Rapid Fat Loss Diets

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Elements of Destruction to the Body Understood

By Dr. Lorna Mistranski

To understand the way that free radicals and antioxidants interact, you must first understand a bit about cells and molecules. This is a quick course in Physiology/Chemistry lesson: The human body is composed of many different types of cells.

Cells are composed of many different types of molecules. Molecules consist of one or more atoms of one or more elements joined by chemical bonds.

Atoms are made up of a nucleus, protons, electrons, and neutrons. The number positively charged particles (protons) in the nucleus of the atom is what determines how many negatively charged particles (electron) will surround the atom.

Electrons are responsible for the chemical reactions that take place inside the atom as well as the substance that holds the atom together to form molecules. Electrons orbit the atom in one or more shells.

When two electrons are present, the innermost shell is full. When the firat shell is completely occupied, the electrons begin to fill the second shell and son..

The most important structural characteristic of an atom for determining its chemical behavior is the number of electrons in its outer shell.

An atom that has a full outer shell does not enter in chemical reactions. Atoms seek to reach a state of maximum stability by one of the following:

Loose or pick up electrons to either empty or fill the outer shell

Bonding with other atoms to share electrons to complete the outer shell

Atoms regularly complete their outer shells by sharing electrons with other atoms. Sharing electrons allows the atoms that are bound together to satisfy the conditions of maximum stability for the molecule.

Usually when a split occurs, it never leaves the molecule with an odd, unpaired set of electrons. However, when bond does split, free radicals are created--they tend to move and react quickly to other compounds as they begin to attempt to capture as many electrons as they can to achieve maximum stability.

The most common way free radicals attack is by finding the closest molecule that is stable and from there they begin the process of stealing electrons. When the molecule that is attacked starts losing the electrons, it becomes a free radical as well. When this process begins, it creates a chain reaction in which the end result is a disruption of a living cell.

During metabolism, free radicals will normally arise--there are even times when the body will naturally create free radicals for situations like neutralizing viruses and bacteria. Another way free radicals enter the body is by pollution such as radiation, smoke, and insecticides.

The body usually defends these free radicals well, however when antioxidants are not available or free radical damage becomes too excessive, cell damage can occur. The most significant importance to this free radical damage is that it accelerates the aging process in humans - 17273

About the Author:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home