Along with growing old comes a wide range of age-related disorders and diseases: everything from poor eyesight and hearing loss to dementia, Parkinson's disease and cancer.
According to Dr. Kedar N. Prasad, Chief Scientific Officer and founder of Premier Micronutrient Corporation, there is a biochemical cause for many impairments associated with old age.
"Oxidative stress, caused by increased production of free radicals, are one of major factors which are common to all diseases: Parkinson's, heart disease, Alzheimer's and so on," Prasad explains.
Another biological factor: chronic inflammation is common to nearly all diseases. The culprits are those nasty free radicals--highly unstable compounds that form when oxygen combines with certain substances. Free radicals can damage the basic structure of cells and thus lead to chronic diseases (notably cancer and heart disease) and accelerate the aging process.