The answer is yes!  With every breath you take you generate free radicals, the uncontrolled oxidants that damage cells.  The older you get, the fewer natural antioxidants your body produces to keep these destructive molecules in check.  As they accumulate, health deteriorates and aging accelerates leaving you more susceptible to everything from wrinkles to serious degenerative diseases.

Though we get antioxidants from food, many people have increased antioxidant needs that diet alone cannot meet.  Smokers, for instance, need two to three times as much vitamin C to achieve the same antioxidant blood levels as nonsmokers.  Other factors that can increase free radicals are:  air pollution, chronic disease, secondhand smoke, dietary carcinogens (foods fried at high temperatures or charcoal-broiled, nitrates, cured meats), inherited susceptibility to a disease, infection, vigorous exercise, menopause, mental stress, sun exposure, and x-rays.  Additionally, it’s not always what foods you eat but how the food is prepared.  For example, cooked carrots supply more bioavailable beta-carotene than raw ones.  Your best free radical defense is to know your antioxidants and how to maximize their effectiveness in your diet and supplements.