Posted by cardinaldirection on May 30, 2006, at 17:36:22
In reply to Re: First time I was prescribed a vitamin by a doc » cardinaldirection, posted by Larry Hoover on May 30, 2006, at 12:47:11
nope, not a chemist... just recently started researching my own neurochemistry, and some pharmacology.
this isnt the exact article i read, but it does talk a bit about what i was referring to...
"The body needs ALA to produce energy. It plays a crucial role in the mitochondria, the energy-producing structures in cells. The body actually makes enough ALA for these basic metabolic functions. This compound acts as an antioxidant, however, only when there is an excess of it and it is in the "free" state in the cells. But there is little free ALA circulating in your body, unless you consume supplements or get it injected. Foods contain only tiny amounts of it. What makes ALA special as an antioxidant is its versatility—it helps deactivate an unusually wide array of cell-damaging free radicals in many bodily systems.
In particular, ALA helps protect the mitochondria and the genetic material, DNA. As we age, mitochondrial function is impaired, and it’s theorized that this may be an important contributor to some of the adverse effects of aging. ALA also works closely with vitamin C and E and some other antioxidants, "recycling" them and thus making them much more effective."> Hmmm, it's clear you're not a chemist. Free radicals are not toxins. They are the product of our bodies' sometimes exceedingly dangerous harnessing of the reactivity of molecular oxygen.
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> A free radical is any atom or molecule with a lone electron somewhere in its outer shell. We usually apply the concept to molecules. Atomic free radicals are so unstable they'll react with virtually anything at all. Molecules have a more extended existence.
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> Molecular oxygen is about the most corrosive substance known. It can turn pure iron to dust. It can cause uncontrollable chain reactions (fire). If the atmospheric concentration was greater than about 22%, water would not be able to consume enough heat to extinguish an oxygen fire. Luckily, our atmosphere is at about 17% oxygen.
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> In its atmospheric state, it exists as an oscillating di-radical. It has two radical electrons, then none. Then two. Then none again. If it is adjacent to something that can have an electron stolen from it when it goes to a radical state, you have a chemical reaction. Heat is released. And, whatever was oxidized is changed by it. A radical can create another radical (the "missing electron" is moved to another molecule). Or, two free radicals can combine, and they quench each other. Two radicals added together makes no radical at all. They each contribute one electron, everything pairs up, and all is happy.
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> Vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol, is a free radical. So, if it bumps into a free radical, it will quench it. Alphalipoic acid can put the radical back into vitamin E.
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> Oxygen-based metabolism produces free radicals all over the place. Peroxides, superoxide, nitric oxide, hydroxyl radical..... Antioxidants are nothing but sacraficial lambs. They "die", so that radicals don't get a chance to get at e.g. our DNA, RNA, proteins, cell membranes, etc.
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> Sulphur-bearing molecules, as sulfhydryls in particular, are especially good antioxidants. Glutathione and alpha-lipoic acid are prime examples. The -SH group is more reactive than the alcohol -OH group that is on a lot of important molecules in our bodies. Sacrificing sulphur protects the other molecules.
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> Cysteine and methionine are sulphur-bearing amino acids. They are very vulnerable to oxidants, if your antioxidant stores are low. No methionine means no SAMe (S-adenosyl methionine), for example. No cysteine means no taurine.
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> You'd be dead, if you didn't have free radicals being formed in your body. Even after you're dead, free radicals are being formed by the microbes that consume the pile of nutrients you left behind. It is controlling or limiting the scope of effect of the free radicals that is behind this realm of supplementation. Stress uses up your antioxidants. Food processing strips them out of foods, while simultaneously increasing the demand for them.
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> Lar
poster:cardinaldirection
thread:639003
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20060428/msgs/650572.html