As the century moved to the twenty-first there was considerable research in all the fields including the field of medicine and some very interesting factors were discovered. In the early 1900s people mainly died of infectious diseases. The leading causes of death in US alone then were tuberculosis, diphtheria, pneumonia and influenza. The life expectancy back then was a little over forty three years. Then the antibiotics were discovered and the whole equation changed remarkably.

As we moved further down the century it was seen that now the people died more of chronic degenerative diseases. These included coronary artery disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, macular degeneration, cataracts, Alzheimer's dementia, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and many more. The interesting fact that the life expectancy has increased remarkably is another dimension to the whole thing. It is important to understand that because of these diseases and many more the people today are living too short and dying too long. This just means that the life has changed drastically and many -a-times it is seen that the people are living their lives struggling and fighting the diseases more than doing anything else more constructive with their time. Despite the tremendous enhancement in the medicine technology and significant research and facilities more and more people are being seen spending their time in the hospital queues. What may be the reason for such a thing to have happened?

The answer to the above question is oxidative stress and changes in the patterns of cellular nutrition. Most of us are not aware of the dark side of oxygen in the system. Oxygen is consumed through the respiratory system and at the cellular level the mitochondria utilize it to produce energy in the form of ATP and release water. This is an ongoing process. Sometimes during this process an unstable atom of oxygen is released which needs to be stabilized by anything that can give it one electron. This unstable atom of oxygen is known as the free radical. The substance that can give it an electron is known as an antioxidant. If the free radical is not stabilized it goes on attacking any of the internal organs to stabilize itself and ends up unleashing a chain reaction that may result in development of any chronic degenerative disease. If the free radical attacks the heart then chance of developing a coronary disease increase, if it attacks the lungs development of the disease of the respiratory system happens. This can go on completely unchecked in all probability until the symptoms appear and then it may just be too late to do anything.

The Creator has designed our bodies beautifully. It has given it the ability to produce some antioxidants like superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase. So there is a system of natural protection akin to antioxidant defence system in the human bodies. But this is not enough. One needs to supplement the antioxidant supply with the nutrition. Most antioxidants are available to us in the form of vegetables and fruits. The most common antioxidants are Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin A and beta-carotene. Other antioxidants like coenzyme Q10, alpha-lipoic acid and bioflavonoid antioxidants can also be obtained from food. It is mandatory to remember that the antioxidants work in synergy with the free radicals and the key is to keep the system loaded with antioxidants at all times so that when free radicals are released the system should have enough substances to donate an electron and stabilize the free radicals.

Now we must understand that during the last half of the last century many changes have happened in our lifestyles. The patterns of nutrition have changed radically and people have moved to more chemical oriented lifestyles. There is everything available in packaged forms and for preservation chemicals are added, which no matter how much the companies guarantee, do alter the basic composition of the food substances. The nutrition has moved from natural and healthy to fast and tasty. This has increased the chemical content in our systems. In the modern day lifestyle excessive chemicals are present in the food we eat, in the water we drink and even in the air we breathe. This has created considerable oxidative stress in our system which is the main reason for chronic degenerative diseases. The main reasons for excessive creation of free radicals can be cited as:

Excessive Physical Stress: Mild exercise produces mild increase in production of free radicals in the system. This may sound startling but the body does produce more free radicals if it is taxed excessively with exercise. The modern day fads for fitness have resulted in significant number of people dying with exertion of exercise to their hearts and lungs.

Excessive Emotional Stress: Mild increase in stress is known to produce mild increase in the free radicals in the system just like exercise does. Excessive emotional stress can result in sky-rocketing the content of free radicals.

Air pollution: Most of the cities and even villages have very high content of vehicular and industrial smoke in the air that we breathe.

Cigarette Smoke: Cigarette and cigar smoke not just contains nicotine and various other toxins but is capable of increasing the content of free radicals very drastically in our systems. This is the reason that many passive smokers, even children develop symptoms of various diseases associated with cigarette smoke.

Pollution in Food and Water: The excessive content of chemicals triggers a reaction from the body releasing high numbers of free radicals.

Ultraviolet Sunlight: It has been scientifically proven that the exposure to ultraviolet light produces free radicals and this leads to changes in the DNA of the skin cells leading to skin cancer.

Medication and Radiation Therapies: The fundamental of chemotherapy and radiation therapy is to create oxidative stress damage in the cancer cells, which ultimately kills them. This is the reason why patients find it extremely difficult to tolerate these drugs.

Yoga is a natural way of exercising and relaxing the system. In the present day scenario the lifestyle diseases can be effectively controlled only by turning towards more and more natural practices.

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