Читать книгу Good Skin - Ingrid Wood - Страница 31

• Oxygen molecules have four pairs of electrons. Sun, smoking, stress, etc. can cause the loss of electrons. At this stage the molecule, desperate to ‘regain’ its lost electron, is defined as a free radical. So begins the raid on other molecules.

• Scavenging free radicals take an electron from other molecules, thus creating new free radicals that go on their own rampage.

• This chain reaction eventually causes the cell membrane to disintegrate, leaving the cell vulnerable to premature ageing and disease.

• Antioxidants remove free radicals as they form by replacing the lost electrons and so creating normal oxygen molecules.