best supplements

As you know
I am a physician. It's part of my profession to keep abreast of what's happening in medical /health research. Being retired helps
because doctors simply do not generally have the "extra time" to devote to the scientific literature.

But I do. And I love it. I am one of those individuals who really enjoys …brace yourself…chemistry. When I'm done here
you should be excited too
especially if you are interested in sports nutrition and antioxidants
though not necessarily in that order.

Sports nutrition is a vast industry with emphasis on optimizing PERFORMANCE. Off hand
I can think of quite a few categories involving sports nutrition:

" sports nutrition and supplements for athletes

" sports nutrition and athletic performance

" sports nutrition and body building

" sports nutrition and endurance training

" sports nutrition and special diets in a variety of sports

" sports nutrition and strength training

" sports nutrition for running
jogging
walking
skiing
swimming
" There's even Rocky Mountain sports nutrition
" …the list is endless.



So far
no surprises
huh? Well
here's one for you. Did you know that when you exercise intensively you INCREASE the free radical burden in your body? If you're a serious sports enthusiast
you should know that.

But…the real news is what science is now finding out about that free radical burden of yours. You should pay close attention here.

Suddenly
chemistry gets real personal.

Everyone of us has
what may be called
our antioxidant protective capacity. That means our bodies normally utilize antioxidants to protect us against the harmful impact of free radicals.

First of all
what are antioxidants? They are molecular substances which offset free radical damage to the body. Antioxidants
quench
free radicals (for lack of a better metaphor) neutralizing their damaging effects on the cells of the body.

" Antioxidants are found in foods such as cranberries
green tea and even chocolate.

" Antioxidants are found in vitamins such vitamin C and E.

" Antioxidants are found in carotenoids such as beta-carotene.

" Antioxidants are found in many substances supplied by the body such as glutathione.

" Antioxidants are found in many herbs and enzymes.

The impact of antioxidants is boosted by glyconutrients to offset free radicals in your body…and
as a result of your athletic exertions.

Antioxidant capacity must be provided in your sports nutrition regimen or you could be "robbing Peter to pay Paul" with your workouts. As you will see
without a glyconutrional presence in your sports nutrition
the healthful gains made by your physical workouts will be offset by your own free radical burden.

Free radicals
sports and sports nutrition

Free radicals are those chemical species which contain one or more unpaired electrons
capable of independent existence. They form in the body due to a variety of reasons as offshoots of cellular activity or as products introduced to the body from the outside.

As an analogy
think of running a car engine as the cellular production
and the car emissions a the free radical production. The engine produces products which cannot stay inside the car without further damage. They simply must be neutralized and expelled.

Free radicals form and cause damage by reacting with many substances in your body. It is estimated that upwards of 200
0
free radical attacks occur in our bodies daily.

When free radical damage is done
the body can remove the compounds formed by its cellular repair system. However
if the body cannot handle the free radicals (with antioxidants for example)
nor remove the compounds
then disease can be the result.

Contrary to popular opinion
free radicals do not circulate throughout the body. The half-life of most free radicals varies in a range of a few nanoseconds to about 7 seconds duration. That means they will react within the "neighborhood" (a few Angstroms or microns near where the increase in free radicals occurred) …organs
connective tissue
circulatory or nerve tissue
bone or lymphatic material are all candidates for free radical attack.

Wherever they form
they will damage the surrounding areas
unless prevented by the body…So the body does NOT have the luxury of just filtering away any circulatory fluids to find the free radicals. The body's defense systems must be…well…fairly omnipresent to neutralize the effects of free radicals. The antioxidant protective system must be healthy.

Since they are highly reactive substances
they react with all sorts of cell elements readily. But
when they do react with your body cells
they can damage the cells and even kill them. Often
the damage from free radicals can CHANGE the cellular structure enough to cause DISEASE such as cancer
diabetes
arthritis
heart disease and a host of others.

The type of disease that occurs is dependent upon which of the free radical defenses in the body weren't functioning properly and where the free radical attacks occur.

The body has pretty sophisticated antioxidant defense systems. But
the body CAN get overwhelmed in its antioxidant protections against such free radicals…

Indeed
unless antioxidant enhanced sports nutrition (with glyconutrients) are used to offset the increased free radical burden
the BODY will suffer as a result of intensive sports training
stress
and competition.

Glyconutrients VITAL to sports nutrition …

Studies comparing marathon runners who did and did not take glyconutritional sports nutrition supplements were undertaken. The results were reported by the Proceedings of the Fisher Institute For Medical Research ( August 2003
vol.3
no.1). The results "demonstrated strikingly different patterns." Antioxidant protection appeared to be powerfully enhanced against free radicals with glyconutritional supplementation. Thus
the body was protected for several days after the marathon run.

However
when glyconutritional sports nutrition was NOT used
the damaging effects of the free radical burden appeared to remain in the body for about five days. Thus
the subject "consistently excreted higher concentrations of free radical byproducts…" as compared to that of the glyconutritional subject. It should be emphasized that the subject studied WAS TAKING other antioxidants
though not glyconutrition. Despite that fact
the above cited results were obtained.

That's another way of saying that when glyconutritional supplements were not used
the free radical burden upon the body was not lifted. Antioxidant protection does appear to be (significantly) strengthened with glyconutritional sports nutrition. Such antioxidant protection appears to be of benefit for athletes overall
including training
stress
competition and dietary issues.

The glyconutrional revolution in sports nutrition and therapy is just beginning. More studies are being done. More results are coming in concerning free radicals and the capacity of the glyconutrients to boost antioxidant affect against free radicals.

Sports nutrition is about to see a new revolution…

Better still. I believe that it is quite probable that
with glyconutrition
sports PERFORMANCE is about to see a revolution in al fields.