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Applications |
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The experimental results can have multiple applications to everyday life. Understanding the relationship between free radicals and antioxidants in the body is helpful to leading a healthy lifestyle. The damage caused by free radicals can eventually lead to widespread cellular destruction, leading to various health disorders: cancer, heart-diseases, accelerated ageing, diseases of the immune system, and others. Free radical formation can be augmented by external factors such as pollutants, sunlight, radiation, emotional stress, smoking, excessive alcohol, infection, and some drugs. Free radicals float around the body looking for electrons to rebalance themselves. If necessary, free radicals steal electrons from normal healthy cells, causing a chain-reaction. Antioxidants protect healthy cells by donating an electron to the free radicals. The body produces antioxidants naturally and can also be obtained from the foods we eat and from supplements. It is possible that different vitamins have different antioxidant properties, depending on the target tissue. As well, it is interesting to note that vitamins, when in a large dose, can become toxic, and act as a pro-oxidant, and thus harmful. Understanding this experiment’s results, more specifically the effects of antioxidants, one may be aided in their quest to find a healthy diet and lifestyle. Ultimately, a diet filled with fruits and vegetables (rich sources of antioxidants) may have protective effects on the human body. A recent study by Pracon Inc, a hospital outcomes analysis firm, indicates that if Canadians took optimal amounts of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and Vitam C, 8.7 billion dollars would be saved annually from reduced hospitalizations due to cancer and cardiovascular disease alone.
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