We Are All Smokers – Protection with Antioxidants
by Jennifer Savedge – Healthy Living Article

“Smoking or non?” This used to be a common question whenever you walked into a restaurant, and it still is in some places. But you might be shocked to learn that regardless of your preference for cigarettes, you are a smoker. We at Healthy Living know that our readers are concerned about their overall health and well-being. Therefore, it is likely that many of you do not smoke cigarettes. But even if you don’t, you are not “smoke-free.” Second-hand cigarette smoke, air pollution, exhaust fumes, and even barbecue grills expose our systems to toxic smoke and gases. If you want to keep your system free of these dangerous toxins, your choices are clear: stop breathing, or find a way to cleanse the toxins.

The Non-Smoking Smoker

Only 15 percent of the smoke from a cigarette is actually inhaled by the smoker. The remaining 85 percent pollutes our air with what is commonly referred to as second-hand smoke.

Second-hand smoke is harmful and potentially deadly. Even the tobacco companies admit that. Second-hand smoke is comprised of both mainstream and sidestream smoke. Mainstream smoke is the toxic puff that is breathed out after a smoker inhales smoke from his or her cigarette. This smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including toxic agents, irritants, carcinogens, and mutagens. Sidestream smoke is the smoke that drifts off of a burning cigarette. According to a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, sidestream smoke contains more cancer-causing chemicals than the smoke exhaled by the smoker.

If you are exposed to second-hand smoke of either form, you are breathing in such toxic chemicals as benzene, formaldehyde, cyanide, sulfur dioxide, ammonia, nicotine, and carbon monoxide. Exposure to this toxic cocktail is the third-leading preventable cause of death behind active smoking and exposure to alcohol. And it is the third-leading cause of lung cancer behind active smoking and radon exposure.

It’s in the Air

Air pollution is a catchall phrase for the toxins, debris, particulate matter, and ozone that permeate the air we breathe. Common pollutants found in the air include benzene, lead, mercury, carbon monoxide, volatile nitrites, pesticides and herbicides. Air pollution also contains ground level ozone and nitrogen oxide, both of which are oxidants known to cause free radical damage in the body’s cells. A recent study in Lancet magazine reviewed the connection between air pollution and an increase in deaths and hospital admissions due to respiratory and cardiovascular disease. According to the American Heart Association, air pollutants can cause the blood to thicken, increasing its tendency to clot, damaging arteries and promoting arteriosclerosis, or a buildup of fatty deposits in vessel walls. Air pollution is also associated with asthma, defects in blood formation, certain types of cancer, lung infections, tumors, and even brain damage.

Are You Exhausted?

When you drive, ride in a car or bus, or if you live near a street or highway, you are exposed to large amounts of toxic chemicals and gases. Diesel exhaust fumes, found in large trucks, trailers, and school buses, are by far the worst offenders. These fumes contain a mixture of more than 450 different chemical components, vapors and fine particles. These fine particles are easily inhaled and deposited into the lungs, carrying with them cancer-causing substances known as polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. Exposure to small particles in diesel exhaust fumes has been linked to increased hospital admissions for respiratory diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, and heart disease, as well as up to 60,000 premature deaths each year in the United States, according to the American Lung Association.

Gases in diesel exhaust, such as nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, benzene, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, can also create health problems. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, diesel exhaust fumes contribute to asthma and other allergic reactions and may increase the risk of lung cancer by up to 50 percent.

When children ride the bus to school each day, they are exposed to its toxic fumes. Advise your kids to sit in the front of the bus, as far away from the source of the fumes as possible.

Beware the BBQ

Barbecue grills and barbecued food are another source of toxic gases and pollutants. According to research by Dr. Paul Strickland, a professor of Environmental Health Science at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, the cooking process used to barbecue foods may be adding cancer-causing chemicals to your dinner. Dr. Strickland has spent years been studying the health hazards of barbecuing. His research has shown that when flames touch the food during barbecuing, the carbon in the food is heated in such a way that cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are produced on the surface of the food. The high barbecue heat can also cause the amino acids and creatine in the meat to react together, producing another group of potentially cancer-causing chemicals called heterocyclic amines. This is the same reaction that occurs when foods are fried in high temperatures. Carcinogens are then ingested and absorbed into the system by eating these barbecued and fried foods.

How to Protect Your Health

Oxidants, or free radicals, are a recurring villain in the story of smoke, toxic pollution and health. Studies show that antioxidants and free-radical scavengers may help your body stay in balance during the daily ravages of this villain. Antioxidants and free-radical scavengers help the body clear oxidants away before cell injuries can occur. They also inhibit enzymes that cause cancer, and help the body repair the damage done by oxidants. There are many powerful antioxidants that can be found in both food and supplement sources. The formula called Supercritical Antioxidants by New Chapter includes an impressive list of some of the most potent antioxidants available today. A recent clinical study published in the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology found that the formula for Supercritical Antioxidants makes it a powerful antioxidant that can increase detoxifying enzymes and act as an effective chemo protective herbal formulation. Here’s a closer look at the ingredients in Supercritical Antioxidants and how they can help detoxify your system.

Turmeric is a very powerful herb that can strengthen the immune system and cleanse the body of microbes. It also contains a bright yellow pigment called curcumin, and it is this ingredient that makes turmeric such an impressive detoxifier. Curcumin has antimutagenic activity, as well as the ability to inhibit the growth of certain cancers. Curcumin’s antitumor activity is possible because of its ability to inhibit topoisomerase enzyme activity and protect DNA strands from breakages. The latest research shows that turmeric can suppress the development of stomach, breast, colon, lung, and skin tumors. Curcumin also has mild antithrombotic activity, since it inhibits platelets from clumping together, and it can therefore protect against cardiovascular disease.

Green tea is a potent antioxidant that can potentially stall the development and progression of certain cancers by neutralizing mutations within the DNA that could lead to the formation of a tumor. Green tea prevents cancer cells from reproducing. Scientists have found that the rates of certain cancers, such as pancreatic, rectal, colon, breast, skin, and stomach cancer, are lower in people who consume green tea regularly than in those who don’t. A recent study in the journal Biofactors concluded that supplemental green tea can successfully suppress oxidative DNA damage in both the liver and pancreas. Another study, published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, found that the polyphenols in green tea can prevent the formation of new blood vessels that accelerate the development of tumors. This explains the beneficial effect of green tea supplements on both coronary heart disease and cancer.

Rosemary extract, obtained via supercritical extraction, contains powerful antioxidant factors, such as phenolic diterpenes, flavonoids and phenolic acids. Researchers at Rutgers and Michigan State Universities have shown that rosemary’s free-radical scavengers enhance the capabilities of other enzymes while countering even the compounds produced by frying food.

Parsley is nature’s richest source of the phytochemical myristicin, a powerful liver detoxifier. A recent study published in the journal Carcinogenesis found that myristicin showed high activity as an inducer of the detoxifying enzyme glutathione S-transferase in the liver and small intestines.

Ginger is a popular spice that provides great protection against toxic pollutants. One recent study by Dr. Y. J. Surh, of Seoul National University, found that ginger contains ketones, such as gingerol and paradol, which provide antitumor and chemopreventive properties.

Peppermint helps to counter the pollutant benzo(A)pyrene. In laboratory studies published in Alternative Medicine Review, Dr J. T. Belanger found that the essential oils in peppermint have been shown to regress pancreatic, mammary, and liver tumors, and may provide chemopreventive properties for colon, skin, and lung cancer.

Clove contains eugenol, which has been proven to offer protection against toxicity. It provides anti-peroxidative activity and can decrease oxidative formation.

Get Smoke Free With Supercritical Antioxidants

There’s no avoiding them: Toxic pollutants enter our systems whenever we commute to work, go out in public where people are smoking, even at a backyard barbecue in our own homes! Antioxidants are a most powerful defense against these dangerous pollutants. Everybody needs to supplement their diets with antioxidants. We can think of no better supplement than Supercritical Antioxidants by New Chapter because it offers the most complete and effective source of antioxidants for counteracting the smoke in all of us.

Resources

Supercritical Antioxidants from New Chapter is an important nutritional supplement that can detoxify the body and strengthen the immune system.

To learn more about Supercritical Antioxidants, click here.

References

Belanger, J.T. “Perillyl alcohol: applications in oncology.” Altern Med Rev, 1998 Dec;3(6):448-57.
Frank, A.L., et al. (2001). Case Studies in Environmental Medicine: Taking an Exposure History (ATSDR Publication No. ATSDR-HE-CS-2001-0002). Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Hajime, O. & Akira, M. “Cancer prevention with food factors: Alone and in combination.” BioFactors, 2004;22(1-4):49-55.

Oak, M., et al. “Antiangiogenic properties of natural polyphenols from red wine and green tea.” The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 2005;16(1):1-8.