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Free radicals are extremely reactive and can form bonds in undesirable ways in cellular chemistry, which is generally bad for the organism, potentially causing
by smiley1437 4y ago
Free radicals are extremely reactive and can form bonds in undesirable ways in cellular chemistry, which is generally bad for the organism, potentially causing all sorts of cell damage.
Cells produce anti-oxidant defenses to regulate free radicals such as the delightfully named "Superoxide Dismutase" enzyme:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superoxide_dismutase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superoxide_dismutase
- anonymous_sorry 4y agoAs an aside, there is poor evidence that consumption or topical application of anything artificially high in anti-oxidants does any good for healthy people, although you see "antioxidants" used to sell crap all the time. Maintaining the right balance between free radicals and anti-oxidants is the sort of thing biology is pretty good at on its own. Trying to put a finger on the scales in one direction or another is probably pointless at best.
- Ekaros 4y agoWhen thinking about it it seems pretty weird. Wouldn't most free radicals either enter via lungs or digestive tracts? And those will have plenty of stuff to react before any anti-oxidant can get to work... And anti-oxidants spreading through body on other hand seems bit worrying.
- tpm 4y agoMost free radicals are products of reactions inside the body and the body does have mechanisms to deal with them, even if not 100% sometimes.