Yet another study has come out that adds more support to the idea that oxidative stress leads to Alzheimer’s disease. {An earlier post of mine explains oxidative stress & damage in more detail}

The latest is from UCLA’s School of Medicine, published in the July issue of Biochemistry.

Why is this important? Simply because there are many steps you can take to minimize the damage to your brain caused by oxidative stress.

For starters, you can eat foods that are high in anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants reduce the damage triggered by oxidative stress. This website describes many interesting foods that fall into this category.

Secondly, you can avoid substances that increase the production of free radicals. Free radicals lead to oxidative stress. Here’s a brief list:

• Stimulants (most people are surprised to see this one on the list; I’m going to devote an entire post to this one in a week or two)
• Tobacco smoke
• Alcohol
• Pesticides/herbicides
• Charred/burned foods(i.e. , the black lines on your steak or burger that make it look oh so good)
• Pollution
• Certain medications
• Many of the ‘bad’ fats

There are also ways to increase your body’s own, natural anti-oxidant defense systems, which we’ll shortly discuss.

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