  sparking neural activity

In short initiating and maintaining the vital processes of a healthy organism.

Nutritional support of Neurotransmitter Pathway Systems

•  Given the need to balance these two sides of the free radical equation, formulators of NPS nutritionals must have a keen knowledge of neuro-transmitter synthesis combined with a keen knowledge of antioxidant networking
• Formulators must consider a whole medicine vs. single agent approach.

Single agent or Extract approach is the foundation of Pharmaceutical Medicine.

This approach to medicine and nutrition has been shown to produce paradoxical results. A paradox is where use of an “extract” elicits “side effects” – while using the “whole plant” from which the extract is derived produced the desired result with no “side effects”.

An example follows of a whole medicine (Orthomolecular) vs. the single agent (Pharmaceutical) approach.

Salicylic Acid Case Study (Aspirin)

•  Subjects consuming willow bark (origin of salicylic acid) do not experience negative side affects as other complimentary nutrients are present to balance the acid.
•  Isolated from the plant, synthesized, and delivered as a single agent, salicylic acid is associated with hundreds of deaths per year from stomach bleeding and ulcerations.  

The Arginine Paradox is an example of the Free Radical Paradox.

•  Arginine Paradox – where Arginine is seen as both beneficial and dangerous, as (apparently) confirmed in numerous conflicting clinical studies
• This Paradox is not caused by Arginine itself but by the lack of (complimentary nutrients) such as network antioxidants available when Arginine is synthesized into free radical molecule NO.
• Nitric Oxide (NO) or Arginine Derived Nitric Oxide (ADNO) formulators without this knowledge run the risk of enacting the negative side of “the Arginine/Free Radical Paradox”.
• In laboratory situations specifically where pure Arginine is administered intravenously (or in large oral doses) without any antioxidant network cofactors – negative “side effects” are reported – and inaccurately attributed to Arginine or ADNO (Arginine Derived Nitric Oxide) therapy. This is an example of taking “Arginine out of context”.
• Orthomolecular Medicine (NPS) formulators deliver the positive side of the Arginine Paradox through balancing NO based free radical production with network and booster antioxidants.

Summary

•  Free radicals are natural, desired and 100% necessary for optimum health
•  Associated networking antioxidants are 100% necessary to manage optimum “free radical” levels and thus maintain optimum health.

Case study example of the power of Associated Antioxidants:

Group 1:

Group 2:

•    Packer Lab at UC Berkeley induced stroke in group two lab rats by blocking carotid artery
•  Rats were injected with the antioxidant Alpha Lipoic Acid right before blood flow was restored (30 minutes later)
•  Animals monitored for 24 hours
•  Only 25% of the animals died, and the survivors showed no sign of any problem, In fact, they recovered completely.
•  Brain testing showed Alpha Lipoic Acid had crossed the blood brain barrier and reached the brain cells in the target areas as well as boosted levels of glutathione.
•  Research team involved knows of no other antioxidant or drug that could have performed this “feat”.

The Five Key Network Antioxidants – and how they work in concert

1. Alpha Lipoic Acid: The antioxidant’s antioxidant

•  The most versatile (allowed in both the fatty and watery portions of the cell) of the network antioxidants.
•  The only antioxidant capable of recycling all other network antioxidants and the only one able to regenerate itself
•  Can pinch hit for Vitamin E and can boost levels of cellular tissue glutathione by 30% (in vitro studies).
•  Critical for energy production
•  Crosses the blood brain barrier
•  Used in Europe safely and effectively or more than 3 decades in the treatment of complications from diabetes.
•  When combined with amino acid L-carnitine, which promotes the transport of fatty acid into the cells, can rejuvenate mitochondria in old animals. 

2. Glutathione

•  The most abundant antioxidant in the network.
•  The primary water soluble antioxidant
•  Found in virtually every cell and is an important weapon in the battle against free radicals
•  Low levels of glutathione linked to premature death and disease. Immune system marker.
•   Does not absorb well when taken orally (eaten up by digestive enzymes).
•   N-Acetyl Cysteine can increase Glutathione but not nearly as well as Lipoic Acid.

3. Co Enzyme Q10

•  A fat soluble molecule that works synergistically with Vitamin E in the antioxidant cycle to protect the fatty part of the cell from free radical attack.
•  Regenerates Vitamin E in the network
•  Numerous studies document CoQ10 as an effective treatment for heart failure, angina, and HTN. Also being investigated for advanced breast cancer.
•  Found in the highest amounts in the mitochondria of the cell
•  Essential for making ATP

4. Vitamin C

•  The “hub” of the antioxidant network
•  Water soluble
•  Is not produced by the human body and must be obtained through food and supplements (throughout the day)
•  Regenerates Vitamin E and interacts with flavanoid antioxidants (Quercetin) in the network
•  Suppresses viral genes
•  Oxidized form is almost identical to glucose (rapidly taken into cells via “free ride”)

5. Vitamin E

•  Can maneuver through the fatty parts of the cell in accessible to the other network antioxidants
•  Carried in lipoproteins
•  Compared to glutathione or Vitamin C, there is only a tiny amount of Vitamin E in the cells
•  Recycles the Vitamin C free radical back into a working antioxidant
•  Recycled by Vitamin C, Lipoic Acid, and CoQ10
•  Studies show Vitamin E can prevent heart disease, reduce risk of prostate cancer, and even slow down progression of Alzheimer’s disease

 

TopTenHealthProducts Formulator’s Original Mission:

•  Find a means to deliver Arginine in small amounts, such as to reduce free radical activities through a neurotransmitter delivery system.
•  Find a means to enhance the associated antioxidant network to “quench” free radicals once neurotransmitters have fired

In other words Orthomolecular Medicine

•  True formulators practice Orthomolecular Medicine (ortho = correct)
•  Orthomolecular Medicine – a field created by Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling based on the premise that vitamins and nutrients should not be used solely for prevention of deficiency disorders, but, when taken in the right doses, should also be used to achieve optimal health and to treat diseases

Our Formulators:

•          Robert Fogli – developed an unprecedented neurotransmitter pathway technology in 1997. This technology used a specific combination of naturally occurring nutrients to produce up to 3 hours of nitric oxide that human subjects could not otherwise produce.
•          Michael Ricciardi - a key member of the Vitamin E research team at a leading west coast university in the 1950s, Ricciardi voluntarily worked with Fogli to help achieve an optimum antioxidant to free radical formulation balance.