Free Radicals, pro and con [View all]

[Rollo]

Last edited Fri Jan 27, 2017, 10:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Apparently free radicals and oxidants are vital to cell health. In short, cellular defense systems respond to viral and bacterial infection by releasing free radicals to destroy the intruders. Additionally, oxidizers play a vital role in cell metabolism, key to many energy and synthesis pathways, to wit, the familiar redox equation of basic college chemistry. Not entirely coincidentally, these powerful elements or compounds are capable of damaging ells and components as well. They've been implicated in various types of inflammatory and cancer disorders. They also may accelerate or catalyze the degradation of nutrients, for example, the polymerization of polyunsaturated fats into viscous and probably unhealthy structures.

Not entirely coincidentally, the potential for harm from free radicals and oxidants elicited a search for ways to defeat them, especially since lab experiments seemed to show a protective action of substances loosely grouped into the category of antioxidants seemed to counteract the oxidizing action. But the results to epidemiological studies have been mixed, which may actually be in part because free radicals and oxidizers are so vital to life - in the right places at the right times - to begin with. This conundrum should not be confused with "pseudoscience". Rather, it's indicative of a situation far more complex than a shotgun approach with attempted neutralizing modalities can effectively address.