Free Radicals, Nutrition, Natural Antioxidant and Aging
自由基、营养、天然抗氧化剂与衰老

Many factors cause aging including genetic gene, diet nutrition, lifestyles, exercise, morbid state of mind, medical conditions and environments, but the very important and can be controlled one among them is diet nutrition. Scientific studies have shown malnutrition and overnutrition are harmful to health and life, while diet restriction or Calorie restriction (CR) is an effective method for health and prolonging life. Several papers published by "Science" and "Nature" reported diet restriction and free radical scavengers such as natural antioxidant, small molecular resveratrol, could active long life gene SIRI1, inhibit cancer gene p53 and cell apoptosis, postpone aging and prolong life. Dr Harman suggested free radicals were an important factor to cause aging and keeping a balance of free radicals and antioxidant in body was benefit for postponing aging in a paper about free radical theory of aging published in early 1955. The author's studies indicated natural antioxidant green tea polyphenols could prolong the lifespan of drosophila, enhanced SOD activity, inhibited the lipid peroxidation and improved the shorting lifespan, decrease of SOD activity and enhancing lipid peroxidation caused by diet with higher fatty. The author's study also shown that green tea polyphenols could prolong the lifespan of C. elegans under oxidative stress, prevent and cure Parkinson's disease caused by 6-OHDA in rat. Oral administration of crataegus flavonoids prevented and cured stroke against ischemia/ reperfusion brain damage in gerbils. Oral administration of nicotine could prevent and cured Alzheimer's disease in transgenic mice. The study of free radical, nutrition and natural antioxidants will provide significant contribution to human health and long life.