Why The ORAC Scores Don't Tell The Whole Story

Normal cellular living involves the release of free radicals to fight things such as bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. This is the bodies natural Oxidative response. It is intended to be short in duration and laser focused. If it is not, it leads to significant damage to the surrounding cells and tissues. Current American lifestyle choices that many in our population choose on a daily basis, lead to what's known as a chronic inflammatory state in the body. Things that contribute to chronic inflammation are smoking, pollution, sunlight and many toxins that are present in our foods. Chronic inflammation leads to a prolonged oxidative response.

Our body provides a mechanism to maintain control over oxidation when working properly. Our body provides Antioxidants present in our blood, cells and tissues. When we have an exaggerated oxidative response, chronic inflammation occurs. This leads to most degenerative diseases that millions of Americans suffer with on a daily basis, such as heart disease, cancer, obesity, immune system disorders, diabetes, and many mental function disorders.

Many nutritional products that have come to the market in recent years have promoted their high antioxidant levels that fight the excessive oxidative response. Some of the most popular in the marketplace are Xango, Monavie, Tahitian Noni, and Zrii.

Most testing in the liquid nutrition industry has focused on biochemical assays of oxidative chemical reactions in nuttrient fluids. ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) has been the standard in the liquid nutrition industry as an easy, inexpensive method to test body fluids or extracts of nutrients for Antioxidant levels. However, this does not measure the abilities of the antioxidants to actually penetrate the cells, where the oxidative damage occurs. Clearly, there are more complex mechanisms of benefit at work than the limited series of chemical reactions measured by ORAC. Additionally, the solvents used in extracting a nutritional agent for ORAC testing can alter the chemical reactions being measured, giving a misleading result.

There is now a new standard that has been developed in the industry. This cell based testing has emerged as a new technology to assess the complex biologic protective mechanisms in the cells. It is called CAPe antioxidant protection test. It looks how bioavailable the antioxidants are to the cells. It is the award-winning and patent pending research being done by NIS labs in Klamath Falls. The CAPe antioxidant Protection Assay looks at whether the antioxidants are able to enter into and protect live, human cells from oxidative damage.

Given our current knowledge of various oxidative mechanisms, different human cell types can be tested (red blood cells, neutrophilic white blood cells and macrophagic white blood cells) with a particular nutritional agent without using solvents that alter testing. The comparative results of cellular behavior before and after exposure to the nutrient, the behavior of one cell line versus another after exposure and the parallel of observed cellular behavior helps lead to further knowledge of cellular mechanisms. The liquid nutrition industry is chock full of competing products that tout their high antioxidant capabilities. For more great information on the product that meets today's new standard, and to learn how it can positively affect your health, check out Amalaki.

Check out this link to an article about NIS Labs in Entrepeneur Magazine

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2008