Antioxidant
Neutralize free radicals and maintain a healthy balance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body.
Antioxidant Benefits of Astaxanthin
- Powerful free radical quencher; 6000x more powerful singlet oxygen quencher than vitamin C1
- Helping to keep cells healthy and addressing oxidative stress while boosting the body’s own antioxidant capacity.
- Maintaining antioxidant balance through demanding physical activity.
- Promoting healthy antioxidant function throughout the aging process.
- Supporting resilience against daily levels of environmental and physiological stress
Understanding Antioxidants
Free radicals are unstable molecules that react with cellular proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and DNA by stealing an electron or hydrogen ion.
Free radicals are formed in our bodies every day as natural byproducts of metabolism, and environmental exposure. If free radical levels exceed the body’s antioxidant capacity, they can lead to oxidative stress and cellular damage over time.
Antioxidants are abundant in plants, including fruits and vegetables which are a good dietary source of antioxidants. Dietary antioxidants are needed when our body’s own antioxidant defenses can’t keep up with free radical accumulation. Free radical levels can increase in many situations, such as during high endurance exercise, environmental stress, or with aging.
- Free radical accumulation can happen in response to unaccustomed or intense exercise, resulting in slower recovery and more soreness. This is because mitochondria that produce energy in muscle, also produce free radicals as a byproduct of energy production.
- Environmental exposure to seasonal changes, pollution, and light can induce free radical production. This can affect tissues that are exposed to the environment, including skin and eyes.
- The free radical theory of aging, proposed in the 1950s, says that oxidative damage is a common and cumulative process that occurs everywhere in the body to intrinsically drive aging in all living beings.
Astaxanthin to the Rescue
Astaxanthin is a dietary antioxidant that’s made by algae. In a head-to-head comparison of singlet oxygen (free radical) quenching ability, it was 6000x stronger than vitamin C and 800 times stronger than CoQ10.
Oxidative stress happens throughout the body and a powerful dietary antioxidant can have whole body benefits. Astaxanthin is found in all cell membranes, including in muscle, cardiovascular system, liver, immune cells, fat tissue, brain, eye, and skin. This is why studies have shown that astaxanthin’s antioxidant function imparts whole body benefits.
Study Highlight
Under the same conditions in a test tube, the singlet oxygen (a type of free radical) quenching capacity of different antioxidants were put to the test. In this study, astaxanthin swept the competition, earning the moniker “nature’s most powerful antioxidant.” (1)
That said, different antioxidants have unique “superpowers” that make them beneficial. Astaxanthin does not replace an antioxidant, like vitamin C, just because it’s 6000x stronger when it comes to quenching singlet oxygen. Antioxidants may work in different parts of the cell, have varying preferences for neutralizing different types of free radicals, and play additional supporting roles in cellular health.
If we come back to vitamin C for comparison, this antioxidant is water-soluble, and an essential nutrient known to support immune function and skin health. Meanwhile, astaxanthin is a lipid-soluble antioxidant that helps protect cell membranes that are not accessible to vitamin C. That makes astaxanthin and vitamin C a dynamic duo, often combined in formulations to provide more complete antioxidant coverage for the whole cell.
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What’s Next
A new study investigated the effect of astaxanthin on mitochondrial function of muscle stem cells in mice (2). Astaxanthin activated a signaling pathway in mouse muscles that regulates mitochondrial biogenesis (making more mitochondria). Future studies might explore whether this mean astaxanthin can affect mitochondrial health in human muscle to support mobility and sport performance.
References
- Nishida Y. et al. 2007. Carotenoid Sci. 11: 16-20.
- Nishida, Y. et al. 2020. Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, 11: 241–258.