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What are the Benefits and Harmful Effects of Free Radicals?

What are Free Radicals and why do they matter?


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A few diseases, damage in tissues and one’s DNA, clogged arteries, and even aging can be brought about by free radicals. These elements can certainly make you look older than your actual age and can even give you a weaker immune system but why is that so?

Because of the unstable characteristic of these elements, they have the capacity to destroy other molecules and turn them into harmful radicals as well. They steal electrons from them decreasing the efficiency of those molecules in your body. Thus, to prevent that from happening to your system, all you need to do is to eat nutritious foods that are rich in antioxidants.

However, believe or not, radicals can also bring benefits to your body. They help the phagocytes in your white blood cells in eliminating the pathogens and bacteria in your system and they can also serve as reliable cellular messengers.

Sources of Harmful Radicals:

• herbicides
• cleaners
• smoking
• other pollutants

Diseases That You Can Possibly Get from Radicals:

• stroke
• heart disease
• some types of cancer

Having harmful radicals in your body doesn’t make you completely entitled to the diseases mentioned above. In fact, additional research is still being conducted by scientists to verify the connection of these ailments with the presence radicals in a human’s system.

The Role of Antioxidants

Antioxidants doesn’t get totally get rid of radicals in your body since these elements are still essential in your system. They simply serve as a large wall preventing harmful radicals from roaming around and infecting other molecules.

Beta-carotene, vitamins E and A are the elements which contain the antioxidants that you can find in most fruits and vegetables. Artificial supplements can also provide you with antioxidants but your system will actually take longer to absorb them compared to natural food sources.
Oct 27th, 2012 at 6:13 AM
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