There are a variety of NRF2 Activator products and ingredients on the market. The challenge is to know which ones are most effective. Some products are natural and others are synthetic (with potential side effects).

What is a NRF2 Activator Product?

Many scientists describe the aging process as the effect of oxidative stress on the cells caused by destructive molecules called free radicals. When you’re young, your body fights free radicals effectively by producing its own antioxidants. But as you grow older, your body produces more free radicals and fewer antioxidants to fight the battles of aging .

We would suggest looking for products that have been proven to be effective and documented through scientific studies. A good NRF2 product will have proof that they are able to signal your body’s genes to produce special antioxidant enzymes, SOD (superoxide dismutase) CAT (catalase) that work together as the body’s first line of defense against free radicals.*

These enzymes are “catalytic,” which means that SOD and CAT are not used up when they neutralize free radicals. A single daily caplet of an effective NRF2 product creates a cascade of your body’s natural catalytic antioxidants that are able to destroy millions of free radicals per second, on a continuous basis–24/7.*

The most effective NRF2 activator that we are aware of can provides you with thousands of times more antioxidant power than any food or conventional supplement.* In fact, you would need to consume the antioxidants found in 375 oranges, 87 glasses of red wine or about 120 vitamin C tablets (500mg) a day to neutralize the amount of free radicals your body produces every single day.

What does a Nrf2 Activator do?

Nrf2 is a protein messenger contained in every cell of the body that sends information to the cell’s DNA. That DNA consists of about 25,000 genes and the products of those genes make you who you are and what you are. They’re unique for each person. DNA is what makes you a human being, what gives you your personality, what gives you your physical traits.

When this protein messenger called Nrf2 is activated, it enters the nucleus of every cell and it turns on several hundred of these 25,000 genes. And the genes that it turns on, or turns up, are known collectively as “survival genes.” What is a survival gene? These genes enable cells to survive in the face of several different kinds of stress, especially oxidative stress, which is due to the overproduction of free radicals and other oxidants.

Nrf2 also affects another hundred or so genes by turning them down, not up. Included in these genes are pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic genes.

Inflammation accompanies many different disease processes. Everyone is familiar with inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, but anytime you suffer traumatic injuries, sprain your ankle or bruise yourself, there is swelling, pain and redness that characterize inflammation. The process of inflammation is designed, in part, to prevent infection. One of the ways your body prevents infection is to kill invading microorganisms by intentionally making toxic free radicals. Thus, the pain, redness and swelling in a cut are not so much from infection, but from inflammation as your body responds to the possibilities of an infection.

What are Pro-Fibrotic genes? Following inflammation in many kinds of diseases or traumatic injury is a process of scar tissue formation that scientists refer to as “fibrosis.” A number of genes turn on that process. And while fibrosis can be a good thing if you’re healing from a cut, it is a bad thing in many other diseases. For example, many older people die each year from heart failure–the failure of the pumping action of the heart due to this process of fibrosis. This is quite a different process from “hardening of the arteries” or atherosclerosis, which leads to heart attacks and strokes.

So, a Nrf2 activator, activates survival genes, such as antioxidant genes, that keep us safe from free radicals and oxidants. It also turns down genes that perpetuate inflammation and genes that encourage slow, progressive fibrosis to take place. Together, these actions provide a remarkable promise of protection from many kinds of age-related diseases.