Free Radicals
by Dr Peter Dingle in black type
Comments in Blue By Karl Loren

Source

See Also Re:  Cancer

In the beginning

• Some 3.5 million years ago, life apparently rose spontaneously from the reactions of amino acids, nucleartides and other basic chemicals produced from the simple reduced components of the primitive atmosphere by free radical reactions initiated primarily from ionising radiation from the sun.
   

• Karl Note:  This is pure nonsense.  I accept the validity of many scientists when they stay within the boundaries of their science, but Dr. Dingle, in his quest for "explaining all" ventures into territory on which he is obviously not expert.  Any explanation of "life" that ignores any spiritual content is foolish.  I do not hesitate to bring my knowledge and viewpoint into these "learned presentations!"
  
  • It appears that evolution, a new beginning, was dependent upon the sun initiated free radical reactions which were essential for the origination and early evolution of proto-cells.
   

• Karl Note:  Karl has created an electronic course which teaches enough atomic physics to understand much about free radicals.  You can click on the image on the right to jump immediately to that free course. Register as a student, then return to do the course.

Oxygen Free Radicals

• While oxygen is essential for our survival, the relatively high reactivity of oxygen enables it to form free radicals readily.
  
  • It is the unique architecture of the oxygen molecule that accounts for much of its behaviour in free radical reactions which renders it particularly susceptible to one electron reductions which produce potentially toxic highly reactive derivatives, the so-called activated oxygen species.
  
  • Oxygen contains two unpaired electrons and preferentially accepts single electrons as a consequence.
   

• Karl Note:  This view of "two unpaired electrons" is correct, and is based on Quantum Atomic Physics.  If you look at classical physics you may find that Oxygen is NOT considered a free radical because it has six electrons in its outer ring.  The assumption was made, in classical physics, that these six electrons meant that they were all "paired."  Quantum Physics established the truth of the matter.  One reason I have included Dr. Dingle's presentation on these pages is that he acknowledges the Quantum Physics reality.
  
  • A number of highly reactive free radicals are generated from oxygen in living systems as an unavoidable consequence of aerobic respiration.
  
  – O2- (superoxide),
  – HO (hydroxil radical)
  – 1 O2 (singlet oxygen)
  – H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide).
  
  – All these are partially reduced species of oxygen that are all toxic.
  
  • However suitable control mechanisms have evolved so that steady state concentration of potentially toxic oxygen derived free radicals are kept in check and relatively low in number under normal physiological conditions.

What are free radicals

• Free radicals are an atom, or a group of atoms with an unpaired electron.
  
  • Free radicals are a chemical molecular species which are extremely reactive by virtue of having unpaired electrons.
  
  • A free radical has an odd number of electrons and a single unpaired electron in an outer orbit of the nucleus.
  
  • It is the unpaired electron which is responsible for the instability and reactivity characteristic of free radicals.
  
  • The term oxidation refers to the process whereby a molecular species loses an electron.
  
  • Reduction refers to the process whereby an electron is gained.
  
  • Many of the cases of beneficial or detrimental effects of metals in living systems is a consequence of its tendency to stimulate an electron transfer and free radical production through its valance flexibility.

Spreading the damage

• Simply by losing or gaining an electron, any non radical compound can be converted to a free radical form and thereby undergo dramatic changes in its physical and chemical properties.
  
  • Once initiated, free radicals tend to propagate by taking part with other, usually less reactive species.  These chain reaction compounds, generally have longer half lives and therefore extended potential for cell damage.
  
  • Thus the toxicity of a single radical species may be amplified with subsequent reactions.

FR, ageing and disease

• The free radical theory of aging was first formulated in 1954 and suggested that there is a single basic cause of aging modified by genetic and environmental factors and that free radical reactions are involved in the aging and disease.
  
  • In the parallelism between cancer incidence and age, it is probably due, at least in part, to the increasing level of endogenous free radical reactions with age, coupled with the apparently progressively diminishing capacity of the immune system to eliminate the altered cells (Levin & Kidd, 1985).
   

• Karl Note:  It is a curiosity that many of the changes brought about by free radicals, inside a cell, are to make that cell "live longer" than is normal for that type of cell.  Just for that reason, alone, the area would soon be taken over by just such cells.  As this "changed cell" lives longer, it also continues to reproduce more cells with that same characteristic.  Eventually, all the cells in that area would become these "live longer" cells.  If the change caused by a free radical ALSO causes the cell to reproduce more frequently than the other, normal, cells in that area, then the changed cell will take over that area all the more quickly.  That, put in its great simplicity, is cancer!

Health stress and balance

• When the stresses of one side outweigh the beneficial inputs from the other side, then our capacity has been exceeded. Minute levels of chemicals and stress can precipitate acute symptoms.
  
  • Using this analogy, all forms of stress can contribute to illness.

Damage from FR

• DNA
  – Mutations
  – increase the likelihood of cancer and birth defects.
  
  • Inflammation including
  – atherosclerosis,
  – stroke,
  – Parkinson's disease,
  – Alzheimer's disease,
  – HIV,
  – cataracts,
  – diabetes
  – cancer.

Good free Radicals

• These free radicals are common and, in fact, important components in biological systems and they are, in fact, essential for the maintenance of
  life.
  
  • Free radicals perform many critical functions in our bodies in controlling the flow of blood through our arteries, to fighting infection, to keeping our brains alert and in focus.
  – Phagocytic cells involved in body defence produce and mobilise oxygen free radicals to destroy the bacteria and other cells of foreign matter which they ingest
  
  • Similar to antioxidants, some free radicals at low levels are signalling molecules, – ie they are responsible for turning on and off genes.
  
  • Some free radicals such as nitric oxide and superoxide are produced in very high amounts by immune cells to poison viruses and bacteria.
  
  • Some free radicals kill cancer cells. Many cancer drugs are actually designed to increase the production of free radicals in the body.

Increasing levels of bad FR

• The susceptibility of a given tissue or cell to damage from oxidated stresses appears largely determined by the net balance between factors acting to promote oxidation and those that exert reduction reactions such as antioxidants.
   

• [Karl Note:  "Reduction reactions" are those which add an electron to some particle.  "Oxidation" relates to the removal of an electron from a particle.  These terms are so "counter-intuitive" that you might well want to understand them better.  These terms are featured within my electronic course -- Free Radicals, Part I.
  
  • Both emotional and physical stress are likely to contribute to oxidative stress due to the tendency of the catechol hormones ephrinephrine and
  norephenephrine and cortisol to become oxidised to free radical derivatives.
  
  • increased level of other naturally occurring chemicals and hormones in the body breaking down to form free radicals and the increased oxidation occurring as a result of increased metabolism within the cells of the muscles and the body.
  
  • Then add the xenobiotic FR
  
  • estimates of the number of oxidative attacks daily per human cell are about 10,000.
  
  • Multiply this by the trillions of cells in the body to gain an understanding of the magnitude of the numbers of free radical-antioxidant reactions which can occur around the body.

Oxygen Free radicals and fats

• Because oxygen is 7 to 8 times more soluble in nonpolar environments such as the fatty acid rich lipid byways of cellular membranes it is able to spontaneously be involved in oxidation of ubiquinone (CoQ10), polyunsaturated lipids, sulfhydryl proteins – unless sufficient antioxidant enzymes and nutrients are available to protect the membrane.
  
  • Consistent with its di-radical character, the oxygen molecule can abstract the electrons from most reactive compounds, for example, molecular oxygen can abstract an electron from a susceptible hydrocarbon or unsaturated fatty acid thereby oxidising [stealing an electron] it to a free radical form.
   

• Karl Note:  Put more simply, oxygen is called a "di-radical" because it has two different electrons which could, either one of them, cause the atom to be a free radical.  If they are both there, oxygen is a free radical.  If one of them is removed, oxygen is a free radical.  If the other is removed, the atom is still a free radical.  So, Oxygen is particularly hungry to steal an electron from anywhere it can, and still not be "satisfied."  Thus, any stray "atom" in anything nourished by oxygen is capable of being, itself, turned into a free radical when the Oxygen atom steals away an electron from that other atom.   While "oxygen" is vital to life, and the key to much healing, we must realize the harmful forms of oxygen and how good oxygen can become bad oxygen.
  
  • The free radical hydrocarbon form now has the potential for propagating free radical chain reactions at ambient oxygen levels.
  
  • In the lipid membrane, unsaturated lipids contain mutually held electrons which allow them to be fluid and mobile.
  
  • Free radicals are also produced in significant quantities by the spontaneous oxidation of biological molecules in so-called auto-oxidation reactions which commonly involve non-enzymatic electron transfers

Environmental FR

• Many environmental pollutants are metabolised by enzymes of the endo plasmic reticulum system to free radical intermediaries in efforts by the system to detoxify them via the single electron reduction or single electron oxidation thereby exacerbating the localised oxidated stress.
  
  • Free radicals are produced also as a consequence of the metabolism of many foreign chemicals and some endogenous compounds.

Heavy Metals as free Radical Generators

• The mechanisms of heavy metals toxicity through electron transfer most often involve the cross linking of the sulfhydral groups of proteins.
  
  • Platinum, mercury, cadmium and lead are highly toxic to enzymes by this mechanism.
  
  • Lead and other heavy metals can also generate free radicals directly from molecular oxygen in a two step process to produce superoxide anion.
  
  • In the continued presence of the heavy metal, the superoxide anions formed can then combine with protons in the dismutation reaction generating
  hydrogen peroxide in the process.
  
  • Heavy metals are also able to catalyze the generation of the highly toxic hydroxyl radical from superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide.

Light and Radiation Free Radicals

• Some molecules are sensitive to light and other radiation becoming electronically excited as they absorb radiant energy.
  
  • Radiant energy can boost one electron of a matched pair from a lower orbital to a higher orbital without changing its skin thereby creating
  two unfilled orbitals each with a single electron and establishing the single state.
   

• Karl note:  The image on the left shows how an electron can emit light.  An electron can also absorb light.  In the case of emitting light, the electron would lose energy and sink toward the center.  If you watch closely you can see that happening.  When an electron absorbs light, it gets "excited, and can move toward an outer orbit, or fly away!
  
  • The outer, more loosely held electron becomes more susceptible to removal by oxidising agents.
  
  • The hole left in the lower orbital while promotion of one electron to the other orbital will make it likely to pick up an electron more readily and
  render the molecule more susceptible to reduction by electron transplant into that orbital.
  
  • Radiant energy can therefore make a molecule more reactive both as an electron donor and as an electron receptor.
  
  • Oxygen is a molecule which can become activated photodynamically.
  
  • Singlet oxygen generated in this manner is thought to mediate many of the pathogenic manifestations of photodynamic damage.
   

• Karl Note: The image on the left is of a "singlet of oxygen."  That means TWO atoms of oxygen which are joined and have a net of one unpaired electron in the outer ring of the combination.  There are about the most reactive of all the free radicals.  Because of its "net positive charge" (more protons than electrons) it can easily attract another electron.  Because it has an unpaired electron it can easily give up an electron. So, it is reactive either way.
  
  • The biological toxicities of xrays and gamma rays probably are mediated photo - oxidatively.
  
  • Light in ultra-violet wave lengths initiates sunburn by similar mechanisms as does over exposure to other portions of the visible spectrum.
  
  • Activation of an organic molecule by light or other radiant energy from the atmosphere can initiate singlet electron transfers to ambient oxygen thereby generating highly reactive oxygen species. Radiation can be an important generator of free radicals in biological systems.

Bond cision

• Free radicals can also be produced from relatively stable molecules by bond cision through the introduction of various energy sources.
  
  • Bond cision occurs when the bond is broken to produce two free radicals. Chlorine, for example, a chlorine molecule Cl2 with the introduction of
  energy such as heat, xray, or UV, can be broken into two separate chlorine atom free radicals.
  
  • Hydrogen peroxide HO2 or other hyper oxides can be degraded to free radicals by similar bond cision mechanisms.

Ozone

• Ozone, although not a free radical, promotes the formation of free radicals and when breathed into the lungs can destroy the fluid lining of the lungs, the nasal passages and the buccal/oral cavity.
   

• [Note:  The image on the left shows how a "normal atom of oxygen" becomes ozone -- one electron moves to a higher ring.

Asbestos

• Recently the development of asbestos related diseases have been related to free radical damage.
  
  • The asbestos particle is an unwieldy structure with jagged edges. When it is inhaled into the airways the cells of the immune system recognise it as a
  problem and they send out specific cells called leukocytes to deal with the asbestos particles.
  
  • However, the asbestos particles are too large and awkwardly shaped for the leukocytes to control but they don’t stop. One of the weapons of the immune cells is to use free radicals to destroy foreign invaders.
  
  • Should the leukocytes become locked into a battle with the asbestos particle by injecting free radicals which paradoxically are causing further damage,
  this creates damage that never heals and it is critically inflamed ultimately leading to lung cancer or a plaque of dead tissue on the lungs.

FR quenchers

• When vitamin E quenches a free radical it becomes a weaker free radical itself. The network antioxidants will, however, donate electrons to vitamin E bringing it back to its antioxidant state.  The same occurs with vitamin C, glutathione then they quench free radicals and themselves become weak free radicals. These antioxidants can be recycled back to their antioxidant by lipoic acid and vitamin C.
  
  • Fat soluble vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 protect the fatty portion of the cell
  membrane from free radical attack while the watery portions of the cell or blood, which is primarily water, are accessible only to the water soluble antioxidants such as vitamin C and glutathione.

Antioxidants

• Glutathione is the most abundant antioxidant in the network. It is produced by the body from three amino acids found in food - glutanic acid, cysteine, and glycine. Glutathione is found in virtually every cell and is an important weapon against free radicals. However, when we reach the age of 40, our production of glutathione begins to decline.
  – it can drop by almost 20% by the time we are sixty.
  
  • At any age, low levels of glutathione have been linked to premature death and disease.
  
  • A stroke occurs when blood flow is cut off or restricted to a particular region of the brain. It can be caused by a blood clot or by a piece of debris
  which breaks off from an atherosclerotic plaque and blocks the artery delivering blood and oxygen to the brain. The actual damage to the brain does not occur when it is being deprived of oxygen or blood, but immediately following the stroke when the blood flow is restored. This is referred to as
  reperfusian injury.
  
  • When it happens there is a burst reproduction of superoxide free radicals that can attack nearby tissue resulting in permanent brain damage. This process can be exacerbated even further if iron is released into sites where it is normally tightly bound or controlled
  
  • Free iron, that is iron that is not bound to a protein is potentially very dangerous because it can trigger further free radical reactions.
  
  • Free radicals are involved with both the onset and the progression of heart disease. Heart disease begins early in life with oxidation of LDL (low
  density lipoproteins) often known as ‘bad cholestrol’.
  
  • The process can take many years but if an artery becomes clogged with plaque made up of cholesterol and calcium and other mineral deposits,
  the result can be a sudden loss of blood and oxygen to the heart (heart attack)
  
  • Similarly, with a stroke, much of the damage which occurs to the heart muscle is caused by a burst of free radicals after the blood flow is resumed.
  
  • Free radicals are also instrumental in promoting atherosclerosis, otherwise known as ‘hardening of the arteries’ as it causes damage in the arterial
  wall leading to a deposition and a buildup of plaque on the wall and further free radical damage on the wall leading to the arterial wall becoming
  inelastic and lined or clogged with plaque.
   

• Karl Note:  No matter how brilliant this author is as an atomic physicist, he has simply bought into the lies about plaque.  The free radical, indeed, does cause heart disease, but certainly not by the mechanism described here.  That full story is HERE.
  
  • Inflammation in joints or injuries is caused by the over production of free radicals in a specific area of the body.
  
  • Arthritis is a term that covers more than one hundred different diseases that produce inflammation of the connective tissue such as the joints and tendons and degeneration of the articular cartilage allowing bones to rub together
  without causing damage to the joints.
  
  • A cataract is a cloudy opaque covering that grows over the lens of the eye and is caused by free radical damage to proteins. Cataracts are the result of years of exposure to sunlight which can promote free radicals thereby depleting the body of antioxidants. In experiments on rats given lipoic acid supplementation the rats remained cataract free compared to controls which
  developed a high percentage of cataract.
  
  • The studies revealed that glutathione levels were much higher in the eyelids of the rats treated with lipoic acid and severely depleted in the rats not treated with lipoic acid.