There are three (3) types of Free Rad­i­cals that we need to be con­cerned about that are Oxy­gen based;

1. Super Oxide Rad­i­cal - This lit­tle beast has lim­ited reac­tiv­ity and is neu­tral­ized quickly
2.  Hydroxl Rad­i­cal — Now this crea­ture is highly reac­tive and attacks all mol­e­cules in the body
3. Per­oxyl Rad­i­cal — This is the Mon­ster formed when a Hydroxl Rad­i­cal attacks an oxy­gen mol­e­cule and is able to link up with other Per­oxyl Rad­i­cals result­ing in direct dam­age to the pro­tec­tive mem­brane of the cell (Cell Wall)
4. Alkoxyl rad­i­cal — Now this ter­ror is formed when the Per­oxyl Rad­i­cal Degrades after attack­ing the cell wall and launches a direct attack on your DNA result­ing in aging and sickness.

Now you under­stand the War rav­aging in your body at all times and this is why nutri­tion is so impor­tant. Proper nutri­tion sta­tions an “Army of Antiox­i­dants” ready to repel and neu­tral­ize Free Rad­i­cals as they attack.

Again, Overeat­ing is the Major Cause of Free Radicals

The key to con­trol the Free Rad­i­cals cre­ated by Cel­lu­lar Res­pi­ra­tion is through the intake of water, antiox­i­dant sup­ple­ments  and veg­eta­bles which con­tain the antiox­i­dants and hydro­gen needed to neu­tral­ize the reac­tive oxy­gen gen­er­ated from this process.  Hint – Not all water is the same. The bet­ter the qual­ity of water and veg­eta­bles, the fewer free rad­i­cals you will develop.

You don’t really have a choice, eat veg­eta­bles or veg­etable juice and drink enough water  to live a long healthy life or die young while liv­ing a life full of health ailments.

Causes of Free Radicals

Free Rad­i­cals are also caused by injuries and stress.  They can also be caused tox­ins intro­duced into the body through smok­ing, radi­a­tion such as X-Rays, Cell Phones, Wi-Fi devices, the Sun, Pol­lu­tion, Your Diet, Viruses, Bac­te­ria to name a few.

Where are they?  Is your skin sup­ple smooth and glow­ing or does it look like a war is rag­ing?  It does not have to be a big war mind you.  How­ever, if you notice some­thing is unbal­anced you need to get it in check.

The eas­i­est way to check this bal­ance is to first stop and lis­ten to your body. Do you have lit­tle pains or big ones? Do you have a bruise? Are you tired? Does your skin glow?

Pain and fatigue are not nor­mal or some­thing you just learn to live with.  It is your body telling you to do some­thing; we are fight­ing a bat­tle over here. The amount of pain or level of fatigue tells you how big the bat­tle is.  Your body is always at war. The idea is to always have a stand­ing army of Antiox­i­dants, Amino Acids, Vit­a­mins and Min­er­als stand­ing by to pro­tect you.

Let’s try another test.  Pinch the skin on the back of your hand and hold it for a count of ten.  When you release it, your skin should snap back in place quickly.  If not get started on your fruits and veg­eta­bles NOW!!!

How do Free Rad­i­cals cause damage?

Free Rad­i­cal Steal­ing an Elec­tron through Attraction

1. Hard­en­ing of the arter­ies, which is not so much about the amount of cho­les­terol as it is about Free Rad­i­cals oxi­diz­ing the cho­les­terol present.
2. Pen­e­tra­tion of the Cell wall result­ing in death of the cell
3. Directly attack­ing the DNA caus­ing destruc­tion or mutation
4. Mutat­ing your Mito­chon­dria DNA (mtDNA)
5. Joint Inflam­ma­tions
6. Dis­ease and sickness

 On the other side of the coin, exer­cise increases the num­ber of Free Rad­i­cals, so it is impor­tant that you drink enough water, which con­tains the mother of all antiox­i­dants “Hydro­gen”.  This activ­ity is only checked by Antiox­i­dants, which is another arti­cle.  There is also a good side to Free Rad­i­cals.  Some­times the body cre­ates them to attach them­selves to viruses and bad bac­te­ria. In this role they act as mark­ers let­ting white blood cells know where the invaders are. The White Blood Cells attack the fight invaders in the body and expel them through the lym­phatic system.

How do Antiox­i­dants Work?

Antiox­i­dants in their most potent form are sta­ble mol­e­cules and atoms with or with­out an elec­tron.  They loan the Free Rad­i­cal their elec­tron and sta­bi­lize it.  After this the antiox­i­dant breaks down nat­u­rally.  In a 2008 radom­ized study reported by the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion it was reported that Vit­a­mins C & E were inef­fec­tive in pre­vent­ing Can­cer. This is highly con­tro­ver­sial and there are con­cerns that the study was flawed in its selec­tion of can­di­dates.   What I note is the treat­ment of vit­a­mins like they are a med­ica­tion used like a shot and not part of  a nor­mal diet. The Shak­lee Cor­po­ra­tion con­ducted and financed a long term study on the use of full spec­trum vit­a­mins which in fact showed a marked decrease in car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease and inci­dence of can­cer.   Are these stud­ies impor­tant?  I guess that will depend if they can hold up over time.  At one time they told us caf­feine was bad for us and now they are say­ing decaf­feinated cof­fee is worse and nor­mal cof­fee helps your mem­ory.  As stated in the Greet­ing, ” There is no sus­tain­able magic bul­let”.  It is all about lifestyle and a full spec­trum of ongo­ing processes that will pro­long life.  This is why under­stand­ing the 4 prin­ci­ples is important. 

It has also been deter­mined that Vit­a­min C and Vit­a­min E  once thought to be sta­ble com­pounds after neu­tral­iz­ing Free Rad­i­cals are not.  They become Free Rad­i­cals after giv­ing up an elec­tron.  They are how­ever cru­cial in build­ing enzymes and cel­lu­lar struc­tures that pro­tect the cells from the oxida­tive dam­age  caused by Free Rad­i­cals.  This then gives them the prop­er­ties of a Pre­ven­ta­tive and Retar­dant Antioxidant.  They just don’t work alone.   You need a “Stand­ing Army of Antiox­i­dants” which is the next post. It takes one antiox­i­dant atom for each Free Rad­i­cal Atom, this is why con­scious con­tin­u­ous action is nec­es­sary for Human Longevity unless some­one is drop­ping Goji Berries in your water well. The human body is a finely tuned machine which requires daily maintenance.

There are three forms of Antioxidants;

1. Pre­ven­ta­tive — Com­pounds which act­ing with oth­ers build up the cel­lu­lar struc­ture and pre­vent oxi­da­tion from occurring
2. Retar­dant — Com­pounds which act to slow the chain reac­tion of Free Radicals
3. Chain Break­ing — Com­pounds which com­pletely neu­tral­ize Free Rad­i­cals and become a non reac­tive com­pound or atom

We hope this has been an enlight­en­ing arti­cle and we wel­come any com­ments you may have.

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