Shield Against Oxidative Stress & Cellular Damage: Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) Benefits Pt. 2

If you read our first blog post about Superoxide Dismutase and are hungry for more, look no further!

To recap a bit, superoxide dismutase (SOD) is an antioxidant enzyme that breaks down superoxide. Superoxide is a result of oxygen metabolism, and SOD breaks it down into oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. Without SOD, superoxide promotes the formation of free radicals, which is not good.

Maybe you’re asking, remind me what free radicals are? Well, without getting too technical, free radicals are essentially incomplete atoms that are looking for other things to bond to.

MedicalNewsToday describes them as unstable, quick to react with other substances, and potential stressors. If there are an excessive amount of free radicals in the body, that’s when oxidative stress occurs and starts damaging our cells.

As this Science Direct article helpfully explains:

“Oxidative stress is a cellular phenomenon or condition which occurs as a result of physiological imbalance between the levels of antioxidants and oxidants (free radicals or reactive species)”.

We want to do everything we can to keep our antioxidant and oxidant levels balanced so that our bodies aren’t stressed!

From the National Library of Medicine (NLM), this article discusses how SOD is our body's shield against oxidative stress. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, which may provide support against many inflammatory problems including arthritis & cystic fibrosis.

This study found that with a few exceptions, the use of extracellular SOD suppressed the progression of cancerous tumors in mice and inhibited metastasis (development of additional tumors).

Not only is SOD beneficial at the cellular level, but it translates outward to our skin.

Since it’s such a strong defensive antioxidant, it lessens the negative effect that free radicals can have on our skin. As the NLM article outlines, SOD causes less wrinkles, can help our skin heal faster, protect us against UV rays and sunspots, and can even soften scar tissue.As we stated in our first blog post, sea buckthorn contains SOD.

Fortunately for us, even though our natural SOD levels drop as we get older, we can supplement SOD in our diets. SOD cannot be metabolized into the body on its own, but with the help of vitamin C it can! Supplementing with SIBUOmega 7 Pure can help you get the SOD your body needs.

Most people do not get enough SOD through foods alone, which is why we recommend an additional boost in the form of sea buckthorn.

The NLM article hypothesizes that this could be because there are such small amounts of SOD in foods, whereas antioxidant supplements contain large amounts and therefore have a more impactful positive effect on the body.

Maybe you’re a science nerd and just interested in how this powerful enzyme can help our bodies fight free radicals at a cellular level, or maybe you just want to counteract the effects of aging. Regardless of your motives, now you know that superoxide dismutase is one of the keys to a healthy, happy, balanced body!