Free Radicals vs. Exercise

This is actually a fairly old subject, but on occasions some people like to dig this type of stuff up and use it to their advantage. In this case, it goes back to the "exercise is bad for you" campaign. It boils down to the fact that your body produces more free radicals during bouts of extreme exertion and moderate to strenuous forms of exercise. Free radicals are everywhere and your body, under normal circumstances, will produce enough antioxidants to combat such things. A lot of the nutrients you obtain from your food, especially fruits and vegetables, will also help give your body what it needs to protect its cells from free radical damage.

This ain't rocket science, and exercise is still very good for your body and overall sense of well-being. Unless you are over-training and eating poorly or constantly performing marathon races, etc., I doubt if this would be very much of a concern for the vast majority. I got reminded of this the other day while watching some health guru (link to my health blog; ha!) on television that was acting like exercise is just so harmful to the body. I suppose you could compare it to a high-performance engine burning a lot of gas, having carbon deposits, and so on, but being active is one of the biggest things you can do for your health. This subject gets blown out of proportion when people generalize the term 'exercise' with these medical statements. First of all, people that are taking part in high-performance events usually don't fuel their body with Twinkies and doughnuts, either. Like a high-performance motor, a high-quality fuel needs to be added.

Take lactic acid, for example. Many times, when you either do something repetitively different or exercise extra hard, you will find some muscle soreness due to a lactic acid build-up in the strained areas. Simply taking extra vitamin C beforehand will help reduce that effect, and I've even tested this myself to see if the scientific data was accurate. But before anybody gets their panties in a wad, yes, I know that micro-tears in the muscle fibers is considered one of the main reasons for DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), but that is neither here nor there. Anyway, back to the subject, a lot of folks would probably either say "What are free radicals?" or "Exercise? Eew!" LOL!

So, the next time you find yourself smoking crack (or whatever), eating processed foods, loads of basic table sugar, and tubs of trans fat, remember to not hate upon the free radicals caused by exercise. I think it'll be alright...

Related Link to further your reading:
* www.examiner.com/article/free-radicals-and-exercise-are-we-doing-more-harm-than-good-by-working-out [link is no longer active]

Image Credit: My own photo of a book I purchased a few years ago.

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