Mutations to your DNA caused by free radicals are a major cause of cancer. Free radicals can make blood clot abnormally in our arteries by destroying our body’s ability to make PGI, (prostacyclin), a natural anti-clot hormone found in healthy arteries. Free radicals are also implicated in arthritis. Most of the brain damage caused by insufficient oxygen is due to free radicals. (The free radicals are partially controlled by oxygen but get out of control when oxygen is too low or too high.) Free radicals are also a major cause of cross-linking, which makes your tissues stiff and brittle, leading to loss of
flexibility, emphysema of the lungs, and cerebral hemorrhage. Free radicals cause age pigment accumulation that slowly chokes brain cells to death and: results in brownish “age spots” in your skin.
It is possible to prevent much of this damage by taking supplements of nutrients which provide protection against free radicals. Many of these nutrients have even extended the life spans of experimental animals. These anti-free-radical nutrients (also called antioxidants) include vitamins A, C, E, B- 1, B-5, B-6, the amino acid cysteine (found in eggs and sometimes in health food stores), the triamino acid cysteine-containing compound glutathione, phenolic and catecholic amino acids like tyrosine and L-Dopa, catechols as found in bananas and potatoes, phenolics (compounds chemically similar to BHT) found in grapes and other fruits, the minerals zinc and selenium, bioflavonoids, and synthetic antioxidants such
as BHT and BHA.
Oxygen is a poison, as well as a necessity, for most animals and plants. Organisms exposed to excessive oxygen can suffer severe damage or even die. Even in the course of normal metabolism involving ordinary amounts of oxygen, extremely promiscuous and reactive chemical compounds or atoms with unpaired electrons are sometimes created. Called free radicals, these are formed not only in normal metabolism, but also in the breakdown of peroxidized lipids (rancid fats), by radiation, and by white cells (free radicals generated by hydrogen peroxide are a major weapon they use to kill bacteria and viruses). Free radical damage plays a prominent role in the
breakdown of plastics, rubber, paper, petroleum, food, and living tissues.
Hydroxyl radicals, the most potent oxidant known, can attack any organic substance found in cells. They account for a large part of the damage done by radiation and are thought to be the principal damaging agent involved in arthritis. The enzyme xanthine oxidase catalyzes (stimulates) the production of both superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide, which react together to form hydroxyl radicals. These free radicals, along with crystals of uric acid and sodium hydrogen urate, cause the joint pain and tissue destruction of gout, both directly and by destabilizing the lysosomal membranes. Free radical reactions have been investigated as possible factors in the aging process since the late 1950s, when Dr. Denham
Harman first formulated the free radical theory of aging.
Regarding the free radical theory, Dr. Harman says,
“… spontaneous mutations, cancer, and aging can be looked
upon as a result of continuous ‘internal radiation,’ while these
same processes produced by external radiation are largely the
result of an increment in the amount of total ‘radiation’ to
which the organism is exposed.” A great deal of evidence supports Dr. Harman’s conception that free radical damage is a
major factor causing aging as well as of many other disease
conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Free
radicals have been measured in living organisms and increase
in concentration with increasing metabolic rate. Changes due
to free radicals include:(1) accumulative, undesirable oxidative alterations in collagen (the connective tissue which constitutes about 30 percent of body protein) and elastin (an elastic protein found, for example, in artery walls) and in genetic material, DNA and RNA,
(2) breakdown of the large carbohydrate molecules that make up mucus (used as lubricant in your joints, for example) through oxidative degradation,
(3) accumulation of age pigments such as lipofuscin and ceroid
through oxidative polymerization (linking together) involving
lipids (especially unsaturated fats) and proteins,(4) lipid membrane peroxidation, and
(5) narrowing or closing of small arteries and capillaries due to toxic peroxidation products of serum, the formation of vessel wall irritants, and suppression of the synthesis of PGI, (prostacyclin, a natural hormone that helps prevent formation of abnormal blood clots).
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