An information sheet about your immune system:
Oxidisation, Free Radicals and Anti-Oxidants


What is Oxidisation?
Oxidisation is the process that causes steel and iron to rust, a garden hose to dry up and crack and an apple to shrivel & go brown once cut open is also responsible for the degeneration or ‘rusting’ of our bodies, causing cellular breakdown. This process is called oxidisation or oxidative stress and has been linked to many degenerative and chronic diseases including heart disease and cancer. It is also responsible for premature ageing.

What causes Oxidisation?
Oxidisation is caused by oxygen molecules that are missing an electron, making them unstable. They ‘wish’ to be stable. They collide with healthy, stable molecules be they in metal, a hose, an apple or our bodies and then ‘steal’ an electron in order to stabilise themselves. This damages and de-stabilises the molecule that they have collided with leaving it now missing an electron itself. The formally healthy molecule is now itself an unstable free radical and will also try to stabilise itself by colliding with another healthy molecule and ‘stealing’ one of its electrons. This creates a knock-on effect that can damage your bodies cellular structure, causing disease throughout the body. 

What happens when oxidisation goes unchecked? 
This free radical oxidative stress, when checked, can show up physically as a range of health problems including cataracts, chronic illness, weakened skin tissue, many cancers and serious cardio-vascular disease. Free radicals are also thought to speed up the ageing process. 

Even the bodies’ natural metabolism can rob an oxygen molecule of an electron, thus producing free radicals internally. The same applies to stress. Free radicals are also increasingly produced environmentally by such processes as pollution, ultra-violet radiation, mobile phones and computer screens and also cigarette smoke, food additives and pesticides and herbicides.

What protection does your body have against oxidisation?
Our bodies have natural reserves of protective molecules called anti-oxidants, which as the name suggests, are molecules that act against the oxidisation process. We must get them from our diet. They have a loosely bound electron that can be given up to replace the one missing from a free radical, thus stabilising it and rendering it harmless. This anti-oxidant has now de-stabilised itself and thus become a free radical itself, albeit a less aggressive one than the one it stabilised. It now also needs to be stabilised. This is part of the knock-on effect that was described earlier. If this process is occurring within your arteries, for instance, it can damage the cell structure of the arterial wall and begin a process of degeneration. We need more anti-oxidants in our blood stream to help protect us.

Why do we need added protection against oxidisation?
Due to the increased environmental production of free radicals and the fact that the natural reserves of anti-oxidants decrease fairly sharply as we get older, the amount of free radicals causing damage far outnumber the protecting anti-oxidants. This leaves us open to the cumulative effects of oxidative stress, which can be extremely detrimental to our health. 

How can I test the oxidisation process for myself?
If you want to see how anti-oxidants protect things, then get an apple and a lemon (organic of course). Cut the apple and the lemon in half. Squeeze and rub the lemon juice over one half of the apple on the exposed side and do not do this to the other half. Leave both halves of the apple on the side for approximately 30 minutes. 

After this period, go back and check the condition of the two halves. The untreated half will have started to go brown and dry out, this is caused by oxidisation (free radical attack). The treated half will still be moist and will not have discoloured. The citric acid (vitamin C) in the lemon juice is an anti-oxidant, and protected the treated half of the apple. This is a great visual example to show how anti-oxidants work inside and outside our bodies to protect us from the effects of free radical attack. Many prominent researchers and physicians believe free radical attack is a great danger to our health.

What is the best way to protect myself against oxidisation and free-radicals?
Eating plenty of organic fruits and vegetables is the first step to obtain anti-oxidants. However, it is important to note that vitmain and mineral content of fruits and vegetables have decreased by 75 per cent and more over the past 25 years. The best solution is to supplement your diet with sub-colloidal minerals and vitamins and electrolytes and herbal extracts containing broad spectrum anti-oxidant compounds. These have been shown to be over 150 times more potent than vitamin E and over 60 times more potent than vitamin C.


The information on this sheet is intended for educational purposes only and is not medical advice.

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