Oxidative stress is when the free radicals in your cells, as discussed in the first part of our article 3 frightening facts about free radicals and oxidation in your body, overwhelm your body, breaking down the cell walls and causing anything from disease to photo ageing, inflammation, dryness, DNA damage and even skin cancer.

“Oxidation = ageing,” explains Dr Shania Lee, Functional Medicine Practitioner and Homoeopath at Skin, Body & Health Renewal in Cape Town. “Unfortunately, oxygen, which is vital for life, is often the cause of free radical formation, which can be detrimental to our natural processes. Oxygen free radicals contribute to the overall ageing process and are responsible for photo ageing, inflammation and cancer in the skin.”

But not all is lost, according to Dr Lee: “Antioxidants are molecules that behave as free radical scavengers, neutralising them and freely donating electrons where they are needed.”

OXIDATIVE STRESS: GIVE THEM ANTIOXIDANTS

Your body naturally produces the cure to free radical damage: antioxidants. These molecules scavenge (find) free radicals and neutralise/stabilise them by giving them the electron they’re missing. But the body is easily overwhelmed in our modern environment, and we almost always need to get extra antioxidants from the outside.

“They’re found in all your colourful fruits and vegetables, but can also be supplemented. The most basic antioxidants are vitamins C, E and A, as well as the minerals zinc and selenium and the super antioxidant, SOD (super oxide dismutase). These nutrients give electrons to the hungry free radicals and can slow the effect of the damage,” Dr Lee comments.

But what if you already eat healthily? Modern-day life adds environmental and internal stress to our bodies that we haven’t fully evolved to cope with yet. Most of the time, you need something with a little bit more free radical-kicking oomph.

The best oral antioxidant available

The absolute best oral antioxidant on the market today, most experts agree, is called Pycnogenol^®. This is a natural product, extracted from French maritime pine bark from a mono-species pine tree that only grows in Les Landes de Gascogne forest in southwest France.

Chances are you’ve heard of it before, as it is has a range of applications, from diabetes and heart disorders to respiratory health and joint function. But most importantly, Pycnogenol^® is considered the most effective oral antioxidant available today, particularly because, while it may be applied externally, it is mainly taken orally, for an inside-out approach to healthy skin.

In this video, the president of the International and American Associations of Clinical Nutrition, Dr Fred Pescatore, explains the benefits of Pycnogenol^® as an antioxidant for skin:

What about oxidative DNA damage?

Oxidation and free radicals are only one form of oxidative damage, easily dealt with using an antioxidant like Pycnogenol^® through your Ovelle D3.

But the lesser-known and far more dangerous kind is when the DNA itself gets damaged and mutates, causing you to age quicker and potentially leading to cancer. There has been no way to reverse this kind of damage, until now.

A newly discovered enzyme is the first molecule known to science that can actually go in and correct your DNA. Read about it in the third part of our article here:

Say goodbye to irreversible skin DNA damage