Health & Wellness

Recently there has been a ton of build up about antioxidants: drink green tea, eat pomegranates, try acai juice! All the hype is not totally overrated, evidence has been shown that antioxidants slow or reduce cancer and other diseases by fighting free radicals. Most of us already know that antioxidants are good cancer fighting agents, and free radicals are bad cancer causing molecules. What most of us don’t understand is what these guys actually do for… or to the body, and the science of it all. Let’s take a look and comprehend how antioxidants and free radicals work.

Antioxidants & Free Radicals

Free radicals (aka oxidants) are naturally found in our body as the by-product of cells that react with oxygen, called oxidation reactions. They are highly unstable and reactive. Before I get scientific, let’s kick it back to high school chemistry and see what we can remember through the note passing and drooling. Atoms have protons and neutrons which stay in the nucleus, and electrons which surround the atom in shells. Electrons are involved in chemical reactions and are the substance that bonds atoms together. The bonding and reactions occur when the outer shell of electrons is not full, causing the atom to be unstable. All atoms want out of life is to be stable, so they bond with fellow unstable atoms by giving, taking, or sharing an electron.