A Lot Of Free Radicals Cause Disease According To Alternative Medicine

The causes of disease in the point of view of conventional medicine, according to Dr. Willix, MD, are physical, physiological, microbial, and psychological.

Since 1962, free radicals have been recognized as causes of disease. That year Dr. Denham Harman, MD made an interpretation that they cause disease. That interpretation was a substantial departure from the usual one that they are just by-products of metabolism of, say, glucose in the production of energy.

A free radical is any atom, or molecule, or fragment of molecule with at least one unpaired electron in its outermost orbital (Pierce, J. Ph.D. 1986. Heart Healthy Magnesium). For example, molecular oxygen which has two unpaired electrons in its outermost orbital. An orbital is a path of electrons around the nucleus, in the case of atom, or around the whole molecule. Electrons usually come in pairs in their orbit that makes them stable. An unpaired electron is unstable and to stabilize it usually grabs an electron from a neighboring molecule of a cell or tissue. A cell or tissue whose electron had been grabbed is injured. That injury causes mutation that results in disease like tumor or cancer or emphysema or arthritis, and many more, called free radical diseases.

Conventional research in cancer has recognized that mutation causes cancer and concentrates on suppressing the growth of cancer, or regressing it. Alternative medicine has recognized free radicals as the culprit in a lot of diseases and has concentrated in primary prevention by controlling the population of free radicals.

Control of a free radical is straightforward. The hunger for a fellow of an unpaired electron is satisfied with an electron from supplements or nutrition. That electron usually comes from a hydrogen atom because its electron or proton is the easiest to abstract.  A hydrogen bond is only 5 percent as strong as the other kinds of bonds: ionic bond and covalent bond (Tortora, G.J. and J.F. Becker. 1978. Life Science: 14). An ordinary hydrogen atom (not its isotope of deuterium) has one electron and one proton and no nucleus.

The usual donors are vitamins like vitamin C that has eight hydrogen atoms or vitamin E (alpha tocopherol) with 37 hydrogen atoms. These donors are called antioxidants. The human body has built-in enzyme antioxidants like superoxide dismutase that converts superoxides produced during metabolism of glucose into hydrogen peroxide. Glutathione peroxidase dismantles hydrogen peroxide, which acts like a free radical, into safe water.

Adriamycin, a drug used in chemotherapy in conventional medicine produces a lot of free radicals that destroy the chromosomes of a cancerous cell. It has a side effect of destroying the healthy cells as well; such effect is suppressed. Alternative medicine recognizes the major role being played by free radicals.

The emerging stem cell therapy recognizes free radicals as causes of disease. The multipotent stem cells grown for use in stem cell therapy should have chromosomes free from free radical damage, according to Professor Doug Wallace, head of the Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics (Bellomo, M., 2006. The Stem Cell Divide). Stem cell therapy is now achieving leaps and bounds in treating and curing diseases.