There is such a vast selection of anti aging products on the market these days that there is even a big selection of anti aging supplements for dogs and other pets. When you add all the television shows that promote one anti aging solution or another and the volume of results when you do a search it is understandable why people run around in confusion trying to make sense of all this before putting their money and efforts into the latest and greatest anti aging supplement.

Let's take Resveratrol the most popular supplement available now that has been promoted to kingdom come by Oprah and Dr. Oz. It has a bunch of things going for it one of which is an Oprah promotion so there will be hordes of Oprah fans buying into its promise. Secondly, it is naturally derived from the skin of red grapes and has a natural association with the health benefits of red wine which has been touted for some time before resveratrol came along.So let's leave the hype of resveratrol behind for a moment and look at the question of anti aging in general. What do people really want out of any anti agiing solution?

People age in many different ways. For instance, although I'm still a relatively young 40 and have nary a wrinkle on my skin because of good genes I have seen my fingernails when they are not buffed and painted and they are full of ripples that run the length of the nail that I know I didn't have in my twenties. My nails were much smoother in my youth. My manicurist said that these are actually wrinkles manifesting themselves in your nails first. Most women don't see these because they are constantly getting manicures. This was quite a revelation to me. So as I said. Everyone has different concerns regarding the aging process and look for different solution from anti aging supplements that work internally to anti wrinkle creams that work topically. So let's go over the kinds of aging signs that people would like to have less of.

Most men and women would like to revitalize their sagging, age spotted skin and reduce the signs of aging. Their first priority would be to diminish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and smooth their rough skin texture.They would also like to clear darkening from under the eyes, restore elasticity to sagging skin,  produce healthy skin coloration, hydrate dry skin, and mitigate the effects of external and internal stresses that affect the aging of skin. Skin is the general number one priority in most cases where there is concern over aging. The second priority would be feeling better with increased energy and more youthful vigor. Sometimes just looking at our newly improved appearance in the mirror is enough to give us the youthful energy that we need.

 Aging and Antioxidants

So now that we know what kind of problems we want to solve with a regimen of anti aging supplements let's look at what kind of work we expect our supplements to do on the inside and outside. Most medical professionals agree that there are two basic causative factors in aging and most other components of aging simply aid or abet these factors. First there is the theory of oxidation reactions where combustion is facilitated by oxygen and by products are formed called oxygen free radicals which are simple molecules that have lost an electron and are out of balnce electrically and so go forth on a scavenging mission to balance itself by stripping an electron from another molecule. In doing so these molecules can disrupt and destroy body cells by disrupting the electrical balance of molecules that it has stripped an electron from or forcibly donated an electron to. If the molecule that has experienced such disruption happens to be a DNA or RNA molecule then the problem gets worse and cell mutations begin to occur.

So over a period of time fre radical damage buids in the body causing the process that we see on the outside as aging. It is simply a slow but steady breakdown of cells that have sustained a level of free radical oxidative damage. Kind of like gravity that is so barely noticeable but is slowly killing us because it is such a steady thing. Apart from the free radical theory is the hormonal theory that proposes that hormone level decline as we age and strongly paralleles the visible aging signs that we stress over. These are hormones such as human growth hormone, DHEA,   testosterone, estrogen, androstenedione, melatonin and progesterone.

So now that we have a grasp on who the enemy is when it comes to aging it becomes easier to look at the anti aging supplements on the market and decide which are most important for us based on our current health condition, our gender, our stage in life and our genetics. Although we don't generally associate the medical profession with an anti aging natural supplement or an anti aging dietary supplement it is always a good idea to go tour primary care physician for a general checkup and blood test to get a fix on our cholesterol and other gauges of health that we typically look for in a blood test.

We may have to adjust our diets based on the blood test results and use that as a starting point. You cannot throw supplements into a high cholestrol, on the verge of diabetes body and expect them to perform as expected. There must be some discipline exercised to follow the doctor's orders and restore some normalcy to the body functioning. If that means staying away from cheese and ice cram cake then so be it. Your best bet would be to load up on fresh raw produce shown below that has all the antioxidants and enzymes that you would need in their raw form 

Once that is done then you can look at the array of anti aging supplements and go through and research their ingredients line by line. You have products like Renuva, Resveratrol, Acai berry, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, lutein, Ginkgo Biloba, lycopene, vitamin B2, beta carotene, coenzyme Q10, cysteine (an amino acid), alpha lipoic acid, mangosteen , noni, pycnogenol, Superoxide Dismutase and many other based on their anti oxidative properties. You also have anti aging herbs such as ginkgo, grape seed, bilberry, turmeric and milk thistle. There are many teas like green tea that also contain powerful antioxidant compounds. There are also many foods that function as nutritional supplements for anti aging and have anti oxidative properties like pomegranate, blue berries, black berries, papaya, carrots, beet and many others.

These all fall in various categories such as anti aging vitamins, antiaging nutritional supplement, anti aging pills, anti aging nutrients and anti aging nutrition through whole foods. There is perhaps no single supplement that you could call the best anti aging supplement for your particular needs. More than likely there will be 2 ot 3 top anti aging supplements that you absolutely should be taking based on your medical history. Then the balance of supplements for anti aging would be to round out your level of protection from both internal and external contributors to oxygen radical damage.