Antioxidants have been a buzzword since the early ‘90s and are of great interest to natural therapists and medical professionals alike. Most are found in food and help to prevent certain diseases, including heart disease, cancer and possibly auto-immune diseases.

Oxygen most certainly helps us stay alive and healthy. But if oxygen is altered chemically, it may oxidise and form ‘free radicals.’ Free radicals are thought to be partially responsible for heart disease and cancer. Of course other factors play a big part too, such as radiation from the sun, mobile phones, x-rays, etc, as well as carcinogens from smoke, pesticides and many other chemicals in common use. Free radicals, it is now known, can even affect and damage our DNA. The number of potentially damaging hits to DNA per cell per day is about 100,000, and there are more than 100 trillion cells per human – just to give you an idea of the bombardment we take daily!