Coenzyme Q10 Fort - Antioxidant for Oxidative Stress and the Heart

To learn more - Free radicals, oxidative stress, and antioxidants, what exactly is it?

Our cells are true little energy power plants. Cellular metabolism, thanks to the oxidation-reduction mechanism, involves a transfer of electrons between the oxygen molecules we breathe and the glucose molecules or certain fatty acids from our diet (carbohydrates and lipids respectively). By capturing pairs of electrons from them, oxygen allows the transformation of these nutrients into ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the cellular fuel, in other words, the energy necessary for the normal functioning of our body.

Any energy production cannot be 100% optimal and inevitably produces waste. Indeed, during cellular oxidation-reduction processes, a percentage of these exchanges do not happen as they should, and a certain number of oxygen molecules end up with an odd number of electrons. These reactive and unstable oxygen derivatives are called free radicals. Thus, the oxygen necessary for the life of our organism can also become its enemy and accelerate its wear and tear.

As any unstable element seeks to balance itself, free radicals draw the electron they lack from their environment. They then destabilize the cells, blood cells, proteins, or even microbes they encounter. Admittedly, this natural process is beneficial for our immune defenses, but an excess of free radicals causes chain disruptions that directly affect our health.

Produced in small quantities, free radicals are well managed by our body thanks to the production of antioxidants. The antioxidants present in our organism, mostly coming from an appropriate diet rich in fruits and vegetables, are molecules that neutralize free radicals and allow a balance between the two. In this case, they are beneficial for our health: they ensure the cleansing of our body by eliminating old or defective cells. They also intervene in the antibacterial, microbial, and viral fight and participate in proper immune functioning.

However, our new lifestyles are the origin of an excess production of free radicals, under the effect of numerous factors:

• external: water and air pollution, tobacco smoke, sun UV rays, radiation, etc.;
• internal: medications, alcohol, tobacco, industrial food;
• lifestyle: sleep deficit, excess or lack of physical exercise, overwork, etc.;
• stressful environment: overwork, stress, anxiety, negative emotional states.

Produced in too large a quantity, free radicals cause what is called oxidative stress or oxidative stress. Our cells (including the DNA present in them) oxidize, deteriorate, and die. If our body does not have enough antioxidants acting as shields against free radicals, oxidative stress leads to the premature aging of our cells and increases the risk of developing certain degenerative diseases (such as cancers, etc.), neurodegenerative, inflammatory, cardiovascular, diabetes...

Antioxidants, capable of reducing or even preventing the oxidation process of our cells by free radicals, are essential to protect us from oxidative stress and its devastating effects on the health of our cells, organs, and skin.