Anti-Oxidation

Anti-Inflammatory

Cellular Health

Cell Rejuvenation

Acid/Alkaline Balance

Enzyme:  
A substance (usually a protein) that speeds up, or catalyzes, a chemical reaction without being permanently altered or consumed.

 

Proteins:
Proteins are intensely studied by biomedical researchers because these molecules are involved in nearly every biological function. Proteins include the enzymes that allow the chemical reactions necessary to life to take place efficiently. They also include many of the hormones that regulate growth and development. They are important components of the cell's physical structure, making up half of the cell's dry weight. They help transmit messages from nerve cells and work in muscle cells to convert chemical energy into mechanical energy, which permits movement. Proteins in the cell membrane control molecules entering and leaving the cell. Hemoglobin proteins in red blood cells transport oxygen through the bloodstream, and antibody proteins fight infection. Proteins are made of strings of amino acids ordered according to instructions contained in the DNA. A protein's primary structure is this linear chain of amino acids; however, almost immediately after it is created the chain springs into helices, sheets, or other shapes that form the protein's secondary structure. The shapes then fold and coil further into a complex, three-dimensional structure. This is the active form of the protein that can bind to, and interact with, other molecules.

 

Lysosomes: When a white blood cell engulfs a bacterium and destroys it, the white blood cell's lysosomes do most of the work. They fuse with the vesicle of engulfed material and release digestive enzymes to break up the material. Similarly, when a cell takes in large molecules of food, enzymes in the lysosomes break the food down into smaller and simpler products that the cell can use.

 

Peroxisome appears to both generate and break down hydrogen peroxide, a corrosive molecule composed of two atoms each of hydrogen and oxygen. Peroxisomal enzymes remove hydrogen atoms from these small molecules and join the hydrogen to atoms of oxygen to form hydrogen peroxide. One of the peroxisomal enzymes, catalase, then neutralizes the hydrogen peroxide by catalyzing its breakdown into water and oxygen.

 

Mitochondria: The cell organelle that converts the energy in sugars into ATP (compound that serves as a source of energy for the physiological reactions in cells.), thereby fueling the cell.  It is a convenient way for cells to store the energy they need for such processes as protein manufacture, DNA replication, and the construction of new organelles.  Scientists have long suspected that defects in mitochondrial genes could lead to inherited disease in the same way that mistakes in nuclear DNA do.