Free Radicals

are everywhere in the media.

Drink our Antiox Wellness Drink every day and prevent cancer, stay focused, grow your hair and feel good!

But do you know what are those free radicals?

The answer is very simple:

A free radical can be defined as any molecular species capable of independent existence that contains an unpaired electron in an atomic orbital. source

Without the electron, such molecule is usually unstable and has strong affection to gain the electron from some other molecule, that can cause the splitting of chemical bonds and some harm as the final product.

But... There are free radicals that are perfectly stable. Such as the stable free radicals in soil or asphalt.

Take a look at this molecule of humic acid, common molecule in the soil, it looks like this:

And it doesn't care at all if it loose one electron source

On the other hand, there are radicals you should be worried about, such as those oxygen-centered radicals (hydroxyl radical or superoxide anion radical). source

When the molecule is small, one unpaired molecule makes it seriously reactive.

And the good thing is that we can predict the behavior of radicals that react with the other molecules by applying the DFT (density functional theory) software. In most cases the Gaussian.

So, not all free radicals are equally dangerous, and not all antioxidants will act equally effective against various free radicals

Now you are wondering what happens to our body when we are under the attack from some free radicals.

Free radicals and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) are derived either from normal essential metabolic processes in the human body or from external sources (exposure to X-rays, ozone, radiation, cigarette smoking, air pollution and some chemicals).

Free radicals are normaly produced in our body, mainly in enzymatic reactions, respitratiory chain, inflanation, phagocytosis, P-450 system and many, many other reactions.

If you destroy all free radicals in your body you will - Die, in about a minute

The excess of free radicals can damage your proteins in several ways:

• oxidative modification of amino acids
• protein crosslinkage
• free radical-mediatedd peptide cleavage

Lipids are targeted via peroxidation

In DNA, it is possible to find oxidative nucleotides.

So how we prevent the harmfull efect of free radical without stoping the own methabolism?

The first way is to destroy the molecules that interact in the formation of free radicals before the radicals actually emerge. In most cases, it would be some enzyme from the family of peroxidase that will destroy the H2O2 before it produces the hydroxyl radical *OH.

Option number 2, to scavenge the existing radicals without making an even worse case by creating the cascade of radicals (*OH --> *R --> ...). You know one such molecule, Vitamin C.

And the third line of defense is to remove or repair the damaged molecules.

What is better: blackberries, blueberries or some Miracle-Antiox-Berries?

None of them. If something is labled as the potent antioxidants, in most cases it is tested how efective it is against artificial radical named ORAC

and that means mothing in real life.

You can eat more of the "less powerfull" fruit.
Or it can be digested better, its antioxidants can come to the right place.
Or those antioxidants are good against the ORAC but bad against the *OH and so-so against *OOH

What have we learned in Lesson 1 about Free radicals

• you need free radicals to survive
• not all free radicals are dangerous
• not all antioxidants are going to save you from all free radicals
• body already has the whole series of defense mechanisms, some miracle juice will not change too much

You don't need extra expensive supplements or some miracle superfood

Because those supplements cannot work as promised.

But don't forget, eat normal, regular healthy food

Part II will be about the instruments used in the examination of free radicals.

Sneek peak, it looks like this: