In all living organisms, including humans, takes place a delicate equilibrium between the production and the elimination – by antioxidant defense system – of the so-called “free radicals”. The breaking of this balance, frequently named “oxidative stress”, may induce cellular damage with differencing degrees of severity, leading ultimately, over time, to early aging and to many diseases.
Oxidative stress is a pathological condition triggered by the damaging action on the cells and tissues of the body, caused by abnormally increased amounts of free radicals. Free radicals are single or grouped atoms having at least one external orbital “occupied” by one single electron “unpaired” instead of a couple of electrons “lone pair”.
The body, even in normal conditions, produces a defined amount of free radicals, due to the physiological cell metabolism. Additionally, the following items are additional free-radical sources that contribute to oxidative stress:
Etiology - Examples
Environment factors - Radiations - Pollution
Physiological status - Physical Stress - Pregnancy
Life-style - Bad food, alcohol, cigarette smoke, inadequate exercise
Psychological factors - Emotional stress
Diseases - Trauma, inflammation, infection, vascular diseases, cancer
Iatrogenic factors - Drugs, radio-therapy, radiological exams
In a healthy condition, the body is able to prevent free radicals because of the natural defense system of antioxidants, which by the name indicates the ability of these agents to counteract the oxidant action of free radicals.
Over time a build-up of free radicals is potentially dangerous because they have a spontaneous tendency to fill their unfilled external orbital with a second electron. This then creates a very powerful hydroxyl radical (HO-), one of the most dangerous reactive oxygen species (ROS). Hydroxyl radicals can “attack” every kind of molecule (including carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids, peptides, proteins, nucleotides, nucleic acids, and so on). As a consequence of this action, every molecule loses an electron and becomes, in turn, a radical.
Oxidative stress, being a merely biochemical condition, generally doesn’t exhibit any specific clinical symptoms nor clinical signs. Therefore it will remain unknown, with unavoidable damage to the patient, until the clinician suspects its existence and decides to perform on the patient-specific biochemical tests.
Some of the most common diseases that are associated with a condition of oxidative stress:
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1.Aceruloplasminemia 2. Acute and chronic alcoholic liver diseases 3. Acute autoimmune myocarditis 4. Acute chest syndrome of sickle cell disease 5. Acute pancreatitis 6. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome 7. Alcoholic liver disease 8. Alzheimer’s disease 9. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 10. Arterial/systemic hypertension 11. Asbestosis 12. Asthma 13. Ataxia telangiectasia 14. Atherosclerosis 15. Atopic dermatitis 16. Brain ischemia 17. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia 18. Burns 19. Cancer (several kinds) 20. Cardiopulmonary bypass 21. Cardiovascular diseases 22. Cataract 23. Cellulitis 24. Chemotherapy side-effect 25. Chronic fatigue syndrome 26. Chronic hepatitis C 27. Chronic kidney disease 28. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 29. Chronic renal failure 30. Colitis 31. Coronary artery disease 32. Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease 33. Crohn disease 34. Cutaneous leishmaniasis 35. Cystic fibrosis 36. Diabetes mellitus type 1 37. Diabetes mellitus type 2 38. Dislipidemia 39. Down’s syndrome 40. Eclampsia 41. End-stage renal disease 42. Erectile dysfunction 43. Friedreich ataxia 44. Heart failure 45. Helicobacter pylori infection/ inflammation 46. Hemodialysis 47. Hepatic cirrhosis 48. Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection 49. Huntington disease 50. Hyperbaric diseases 51. Hypercholesterolemia 52. Hyperhomocysteinemia 53. Hyperlipidemia 54. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis 55. Interstitial lung disease 56. Ischemia/Reperfusion injury |
57. Juvenile chronic arthritis 58. Kidney transplantation 59. Leukaemia 60. Lung cancer 61. Lung injury 62. Macular degeneration 63. Male infertility 64. Ménière’s syndrome 65. Meningitis 66. Mild cognitive impairment 67. Multiple sclerosis 68. Myelodisplastic syndromes 69. Myocardial infarction 70. Myocarditis 71. Neonatal bronchopulmonary dysplasia 72. Obesity 73. Osteoarthritis 74. Osteoporosis 75. Pancreatitis 76. Parkinsonisms 77. Parkinson’s disease 78. Periodontal disease 79. Peritoneal dialysis 80. Photoageing 81. Preeclampsia 82. Primary biliary cirrhosis 83. Professional bronchopulmonary diseases 84. Progeria 85. Psoriasis 86. Psoriatic arthritis 87. Pulmonary hypertension 88. Radiotherapy side effects 89. Reactive arthritis 90. Renal cell carcinoma 91. Respiratory distress syndrome 92. Retinopathy of prematurity 93. Retrolenticolar fibroplasy* 94. Rheumatic disease 95. Rheumatoid arthritis 96. Sarcoidosis 97. Sepsis 98. Sickle cell disease 99. Sleep apnea 100. Spherocytosis 101. Spinal cord injury 102. Stroke 103. Synucleinopathies 104. Systemic amyloidosis 105. Systemic lupus erythematosus 106. Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) 107. Thrombophilia 108. Tauopathies 109. Tuberculosis 110. Unstable angina 111. Uremia 112. Venous insufficiency 113. Werner syndrome 114. Zellweger syndrome |
Oxidative stress is not a “disease”, according to the traditional sense of this word. Indeed, oxidative stress is the unwanted effect of the breakdown of a biochemical equilibrium. Therefore it can impact, often deceitfully, upon the onset and/or the course of several basic diseases. Oxidative stress, as it is not a classical disease, does not exhibit a specific clinical picture, but it hides behind the symptoms and the signs of the basic disease.
Before suggesting any supplementation, every clinician should try to identify and remove the possible cause responsible for the increased production of free radicals. The wide variety of oxidants responsible for oxidative stress and their ubiquitous distribution into the body implies the necessity to have a formula with a wide and complete spectrum of actions.
The complexity of redox networks and redox regulation is being revealed step by step, yet much still needs to be learned. Detailed knowledge of the molecular patterns generated from the principles of the redox code under defined physiological or pathological conditions in cells and organs will contribute to understanding the redox component in health and disease. Ultimately, there is a scientific basis for modern redox medicine through the prevention of disease in the form of a Redox Generator to reduce oxidative stress.