Do Free Radicals Cause Inflammation?

Ok, let's find out what those Free Radicals are all about.

This is going to sound a lot like how I explained antioxidants:

• "The human body is made up of cells, cells are made up of molecules, molecules are made up of atoms, atoms are made up of protons and electrons.

  Oxidative Damage is when one of those atoms loses an electron."

The everyday word for "oxidizing" is . . . Rust. Oxidizing also happens to food, like when you cut open an apple and it turns brown.

When it happens to human bodies (your human body) it makes you old. And when you get "old" or when you "age", sickness and disease come along with it.

"Oxidants" are a normal by-product of the chemical process of the human body but if left unchecked they roam around your body and try to "steal" the electron they lost from other healthy cells. That is where antioxidants come to the rescue.

As you've seen on the flavonoids page, there is a whole list of unhealthy conditions that this can lead to.

Isn't it interesting that the common denominator of all those different illnesses is Inflammation?

Whether it is outwardly obvious like a swollen joint or on a cellular level as in heart related problems, the word Inflammation always comes up.

Good thing for us that antioxidants are a great anti-inflammatory.

Free Radical Damage is caused by all kinds of different things including breathing too much. Or maybe it is too hard . . . either way, what do we do? We have to breathe. The more oxygen we get the more we oxidize.

What I am referring to is extreme physical exertion as in sports or manual labor.

But what is even more alarming is that most of this "rusting" that is happening to you and me comes from all kinds of environmental sources: smoking, drinking (alcohol), bad air, bad water, weird pesticides and antibiotics and hormones added to our food, too much sun, lack of sleep, everyday stress and the list goes on.

Every human body on the planet is experiencing Free Radical Damage to one degree or another.

And it gets worse. The worse it gets, the worse it gets. As you continue to age, your ability to fight this damage becomes less and less effective.

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