With any amount of research regarding optimum performance, especially in relation to aging, one particular term seems to come up over and over.
Oxidative stress.
What is that? In context, it always seems to be a negative thing; why is that? I finally took the time to find out.
What is Oxidative Stress?
The term oxidative stress is used to refer to a condition in the body where the production of free radicals is greater than the body’s ability to neutralize them.
This means an abundance of free radicals causing chain reactions of destruction throughout the body. In fact, oxidative stress is linked to many all-too-common diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Sickle-Cell Disease. A free radical is a molecule containing atoms that are unstable because they have unpaired electrons. Figure 1 illustrates how a free radical differs from a normal, stable molecule (simplified, of course).