Free Radicals Are: Definition, Impacts, How to Avoid Them
Currently, exposure to free radicals is a source of various chronic diseases. You can encounter these compounds when your skin is having problems, or when cellular components or other body tissues are exposed to pathogens or damaged.
What are free radicals? They are molecules that have one or more unpaired electrons in their outer shell. These molecules form through the breaking of chemical bonds, where each radical fragment retains one electron and produces other radicals through redox reactions.
These molecules are very dangerous because they are highly unstable. These electrons can react with various organic substrates, such as lipids, proteins, and DNA. Thus, the impact on your body's health is indeed serious. To be clearer, here are the causes of free radicals, their impacts, and how to overcome them!
Causes of Free Radicals

There are various things that can cause an excessive amount of free radicals in the body. Here is the list!
1. UV Radiation
The first thing that most frequently causes your body to be exposed to free radicals is UV radiation, specifically the sun's UVB (290-320 nm) and UVA (320-380 nm) radiation. Both of these UV rays can produce reactive chemical species, including radicals that can kill cells and skin.
2. Air Pollution and Cigarette Smoke
Besides UV rays, air pollution and cigarette smoke can also form free radical molecules in the body. Not only does dirty air form these molecules, but cigarette smoke does as well. In fact, there are 10-16 free radicals per puff of a cigarette, and that is just from the burning carbon materials.
3. Alcoholic Beverages
Then, where do free radicals come from, aside from the sources above? It turns out that the supply of free radicals in the body can also exceed normal levels if you consume alcoholic beverages. Actually, drinking small amounts of alcohol, especially wine, has quite beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system.
However, if done in excess, it can trigger the free radical mediation process in the body. As a result, you will be more susceptible to heart disease, stroke, liver cirrhosis, and various other diseases.
Impact of Free Radicals

After knowing what free radicals are and their causes, you also need to know their impacts. From the explanation above, you might already know some of them. However, the ones most commonly experienced by the public are in the following explanation!
1. Arthritis
The first disease susceptible to attacking you when exposed to free radicals is arthritis. The impact of being exposed to free radicals in this instance is indeed quite troublesome. This is because free radicals will alter cellular components in the immune system and can cause arthritis.
2. Heart Disease
Besides arthritis, you will also be more susceptible to various types of heart disease when the level of free radicals in the body is too high. This is because those free radical levels can cause you to experience oxidative stress, disrupting the oxygen levels in the blood.
When blood is disrupted, your heart's function will not be able to work perfectly. Therefore, the likelihood of you contracting heart disease will be greater.
3. Skin Problems
You will also experience many skin problems when exposed to free radicals. The most frequent impact is that the skin becomes prone to dark spots and premature aging. This is because free radicals will damage healthy cells, especially collagen in the facial skin, causing signs of aging to appear earlier on your skin.
How to Overcome Free Radicals

Basically, how to overcome free radicals is quite easy. Because you only need to do two things: avoid the causes of free radicals and increase your intake of antioxidant-containing foods.
This is because free radicals and antioxidants have a positive relationship. Antioxidants possess very stable molecules, allowing them to donate electrons freely to free radical molecules in the body. Thus, the free radical molecules gain an electron pair.
Once they have a pair, those molecules become neutral and will not damage the cells in your body. Therefore, consuming antioxidants is very important. Besides through healthy food intake, you can also meet your antioxidant needs through health supplements.
Read Also: 6 Fruits That Contain High Antioxidants
For example, by consuming Sido Muncul CoQ10 Coenzyme Q10, which can help meet the body's antioxidant needs. This supplement is made from Coenzyme Q10, a natural antioxidant in the human body. This way, you won't suffer from an antioxidant deficiency.
So, after knowing what free radicals are and their impacts, you can prevent them by meeting your daily antioxidant needs.
Simply consume this supplement according to the dosage instructions listed on the product. Let's fight free radicals with Sido Muncul CoQ10 Coenzyme Q10!