If you’re looking for natural health products you’ll quickly encounter a host of scientific (or at least, scientific-sounding) terms. Some advertisers act as if everyone knows them but many people have only learned to identify them as buzzwords. “Antioxidant” is one of the most common examples. HMS 90/Immunocal, Concentrated Tart Montmorency Cherry Juice and the Daily Essentials Pack are all products with notable antioxidant properties. You’ve heard that’s a good thing, but what do antioxidants actually do?
Your body produces chemical energy through a form of oxidization: the same chemical process that creates fire and rust, among other things. The molecules that make up your body also oxidize in the presence of environmental stimuli, especially toxins like pollution and radiation. Useful metabolic oxidization and toxic oxidization both produce free radicals. You’ve probably heard of those, too. To understand antioxidants, you’ve got to learn about free radicals.
Free radicals are unstable molecules. This means that their component atoms easily spark certain chemical reactions with other substances. Your body occasionally produces free radicals to kill viruses and bacteria, but this shows you that they have destructive effects on living things. In fact, they attack life at the molecular level.
If you remember the structure of the atom from school, you know that electrons orbit an atom’s nucleus, forming a “shell.” Molecules made of stable atoms won’t easily react with other substances because their atomic shells have a full complement of electrons. Free radicals are unstable because they have room for more electrons in their shells. They seek out stability by stripping nearby substances of electrons to fill in the gap.
This is very bad for you. When free radicals steal electrons from the substances that make up your body’s tissues, it turns them into free radicals and destroys their normal biochemical properties. You could say that free radicals turn your own tissues into poisons one molecule at a time. This causes a broad range of ailments; some scientists even believe free radicals are responsible for most of the symptoms of aging.
Antioxidants protect your body from free radicals by providing electrons for them to “steal.” This turns free radicals into stable substances that won’t harm you. Unlike other substances, antioxidants do not become free radicals themselves when they lose electrons. They stay stable. This makes antioxidants so important that your body produces them to maintain your health, but as we age this function breaks down. Furthermore, modern pollutants contribute oxidization and free radicals above and beyond what our bodies can handle. This is why antioxidant supplements are an important part of maintaining health. Without enough antioxidants, free radicals literally turn your body against you.