What’re free radicals and what’s oxidative stress? Pro-healthy and pro-beauty entry

Hello My Darlings,

Today, I’m going to take you into the darkest corners of health and beauty. Are you brave enough to get there with me?

I guess, almost all care cosmetic’s descriptions include one of the following item of information on the label: ‘contains anti-oxidants’, ‘the source of anti-oxidants’, ‘combats free radicals…,’ cool. But what does it really mean?

What are free radicals? And what is this oxidative stress which we have to stay away from? Are there any products or superfood that help us conquer these mysteriously sounding things?

Let me explain everything to you:

● Free oxygen radicals – you would agree that this name sounds cool and liberal, doesn’t it? It doesn’t arouse suspicion (Oxygen? Wow, super! We need oxygen!). However, the label free radicals is attached to exceptionally active forms of oxygen. And there’s nothing exceptional about their development since this is the natural outcome of our human metabolism. Unfortunately, free radicals don’t behave the right way. They contain one unpaired electron which is reactive, it messes up with, destroys and disturbs action of cells. I could say that free radicals introduce a kind of cell anarchy in your organism. If there are too many of them, they can contribute to averting some natural processes. As a consequence, skin becomes more and more flabby and full of wrinkles, hair becomes weak and brittle, falls out and doesn’t want to grow. In the worst case scenario, healthy cells can transform into cancerous cells. Therefore, in order to avoid intensified accumulation of destructive free radicals, they must be neutralized by delivering, so-called, anti-free radicals. Thank goodness we are equipped with anti-oxygenate protective system.

Thanks to this our organism is able to activate the fixing mechanism (of course, it has to know HOW and WHAT combat free radicals WITH). In most cases, our organism does this in two ways:

1. Our clever ‘commanders’ send special substances to the free radical molecules (these units are called ‘Free Radical Sweepers’) which give their electrons away to free radicals. Thanks to this, the unpaired electron isn’t single anymore, so it stops threating the organism.
2. Anti-free radical protective system is also able to block development of free radicals in great amounts. When the level of free radicals increases, our organism starts cleaning up and just removes the molecules.

● Oxidative stress – it’s a phenomenon that simply can be omitted while discussing the issue of free radicals. Oxidative stress is a major cause of many serious diseases. In plain words, it’s nothing else like ruining the balance between development of free radicals and their ‘removal’ from the organism. Basically, oxidative stress takes place when our organism stops coping with combating free radicals and simply can handle getting them rid of our body. The cells in our body stop being renewable and fixable and this leads to damages in DNA, oxygenation of cell membranes and protein modification along with the function they play in our organism. Another aftermath of oxidative stress is so-called lipid peroxidation, which is oxidation of good fatty acids. As a consequence, cell membranes are damaged, and to make matters even worse, the result of peroxidation is production of the whole range of unwanted and harmful substances that lead to development of various diseases (diabetics, sclerosis and cancers).

I’ve scared you a little bit, haven’t I?

As you can see, free radicals can badly influence not only our looks but also the entire organism.

They contribute to us loosing health and beauty.

For that reason, it’s extremely crucial to reach for cosmetics that combat free radicals (for example, natural oils). Eating healthily is also important, and by eating healthily I mean including so-called superfood into your diet, which is food of high nutrient content.