The best treatment for oxidative stress….
Eating a diet rich in certain vitamins, such as C and E, as well as phytochemicals, can help reduce oxidative stress. While you may be interested in an oxidative stress test, if you suspect you have high levels of oxidation due to a condition, you likely do. This is because inflammation is present in all disease states and even in situations where you’re not feeling your best, such as frequent fatigue despite a regular sleep schedule. An oxidative stress test might be useful if you’re struggling to identify what’s wrong and want to compare it with potential hormonal issues. However, in such cases, it’s generally better to test your hormones first. This is because oxidants, or reactive oxygen species (ROS), are extremely unstable and difficult to measure. In these tests, it’s often more effective to measure the extent of damage caused by oxidants, rather than the oxidants themselves. In fact, it’s the instability of oxidants that makes them so harmful. Their reactivity allows them to steal or donate electrons to molecules such as DNA, RNA, lipids, or proteins, where they can cause significant damage.
Allergies, skin breakouts, fatigue, gut issues, ADD, ADHD, Autism, and Fertility issues…due to oxidative stress.
High levels of oxidative stress can manifest in a wide range of low-grade health issues, including allergies, skin breakouts, fatigue, mental fog, gut problems, ADD, Autism, lower fertility, and a variety of OBGYN-related issues such as PCOS and other pregnancy complications. It’s important to note that while ADD and Autism are not purely caused by oxidative stress, they can be exacerbated by it, and their symptoms may be significantly alleviated by reducing oxidative stress.
I believe that allergies are primarily triggered by oxidative stress, which leads to excess histamine release. Even severe, life-threatening allergies—like the ones I used to experience—can be cured by balancing the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) with antioxidants in the body. I’ve done it myself, and although the first two years required a great deal of effort, it has since become a matter of maintenance twice a year, along with consistently consuming a healthy diet. This approach has resulted in the total elimination of my allergies and the need for medication.
So no, I don’t think it’s hard at all if you’re evaluating the difficulty of this process compared to living with a chronic illness. In fact, the truly hard part was having a date drive me to the hospital, only for the nurse to immediately hook me up to IVs without the typical waiting period for someone with a broken arm or needing stitches. It was hard trying to enjoy a music festival with friends while sneezing uncontrollably—despite being on multiple medications and taking higher doses out of desperation—only to have your friends look at your swollen, runny face with a mix of sympathy and horror. It was hard when my arms and legs swelled from severe rashes, requiring steroids, and two months later, I was sick every time I ate because of leaky gut syndrome.
So no, a two-week juice fast or a 500-calorie-a-day diet of smoothies, fresh fruit, and green juices isn’t hard. After three days, you actually start feeling better.
Body odor can be indicative of high oxidative stress
If you have body odor, whether it is bad or just more than what you normally have…or even what you consider normal, you can reduce or eliminate this with both detoxification periods, as well as maintaining a diet high in antioxidants, and the precursors of antioxidants. In my opinion, bad body odor is the first sign of something going wrong in a persons body and is a sign that a detoxification needs to occur, followed by maintenance by consuming things like this berry compote, not jelly or jam in jars, or pancake syrup.
One of the easiest way to eliminate oxidative stress that is causing body odor, is to eat a diet free of processed food, that is mostly organic. After 3 months of eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables, with as many as organic options as possible, you will find you no longer smell.
Mechanisms of Action of Polyphenols as Antioxidants
Polyphenols are quite incredible in the wide range of locations and systems they affect to act as antioxidants. For the most obvious they have the ability to:
Modulate Enzyme Activity
Polyphenols such as ellagic acid found in blueberries have the ability to upregulate and improve the action of our innate antioxidant defense enzymes: glutahione, catalase, and SOD.
Fight inflammation
There is one infamous signaling molecule that increases in all cases of inflammation named (NF-κB) or nuclear factor kappa B. This molecule is inhibited by polyphenols, which is really amazing considering how much this molecule is studied and how much money goes into funding the development of drugs that will inhibit this sly guy. Also, in general, lowering oxidative stress by the polyphenols in berries will also lower inflammation.
Metal chelation
Incredibly enough polyphenols have the ability to bind metals that are super reactive in the body, such as iron and copper. If your interested in doing more reading, look up the Fenton Reaction (or read my other articles on iron). Iron participates in the Fenton Reaction which generates free radicals which then go on to make more free radicals. This mostly occurs when iron is consumed in too high quantities, and when the iron comes from animal sources of food. That is why I always encourage people to get plenty of iron from plant foods. For example you could substitute molasses for the honey in the Berry Jam Compote Filling with equally delicious results and increase your plant based, non heme, non-reactive (Fe3+ iron).
Regulation of Gene Expression
No WAY! I could not believe it when I read that polyphenols have the ability to regulate the expression of your genes, but upon considering the gravity of that, I also am not surprised because in general lifestyle, and the food we put in our body has the ability to make epigenetic changes, or changes above the gene level which affects our programming, or how the genes are expressed.
Free Radical Scavenger
A free radical scavenger is a little berry that runs around grabbing electrons that are single, because single electrons are like single young men, they can get into a lot of trouble unless they are paired up with a good girl who keeps them in the park, the bookstore, or in bed. Polyphenols have the ability to run around and grab up these highly reactive electrons that are all alone and prevent them from getting into trouble, aka causing vandalism on your body, such as your lipids, proteins, and even your gorgeous skin. I honestly think my son has such gorgeous skin because he is a blueberry addict (as well as having amazing genes). I have my green juice, and he wants his bowl of blueberries.
Berry Crumble
Ingredients
- 1/2 c coconut oil It should be solid or soft, but not liquid, expeller pressed is good for baking
- 1/2 c unbleached organic sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1 c gluten-free flour mix Ratio of 1 c tapioca flour: 1/2 c brown rice: 1/2 c garbanzo flour: 1/2 c sorghum
- 1/2 c teff flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg or other spice
- 3/4 c chopped pecans
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 c organic oats non-organic oats are a high glyphosate food and best avoided
- 2 T pecans Optional to add to topping
Instructions
- Cream coconut oil, sugar, egg, and vanilla
- Add the other ingredients
- Mix well
- Reserve 1/3 of the dough
- Press 2/3's of your dough into an enamel or glass 8 x 8 in baking dish. It is best if it is a little higher on the sides than in the middle. This will help hold up the final product.
- To the rest of the dough add 1/2 c oats, and the additional chopped nuts if desiredMix this to a crumbly texture.
- Add your Berry Jam Compote Filling on top bottom later of dough, make sure it is not hot, although warm is okay.
- Crumble your topping on top
- Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes.
Video
Notes
Berry Compote Filling
Find the recipe to this Berry Compote filling here: https://thecarmencooks.com/staging/3924/berry-compote-or-jam-hacked-to-use-on-top-or-in-all-your-fruit-preserve-needs/
Many recipes use this compote filling:
More on Oxidative Stress on Fertility and Pregnancy
The Impact on Reproductive Health of High Oxidative stress
Maintaining a balanced redox status is essential for cellular health, as it ensures adequate levels of antioxidants to combat reactive oxygen species (ROS). Imbalances can lead to pathological levels of oxidative stress (OS), resulting in various diseases, including infertility. OS can impair fertilization in males by causing high levels of OS in sperm. In females, OS can affect the egg environment, hindering implantation or the continuation of pregnancy in the early stages. Women in their later years of fertility, in particular, need to pay extra attention to their antioxidant intake, such as that of polyphenols, and ensure sufficient quantities of nutrients required for the production and recycling of glutathione, a main antioxidant molecule in the body. Catalase and superoxide dismutase are other antioxidants. Compounds such as phytochemicals can directly act as antioxidants as well. Conditions like endometriosis, unexplained infertility, premature ovarian aging, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) can be influenced by OS (Adeoye et al., 2018) .
High oxidative stress during Pregnancy Can prevent fertilization or cause early abandonment of the pregnancy
During embryonic development, spinal arteries—essential for blood flow and nutrient exchange between the mother and developing fetus—are formed by extravillous trophoblast cells from the placenta (Ojeda et al., 2021). These cells are highly sensitive to oxidative damage, and poor-quality spinal arteries resulting from reactive oxygen species (ROS) can compromise fetal nutrition and oxygen supply. Excessive oxidative stress in a woman’s body can hinder the establishment of pregnancy early on. In fact, many pregnancies in modern times end unnoticed as a “period” at the end of the month. Environmental oxidative stressors, including those from cookware (plastic, aluminum, Teflon/non-stick pans), air and water quality, herbicides and pesticides on food, and food chemicals, are widespread.
High oxidative stress can also contribute to pregnancy complications, such as pre-eclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), due to insufficient oxygen supply or hypoxia (Schoots et al., 2018). While an increase in oxidative stress is normal during later pregnancy stages, excessive levels can negatively affect a baby’s overall health. From my extensive review of pregnancy and nutrition literature, I have observed a trend: when a woman has low nutrient intake and insufficient antioxidants, it often leads to an imbalance in sodium and potassium levels. These factors—low antioxidants and imbalanced sodium and potassium in the diet—heighten ROS levels, which I believe is a leading contributing factor to pre-eclampsia.
If you make the sauce for this according to the video you will have half left to use on dishes such as pancakes:
References
Adeoye, O., et al. (2018). “Review on the role of glutathione on oxidative stress and infertility.” JBRA Assist Reprod 22(1): 61-66.
Ojeda, M. L., et al. (2021). “Fetal Programming Is Deeply Related to Maternal Selenium Status and Oxidative Balance; Experimental Offspring Health Repercussions.” Nutrients 13(6).
Schoots, M. H., et al. (2018). “Oxidative stress in placental pathology.” Placenta 69: 153-161.
