Doubt cast on free radical theory????

[Guest guest]

, " pawpurr256 "

<pawpurr256> wrote

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3485508.stm

> Doubt cast on free radical theory> BBC News, UK edition

> Last Updated: Thursday, 26 February, 2004, 02:26 GMT

 

> Scientists have questioned a widely accepted theory for a cause of

> diseases such as cancer and arthritis.

> Many experts believe that molecules called free radicals, produced

> when the body fights infection, inflict damage on the body's

> tissues > Drugs have been developed to mop up these excess amounts

of the molecules, and thus prevent damage and disease.

 

Good Afternoon,

 

Obviously, those who are attempting to undermine the theory of free

radicals do not fully understand the concept behind them. The

preceding article stated, among other things:

 

> " Drugs have been developed to mop up these excess amounts of the

> molecules, and thus prevent damage and disease " .

 

 

Doctors will acknowledge that free radicals are the basic cause of

disease, but since they don't have any drugs to treat free radicals

with, orthodox medicine continues to administer allopathic drugs

which are, themselves, *sources* of even more free radicals!

It has a label as well. I believe " contraindication " (side effect)

is the more technical term for this.

 

To quote from the original text:

 

> " As a result the pharmaceutical industry has, since the 1970s,

sought

> to develop *antioxidant drugs* that can either stop the production

>of free radicals, or mop them up once they have been created to

>prevent them causing tissue damage. "

 

According to this information, there are drugs under development

regarded as " Antioxidant drugs " ???? Quite the contrary, allopathic

medicine is constantly reminding us that vitamins and antioxidants

are NOT at ALL effective in counteracting or healing disease. This

statement doesn't make any sense. Why would orthodox medicine seek

to develop an antioxidant drug, when they don't even acknowledge

their efficacy?

 

The article goes on to say...

> " The researchers discovered that it is not free radicals that give

> white blood cells their destructive power " ….,

 

A VERY MISLEADING statement which only further confuses the issue of

free radicals and their destructive nature within our bodies....

 

Free radicals give white blood cells their destructive power?? Noone

has ever claimed that they do. Free radicals are the harmful

components that our bodies are attempting to DESTROY!! They are the

invaders! Why would they work in conjunction with the white blood

cells to destroy themselves??!! The preceding statement is carefully

formulated to confuse and distort and simply doesn't make any sense

to anyone who has a comprehensive view of free radicals!

 

 

> " Many experts believe that molecules called free radicals,

produced when the body fights infection, inflict damage on the

body's tissues " .

 

They are everywhere, and yes they do inflict damage on our tissues.

So, you do need to learn about " anti- oxidants. " As more and more

free radicals hit the membrane of a cell, and as more and more of

the oxygen in the cholesterol get " oxidized " that cell wall, the

membrane, becomes less and less able to function as it should.

 

What might happen?

 

Well, that cell membrane has to allow water and nutrients to enter

the cell, and has to allow the garbage and waste products of the

cell to leave the cell.

Both of these actions mean that the membrane allows passage of

materials (mostly water with other stuff included) to move through

it. If the membrane is damaged by free radicals, that " passage " may

not work properly. One consequence of this might be that " garbage "

accumulates inside the cell and it dies in a sea of " toxic " waste!

 

Or, the cell may not be able to take in nutrients and it

could " starve " to death.

These health problems for that one cell translate, as millions of

cells are affected, to health problems you perceive in your body as

any one of hundreds of different diseases.

 

All cells in the body have a " skin " or " membrane " as an outer shell.

This is the shell which contains all the components of the cell and

which allows the cell to exist as a separate living entity. This

membrane is mostly made of good (HDL) cholesterol -- a very

important building material used by the body. The cell uses good

cholesterol, and in fact can even manufacture cholesterol, to build

the cell membrane. Cholesterol, itself, includes oxygen as part of

its chemical make- up.

In a loose sense you could say that the cells in your body are made

with a skin of fat -- since cholesterol is just a name for a

particular type of fat.

 

Fat is particularly vulnerable to being damaged by free radicals.

The damage is typically caused by some free radical hitting the

membrane of the cell and " stealing " one electron from some atom of

oxygen in that membrane.

 

When that happens the cholesterol is referred to as " oxidized. "

 

The term " oxidized " simply means that the oxygen in some substance

has lost an electron and has taken on a positive electrical charge.

That oxygen atom, then, has, itself, become a free radical, trying

to get another electron somewhere so that it can again

be " balanced. "

 

As more and more free radicals hit the membrane of a cell, and as

more and more of the oxygen in the cholesterol get " oxidized " that

cell wall, the membrane, becomes less and less able to function as

it should.

 

Free radicals come from many *sources*.

 

One of the primary types of damage caused by free radicals traces

back to radiation. In other words X-Rays, microwaves or other types

of radiation radiation hit the body and create free radicals inside

the body.

These are free radicals which, in turn, grab some loose electron

from somewhere, and thus create a new free radical. This process is

described as a " chain reaction " because one free

radical can be neutralized and create a new free radical which is

then neutralized, etc.

 

These actions take place in a tiny amount of time -- less than a

millionth of a second.

Thus, one free radical may " exist " for only a very tiny amount of

time, but one free radical can set off a chain reaction of millions

more free radicals being created and then neutralized.

 

Free radicals exist in our foods, primarily refined processed foods,

fried foods (acrylamides), pharmaceutical drugs (chemicals), and in

addition oxygen free radicals are introduced into the body from

environmental pollutants!

They are everywhere, and yes they do inflict damage on our tissues.

 

So, you do need to learn about " anti- oxidants. " What that word

means is " against " oxygen. This is so because the most common form

of dangerous free radicals is OXYGEN.

 

Since oxygen is the most common type of free radical (there are

others, too), the method of neutralizing all free radicals has taken

on the name " anti " " oxygen " or " anti-oxidant. " These substances are

ONLY against the `free radical' form of oxygen.

 

There are substances which neutralize free radicals.

 

The best known is probably Vitamin C, Selenium and Pine Bark

extract, or grape seed extract but there are others as well.

Cysteine and N Acetyl Cysteine actually eliminate a SOURCE of free

radicals and thus is better than a substance which neutralizes free

radicals. But, you still need to neutralize the remaining free

radicals because the Cysteine only gets ONE of the many sources of

free radicals in your body.

 

Free radical biology is closely related to radiation biology since

70-80% of the effect of radiation on cells is due to the production

of free radicals.

 

The study of free radicals has become of extreme interest because of

the role of free radicals in a large number of diseases and

pathological states. As examples, cancer, aging, heart attack,

stroke, diabetes, and Lou Gehrig's disease all have a free radical

component to their mechanism of injury.

 

When the free radicals initiate the " oxidation " of the cholesterol

 

(also called, technically, the lipid peroxidation chain reaction)

the excessive energy damages even the proteins in the membrane.

 

As a result the membrane does not properly function to take

nutrients into the cell and to remove waste products, and so the

cell cannot reproduce itself and dies due to starvation or drowning

in waste products.

 

This type of damage accelerates the aging process as tissues lose

their function due to the steadily decreasing number of cells.

 

Each cell contains a blueprint by which it causes a new cell to be

created.

 

This is very much like the birth of a baby. The cell has this

blueprint and when the time comes, the cell uses that blueprint to

build a new (baby) cell.

The blueprint is often referred to as the " DNA " (deoxyribonucleic

acid) of the cell. It is an extremely complex molecule with

thousands of atoms connected together in all sorts of complicated

ways.

 

This mass of atoms, each with its own supply of electrons, is all

connected. You could say that it is one large molecule (since a

molecule is nothing more than two or more atoms connected in some

way). [The picture resembles the DNA structure.] This large and

complex molecule, as I said, has zillions of electrons within it.

 

Again, you can get the idea that the large balls are different

atoms, connected together.

The connections, themselves, differ as to how strong they are, or

how weak.

If JUST ONE of those electrons is taken away by some wandering free

radical, that entire DNA MIGHT become defective.

It might also have so little effect that the DNA is still fully

functional for cell reproduction.

 

But, with the zillions of free radicals hitting that DNA molecule,

you can bet that once in a while some vitally important electron is

taken away. That might mean that this ONE CELL cannot reproduce. OR,

it might mean that this one cell will reproduce but will reproduce

as a

CANCER Cell!

 

Yes, cancer is nothing more than cells which reproduce in an

abnormally fast rate --

because the DNA blueprint has been altered by free radical damage.

 

Basically all disease has some connection with damage done to the

individual cells in the body.

 

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the genetic material that builds the

enzymes that build the structure of the body.

 

When DNA is damaged it may make mutated enzymes that may not be able

to function, and cells cannot be reproduced. Again, this would

accelerate the aging

process.

 

Free radicals can also weld molecules together - much like putting

handcuffs on them - so they don't function properly. When free

radicals weld molecules of the skin protein collagen together, the

skin looses its elasticity and smoothness and becomes stiff and

wrinkled.

 

When free radical problems first began to understood many decades

ago, there was an urgent search for substances which would

neutralize free radical.

 

Vitamin C has long been known as a " free

radical scavenger, " as have many other vitamins as well. But,

science found more. One that was a very popular fad just starting a

few years ago was an extract from the bark of a

particular pine tree that grows in France and Canada.

 

That substance has come to be known by the commercial and

trademarked name of

Pycnogenol. The scientist who discovered the pine bark extract

failed to protect

his discovery and it was taken over, and then patented, by the

people who trademarked the name Pycnogenol. Because the name was

protected, this one product got lots of publicity and sales.

 

But, that same scientist also discovered that an extract of grape

seeds gave the same free radical fighting power as the extract from

pine bark.

You'll find Pycnogenol being sold by hundreds of companies, but all

must buy from the single source that has trademarked that name.

 

Since " grape seed extract " never got its own fancy name, and since

it has the same power as Pycnogenol, you can find grape seed extract

sold by many more companies, and generally at prices quite a bit

lower than Pycnogenol.

 

But, the search has been on for years to find more and better " free

radical scavengers. "

 

The Japanese have been heavily involved in this type of research for

years and you can read about a Japanese machine which

converts ordinary tap water into a powerful and effective source of

negative electrical particles which can easily combine with free

radicals and thus neutralize them.

 

In summary, your body is bombarded with free radicals -- coming in

from external sources.

 

These include cigarette smoke, smog and any one of millions of toxic

substances which you take into your body with food or water or

breathing.

The sun, itself, as well as all types of radiation, cause free

radicals to be produced inside the body.

 

As these free radicals move through the body at very high speed,

they are " looking " for an electron to make their status balanced.

 

I speak of these as if they were alive! They are not! But, the

mechanical and electromagnetic action of these particles makes them

appear to be " evil " and alive!

The mechanism is one of simple attraction between a negatively

charged particle and a positively charged particle.

 

It is not mysterious, but it happens at such a level of small size,

and in

such great quantity that people often refer to free radicals as if

they were living, evil creatures.

 

The process of neutralizing a free radical is also not at all

mysterious or complicated. A free radical is neutralized, simply,

but acquiring one electron

from somewhere.

 

That is the end of the problems caused by THAT free radical. But,

it is the beginning of the problems caused by the NEW free radical

that was created because some particle gave up an electron and thus

became a positively charged particle.

 

 

The use of free radical " modulators " (like Vitamin C and other

antioxidants) in the prevention and treatment of these diseases is

under close investigation at this time including clinical trials.

 

Research ranges from studies of the fundamental chemistry of free

radical reactions, to antioxidant enzymes (their biophysics,

biochemistry, biology and molecular biology), to free radical

pathology, to even epidemiological studies.

 

It is a broad area of research with many opportunities.

 

Best Regards, JoAnn

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

DietaryTipsForHBP

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest