Research Says This Antioxidant Can Supercharge Other Antioxidants In The Body*

In the skin supplement space, we talk a lot about antioxidants. After all, these precious actives do so much for us. On a broad level, they neutralize free radicals and help buffer us from oxidative stress—and that alone is enough to sing their praises. More specifically, individual antioxidants can perform a variety of functions in the body like synthesizing collagen (vitamin C), encouraging cellular energy (coenzyme Q10), and supporting the skin barrier (niacinamide).*  

Now, what if I told you that some antioxidants carry another power: They are able to amp up and supercharge other antioxidants.* Pretty impressive, no? Well here’s exactly how you can do that with smart supplementation. 

To understand how you can encourage your antioxidant response, you need to know how they work in the first place. Like I noted, antioxidants work by neutralizing free radicals. Free radicals are, by definition, missing an electron. They’re created as normal byproducts of cell metabolism or by exposure to external sources like UV exposure, air pollution, cigarette smoking, and diets.

To try and balance themselves, they take electrons from healthy molecules. Those healthy molecules are then turned into, you guessed it, free radicals. The cycle continues. Now antioxidants are able to donate an electron without becoming a free radical themselves, but often we don’t have enough antioxidant levels to deal with the overload. 

When your body isn’t able to adequately deal with free radicals in the body, and the balance tips, the result is something called oxidative stress. A prolonged state or accumulation of oxidative stress directly contributes to the skin aging process. Specifically, it contributes to the loss of collagen and elastin fibers, resulting in fine wrinkles. Oxidative stress is also involved in reduced skin barrier function, decreased moisture, and increased risk for DNA mutations in our skin cells.

To keep your body’s oxidative stress defenses up, your cells need functioning detoxification pathways: Pomegranate whole fruit extract attenuates oxidative stress by enhancing antioxidant responses and increasing antioxidant capacity in the body.* In fact, pomegranate extract has been clinically shown to reduce biomarkers of oxidative stress thanks to its unique polyphenol phytonutrient compounds.*