Oxidative stress occurs when free radicals outnumber the body's antioxidants, creating an environment of chronic inflammation.
Over time, this inflammation can damage neurons, the cells that make up the brain and nervous system, contributing to neurodegenerative processes associated with conditions including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Most neurons have a very limited capacity to regenerate after early childhood, making prevention and healthy lifestyle choices especially important.
What Is Oxidative Stress?
Oxidative stress (OS) occurs as a result of an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants, where the former outnumbers the latter.
During normal, healthy metabolic processes, our body’s cells naturally produce free radicals– chemically reactive molecules with one or several unpaired electrons–that travel through the body in hopes of finding other atoms to bond to. This, in turn, leads to uncontrolled havoc on cells, DNA, and proteins.
But our bodies also produce antioxidants to keep free radicals in check by lending them a spare electron without destabilizing themselves.
The result?
Suppressed reactivity that turns the free radicals into alcohol (you don’t get drunk) or water.
Of course, this is assuming that your body produces and obtains enough antioxidants from food and/or supplements to latch onto every free radical in your system.
If an unhealthy balance between free radicals and antioxidants is left untreated by maintaining an unhealthy diet, an unhealthy lifestyle, and/or living in heavily polluted or irradiated areas while actively not seeking help, then you’re only putting yourself at high risk of chronic inflammation.
How Oxidative Stress Leads to Chronic Inflammation
Inflammation is an immune response to dealing with injury, infection, or an immune disorder.
When you’re cut or if you’ve “successfully” popped a zit, the red, hot feeling you get on the affected area becomes inflamed. That’s nature for ya.
But if we leave nature to her own devices, things can quickly go wrong.
Free radicals are both a cause and a result of inflammation. If you were at risk of OS beforehand (remember: bad lifestyle habits), then your overall health may begin to spiral out of control.
OS-induced inflammation can become chronic, which triggers overly active immune responses that potentially cause white blood cells to attack healthy tissue.
Over time, chronic inflammation becomes a good host and graciously opens the door for a wide variety of severe health problems to come in, including neurodegenerative disorders.
How Chronic Inflammation Leads to Neurodegeneration
Neurodegenerative disorder is a blanket term used to describe a multitude of conditions that affect the neurons–the building blocks that make up the nervous system, including the spinal cord and brain.
Most neurons have very limited ability to regenerate after early childhood. While some areas of the brain can produce new neurons throughout life, protecting existing brain cells remains important for long-term brain health.
The most commonly known neurodegenerative diseases are Parkinson’s disease and types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s. And as we already know, there is no cure for either one. As soon as a person begins showing signs of these neurodegenerative diseases, there’s little anyone can do to reverse or stop the effects.
Even though aging is the number one risk factor for certain neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation could be a precursor for deficits in cognitive and motor skills during later stages in life. Several studies have shown that a frightening link between the two conditions exists, and living in an OS state induces inflammation in the nervous system.
So now we know that OS can trigger inflammation that possibly leads you down the path to short-term memory loss, increased confusion, apathy, and the inability to perform simple everyday tasks. Also, for now, there is no cure. What can we do about it? Are we destined to accept fate or can a preemptive strike against harmful free radicals keep our neurons intact for longer?
Molecular Hydrogen and Neurodegeneration
Molecular hydrogen has attracted research interest as a neuroprotective antioxidant because of two properties that distinguish it from many other antioxidants.
First, experimental research suggests it acts as a selective antioxidant by preferentially neutralizing hydroxyl radicals—among the most damaging reactive oxygen species associated with oxidative stress—while leaving many beneficial cellular signaling molecules unaffected.
Second, because it is the smallest molecule known, molecular hydrogen can readily diffuse across the blood-brain barrier and reach brain tissue directly.
Several preclinical studies and early clinical investigations have explored molecular hydrogen in relation to neurodegenerative conditions. While the findings are encouraging, larger, high-quality clinical trials are still needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn.
Learn about Molecular Hydrogen Tablets
https://www.vital-reaction.com/products/molecular-hydrogen-tablets
How molecular hydrogen works as a selective antioxidant
https://www.vital-reaction.com/pages/how-molecular-hydrogen-works
The Bottom Line
The effects of oxidative stress can be serious, particularly when it contributes to chronic inflammation over time.
Today, we’ve learned that OS-induced inflammation can lead to inflammation-induced neurodegeneration, which can be awful to live with.
But hope isn’t lost yet.
Making healthy lifestyle choices may help support long-term brain health and reduce risk factors associated with cognitive decline. Your older self will thank your present self for making the right decisions sooner rather than later.
