OXIDATIVE STRESS AND THE ROLE OF ANTIOXIDANTS IN HEALTH AND WELL BEING

Antioxidants are considered to be important in health maintenance through modulating oxidative process in the body. In order to evaluate the role of antioxidants in improving health and well being and in reducing the risk of diseases, validated markers that could be used in human studies are required. For the purpose of providing patient care with respect to risk factors it is important for us to address ourselves to markers pertaining to Antioxidants and Lipid oxidations The said markers used for the present study do give the status of balance between pro-oxidants and antioxidants in the human body. They are indicators of the oxidative stress status thereby being markers of health status and well being or the onset of diseased status of the body. In the various conditions that we studied in normal health, aging and diseased conditions like arthritis, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases the observations made by us are as follows Antioxidant enzymes (SOD and Catalase) show a general tendency to decrease in diseased condition and aging. Lipid per-oxidation (MDA) levels are raised more in arthritis, CVD and hypertension. Rise in ceruloplasmin levels again are more distinct in diseased condition whether it was arthritis, hypertension or CV diseases where a maximal elevation was observed. Vitamin E and C levels decrease during aging and diseased conditions. Raised levels of uric acid in arthritis, hypertension and cardiovascular patients could be explained by local enhanced purine metabolism in inflamed joint tissues and diffusion of oxypurine from joint to plasma.