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3 Mythsand 1 TruthAbout Running and Your Health U.S. News & World Report - 6 hours ago Every person who takes up running has, at one time or another, been confronted by a helpful critic who is more than happy to reel off the reasons running will ruin wholesale co enzyme 10 life. Regular Running Slows Aging Process, Study Says FOXNews Runner's High: Joggers Live Longer TIME WebMD - BBC News - abc7.com - eFluxMedia all 197 news articles

Your brain is your greatest asset but it is also your bodys most vulnerable organ. It requires constant support from other major organs and is your most susceptible organ to oxidative stress during aging.

Here are some brain facts:

1. Your brain makes up only 2% of your total body weight but requires 20% of your hearts output of blood to sustain the amount of oxygen that it needs.

2. Your brain is the most oxygen-demanding organ in your body.

3. Your brain uses chemicals (neurotransmitters) to relay important messages to other parts of your body. These same chemicals are also involved in chemical reactions that produce damaging free radicals.

4. If your brain cells become weak or die they cannot repair themselves. Their functions then can be permanently lost if cell death or damage occurs.

Given these susceptibilities, your brain is especially vulnerable to conditions that threaten oxygen supply, such as in head injury, stroke, lung diseases and heart failure. Under these conditions, brain activity will continue even without enough oxygen. This can cause problems that lead to extreme levels of oxidative stress and the over-production of damaging free radicals.

In diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons, other damaging factors are at work. In Alzheimers disease, a toxic protein called beta-amyloid, forms in your brain tissue. This protein acts as an irritant and causes inflammation in your brain. This inflammation then causes the production of free radicals that can destroy any membranes and cells in their path.

Parkinsons disease results from unregulated production of the brain chemical dopamine which, with the help of free radicals, becomes toxic to the brain cells that control your motor functions.

Even in a healthy brain, oxygen radicals are produced every moment during normal high-oxygen demand of neuronal activity. In a healthy brain, enzymes and nutritional antioxidants neutralize these radicals.

Benefits of Dietary Antioxidants

What safeguards can healthy people take to reduce risk of diseases and especially to protect their brains from oxidative stress over a lifetime?

The simplest answer is to follow a diet that includes abundant sources of antioxidant chemicals derived from plant foods. Evidence for the benefits of such a dietary regimen has only been demonstrated in experiments with animals up until now, but the results are convincing. Over the past eight years, the research activities of Dr. Jim Joseph of the US Department of Agriculture, Boston, have focused on how to protect the brain from oxidative stress with dietary use of antioxidant-rich plants such as strawberries, cranberries, elderberries, blueberries and spinach.

Dr. Josephs research findingsa message closely pertinent to this essaycan best be represented by a quote from one of his research reports in 1998: increased antioxidant protection through diets comprised of fruits and vegetables identified as being high in total antioxidant activity might prevent or reverse the deleterious effects of oxidative stress on neurons.

Summary: Oxidative stress is a major factor in brain aging. This stress can be combated or balanced by including dietary antioxidants into your daily life. The best way to do this is by eating lots of colorful fruits and vegetables each day.

Reading

* Lau FC, Shukitt-Hale B, Joseph JA. The beneficial effects of fruit polyphenols on brain aging. Neurobiol Aging. 2005 Dec;26 Suppl 1:128-32.

* Joseph JA, Shukitt-Hale B, Denisova NA, Prior RL, Cao G, Martin A, Taglialatela G, Bickford PC. Long-term dietary deanol bitartrate spinach, or vitamin E supplementation retards the onset of age-related neuronal signal-transduction and cognitive behavioral deficits.

J Neurosci. 1998 Oct 1;18(19):8047-55.

* Joseph JA, Nadeau DA, Underwood A. The coenzyme q10 Code. Hyperion, New York, 2002.

Copyright 2006 Berry Health Inc.

Dr. Paul Gross is a scientist and expert on cardiovascular and brain physiology. A published researcher, Gross recently completed a book on the Chinese wolfberry and has begun another on antioxidant berries. Gross is founder of Berry Health Inc, a developer of nutritional, berry-based supplements. For more information, visit http://www.berrywiseonline.com

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