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of the test is to find out how fast your body is oxidizing or breaking down. Although oxygen is essential for our survival, it also can be corrosive. When a freshly cut apple turns brown, a copper penny turns green, or a wrought-iron railing gets rusty, the culprit is oxidation, a reaction between oxygen molecules and substances they touch. As you may remember from high school chemistry, oxidation is the process of removing electrons from a molecule or atom. Your body generates energy by burning fuel (compounds from digested food) with oxygen. One byproduct of normal metabolism – as well as smoking and other unhealthy habits – is formation of free radicals, highly unstable atoms or molecules that are missing one of their electrons. To achieve stability, they steal an electron from nearby molecules, leading to a domino-like chain reaction, in which the attacked molecules become free radicals and then rob their neighbors. As a free radical chain rips through cells like a tornado, they can cause extensive injury to crucial components. If DNA, the cell's blueprint, is damaged, mutations that might lead to cancer could result, while damage to proteins, the cell's workhorses, can make the cells dysfunctional and more susceptible to disease. e F2 isoprostanes test measures a marker of free radical damage to lipids (blood fats like cholesterol). e body also has antioxidant defenses to protect against free radical damage, however, including physical barriers to cage free radicals, enzymes to neutralize dangerously reactive forms of oxygen, antioxidants in our diet (found in fruits and vegetables, among other foods) that donate electrons and defuse free radical chain reactions, repair processes to fix damaged DNA, a garbage disposal system to sweep up these destructive scavengers, and other responses, such as programmed cell suicide if the damage is too extensive. erefore, the key to slowing down aging and protecting your cardiovascular health is achieving a balance between destructive oxidation and antioxidant defenses. Among the ways you can strengthen your antioxidant defenses – and reduce the rate at which your body is "rusting" – is by following healthy habits, including avoiding smoking, eating a Mediterranean- style diet that's high in fruits and vegetables and low in saturated fat, managing the stress in your life, and exercising regularly. What the Results Mean: A normal F2 isoprostanes level is less than 0.86 ng/L, while an optimal result is less than .025 ng/L. Although abnormal levels typically signal an unhealthy lifestyle that could cause premature aging, an important caveat is that some professional athletes or extremely amateur dedicated fitness buffs, may also have increased oxidation because of the extreme stress they're putting on their bodies. With exercise, as with other healthy behaviors, it's crucial to find the sweet spot between doing too little and doing too much. A 2012 study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that extreme endurance training may cause long-term heart damage in some marathoners, professional cyclists, and ultra-marathon runners, prompting the researchers to recommend moderate exercise or interval training (minibursts of high-intensity exercise) as healthier for the heart. Fibrinogen What the Test Checks for: is blood test measures your level of fibrinogen, a sticky, fibrous protein produced by your liver. Fibrinogen helps stop bleeding by causing blood to clot. While fibrinogen's clotting effects can be lifesaving aer an injury, abnormally high levels in the bloodstream can be dangerous, by contributing to the clotting cascade that leads to heart attacks and strokes. Fibrinogen is also a marker of inflammation, but other factors can boost levels, so this test shouldn't be used as the sole method of checking for fire in the arteries. e higher your blood level of fibrinogen, the greater the risk of cardiovascular events. One large study called the EUROSTROKE project reported that "fibrinogen is a powerful predictor of stroke" including both fatal and non-fatal strokes, as well as first time strokes, ischemic strokes, and hemorrhagic strokes (those caused by a torn or ruptured blood vessel). e researchers divided the study participants into four groups (quartiles) based on their levels of fibrinogen, Abby's Magazine - March/April 2015 | Page 25