Free radicals and broken knees
Scientists have told about the benefits of free radicals for the body
American scientists have identified an ambiguous effect of free radicals on the mammalian body. The increased content of these particles did not accelerate the aging of laboratory mice (as suggested by the theory of aging due to free radicals). On the contrary, in young individuals they were extremely useful, accelerating the healing of the skin. The research materials are presented in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Velarde et al., Pleiotropic age-dependent effects of mitochondrial dysfunction on epidermal stem cells – VM).
Free radicals are particles (usually unstable) containing one or more unpaired electrons on the outer electron shell. In the body, they appear as a byproduct of metabolism, as well as from external sources (tobacco and other toxins). It is believed that free radicals change the chemical structure of cells, proteins and DNA, thereby damaging them.
However, Judith Campisi and her colleagues from the Buck Gerontological Institute found that free radicals cause damage in the mitochondria of epithelial cells. They begin to divide faster, as a result of which wounds, cuts and similar disorders heal faster.
However, with age, this effect ceases to be beneficial: skin cells stop dividing, the stock of stem cells decreases (due to accelerated division in the first years of life), and the skin begins to age rapidly. "We found unexpected pleotropic effects: those mechanisms that help in youth begin to create problems with age," notes Campisi (in a press release from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging Surprising results in study of mitochondrial dysfunction in skin casts light on the free radical theory of aging – VM).Apparently, nature uses free radicals to improve skin health, and until old age this process is not harmful.
Since the destructive consequences begin to affect only after the end of the reproductive age, evolution did not need to invent any ways to correct this mechanism.
As for practical conclusions, Campisi warns about the dangers of taking antioxidants: in large quantities, these drugs suppress the action of free radicals – which does not slow down the aging process, but prevents free radicals from performing their biological functions.
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04.08.2015