<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>Scarlett81</b></i>
great info, thanks.
i am a big believer in antioxidants too. they help increase cell turnover and salts and oxygen from cell to cell which obviously we cfers have problems with! the book 'prescriptions for natural healing' has great, science based info on antioxidants. im sure skeptics would laugh- but without even realizing it, if i run out of my antioxidant supplements i am more tired and having more difficulty breathing after several days.</end quote></div>
Of course i'm not purposely trying to be an ass, but those "Skeptics" who laugh, fail to show initiative to learn for themselves. Supplements are a slippery slope. There are crazy freaks (like Ender) who go out and do everything and anything that might offer hope for their condition, then there are healthy people who want to live to be 300 years of age and spend 5,000 a month on every conceivable thing, with very little study associated with the substance.
Me personally? I know a good deal about CF, I know our symptoms that slowly erode us, so I look at substances that should logically atleast slow that process down. Anitoxidants and anti-inflammatorie's (usually the same substance) fall into that niche. Same goes for natural antimicrobials. The smart way to go, is fine the most benefit that makes good sense for your dollar spent. I recently researched ORAC and found this:
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_radical_absorbance_capacity
">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O...l_absorbance_capacity
</a>
Basically the FDA got into the whole supplement thing, and tried to find a ceiling where after a certain point, it's useless to have other antioxidant substances enter your body, because it is released as waste and not used. Currently that # is 3000 - 5000. That is all fine and dandy, but what a ton of people don't realize (which the link in this thread explains), one antioxidant does one thing, while another does another, and another does yet another thing. One antioxidant might be worth a certain amount ORAC wise, but it only acts in the brain. Same goes for other high ORAC antioxidants that only defend the heart, or colon, or skin, or whatever.
The best way to use these substances is not to power stack one particular one, but to have a wide array of solution at medium level. Instead of having 20,000 mg of one substance that is known to help the lungs, realize that at 5,000 ORAC level, anything beyond that is waste. So you have to judge what you want to do/save. Do you want to have 10,000 ORAC to help your eyesight, or would you rather not waste that extra 5k ORAC on your eyes, and maybe go 2k ORAC on your eyesight, and have the other 3k divied up amongst other important things?
The bottom line: eat/take a wide array of antioxidants...Research what each source targets, and act appropriately. But also be serious. Life is meant to be lived, and in some ways, no matter what you plan on doing, grossly interacts with everything else around you. So no matter how well planned something is, something is going to become screwed. Don't pee yourself. It's called life.