Antioxidant Power: How Fighting Free Radicals Protects Your Health

Maintaining good health isn’t easy; in fact, it’s more or less a full-time job. Even when you’re sleeping, your body continues to fight off germs and repair cellular damage that can lead to illness, discomfort, and those unwanted signs of aging.

Fortunately, your body has some pretty good tools, including antioxidants to help fight off damage from unstable molecules called free radicals. The problem: Antioxidants come from the foods you eat, and if you’re not consuming plenty of antioxidant-rich foods, free-radical damage is more likely to occur.

At beYOU bioidenticals, our team offers antioxidant therapy to optimize antioxidant levels and help your body prevent damage by free radicals. In this post, learn more about the dangers of free radicals and how antioxidant therapy can help you improve your health and wellness.

The dangers of free radicals

Free radicals are molecules that have “unbalanced” numbers of electrons and protons. This imbalance makes free radicals very unstable and reactive. Free radicals attempt to become stable by “stealing” electrons from other molecules, setting off a chain of events that can lead to negative health consequences.

Cell damage

Free radicals can damage cells and cell contents, including DNA, leading to cell death or dysfunction. Over time, accumulated damage speeds up aging and increases the risk of diseases like cancer and heart disease.

Inflammation

Inflammation is associated with a range of diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and digestive disorders. Free radicals trigger inflammatory responses and increase the production of pro-inflammatory molecules, increasing the risk of inflammation-mediated damage and disease.

Decreased immunity

Free radicals also act on your immune system, decreasing its ability to fight off illnesses and diseases. These unstable molecules act on and deactivate immune cells that are critical in keeping you healthy, making you more prone to getting sick.

High levels of free radicals can overwhelm your body’s ability to neutralize their effects, creating oxidative stress. That’s bad news for your health — but the good news is, antioxidants can help.

How antioxidants ward off free radical damage

Antioxidants help your body fight off the damage caused by free radicals. Some common antioxidants, like vitamins C and A, are found in specific foods. Antioxidant therapy focuses on helping us get the levels of key antioxidants that we may not be able to get through diet alone.

Antioxidants work in several ways to block the harmful effects of free radicals. First, many antioxidants donate electrons to free radicals, stabilizing the molecules and preventing them from causing damage to cells and cell components. They can also strengthen cells to make them less susceptible to damage by free radicals.

Antioxidants can bind with substances that trigger free radical production, reducing the number of free radicals in circulation. Some antioxidants can even reverse the damage caused by free radicals or prevent illness by boosting natural immunity.

Optimize your health with antioxidant therapy

Antioxidant therapy uses injections to make sure your body has the tools it needs to battle the negative effects of free radicals successfully. To learn more about antioxidant therapy and other treatments to help you play a more proactive role in your health, request an appointment online or over the phone with the team at beYOU bioidenticals in Leawood, Kansas, today.