Are you getting enough natural astaxanthin? For those of you who don’t know, astaxanthin is a naturally occurring nutrient which you can find in its highest concentration in micro-algae. You can also get significant amounts of natural astaxanthin from crabs, lobsters, salmon, and other marine-based products. Some say it’s also found in yeast. Most people wonder if it’s still necessary for you to get supplements if you’re already getting natural astaxanthin from your diet? What does this nutrient do, anyway?
What Does Natural Astaxanthin Do?
Before jumping to the benefits of getting supplements, you should know what natural astaxanthin does for your body. This is a fat-soluble nutrient which can help you fight off the toxins in your body. These days, dietary habits, stress from busy lifestyles, and other factors which are present in the environment can cause the growth of cancer cells. Astaxanthin has more antioxidant potency compared to beta-carotene and retinol. Compared to these Vitamin A variants, astaxanthin won’t cause Vitamin A toxicity, and it’s virtually side effect free. There’s no plausible way you could suffer overdosage of this nutrient. Enough natural astaxanthin in your diet helps to keep you young by keeping your eyes and your brain healthy.
You gain only benefits from taking natural astaxanthin supplements, and virtually no side effects. Even if you’re already eating a lot of seafood, these supplements can still help you regain the lost natural astaxanthin that was broken down during the cooking process. Of course, these astaxanthin supplements are most beneficial for people who don’t get enough seafood because of the scarcity of these products in their area. Those who are allergic to seafood can also get their astaxanthin from these supplements. The normal dosage for supplements is 5mg a day, although if you go a little over this dosage, you won’t suffer from any side effects. Consult your doctor about the nutrient’s interaction with other drugs since you might be taking medicines which could affect the absorption of natural astaxanthin into your body.
Anti-Obesity Medicines and Natural Astaxanthin
It’s harder for your body to absorb natural astaxanthin when you’re taking anti-obesity medicines. When you take Orlistat, for example, and you consume salmon, you’ll probably get the other nutrients from salmon but not astaxanthin. This antioxidant is soluble in fat, and when you take medicines which block fat from your stomach walls, the astaxanthin in the food you eat only turn into waste.
To get the antioxidant benefits of astaxanthin even while you’re taking orlistat and other fat blockers, take the medicine two hours after your fat blocker intake. Perhaps you can take it with a glass of full cream milk, or good fat from fish oil supplements so it can be absorbed by your body faster. It’s important for you to keep your antioxidant intake up because the risks of cancer these days is just too high. You even heighten this risk when you take in synthetic fat blockers like Orlistat, but if you really need this because of clinical obesity, just pop the antioxidant two hours after your last orlistat intake.
Choosing Your Natural Astaxanthin Sources
Not all astaxanthin sources are made the same. Some of them can’t be that easily absorbed by the body, while others are well thought-out by their manufacturers. Choose soft gel capsules because the soft gel membrane breaks easier. This means that that anti-oxidant can do its job more quickly. Choose supplements that have been extracted from micro-algae because micro-algae have the highest concentration of astaxanthin. Look at the extraction process too, no organic solvents should be included in the extraction because this lowers the quality of natural astaxanthin.