Be Oil Right: October 2014

This is the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbency Capacity) given by the USDA at Tufts University for most doTERRA Essential Oils.

Free radicals and the damage they can do to your body at a cellular level have received a lot of attention in the last few years. The oxidative stress caused by free radicals — which are produced during normal metabolism and cell function, as well as pollutants in our air, water and food — is implicated in everything from pre-mature aging and wrinkling of the skin to DNA damage, diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

For anyone that is particularly concerned about their health and looking/feeling younger this is great information to know. Antioxidants offer powerful protection for your body and cells against free radicals.

"An antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When the chain reaction occurs in a cell, it can cause damage or death to the cell. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions. They do this by being oxidized themselves, so antioxidants are often reducing agents such as thiols, ascorbic acid, or polyphenols.^[1]

Although oxidation reactions are crucial for life, they can also be damaging; plants and animals maintain complex systems of multiple types of antioxidants, such as glutathione, vitamin C, vitamin A, and vitamin E as well as enzymes such as catalase, superoxide dismutase and various peroxidases. Insufficient levels of antioxidants, or inhibition of the antioxidant enzymes, cause oxidative stressand may damage or kill cells. Oxidative stress is damage to cell structure and cell function by overly reactive oxygen-containing molecules and chronic excessive inflammation. Oxidative stress seems to play a significant role in many human diseases, including cancers. The use of antioxidants in pharmacology is intensively studied, particularly as treatments for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. For these reasons, oxidative stress can be considered to be both the cause and the consequence of some diseases."-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioxidant