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FREE RADICALS

by James Roberts, MD, FACC

What are free radicals?

In your body, right now, a battle is going, a battle between the free radical forces of toxic oxidation and your antioxidant defense system. This battle never stops; think of it, and rightly so, as a battle between metabolic good and evil, a struggle for survival.

In nature, atoms, the smallest particles of matter, always have two electrons in their outer atomic shell. Free radicals are atoms with one as opposed to the normal two electrons in their outer shell. The free radical wants two electrons, but it has only one. It is thus unstable and reactive. This electron seeking free radical will snatch an electron from the outer shell of an adjacent atom, damaging this atom, and turning this damaged atom into a new free radical. This new free radical, in turn, will snatch an electron from the next atom in line, damaging it, and creating yet another free radical. If an antioxidant, a stable molecule capable of providing a free electron to the free radical, quenching its electron thirst, is not introduced into the system, a chain reaction will occur, and atom after atom will be damaged (termed oxidative damage). If enough atoms are damaged, the molecule containing these atoms will be damaged. If enough molecules are damaged, the region of the cell containing them will be damaged. If this happens to be the Nucleus, where DNA, our genetic blueprint, is stored, then the cell will turn cancerous. If free radical damage involves the Mitochondria, where energy is produced, then a chronic fatigue state will ensue. If this occurs in a LDL Cholesterol Lipoprotein, then the cholesterol will be oxidized, rendering it more likely to layer out in our arteries as obstructive plaque. Free radical inflammation is one of the factors associated with destabilization (spasm, rupture, or clot formation on) of arterial plaque. You can say, and rightly so, that free radical inflammation puts the Vulnerable in Vulnerable Plaque.

Where do these damaging free radicals come from? Well, we make them. As a byproduct of our oxygen dependent energy generating system, we also generate free radicals, which our white blood cells use to kill invading bacteria and viruses, or to kill normal body cells that have undergone malignant transformation. These free radicals can also spill over and damage normal body cells, and for that reason Mother Nature saw fit to provide us with an antioxidant defense system, one which works well if our nutritional mineral intake is sufficient (Selenium, Zinc, Copper, and Manganese are important here). Mother Nature also had the foresight to provide us with a defense system to neutralize environmental free radicals, such as excessive sunlight (sunburn is really free radical damage to the skin) or wood smoke (from our cooking fires), but this system depends on an adequate intake of antioxidant vitamins.

Mother Nature designed us to consume a diet containing antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables; this gave primitive man enough antioxidant vitamins to stave off the environmental free radicals to which he (or she) was exposed. But Mother Nature did not foresee the free radical-rich environment that we now inhabit on the earth’s surface. We are being bombarded by free radicals (cigarette smoke, industrial pollutants, toxic metals in our food and water, etc.) and diet alone just isn’t enough to get the antioxidant job done. Follow a good diet, and also take a high potency antioxidant vitamin and mineral supplement; this will help you even the playing field in the battle that is going on within you between the free radical forces of toxic oxidation and your antioxidant defense system. Then by taking Defend Life, you can actually remove the toxic metals that mediate the free radical attack, tipping the playing field in your favor.

Without action on your part, the free radicals will eventually win and the cells of your body will be damaged by oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is an a cumulative process, one that often goes unnoticed until irreversible organ damage occurs and you feel its effects in your joints, blood vessels and internal organs. Oxidative stress is a major cause of over 50 diseases, including inflammatory diseases and diseases of the heart, kidney, lung, heart, skin, eyes, pancreas, and bowel, and just about all of the disease states that we associate with aging. Heart disease and cancer, our two leading killers, are both initiated and aggravated by free radical stress. Take action on your part.