Brain Facts:
Care of the Brain

Free Radicals

There is a specific hazard to the brain from aging. It is also the primary root cause of disease that damages the brain. It stems from routine chemical reactions that take place in the depths of each cell—primarily in the cell’s thousands of energy factories called “mitochondria.” Demham Harman, M.D., emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Nebraska and the father of the free radical theory of aging, explains that throughout life all your cells, including your brain cells, are bombarded by attacks from unstable chemical called oxygen free radicals that are the result of breathing, eating, and simply being alive. When the Mitochondria burn oxygen to make energy for cells, by products called oxygen free radicals are thrown off. Typically, they are chemically transformed into missiles that attack the walls of the mitochondria and into toxins that penetrate the interior, even the DNA, and membranes of the cells themselves. Over the years free radical damage accumulates in cells and their energy production slows down. In nerve cells, attacks by free radicals cause dendrites to retract and synapses to vanish, dramatically cutting back on a cell’s communication abilities. Eventually, free radicals damage threatens neuronal survival.

Free Radicals
—Antioxidants

Some brains age much faster than others due to excessive free radical damage, much of it needless and preventable. That explains why some brains are more aged and dysfunctional than other brains—why some normal people lose their memory and others don’t. The best way to avoid and even reverse these age-induced brain defects is, according to Dr. Harmon and many other researchers, is to get more antioxidants into your brain to neutralize the destructive free radicals.

Free Radicals
—Food

In the case of food, a fair amount of toxic waste is generated which consists of a nasty pile of excess electrons shredded from the atoms in the glucose molecules. Left alone, these electrons slam into other molecules within the cell, transforming them into some of the most toxic substances known to humankind. They are called free radicals. If not quickly corralled, they will wreck havoc on the innards of a cell and, cumulatively, on the rest of the body. These electrons are fully capable, for example, of causing mutations in your very DNA.

Free Radicals
—Oxygen’s Role

The reason you don’t die of electron overdose is that the atmosphere is full of breathable oxygen. The main function of oxygen is to act like an efficient electron-absorbing sponge. At the same time the blood is delivering food stuffs to your tissues, it is also carrying these oxygen sponges. Any excess electrons are absorbed by the oxygen and, after a bit of molecular alchemy, are transformed into equally hazardous— but not fully transportable—carbon dioxide.

Glucose
—Small Intestine

The body uses its teeth and acid and wormy intestines to tear the food apart and, if need be, reconfigure it.

This is done for more or less a single reason: to turn foodstuffs into glucose, a type of sugar that is one of the body’s favorite energy resources. Glucose and other metabolic products are absorbed into the blood stream via the small intestine. The nutrients travel to all parts of the body, where they are deposited into cells, which make up the body’s various tissues. The cells seize the sweet stuff like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Cellular chemicals greedily tear apart the molecular structure of glucose to extract its sugary energy. This energy extraction is so violent that atoms are literally ripped asunder in the process.