Antioxidants are very good for the body. An Antioxidant is a molecule that has the ability to slow or prevent completely the oxidation of other molecules hence the name antioxidant. With this ability they have garnered much praise as being able to slow down the body’s aging process among other things. Many people consume antioxidants everyday without knowing it, that’s because they are more commonly known as vitamins, some anyway. Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E are all antioxidants. There are various other molecules that are also antioxidants but these are the ones people are more familiar with.

Antioxidants have many good effects and are thought to even prevent certain types of cancer if consumed regularly. While it has been shown that antioxidants can help with heart disease it has recently been stated that antioxidants are not as helpful with heart disease as was once thought. However, they are still good to have since they do have an effect on heart disease just not as big of an effect as people may have been lead to believe.

Antioxidants stop what are known as free radicals in the medical world from wrecking havoc on our bodies. Free radicals can come from a variety of things of which include smoking, pesticides, radiation, and other pollution. These free radicals are dangerous because they can react with nearly any molecule in our body which is a major problem. If a free radical reacts with a molecule needed for vital functions it could pose a big problem. Free radicals are also known for being associated with cancer which makes sense because free radicals cause havoc in the body, cancer is known to do pretty much the same thing except on a much bigger scale. So it can be assumed that free radicals may be catalysts for cancer and if that is the case then antioxidants may be the key for keeping cancer away or even curing it.

Free radicals operate by bonding with molecules in the body, picking up or giving away, an electron in the process depending on the free radical’s structure. This "attack" however of the molecule leaves the molecule itself more unstable than it can handle, more unstable because most molecules in the body are unstable to some degree, but after the bonding with the free radical it becomes a free radical itself often times destroying itself in the process, this can lead to trouble if the wrong molecule is destroyed. Antioxidants however are unique in that if bonded with a free radical they can stabilize the free radical and stay stabilized themselves, keeping from becoming a free radical. This essentially cancels everything out and leaves the body with two harmless molecules. The only thing about this is that it leaves the antioxidant inactive, making it useless from then on. So in other words the only way to continuously keep your body protected from free radicals is to make sure your body is constantly supplied with antioxidants. That is one of the reasons why constant vitamin consumption can lead to good health.