Thursday, June 7, 2012

WHAT IS A FREE RADICAL & WHAT DOES IT DO?

WHAT IS A FREE RADICAL & WHAT DOES IT DO?
 
For many years the existence of free radicals in biological systems was dismissed as either non-existent or simply an unimportant curiosity. However, more recently due to improved investigational techniques, this view has changed rather dramatically. Currently, free radicals have found a place in the aetiology of many diseases and there is a great deal of enthusiasm regarding the role of free radicals in many previously unexplained disease phenomena. To name a few important areas; free radicals have found a role in the rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, hypertension, myocardial ischemia, liver cell injury and carcinogenesis.


The reason as to why the role of free radicals has been so ambiguous is probably due to their ultra-short half-life. However, free radicals have finally come into existence through the use of more sophisticated methods of assay.

The fact that they are highly reactive means that they have low chemical specificity; i.e. they can react with most molecules in its vicinity. This includes proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and DNA. It also means that in trying to gain stability by capturing the needed electron they don't survive in their original state for very long and quickly react with their surroundings. Hence, free radicals attack the nearest stable molecule, "stealing" its electron. When the "attacked" molecule loses its electron, it becomes a free radical itself, beginning a chain reaction. Once the process is started, it can cascade, finally resulting in the disruption of a living cell.

Antioxidants are molecules which can safely interact with free radicals and terminate the chain reaction before vital molecules are damaged. Although there are several enzyme systems within the body that scavenge free radicals, the principle micronutrients cannot be processed fast enough to keep up with these free radicals that are occurring each second of the day.  This happens more and more as we age, so in effect, our bodies own aging causes the advancement of harmful free radicals and then the free radicals cause us to age faster and over 200 diseases are tied to free radicals so far. 
This is when Protandim comes into play.

The two most important oxygen-centered free radicals are superoxide and hydroxyl radical. They are derived from molecular oxygen under reducing conditions. However, because of their reactivity, these same free radicals can participate in unwanted side reactions resulting in cell damage. Many forms of cancer are thought to be the result of reactions between free radicals and DNA, resulting in mutations that can adversely affect the cell cycle and potentially lead to malignancy. Some of the symptoms of aging such as atherosclerosis are also attributed to free-radical induced oxidation of many of the chemicals making up the body. In addition free radicals contribute to alcohol-induced liver damage, perhaps more than alcohol itself.  Radicals in cigarette smoke have been implicated in inactivation of alpha 1-antitrypsin in the lung.  This process promotes the development of emphysema.

Free radicals may also be involved in Parkinson's disease, senile and drug-induced deafness, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's. The classic free-radical syndrome, the iron-storage disease hemochromatosis, is typically associated with a constellation of free-radical-related symptoms including movement disorder, psychosis, skin pigmentary melanin abnormalities, deafness, arthritis, and diabetes mellitus.

Science Driven!


Scientists agree that aging and many deadly diseases are the result of cellular deterioration due to rogue molecules called free-radicals .

Free-radical damage is known as Oxidative Stress or Oxidative Damage. Protandim fights the free radicals that cause aging!

PROTANDIM is the only supplement clinically proven to reduce oxidative stress by an average 40%, slowing down the cell aging process to the level of a 20 year-old.* Protandim is not a conventional antioxidant supplement. Each Protandim caplet contains a unique combination of phytonutrients that signal the body’s genes to produce its own antioxidant enzymes, which provides thousands of times more antioxidant power than any food or conventional antioxidant supplement.

A Look at Free Radicals

Obviously, even back in the early days of man, free radicals existed and caused oxidative stress.
They're inherent to life and a normal byproduct of regular oxygen molecule metabolism. However, our bodies were only made to withstand so much exposure to free radicals (even though our body does an amazing job at neutralizing them in a normal, low-toxin setting).
The increased and prolonged exposure to these wild and reckless free radicals cause a faster build-up of "rust" or disease in our bodies.
So what are some of the most common reasons our bodies' oxygen molecules oxidize themselves into an increased amount of free radicals? Some of them you're probably well aware of, and some of them may come as a surprise.

  • Environmental & Air Pollution
  • Cigarette Smoking
  • Excess Stress
  • Prescription & Over the Counter Medications
  • Radiation
  • Increased Exposure to Sunlight
  • Excessive Exercise

THE REAL STORY ON FREE RADICALS.

 
Very few individuals, if any, reach their potential maximum life span; they die instead prematurely of a wide variety of diseases--the vast majority being "free radical" diseases.

--Denham Harmon, M.D., Ph.D., who in 1954 first proposed the Free Radical Theory of aging


Honey, take a look at this. You might find it interesting."

Great moments in human history often begin inauspiciously. Such was the case in December 1945, when the wife of Denham Harmon handed him the latest issue of the Ladies' Home Journal.  It was opened to an article titled "Tomorrow You May Be Younger," written by William L. Laurence, science editor of the New York Times.  This article, heralding the work of a Russian gerontologist on an "anti-reticular cytotoxic serum," sparked Dr. Harmon's interest in finding an answer to the riddle of aging--a subject that scientists of the time knew absolutely nothing about.   Even to this day most MD’s know very little about Free Radicals/Oxidative Stress.

For the next nine years, Dr. Harmon, a brilliant young organic chemist with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, ruminated about the aging process.

Because aging is such a universal phenomenon, he reasoned that it might have a single basic cause. But what could it be?  The answer eluded him.

Though still obsessed with the question, he had to place it on the back burner while he completed medical school and an internship at Stanford University.  Then one morning in November 1954, during a period in which he was simultaneously completing his residency in internal medicine and doing research at Berkeley's Donner Laboratory, Dr. Harmon's quest ended.  That day, while reading in his office, he had an "aha" experience that would revolutionize medical science: "(It) suddenly occurred to me that free radical reactions, however initiated, could be responsible for the progressive deterioration of biological systems." of course, sometimes even the best ideas are slow to be accepted. This one didn't exactly inspire words of praise--not at first, anyway. After thinking it over for a month, Dr. Harmon strolled the Berkeley campus, knocking on doors and presenting his newly formulated Free Radical Theory to his colleagues. To say that it was a hard sell would be an understatement. He might have had more success had he been hawking vacuum cleaners.

The scientists whom Dr. Harmon approached were singularly unimpressed. In fact, all but two flatly rejected his idea. One after another, they slammed the door in the face of the young upstart, who dared challenge the status quo with the preposterous notion that all degenerative disease--and the aging process itself--could be explained by the presence of free radicals.

Undaunted, Dr. Harmon pursued his theory. In subsequent years, he demonstrated how the effects of free radicals are reversed by nutrients known as antioxidants, how antioxidants extend the life spans of laboratory animals, and how antioxidants offer protection against heart disease, cancer, senile brain disease, and all other degenerative conditions associated with aging. Dr. Harmon proved that age-related immune deficiency is caused by free radicals and can be reversed by antioxidants.

In terms of scientific significance, Dr. Harmon's Free Radical Theory ranks with Galileo's invention of the telescope, Newton's discovery of gravity, and Einstein's theory of relativity. No breakthrough has had more profound implications for human health and longevity.

Now in his mid-eighties and still professionally active, Dr. Harmon deserves the Nobel Prize for his revolutionary work.
 


Free Radicals: Longevity's Most Formidable Foe  
 Dr. Harmon's Free Radical Theory has emerged as the best understood and most widely accepted explanation of the aging process. Having stood the test of time and countless research validations, it has become not just a damage theory but the damage theory. (You'll recall from chapter 1 that according to damage theories, cumulative cellular damage determines a person's age of death.) In fact, among doctors specializing in anti-aging medicine, Free Radical Theory has transcended mere theory status and is considered a biological fact of life.

Just what are these free radicals, anyway? Understanding where they come from, and why and how they do so much damage, requires a brief lesson in biochemistry.

Molecules are made up of atoms glued together by chemical bonds. Each bond consists of a pair of electrons. When a bond is broken, what's left are two molecular fragments, each of which contains one of the now unpaired electrons. These molecular fragments are highly charged and highly unstable, because they contain only one electron rather than two. These highly charged, highly unstable, highly reactive particles are what we know as free radicals.

Unfortunately for us humans, the biochemical saga of free radicals doesn't end there. Remember, each free radical contains one unpaired electron. And unpaired electrons, like unpaired humans, hate to be alone. They want a partner, and they're not above breaking up another bond to get what they want. Scientists call this process oxidation, and free radicals are masters at it. They're not particularly discriminating about where they get their new partners, either. They'll oxidize just about anything that gets in their way--punching holes in cell membranes, destroying key enzymes, and fracturing DNA.

What's more, free radicals are remarkably prolific. One free radical, unchecked, can cause new ones to form. These free radicals, in turn, give rise to many more. How does this happen?

Because it has so much energy, a free radical zips about until it bangs into a nearby molecule with a stable bond.  The collision splits the stable molecule, releasing one of its two electrons.  The free radical nabs the electron as a partner for its own unpaired electron, and the two form a stable bond. All this happens, quite literally, within nanoseconds.

The good news is that the free radical has stabilized itself. The bad news is that in doing so, it may have caused the formation of two more free radicals by breaking a stable bond, leaving the two atoms of the formerly stable molecule to share one unpaired electron.  So begins a chain reaction that produces thousands of molecular fragments with unpaired electrons.  And every one of these fragments is careening about, looking to swipe an electron from an unsuspecting stable molecule.

To get a clearer understanding of how free radicals multiply, imagine a football stadium filled to the brim with mousetraps, each mousetrap loaded with a Ping-Pong ball.  If you drop one Ping-Pong ball into the stadium, it springs one mousetrap, causing it to fling its ball into the air.  Then you have two loose Ping-Pong balls, which spring two more mousetraps. Within a matter of seconds, all of the mousetraps are sprung, and all of the balls are loose.

Now if all those mousetraps were stable molecules, and all those Ping-Pong balls were free radicals, you would have just witnessed a free radical free-for-all.

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