Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: neilep on 10/06/2009 11:37:32

Title: If exercise produces Free Radicals then why is exercise good ?
Post by: neilep on 10/06/2009 11:37:32
Hullo, I'm neil.

As ewe may or may not know I have been treadmilling about 7 miles a day for the past year and I am still doing it !

Look, here I am.

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Nice eh ?

I may have been semi comatose when I heard this but I swear I heard that exercising produces free radicals in your body !..Please correct me if I am wrong but aren't free radicals the bad boys ?

If i am right then how does keeping fit make bad things.....Perhaps ewe can explain what a free radical is ?...maybe there are good ones too ?

I don't know...I hope to know shortly though !


Thanks


neil
Treadmilling Sheep
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Title: If exercise produces Free Radicals then why is exercise good ?
Post by: Chemistry4me on 11/06/2009 06:21:04
Quote
Free radicals not bad? Now that's a radical proposition. According to Powers, free radicals have at least two important functions. First, they fight off invading infections. Second, they actually signal muscle cells to make adaptive changes to exercise. In other words, they play a key role in what we call "the training effect." Indeed, most exercise-produced free radicals never leave the muscles. They never get to the tissues and organs where they're known to do damage.

The free radicals to worry about are the ones that infiltrate your body via environmental pollutants, such as ozone and cigarette smoke. Stay as far away from them as you can. And continue to fight them.


http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-241-285--10208-2-1X2-3,00.html

The article is quite good.
Title: If exercise produces Free Radicals then why is exercise good ?
Post by: Don_1 on 11/06/2009 08:04:06
Free radicals are pretty dangerous, just look at the Bader Meinhof or Black September groups.....
Ah! I think I may have misunderstood you.

Along the same vein, although we can't live without it, isn't oxygen pretty damaging to our cells (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.nextsmallthings.com%2Fcoolchaser.com%2Fthumb-18121297.jpg&hash=971077f67ce0fd13c7701fe6c0be4541) No, not those cells, these cells (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2F1%2F13%2FRedbloodcells.jpg&hash=572ad9f6616c0048349eac1d3b8cd464)

I can never understand people who jog in central London. All that extra pollution they must be getting in their lungs cannot be good.