14 March 201625 February 2016 by theaark

Free Radicals…What are they ???

Free radicals

(FR) are unstable and highly reactive molecules which cause oxidative damage in our bodies. To illustrate the point, it’s similar to leaving a lump of iron in a glass of water, eventually it will rust up, and that’s exactly what oxidative stress does to our bodies. These Free Radicals are unstable because they are missing an electron, so to try and stabilise themselves, they steal electrons from any molecule that comes into contact with them. Quite a battle going on there!

If you imagine inside your body and think of all the changes that are happening when oxidation (rusting up) occurs, you can imagine the effects it could have in the long term.

This process can really take its toll on your whole system. Such as….

Changes in cells
Cell membranes deteriorating
Damage, to fatty acids
Enzymes inactive
Damaged DNA (high risk of cancer)
Damage to arteries (risk of heart attack)

All these changes lead to eventual disease and premature ageing !!!

How can we try to combat this ?

Antioxidants in our food and supplements can hopefully slow the progression of certain chronic degenerative disorders and can be extremely beneficial for Health!

Oxidants play many normal roles in our body, it’s only their overproduction (or failure of antioxidant defenses) that result in harmful oxidative stress (i.e disease).

New research has shown oxidative damage can be the trigger for a variety of serious and often deadly diseases including…