DENALI selects candidates for nutraceutical development based on the quality of ethnomedicinal documentation and correlation of traditional uses with overall good health or alleviation of various health problems. DENALI respects the scientific evidence that demonstrates Alaska Natives' relative freedom from chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and complications, and cancer, and the traditional knowledge they possess for management of pain, and acute conditions such as injury and infection. Ethnomedicinal information is then corroborated with extensive in-house research, independent laboratory evaluation, and substantiation in the scientific literature.

Modern science implicates oxygen free radicals in the processes of aging and the progression of numerous chronic diseases. The "free-radical theory of aging" states that aging is caused by the slow cumulative oxidation of body tissues over a lifetime. Normal metabolism generates oxygen radicals that damage cells and tissues, but environmental pollutants, exposure to UV light and ozone, lifestyle choices such as cigarette smoking, and genetic factors may exacerbate the effects of exposure to reactive oxygen species. The result: aging, chronic pathologies arising from direct oxidation or related inflammatory processes, and autoimmune disorders.

Dietary antioxidants are necessary to augment the human body's own enzymatic and nonenzymatic radical scavenging systems, but it is important that the attempt to limit the production of reactive oxygen species not be overdone because radicals do have important functions to perform in cells and tissues. Supplements should replenish dietary antioxidant deficits and focus on scavenging the most destructive reactive oxygen species, namely peroxyl, lipid peroxyl, peroxynitrite, and hydroxyl radicals. Although direct antioxidant activity may be responsible for much of the protective effects of antioxidants, many notable antioxidant molecules also possess other mechanisms of action. Some appear to adjust the expression of various genes, even at low levels, that in turn better regulate their products, such as enzymes of metabolism.

A growing body of scientific literature is substantiating these theories, and many of the best-studied of these molecules are found in DENALI's flagship product, AuroraBlue Flavon-Plus Formula, in amounts recommended by experts to contribute to delaying or inhibiting oxidative damage from reactive oxygen species. At this time, DENALI has some 150 nutraceutical candidates from all over Alaska targeted for further research and development.

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