Flavonoids, Inflammation, and Acne:
What happens when the three are mixed?
My face tickles as I drink this smoothie, giving me a sensation that only these berries could give me. I know that something special is happening inside my skin. The cells feel energized. The inflammation feels as though it is getting healed and thus shrinking the acne on my face. What is this organic strawberry, blueberry, flaxseed, banana ItWorks! Greens, and raw coconut oil smoothie doing to my skin? What is in these berries and these Greens that is sending out this sensation?
The answer relates to my very first post on the page about flavonoids. To reiterate what flavonoids are, they are, “. . . a group of plant pigments that exert antioxidant activity that is generally more potent and effective against a broader range of oxidants than the traditional antioxidant nutrients Vitamin C and E, beta – carotene, selenium, and zinc. Besides lending color to fruits and flowers, flavonoids are responsible for manty or the medical properties or foods, juices, herbs, and bee pollen. Flavonoids are sometimes called, ‘nature’s biological response modifiers,’ because of their anti-inflammatory, antiallergic, antiviral, and anticancer properties,” (Murray N.D., 143). Stronger than Vitamin C and E, beta-carotene, selenium, and zinc, they are the color givers, the medical doctors, and the first responders in the realm or food make-up and properties. Taking care of inflammation is so vitally important, because when a stressor triggers inflammation to form, certain things tend to happen and can lead to, “/. . . chronic disease, from heart and brain disease, like Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, depression, and dementia to autoimmune disorders, ulcerative colitis, and cancer,” (Perlmutter, M.D., 28). Just knowing that all of these diseases are preventable or at least, more manageable, with the help of daily flavonoid intake, this gives us the power to give our cells the healing nutrients that they need to relax and heal themselves, thus lowering their risk of developing any chronic disease, including cancer.
To return to the ‘shrieking acne on my face’ mention, we need to understand what acne actually is, to understand how it heals. When someone, usually an adolescent, but in other case, adults can get acne too, get a set of pimples on their face, they have an, “eruption or hard inflamed tubercles or pimples on the face. . . an inflammatory disease of the skin, arising from the obstruction of the sebaceous gland,” (The Webster Reference Dictionary of the English Language, 10). As we can now understand, acne is an inflammatory disease of the skin. Inflammation is brought on by stress, or every type, and when the body is under constant stress, chronic inflammation arises, and that is what causes acne. When one eats greasy or fatty food, they are fed into that inflammatory build up, stressing cells our and causing acne to pop up. That is one very relatable example of what chronic inflammation can do to the body.
When outside stressors and internal stressors are not met with anti-inflammatory properties, such as, flavonoids, things like chronic diseases and cancer can arise. Flavonoids are a person’s friend, when dealing with those problems. As I am sitting here writing this, I am enjoying a glass or organic green tea. I already know that green tea clears acne by reducing inflammation, but how it does it is quite interesting. The flavonoid count in tea is 5 – 50 for the sum of flavanones, flavones, and flavanols (including quercetin), while green tea has 60 – 70% total polyphenols, or the ‘Mother group’ of flavonoids, and those are very good to have, as they, “act as antioxidants, block carcinogens (cancer) formation, and modulate hormone receptors,” (Murray, N.D., 19). Therefore, if green tea can do all of that, why does it seem like nothing happens when a person drinks glasses of green tea. The answer might surprise a person, and the solution is rather simple, add a squeeze of lemon to your green tea, because without that squeeze, a person only gets 20% or those polyphenols, in contrast, while adding the lemon, the percentage jumps up a striking 80%, and here is why the, “extra acidity makes catechins more stable so your body has time to absorb more of them. Lemon juice proved to be the best catechin preserver, the researchers say, but orange juice, lime juice, and grapefruit juice are good second choices,” (The Editors of FC&A Medical Publishing, 167). So, boil some water, pour it over an organic green tea bag and lemon for the very best experience or receiving the flavonoids and polyphenols your body needs to fight back against its attackers, or mix up a berry smoothie as their anti-inflammatory percentage is also off the charts.
Related:
