This review article is focused on the impact of antioxidants and prooxidants on health with emphasis on the type of antioxidants that should be taken. Medical researchers suggest that diet may be the solution for the control of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular complications, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and different cancers. In this survey, we found scientific evidence that the use of antioxidants should be limited only to the cases where oxidative stress has been identified. This is often the case of specific population groups such as postmenopausal women, the elderly, infants, workers exposed to environmental pollutants, and the obese. Before starting any supplementation, it is necessary to measure oxidative stress and to identify and eliminate the possible sources of free radicals and thus increased oxidative stress.
Sunscreens ensure thorough protection against sunburn. The delivery of UV filters into the stratum corneum and viable epidermis could be reduced by the use of antioxidants (such as β-carotene and trans-resveratrol, alone or combined). The presence/absence of antioxidants (trans-resveratrol and β-carotene) in formulations containing benzophenone-3 (UV-filter) and their efficiency under disinfection and neutral conditions are studied and compared. The trial was conducted on 38 people. The prepared ointments were applied to the participants’ forearms, irradiated and monitored by reflectance colorimetry after 0, 4, 6, and 8 min. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the skin color’s main characteristics and the F-ratio was used to test overall differences. The ointments containing antioxidants and benzophenone-3 were the most efficient, followed by those with benzophenone-3 alone. It was proven that photoprotection with benzophenone-3 is still effective, despite the formation of its chlorinated products. Due to the short time of exposure to disinfecting conditions, it could be assumed that benzophenone-3 was only partially chlorinated. This clinical study demonstrated that formulations containing antioxidants are likely to be more suitable for protecting skin against UVB irradiation than a UV filter alone.
Aging interventions will be ineffective if we do not understand the basic principles of aging. Currently, there is no consensus on the issue whether aging is programmed or not. The hypothesis presented in this article indicates that aging (at least graying of male hairs) is programmed. This hypothesis is supported by the symmetry of the graying of male beard hairs. According to stochastic theories of aging, aging is a passive non-programmed process where random dispersion of graying hairs should result. On the contrary, programmed theories of aging would predict that there should be symmetry on the left and right parts of the face showing the same proportion, pattern and time of appearance of graying hairs.
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