Your heart is certainly a miraculous design . Even before your birth , the heart muscles are working hard , pumping oxygen enriched blood to each part in your body and returnin oxygen depleted blood back to the lungs. On average, the heart will beat 37,869,120 times each 365 days , year after year. That’s around two and a half billion heartbeats for a lifetime .

Obviously , your heart is your powerhouse and it’s worth protecting. As you already know , nobody can survive without a working heart and statistically with an average of two deaths a minute , forty percent of all the deaths in the U.S.) are from heart disease, the leading cause of which is Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).

Since it’s the hardest working organ in your body, the heart muscles will produce an abundance of energy and it’s the high requirement for energy production which renders your heart susceptable to the attack of free radicals. So , a heart has a high requirement for antioxidants and the most valuable of which is Glutathione.

Your Heart’s Energy Factory

The heart’s amazing ability to make energy is found within each cell in the cellular power plants called Mitochondria. Each cell in every organ possesses these tiny energy producing locations . Most cells have a couple of hundred mitochondria, but the ones in your heart are estimated to include up to 5,000! The power that’s made in your cells, is created as a compound called ATP which stands for adenosine triphosphate. It’s no surprise , producing energy has a price .

The by- products of energy production are damaged molecules – free radicals and with the high concentration of energy producing mitochondria in the cells of the heart , there will also be a proportionately high concentration of oxy-radicals . Without the intervention of antioxidants , free radicals will develop a cascading reaction within the heart cells that can kill them and their components – including the cellular DNA.

Heart Disease and Coronary Artery Disease

Arteriosclerosis – Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) which is usually referred to as a hardening of the arteries or loss of arterial elasticity is a leading cause of Heart disease. It has been connected to a substance called lipid peroxidase. That’s what happens if the lipids in your heart become free radicals. Lipids, actually are a group of molecules which include waxes, sterols, fats and the fat soluble vitamins E, A, D & K. In addition to high levels of Free radicals, patients with CAD have also been found with low levels of antioxidants like Glutathione. Without enough antioxidants to clean out free radicals in the heart, this organ and the arteries in the system will eventually suffer from oxidative stress.

Our systems are designed to clean up the free radicals resulting from normal processes, however too many people are subject to extra stressors that weren’t part of the original plan . These stresses include environmental chemicals (like tobacco smoke!), nutritionally inadequate diets, the unhealthy pace and induced stress of everyday living and weak condition of our bodies from no exercise. This has put our antioxidant levels at a distinct disadvantage.

Our immune systems protect us from infection and alien substances like viruses, toxins and bacteria . On the other hand , in auto immune diseases, the immune system inappropriately triggers an inflammatory response without reason and causes damage to its own cells The body assaults normal tissues as if they are diseased or somehow abnormal . When inflammation occurs , chemicals from the body’s white blood cells are loosened into the bloodstream and/or affected tissues in an attempt to purge the body of alien substances . These new chemicals adds to the flow of blood to the immediate area and often creates heat, swelling and redness . Unfortunately , the inflammatory process will frequently stimulate nerves and cause a lot of pain.

Arthritis is a well known condition that describes inflammation in joints . Some, but not all, types of arthritis are the fallout from out of control inflammation. Some types of inflammatory arthritis include:rheumatoid arthritis, bursitis and tendinitis and Gouty arthritis .

While not all need to be present , the basic symptoms of inflammation are swelling, redness, pain and stiffness and a loss of function in the joint In addition to that , Inflammation might as well be connected with general “flu-like” feelings like – feeling chilled or feverishness headaches and a lack of energy lack of appetite and muscle stiffness.

Although the original discomfort caused by inflammation can seem bad enough, the extra cells and fluid – in the long term wearing down of cartilage (cushions at the end of bones) and joint lining. Inflammation can also attck organs. The type of symptoms depends on which organs are affected .

Heart Inflammation (myocarditis) may cause shortness of breath or swollen legs
Inflammation of the narrow tubes that transport oxygen to the lungs can trigger an asthma attack
Kidney inflammation (nephritis) may cause high blood pressure or kidney failure
An inflamed large intestine (colitis) may lead to cramps and diarrhea.

Pain may not be a primary symptom organ inflammation , because many organs do not include a lot of pain-sensitive nerves.

There are different treatment options for inflammatory diseases , but typically , the medical community will depend on prescription anti-inflammatories, pain medication, rest, exercise, and surgery to correct joint damage.

The objectives of treating inflammation are to:

Avoid or modify activities that aggravate pain
Ease pain with analgesics (pain-relieving medications ) and anti-inflammatory drugs
Help joint mobility and muscle strength through physical therapy
Reduce loads on the joints by using braces, splints or canes as needed

What’s absent are the preventative steps or self help steps that can basically support your body by increasing your antioxidant intake , improving your diet , cutting stress in your life and neutralizing everyday toxins – because they truly are everywhere. Antioxidants will aid your body to overcome toxins and fight inflammation.