Inflammation Creates Free Radicals

Why is cronically inflammation dangerous?

Chronic inflammation is a condition in which the body’s immune system is constantly activated, leading to a persistent low-grade inflammation. This type of inflammation can occur in response to various factors, such as infections, toxins, and stress, and it has been linked to a number of chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders.

One of the reasons that chronic inflammation is dangerous is that it can cause damage to cells and tissues over time. When the immune system is activated, it releases a number of substances that can cause inflammation, including cytokines, chemokines, and prostaglandins. These substances can lead to the production of free radicals, which can cause oxidative stress and damage to cells and tissues. Chronic inflammation can also cause the production of certain enzymes that can break down collagen and other structural proteins, leading to tissue damage and scarring.

In addition, chronic inflammation may contribute to the development of chronic diseases by affecting the way that cells grow and divide, by altering the way that genes are expressed, and by impairing the function of the body’s immune system. Overall, chronic inflammation is a complex process that can have serious negative effects on health, and it is important to address any underlying causes of chronic inflammation in order to maintain good health.

The more free radicals your body is exposed to, the more polyphenols you need. Your body is constantly exposed to the cell breakdown of free radicals. On one hand, oxidation takes place all the time in the body when the metabolism in the cells, with the help of oxygen, burns nutrients in order to convert the nutrients into energy.

On the other hand, you as a modern human being with a busy lifestyle are exposed daily to free radicals in your immediate surroundings. This is because free radicals come from air pollution, food, microorganisms, exhaust gases, the sun’s UV rays, radioactive radiation, etc.

Research indicates that oxidative stress enhances normal aging, among other things in the form of greater wrinkle formation, because the skin’s collagen and elastin proteins are damaged. Part of the known muscle soreness stems from the fact that free radicals break down in the damaged muscle cells.

Free radicals are also formed when you drink alcohol, take medication, smoke, or are exposed to passive smoking, or play sports. In addition, the production of free radicals increases with age. Without a strong immune system, the body may have difficulty coping with the load, especially if you also have inflammation elsewhere in the body.

Inflammation creates free radicals

If you have chronic inflammation in the body, you also form free radicals. When your immune system fights bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances through inflammation, large amounts of free radicals are mobilized to break down the pathogens. In the case of short-term action by the immune system, the free radicals actually benefit you. If, for example, there is a long-term or strong course of inflammation, the production of free radicals can worsen the inflammation process, and then comes the danger that the free radicals will end up damaging the healthy cells.

Free radicals can destroy nerve cells

The attack of free radicals affects the polyunsaturated fatty acids in particular, which, to a large extent, make up your central nervous system. The free radicals oxidize the cell membranes so that the cell membranes do not function as they should. Research has shown how free radicals can destroy nerve cells. Therefore, you need to make sure that your cells have plenty of polyphenols available so that the fatty acids in the cells are protected from the free radicals.

What are polyphenols?

Your best shield against free radicals is a strong immune system. You build this through a healthy lifestyle, where, among other things, diet plays a crucial role. From the food you eat, you need to get a lot of polyphenols, which are microscopic plant substances that neutralize the free radicals by binding to them.

Polyphenols are an equal amount of plant substances that can, among other things, neutralize free radicals. There are many different polyphenols and we benefit greatly from them all. Some act in the body’s water phase, such as vitamin C, and others act in the body’s fat phase, e.g. Vitamin E. Similarly, some polyphenols act only intercellularly, that is, inside the cell, and others act outside the cells.

All plants produce polyphenols to protect themselves from the harmful effects of the sun’s rays. Plants that have harsh growth conditions produce more polyphenols and we can benefit from these polyphenols by eating those plants.

Polyphenols are the plants’ own immune system

Plants form polyphenols as part of their own immune system. The term “polyphenol” covers a group of many thousands of different molecules with the common denominator that the basic form of the molecule consists of aromatic rings, to which each has coupled an alcohol group.

Polyphenols are very common in nature, and they are found everywhere in all kinds of plants and each plant can contain different types of polyphenols. The polyphenols are in the roots, stems, bark, leaves, petals, seeds, and fruits of plants. Polyphenols can be red, orange, purple, or blue. Overall, polyphenols are categorized into:

• Tannins
• The phenylpropanoids
• Flavonoids

Flavonoids make up the largest group of polyphenols and they are a group of chemical substances with carbon atoms located in benzene rings that are connected by a series of carbon atoms.

Flavonoids are divided into six subgroups:

• Flavonols

• Flavones

• Flavanones

• Flavan-3-ols

• Isoflavonoids

• Anthocyanins

You can not form polyphenols by yourself

The body cannot form polyphenols by itself. They should be added through what you eat and drink. In addition, the polyphenols cannot accumulate either. Enter they bind to free radicals or they fizzle out again. Therefore, you need a constant supply of polyphenols to be properly prepared. You get your polyphenols from fruits and vegetables, such as black currants, aronia berries, cabbage, and root vegetables.