Are all free radicals bad guys?

"Free radicals" are notorious as the "source of all diseases". Many medical studies have proven the relationship between free radicals and inflammation, chronic diseases, cancer and other diseases. In order to combat this "source of all diseases", we use many antioxidants to eliminate free radicals in the body. But are free radicals all bad?

Message transmitter in the human body

There are many kinds of free radicals in the human body, and now some of them ( such as O 2 ‧ - , H 2 O 2 , ‧ NO) have been proven to be indispensable "message conductors" in the human body.

For example, NO ( nitric oxide free radical) is a messaging molecule in the central nervous system that can control the body's immune function.

Nitric oxide molecules are very small and can easily pass through the cell membrane of vascular endothelial cells. After receiving the message, the smooth muscle cells around the blood vessels will relax, dilating the blood vessels and allowing a large amount of blood to pass through. The nervous system will also be strengthened by the stimulation of nitric oxide. effect.

American medical scholars Robert F. Furchgott , Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad also won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1998 for their discovery of the effect of nitric oxide on blood vessel dilation, which was a major breakthrough in signaling molecules in the cardiovascular system.

Excessive production of "bad free radicals"

Since nitric oxide ( NO) has so many benefits, isn’t the more the better? Even substances that are helpful to the human body can cause harm to the body as long as they are overdosed.

In order to fight free radicals, our bodies have various enzymes that convert them. Taking superoxide dismutase (SOD) as an example, it can convert the highly toxic ‧ O2 − into the less toxic H 2 O 2 . However, if there is too much ‧ O2 − that exceeds the SOD load and there is a lot of nitric oxide in the body, it will react to produce very toxic ONOO − (peroxynitrite ) . ONOO − can cause changes in the permeability of the mitochondrial membrane, causing the outflow of calcium ions and blocking the production of ATP ; it can also cause single-strand breaks in DNA , leading to cell death due to lack of energy.

Catalase , like SOD , can catalyze H 2 O 2 into oxygen and water without causing harm to the human body; H 2 O 2 itself can also transmit messages or perform necessary oxidation reactions in cells. Helpful for the body. However, if there is too much H 2 O 2 and exceeds the load of Catalase , it will react with ‧ O2 − to produce the most toxic OH • ( hydroxyl radical ) .

It can be seen from the above two examples that substances that are originally beneficial to the human body will be converted into free radicals that are harmful to the human body due to excessive concentration. As mentioned in many previous articles, hydrogen molecules can selectively neutralize highly toxic free radicals without reacting with essential free radicals in the human body.

Do you want to successfully resist oxidation without destroying the natural redox balance within the human body? Book a UPH hydrogen breathing experience now to learn about what international scholars call the “near-perfect anti-synthetic agent”!