Keep healthy with antioxidants

Antioxidants are substances or nutrients in our food which can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to our body. Millions of chemical reactions take place in our body and oxygen is needed to carry these reactions.

The body cells use oxygen and naturally produce free radicals which can cause cell damage. Antioxidants act as “free radical scavengers” and hence prevent and repair damage done by these free radicals. These free radicals are also introduced in to the body through various external sources like unhygienic foods, unhealthy living style, smoke, alcoholic beverages, exposure to the sun, pollution and stress.

Such free radicals, produced with in the body attack living cells, especially DNA, fat and protein, weaken the immunological functions and accelerate the aging process. In human and animal bodies, nature has provided protection from these oxidants by producing antioxidants enzymes like superoxide dismutase; neutralizes supercharged oxygen molecules, which can damage cells. It is also added in cosmetics, catalase; splits hydrogen peroxide to yield oxygen and water, and glutathione; plays a role in nutrient metabolism, regulation of cellular events and binds with different toxins to change their form to enable them to leave the body as waste.

Infertility is a worldwide problem and approximately 10-20 percent of couples within reproductive age group are infertile. It is estimated that globally 60-80 million couples suffer from infertility every year.

In the recent years, oxidative stress has become the focus of interest as a potential cause of male infertility. Under physiological conditions, spermatozoa produce small amount of free radicals, which are needed for capacitation (the physiological changes in spermatozoa to penetrate and fertilize an egg), acrosome reaction (Reaction on cap like structure of the sperm head that drills the ovum surface for sperm penetration before fertilisation) and fertility.

However, excessive amount of these free radicals produced by leukocytes, immature or dead spermatozoa can cause damage to the normal spermatozoa and reported to be 30-80 percent in the semen of infertile men.

As Animal reproductive physiology is comparable to human, scientists prefer to work on animals as disease or physiology model of human beings. In livestock, semen cryopreservation is an important procedure to disseminate good quality semen to perform artificial insemination.

During semen collection, processing, freezing and thawing, spermatozoa undergo various oxidative and osmotic stresses and produce free radicals, which ultimately affect sperm characteristics and fertility potential.

We conducted a series of experiments using buffalo bull model for improving semen characteristics, by adding trehalose as antioxidant in lactose egg yolk semen extender at 0.0, 30.0, 50.0 and 70.0 milli moles (mM). It was concluded that the rate of sperm motility, acrosomal integrity and plasma membrane integrity were higher by adding trehalose at 70.0 mM while, sperm viability and lipid peroxidation were higher at 50.0 mM.

Different vegetables and fruits are equipped with the ability to minimize the harmful effect of oxidants, which cause aging process or death.

These include: berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and cranberries), beans (small red beans and kidney, pinto and black beans), fruits (many apple varieties (with peel), avocados, cherries, green and red pears, fresh or dried plums, pineapple, kiwi, oranges etc), vegetables (artichokes, spinach, red cabbage, red and white potatoes (with peel), sweet potatoes, tomato, carrots and broccoli), beverages (green tea, coffee and many fruit juices such as pomegranate), nuts (walnuts, pistachios, pecans, hazelnuts and almonds), herbs (ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger, dried oregano leaf and turmeric powder), grains (oat-based products and those derived from other grain sources).

DR DAWAR HAMEED MUGHAL

UVAS, Lahore