Free Radicals: Prevent Cell Damage

Every day we see changes, for example: an apple turns brown, meat becomes rancid, or a cut on our skin becomes raw and inflamed. All these are examples of oxidation, this is a natural process and as it happens in nature it can happen in our body. Just like oxidation affects living tissue, free radical molecules (molecules that have oxidized) can affect our body in many ways.

Free Radicals: Cell Damage

Free radicals is a term used to describe an atoms or group of atoms that are damaged (they have and odd number of electrons) and can be problematic. Free radicals are formed when oxygen interacts with certain molecules, once these are formed, highly reactive radicals can start a chain reaction. In short, these molecules will rob any molecules to quench their needs.

To help our body protect itself from the harmful effects oxidation or free radical molecules can cause, Mother Nature has provide us thousands of different antioxidants, these are found in various amounts and shapes, either in fruits, legumes, nuts, vegetables, and/or whole grains. Today antioxidants are crucial to our health, especially in today’s toxic environment.

Danger of Free Radicals

As we have mention, Free Radical can happen at any time of the day; the birth and death of cells in our body is something that happens naturally and continuously.
When Free Radical molecules attack, these don’t only kill cells to acquire their missing molecule. Free Radicals often injure the cell, they damage the DNA and can lead to numerous diseases. Normally our body produces small amounts of free radicals, these are generally not a problem; our body is able to kept them under control by the antioxidants it naturally produces.

When external toxins enter our body they can trigger the production of free radical molecules, toxin can be found in air pollution, cigarette smoke, pesticides found in water or food, or drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. In time, these molecules can damage our body that damage can lead to a host of chronic diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, cancer, heart disease, Parkinson's disease and other diseases.

How Antioxidants Help Prevent Diseases

In today society, we need to get more antioxidants in our diet than ever before. Today the oxidative burden is much, much higher than it was 200 years ago, something that all of us should take into consideration. If you follow the USDA advice to eat multiple servings of fruits and vegetables you will be able to fight the harmful effect free radicals or environmental toxins can cause.

FACT: Because of today’s harmful environment, we need to consume external antioxidants, our body simply doesn't produce enough antioxidants to help prevent diseases.

How do antioxidants help us? Antioxidants help us to stop the damaging, disease-causing chain reaction that free radicals cause. Antioxidants can either prevent the chain reaction or stop it after is has started.

Let’s Have a Healthy Diet

In a previous post we learn that we are what we eat and the importance of having a healthy diet. However, it’s not always easy to know the appropriate quantities we should eat. A tool that we can use is MyPlate, a nutritional guide provided to us by the United States Department of Agriculture.

For more information we invite you to read our post: We are what we Eat, So Let's Have a Healthy Diet

By getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals, we can neutralize the harmful effects Free Radicals can effect. Another way one can obtain the correct amount of vitamins and minerals is by purchasing multivitamins and vitamin supplements, these will provide the body with an antioxidant boost. Yet be careful, getting too much of some supplements, can be harmful. We invite you to contact the family doctor, do not auto medicate yourself, instead ask your doctor which supplements you need and the correct amount you need.

For the largest dental clinic in Los Algodones, Sani Dental Group, not only is your oral health important but also your body’s health. Our dental clinic wants you to have a healthy body, free of disease and toxins. We invite you to come to Los Algodones, take care of all your oral needs and for more information on How Antioxidants Help Prevent Diseases, we invite you to read our blog.