Desire for health and longevity encourage us to strive for the ideal diet, physical activity, and changing our bad habits. Therefore, various benevolent suggestions are adopted, with more or less success.
Variety of criteria – possible choice
When we talk about an adequate diet, sufficient intake of nutrients, and immune system, we cannot disregard the fact that many people use food supplements that have different purposes in their diets. However, only the quality and tested ones should be taken into consideration for disease prevention and preservation of good health, especially in cases of an inappropriate diet and increased amounts of stress.
Before selecting the supplements, it is important to realistically assess the situation, determine the deficiencies and the possibilities of their elimination, and consult a professional about the supplement selection. At the same time, medicine therapy should be considered, as well as the person’s age, allergies, and other possible limitations that could affect the appropriate supplement selection.
An average consumer is also concerned with the origin and the basic raw material of the supplement, its safety and price, availability, simplicity, and the recommended shelf life. When we take all of the above mentioned criteria into consideration, one of the possible choices is propolis – the product of nature that men have started using long before its medicinal properties were scientifically proven.
Scientifically proven, as well
Propolis is a resinous mixture composed of the excretions from the plants and bees, and substances created by its formation. It is used for the filling out the holes in a beehive, which creates the protection from the wind, microorganisms, etc. It has a pleasant aroma and its color depends on the type of plants that the bees are visiting, varying from brown to dark green.
Its composition is very specific and hard to standardize, because it depends on the time of the collection, vegetation and climate, even though it is not impossible. It is composed of 200 ingredients: various alcohols, amino acids, aromatics acids and esters, flavones, sugars, and others. In addition, propolis also contains vitamins B1, B2, B6, C, and E, as well as some rare minerals.
Since the olden times, propolis has been used in folk medicine for the immune system strengthening, as help in the wound healing, against fungal diseases, oral cavity diseases, sore throat, and many others, which is not surprising considering its antibacterial, antivirus, anti-tumor, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and other properties, and people of all ages use it. It is important to mention that bacteria do not develop resistance to the antibacterial properties of the propolis. Because of all of these properties, propolis is often dubbed the cure of the 21st century, and it is a frequent ingredient of the wide palette of the dermatological and pharmaceutical products and food supplements. One of these is the Propolis lozenges.
Strong antioxidant
A modern man is exposed to contaminated air, ground, and water on daily basis, and the antioxidants have been in the center of attention, because of the fact that they protect the body from the unstable and extremely relative free radicals. The causes of the creation of free radicals are different. On the one hand, they can be desirable when they are created within the body as a defensive response to the presence of bacteria and viruses.
On the other hand, free radicals are also created through cigarette smoke, degradation of herbicides, certain medications, foods rich in fats, etc. These reactive substances cause a series of related reactions that result in the changes in cell membranes, thus interfering with the transport of substances through them, which can create serious damages, or even lead to their death. In addition, proteins in the cells can also degrade, which causes them to lose their function, while the changes in the DNA can lead to mutations.
We must not overlook the fact that the free radicals oxidize the lipoprotein’s polyunsaturated fatty acids, which changes the structure and function of the LDL cholesterol. The oxidized LDL cholesterol assists the development of the atherosclerotic changes that are so highly present in today’s day and age.
Fortunately and thanks to the defensive mechanisms and damage repair possibilities, the body itself is constantly fighting against the undesirable effects of free radicals. However, their accumulation and our aging weakens our body’s defense efficiency, which in turn can lead to the creation of cancer cells, heart and artery diseases, and many other changes, such as arthritis and cataract.
Our body oxidizes some antioxidants by itself and we have to take care of the others, meaning that we have must consume them on daily basis. One of these is propolis; a nature’s product that can largely attribute its antioxidant properties to the presence of flavonoids. Research has shown that flavonoids reduce the risk of lung cancer in smokers, which is particularly important to the sensitive persons who are passive smokers against their own will. Above all, we are referring to children and reconvalescents.
It has been shown that propolis also helps in the skin cancer prevention, which is extremely important to persons with light skin tone who have been exposed to sunlight for long periods of time. This product’s protective effect on stomach and colon has also been proven. This is extremely important in today’s day and age, in which many people rely on the convenient and ready to eat meals that are poor in antioxidants. The beneficial effects of propolis have also been proven with colitis, and we should also mention the protective effects of propolis on liver and kidneys, organs that are important for the detoxification of harmful substances and their excretion from the body.
An equally important fact is that propolis protects the oral cavity, heart, and kidneys in people who are receiving chemotherapy, while the cytostatic and radiation therapies are more successful in combination with propolis.
Propolis’s antioxidant properties are reflected in the protection of the body from the inflammatory reactions. Among these reactions are the ones caused by various undesirable radiations that result in the creation of free radicals. Propolis’s ingredients also neutralize the free radicals created by bacterial kidney infections.
In addition, they encourage the creation of the anti-inflammatory factors during the immune system’s response, while simultaneously reducing the production of the ones that encourage the inflammation (proinflammatory factors). We should keep in mind that propolis, along with its antioxidants, has a positive effect on the heart protection in persons who suffer from diabetes, because it is well-known that diabetes creates free radicals.
We should definitely mention that propolis can cause allergic reactions in some people, which is why people who are allergic to pollen must be careful when using propolis.
All of the facts described above are an excellent stimulus for using this natural product with the purpose of preserving our health and preventing the harmful consequences of the oxidative stress, and we believe that they will also increase the interest in propolis as the natural aid to the classic healing methods.