ABSTRACT
Awareness of the beneficial effects of antioxidants has evolved from a growing body of research, which has demonstrated that many diseases are, in part, a result of free radical damage. For example, cardiovascular disease and cancer have definitively been linked with the deleterious actions of free radicals. In fact, one of the theories of aging purports that free radicals are primarily responsible for the degenerative processes that our body suffers over a lifetime. Free radicals are, in effect, a normal part of the body’s metabolic processes and pose significant danger when our own antioxidant defense system becomes overwhelmed by an abundance of these radicals. Through their harmful action, free radicals damage lipids, proteins, and DNA. Free radicals have both internal and external origins, the latter constituting UV light, ozone, and air pollution, among others, all of which can potentially cause damage to the skin. In addition to photoaging, UV irradiation is also responsible for squamous and basal cell carcinomas and immune suppression.
