The Antioxidant And THe Whole Ball Of Wax
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Are antioxidants enough? Could Protandim Be the Solution?
But despite such findings, we don’t have a complete picture yet of how free radicals and antioxidants affect aging.
A recent critic of the free radical theory of aging is Tony Segal, director of University College London’s Centre for Molecular Medicine. In a study published this February, Segal and colleagues found reason to question the basis for antioxidant supplementation. The researchers found that certain immune system cells kill microbes using enzymes rather than free radicals, which contradicted the theory that free radicals were the killers, and hence were toxic enough to damage cells. “Our work shows that the basic theory underlying the toxicity of oxygen radicals is flawed,” Segal said of the study. “Many patients might be using expensive antioxidant drugs based upon completely invalid theories as to their therapeutic potential. All the theories relating to their causation of disease by antioxidants must, at the very least, be evaluated.”
Another study by Joel Parker of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and colleagues, published this March, also found reason to question the antioxidant-longevity link—and more specifically, to question the link between SOD and longevity. Examining the production of a form of SOD in ants, the researchers found that the ants’ production of free radicals was more important than their production of antioxidants in determining their longevity.
While it’s doubtful that such findings are enough to undo the entire free radical theory of aging, they remind us at the very least that there are still unknown aspects to it. So while Protandim may very well increase the body’s production of powerful antioxidants, this in itself is no guarantee that it will extend healthy life expectancy.
There are also competing theories of aging that look beyond the damaging effects of free radicals and oxidative stress. One such school of thought is the evolutionary theory of aging, which states that aging is caused by both an organism’s genetics and its environment.
The idea driving the evolutionary theory is that organisms living in protected environments age more slowly than those in hazardous environments. The environmental factors help determine lifespan by regulating how genetics retard or hasten the aging process. In a 2002 publication, evolutionary theorist Thomas B.L. Kirkwood says, “If 90% of wild mice are dead by the age of 10 months, any investment in programming survival much beyond this point can benefit at most 10% of the population. This immediately suggests that there will be little evolutionary advantage in programming long-term survival capacity into a mouse.” So, rather than proposing that there are genes whose primary function is to control aging, evolutionary theorists say that genes affect aging by determining how cellular resources are used.
If the evolutionary theory of aging is valid, then how much of the aging process is determined genetically, rather than by the damage of oxidative stress? Although it may not be a clear-cut matter of genetics versus oxidative stress, we can at least formulate a preliminary estimate. According to Kirkwood’s publication, twin studies show that genetics determine a quarter to one-third of the lifespan puzzle.
Still, this only complicates rather than refutes the free radical theory. As Aubrey de Gray of the University of Cambridge’s Department of Genetics in the UK says, “It’s not possible to partition things into free radical damage versus other things, because everything affects everything else: our genetics determines the rate of free radical production, free radical scavenging, repair of free radical damage…” Protandim is the only supplement proven in clinical studies to reduce Oxidative stress levels 40% in just 30 days!
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