Good news: Chocolate have for several years been studied for its possible beneficial health effects. Our results show a high correlation between the cocoa content and the antioxidant content, which is in agreement with earlier studies.
I did research on antioxidants with Rune Blomhoff, before the term "antioxydants" entered pop culture.
The project aimed to test whether fractions from plants that are rich in antioxidants regulated cancer-related genes in cell experiments. We found that fractions from berries regulated the gene for enzymes that form the main antioxidant in cells, namely glutathione. We also investigated if there was a correlation between the total antioxidant content in the plants and their ability to inhibit the activation of NF-kB, a transcription factor that is often related to inflammation and cancer. Practically, this task involved using existing and new plant extracts, incubating stable transfected U937 cells with lipopolysaccharide +/- plant extracts, and measuring luciferase in cell homogenates.
Blomhoff (both Heidi and Rune) have had a major international impact. This study (https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-9-3) found that the antioxidant content of foods varies several thousand-fold and that antioxidant-rich foods originate from the plant kingdom while meat, fish and other foods from the animal kingdom are low in antioxidants. The study found that diets comprised mainly of animal-based foods are low in antioxidant content while diets based mainly on a variety of plant-based foods are antioxidant-rich. The study also found that most of the spices and herbs analyzed had particularly high antioxidant contents, and that dried herbs and fruit are excellent sources of antioxidants. Additionally, the study found that herbal and traditional plant medicines emerged as many of the highest antioxidant-containing products in the study. The high inherent antioxidant property of many plants may be an important contributor to their medicinal qualities.
I have taken 3 mg Melatonin every single day since 1999, which is a strong antioxydant, and also a strong influencer of circadian rhythms. This article discusses the importance of our circadian rhythms and how disruptions to them can negatively affect our health. It explains that our circadian rhythms are controlled by a "master clock" in the brain's hypothalamus and that there are molecular clocks in cells and organs throughout our bodies that regulate different functions. The article mentions that researchers are exploring ways to tailor treatments to our circadian rhythms by developing drugs that target the clocks themselves. It also notes that these disruptions in circadian rhythm have been linked to conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. The article mentions specific compounds being researched, such as KL001, that affect the length of the circadian period and can have a knock-on effect on other genes and functions in the body. The article suggests that these drugs could help limit the effects of shift work on metabolic health, among other benefits.
Clean water is also one of my strong preferences. Roger Nyvoll and Karen-Margrethe Fjeldberg posess substantial expertise in this realm: https://www.chanson.no/
