Brief Intriduction of the Free Radicals in Human Body

As we all know, when it comes to antioxidants, we immediately think of vitamin E, hexapeptides and a series of skin care products containing a variety of anti-aging ingredients, and we also know that these ingredients have a significant effect on the removal of free radicals from human skin.

So what are the free radicals that people often talk about? Do you know anything about free radicals? Why do you need to remove free radicals? Here, ECHEMI will take you to explore the answer.

A free radical is any atom or molecule that has a single unpaired electron in an outer shell. While a few free radicals such as melanin are not chemically reactive, most biologically relevant free radicals are highly reactive.

 For most biological structures, free radical damage is closely associated with oxidative damage. Antioxidants are reducing agents, and limit oxidative damage to biological structures by passivating them from free radicals. 

Simply, in our world of atoms, as long as there are more than two atoms together, its peripheral electrons must be paired, if not paired, they have to find another electron, so that they become a stable substance. Scientists call such atoms or molecules with unpaired electrons free radicals.

Free radicals are very active and very restless.

When the original structure of a stable atom is broken by an external force and the atom is missing an electron, a free radical is created. It then immediately goes in search of the other half with which it can bond.

It is lively and reacts easily with other substances chemically. When it gains or loses an electron in the process of combining with other substances, it regains its equilibrium and becomes a stable structure. This activity of electron gain or loss may be beneficial or harmful to humans.

In general, life is inseparable from free radical activity. Our body moves from the inside out every moment, burning energy in every moment, and the movers responsible for transferring energy are free radicals. When these free radicals, which help in energy conversion, are enclosed in the cells and cannot run around, they are harmless to life.

But if the activity of free radicals is out of control and exceeds a certain amount, the normal order of life will be disrupted and diseases may follow.

That is why free radicals are a double-edged sword. It is necessary for health to recognize free radicals and to understand their effects on the human body.

Scientists discovered this very active substance from chimneys and car exhaust in the early twentieth century. Subsequent studies have shown that free radicals are generated by complex and diverse processes, such as heating, combustion, light, contact of one substance with another or any kind of chemical reaction.

The most intimate channel of contact with free radicals in your daily life is when you cook a delicious dish or when you light up a cigarette and indulge in a smoke, or when you dress up with cosmetics.

There are many different types of free radicals, and they exist everywhere. With different structural characteristics, they play different roles when combined with other elements.

Free radicals are also found in the human body, where they help to transmit life-sustaining energy as well as being used to kill bacteria and parasites, and are also involved in the elimination of toxins.

Controlled free radicals are beneficial to the body. However, when the free radicals in the body exceed a certain amount and get out of control, such free radicals can cause harm to our lives.

The free radicals inhaled through the respiratory system are never only from frying and smoking, but also from environmental pollution such as car exhaust and industrial waste gas, which are inhaled unguardedly during people's daily movements.

The free radicals scattered in the air and in the cosmetics used also attack the human skin directly, robbing electrons from the epidermal cells, causing the skin to lose elasticity, roughness and wrinkles.

Free radicals attack the human body, causing mutations at the deepest level as well as leaving traces at the most superficial level. It can be said that humans are surrounded by the internal and external attack of free radicals.

In human LDL is abbreviated as LDL. When LDL in human body is elevated, during the process of blood flow, LDL enters the lumen of blood vessels under the action of endothelium, and due to the presence of a large number of free radicals, oxidized free radicals combine with LDL to form oxidized LDL (Ox-LDL), and oxidized LDL is treated as a foreigner in the vessel wall Oxidized LDL is then treated as a foreigner in the vessel wall and is phagocytosed by macrophages, monocytes, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells.

Smooth muscle cells and macrophages engulf a large amount of oxidized LDL and turn into foam cells, and a large number of foam cells accumulate, causing the vessel wall to bulge outward (but no changes in the vessel wall can be seen by angiography), resulting in the formation of atherosclerotic plaques.

After the vascular endothelial cells engulf the oxidized LDL, it causes damage to the inner wall of the blood vessel, and the gap of the inner wall of the blood vessel increases.

In the blood vessel, due to the gamma interferon released by T cells, the foam cells rupture, and the contents flow into the lumen of the blood vessel from the increased gap of the inner wall of the blood vessel, and due to the stress effect of the blood vessel it wraps the exuded contents and forms a thrombotic plaque.

When this thrombus is produced in the heart, it forms a heart attack, and when it is produced in the brain, it forms a brain attack. Therefore, preventing LDL from being oxidized is the key to preventing cardiovascular disease.