Cocktail, anyone? Antioxidants that work better in teams.(Wellness: supplements and functional foods)

In this day and age of the quick fix, consumers often look for a single tablet or pill that will cure what ails them. Scientists are no exception, often conducting studies on single ingredients to determine how they individually contribute to health and nutrition. However, countless studies have shown that nature's mixture of nutrients is often healthier than single ingredients alone. Antioxidants, for example, frequently gain power when they're consumed in synergistic cocktails.

The public has followed the saga of antioxidants versus free radicals with growing passion, religiously taking antioxidant supplements in the quest to stave off chronic disease. "You've probably heard of free radicals as factors that contribute to disease and aging--and this is true, because these oxidative culprits cause chromosomal damage and impair cellular function," writes Gary Null, PhD, in Gary Null's Power Aging (New American Library, 2003). "On the other side of the battle lines are the antioxidants--substances such as vitamin E and selenium that we get from good food and that neutralize the damaging effects of free radicals."

Scientists believe that when this balance is out of whack, the ensuing chromosomal and cellular damage may lead to chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and macular degeneration as well as reduced immune function. However, it is also widely accepted that free radical formation is an inevitable and even necessary component of natural metabolism. "It is important to note that free radical formation accompanies normal and essential biological processes and, thus, can never be fully eliminated," Null says. "For example, when our immune system is called into action to fight off bacteria or viruses, a by-product of that activity is the generation of free radicals.... But while we cannot eradicate the free radical, we can control it. This is where antioxidant foods and supplements come into play."

Consuming antioxidants as part of a healthful diet and supplement program can assist in regulating the balance between free radicals and antioxidants, thereby reducing the risk of chrome disease. Here are some of the more popularly recognized antioxidant combinations.

Garlic + Fish Oil

A tasty addition to countless foods, garlic is also a known antioxidant. According to the December 2003 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, garlic skin is recognized for having antioxidant properties, and researchers from Wakunaga Pharmaceutical Co. in Japan have identified six antioxidant compounds within the herb's skin. In fact, aged garlic extract is believed to be more of a free radical fighter than raw garlic, as noted by the same researchers ill a 2002 paper published in BioFactors. Researchers at Livelpool John Moores University in England reported in the February 2003 issue of Life Sciences that aged garlic extract protects against heart disease by inhibiting LDL oxidation.

When combined with fish oil, garlic is an even more potent protector of heart health. In 2001, researchers from the University of California, Irvine, published animal research in the International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research; the study showed fish oil plus garlic significantly suppressed triglycerides, total cholesterol and LDL levels. The same investigators reported in a 1997 issue of the Journal of the ...