Antioxidant Vitamins: A Must for Seniors

What are Antioxidant Vitamins?

Often, oxidative damage has been indicated as the reason for many disorders. Our body and the environment generate some free radicals that hurt our cells each day and cause oxidative damage and build up in the aging process.

Antioxidants have the function of giving up parts of their own molecules (but remaining stable) and stopping these free radicals from causing any damage to the body.

Thus, antioxidants work as “free radical scavengers”. Health problems such as heart disease, muscular degeneration, diabetes, cancer, etc. are all contributed by oxidative damage. Vitamin A, C and E are the main vitamin antioxidants.

Functions of Antioxidant Vitamins

Antioxidant nutrients are thought to play a role in the prevention and treatment of a variety of chronic diseases, starting from asthma to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer.

They scavenge free radicals and halt lipid peroxidation chain reactions, thus protecting the cells from oxidative problems which have the potential to cause damage to DNA, our genetic blueprint.

The Institute of Medicine has now launched guidelines regarding the issue of intake of the antioxidant vitamins like Vitamin A, C and E. Other than these, there are many other nutrients that probably play a role in antioxidant processes and dieticians strongly suggest consuming these nutrients in sufficient amounts every day.

What may happen due to vitamin deficiency in elders and what can be done for betterment?

The elder people have a tendency to suffer from malnutrition caused by poor appetite due to
medicines, disability or decreased amount of food consumption due to many intestinal disorders, diabetic problems, special diets, etc. Vitamin insufficiency is also very common in elders.

The free radicals that are there in our body may react with lipids, proteins and nucleic acids and as a result, may induce injury to membranes of cells and also lead to production of lipid peroxide by products.

Seniors, in particular, are very susceptible to this kind of bodily conditions mainly because of lack of proper nutrition in their body. That is the reason why elderly people need an abundant supply of antioxidants in their body.

Lack of antioxidants may also lead to premature aging. That’s because without antioxidants the free radicals keep on accumulating in the body, and they keep on hurting the body in trivial ways initially, but they eventually accumulate to become a major problem.

In general, seniors should be advised to eat a balanced diet, but they also require a daily and regular consumption of antioxidants in order to protect them from the ravages of free radicals, which they tend to have in abundance.

Particular attention should be paid to the fact that many seniors do not get proper diets and often have a decreased ability to absorb and use vitamins and nutrients. For them, a liquid multivitamin is the perfect solution.

Conclusion

Diseases are troublesome for any person of any age but it is especially bothersome for elderly people.

Recovery takes a lot of time in case of seniors than the young, because their bodily processes slow down and their immunity system also becomes very weak.

Whatever diseases are caught by elders, they become very serious because of their age. As age increases, the healing powers of the body decrease.

So, you must always ensure that seniors get an adequate supply of antioxidant vitamins as they help not only to prevent diseases, but also help them to stay well.

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