Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 7/20/2008

Question
I would like to know the impact of free radicals on the body(DNA) and the link it has to aging. Also it is claimed that free radicals cause pre-mature apoptosis and the generation of more free radicals in the body, is this true? There also has bee speculation that the free-radicals in the body can be reduce by drinking ionized water such that hydroxyl groups will remove some of the free-radicals and would be good for us.

Answer
Dear 123sNabcs,

Many people would like to know how free radicals affect aging and the connection between DNA damage and aging.  It's pretty well established that shortening of the telomeres as a cell undergoes mitosis over the course of its life contributes to aging.  But we don't yet completely understand how various other types of DNA damage, including that inflicted by free radicals, causes a cell (and its organism) to age.

Our bodies produce millions of free radicals daily as by-products of normal metabolism.  A healthy cell has multiple mechanisms to not only prevent the formation of free radicals, but also to intercept and inactivate them as they form.  As a cell ages, these mechanisms, as well as the enzymes that repair DNA damage, don't work as well as in a "young" cell.  Hence, DNA damage accumulates.  But exactly how this affects aging is not yet well understood.

A cell with severe DNA damage may indeed undergo apoptosis "before its time."  If the mitochondria are damaged, for example, mechanisms in the cell that detect cytochrome leakage spring into action and initiate apoptosis to prevent the damaged cell from causing problems in adjacent cells.

While it's true that adding free radical scavengers to our diet will do no harm, and *might* do some good, the scientific jury is still out on just how effective this is.  As I mentioned before, our body produces millions of free radicals daily, and already has mechanisms to prevent them from causing problems.  Just how much additional protection is conferred by drinking free-radical scavengers is not known.

Unfortunately, some of the questions you ask don't yet have definitive answers. But I hope this helps a bit.

Dana