Chelation Therapy Reduces Free Radical Activity!

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Chelation Therapy Reduces Free Radical Activity JoAnn Guest Jul 22, 2003

14:21 PDT

Benefits of Chelation Therapy

Reduces Free Radical Activity in The Blood

 

We can think of our cells in the body as miniature factories. Inside the

cell, the digestive process is going on. That means converting the raw

materials into energy and protein compounds. Like in a factory, there

are mechanisms to transport material within the cell as well as

mechanisms to transport material to and from the cell. In our body,

these mechanisms are performed by complex enzyme activity.

 

The skin that surrounds a cell controls what goes in and what goes out

of it. (It is like the shipping and receiving department in a factory.)

 

The active cell membrane is made up of lipids (Cholesterol), protein

and water.

 

As explained in " The Story of Free Radicals " below, free radicals can

cause lipid peroxidation (fat becomes rancid). Like in the factory

example, if the shipping and receiving department is not functioning

properly, it can cause chaos; the whole factory will go out of synch. It

does not get raw materials in time or cannot ship out waste products and

finished products out.

 

In the body, this is the beginning of the cell degeneration. (In case

of factory, it will go out of business.)

 

This is what happens when atherosclerosis begins in an artery wall.

 

The majority of lipid peroxidation activity involves the presence of

metal ions such as iron, copper or calcium.

 

EDTA effectively locks onto these ions, preventing their destructive

action.

Proponents of Chelation Therapy claim that EDTA can reduce the

production of free radicals by up to a million-fold!

 

Research over the past 30 years has confirmed the benefits of EDTA.

 

This protective influence of EDTA would be enhanced by an appreciable

presence of antioxidant nutrients such as vitamins A, C and E, selenium,

and amino acid complexes such as glutathione peroxidase.

 

These not only mop up free radicals but also assist in reinforcing the

stability of cell membranes.

 

The Story of Free Radicals

 

Free radicals are the highly unstable chemicals that attack, infiltrate,

and injure vital cell structures.

 

Most stable chemical compounds in the body possess a pair of electrons.

Sometimes, one member of the electron pair gets stripped away.

 

The resulting compound (that is short of one electron) is called a free

radical.

 

In chemistry, the term free radical means that it is now free to combine

with another element to form a new stable compound.

 

One way to think of free radical is the way our social system work. In a

family there is husband and wife. They are joined together. Both are

" tied up " or not available for other partners. Let us assume that they

get 'separated'. Now we have two " free " persons who are looking for

other partners to partner with. The way free radicals work, one of these

free spouse go and break up a stable marriage of another couple, by

joining with one of the spouses.

 

This results in the ouster of a person from that family creating a

brand new " free radical " who goes around prowling to find another

" compound " to attack. You can see that free radicals can do lot of harm

by forming a chain reaction.

 

A similar thing happens with free radicals in the body. When a free

radical is born, it goes around the body looking for another compound to

steal an electron from.

This breaks up the " contented " couple, that results in releasing

another free radical, and so on.

 

While on the prowl, these free radicals (which are really the oxidation

products from the body) can do tremendous damage to the delicate

machinery of your cells.

 

The most studied free radical chain reaction in living things is lipid

peroxidation. (The term lipid refers to any fat-soluble substance,

animal or vegetable.

 

Peroxidation means the formation of a peroxide molecule.

 

These are the molecules with the greatest proportion of oxygen

molecules. For example, a water molecule has two hydrogen atoms and one

oxygen atom. Hydrogen peroxide has two Hydrogen atoms and two oxygen

atoms.

 

In other words, there is an excess oxygen atom in a hydrogen peroxide

molecule.)

 

Ninety eight percent of the oxygen we breathe is used by tiny

powerhouses within our cells called mitochondria, that convert sugar,

fats and inorganic phosphate by combining with oxygen into adenosine

triphosphate (ATP), the universal form of energy we need to live.

 

This energy producing activity of the mitochondria involves a series of

intricate, complex and vital biochemical processes that depends on vast

numbers of enzymes (estimates vary from 500 to 10,000 sets of oxidative

enzymes).

 

These, in turn, depends on dozens of nutrient factors and co-factors. In

this metabolism process, a very small amount of left over oxygen loses

electrons, creating free radicals.

 

These free radicals burn holes in our cellular membranes.

 

Calcium penetrate our cells through these holes.

 

This excess calcium results in cell death.

 

This, in turn, weakens tissues and organs. As this damage continues, our

body become " rusty " , less able to fight other invaders such as cancer,

hardening of the arteries, premature aging, and other bodily disorders.

 

Because of the amount of oxygen we breathe every day (our bodies take

630 quadrillion damaging oxygen hits per day, each of our cells takes

about 10,000 hits per day and each DNA strand in the cell gets hit 5,000

times per day.

 

This free radical bombardment causes a typical human cell to undergo

thousands of changes or mutations daily. If a DNA strand gets hit and is

not repaired before its twin gets hit, we will have the onset of a

potentially lethal cancer.

 

In addition to the oxygen we breathe, the free radicals can also come

from such things as environmental pollution, radiation, cigarette smoke,

chemicals, and herbicides.

 

The key to having a healthy body is to repair the damages caused by the

free radicals before it is too late, and to protect the body's tissue

cells from the free radicals before they cause mutations.

 

Antioxidants are substances that have free-radical

chain-reaction-breaking properties.

Like a bouncer, the antioxidants deactivate potentially dangerous free

radicals before they can damage a cells' machinery. Most of these

antioxidants come from plants and are called phytochemicals.

 

More than 60,000 of such plant chemicals are identified. Among the most

effective and dedicated antioxidants are Vitamin A, C, and E (known as

the ACE trio.). Out of these, Vitamin C is the most powerful.

 

Each cell produces its own antioxidants. But the ability to produce them

decreases as we age. That is why our diet should supply anti-oxidants,

phytochemicals ( fruits and vegetables are a good source for this.) and

additional vitamins and minerals.

 

http://holisticonline.com/Chelation/chel_ben_free_rad.htm

 

 

 

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