Unless mutated, DNA is perfect and cells continuously strive to reach that perfection. Life processes follow the DNA blueprint from the moment of conception, but cellular vitality and immune systems are determined by continuously exposed toxic agents.
Acids and Free Radicals
Free radicals and acids have virtually the same effect on the body. Free radicals are atoms or molecules (groups of atoms bound together by shared electrons) which have lost electrons and have unpaired electrons in their outermost orbits or shells, and which, while in that unbalanced state, are seeking to gain electrons from another source in order to become stable.
For example, the ion of calcium is positively charged (Ca++), but the outer shell is composed of 8 electrons with no unpaired electrons, so the ion is stable and not looking to replace electrons and therefore not a free radical.
The positively charged oxygen radical is called Super-Oxide. It is the most plentiful, aggressive and damaging free radical of them all. "Antioxidant" is the term that was originally coined to name a substance that can neutralize the oxygen radical, although the term is used to indicate any substance that can neutralize any free radical.
Most commonly free radical damage occurs near the DNA of the cells. Once an electron is taken from an atom or molecule, that formerly stable atom or molecule is now a positively charged free radical, which in turn will be compelled to neutralize itself by taking electrons from another stable atom or molecule.
The free radical/acidosis process repeats as a chain reaction which, if not stopped, will eventually result in the death of the body (acidosis is the term for the condition in which your body's fluids are acidic).
The damage that occurs from free radicals/acidosis is due to the fact that whenever an atom or molecule is split apart, energy is released. This is the same principle our body uses to produce energy from the breakdown, or splitting of the molecules in the food we eat, but that is done in a controlled way within the mitochondria of the cell, and the energy released is channeled for use by the body. But the energy released when electrons are torn from atoms and molecules due to acids or free radicals produces tiny, uncontrolled atomic explosions which damage or kill cells. If the cells live they will mutate, and when the mutated cells replicate themselves, the daughter cells will have the same genetic defects as the mother cells - a process that leads to cancer and other degenerative diseases.
One can see the damage done by acidosis in a live blood cell analysis under a microscope. Red blood corpuscles, normally round, after free radical damage, look like cookies with big bites taken out of them. This is called poikilocytosis.
Damage associated with acids does not come only from direct attack on cells.
When the body fluids become acidic, oxygen carrying blood is severely compromised and this is disastrous because every cell of the body needs abundant oxygen continually.
Oxygen deficiency
The primary cause of disease is oxygen deficiency, which is brought about by other causes such as acidosis, which is brought about by free radical damage which is allowed by diets deficient in anti-oxidants.The ultimate cause of disease is nutritional deficiency.
When nutrition is consistently and correctly applied, all functions will fall into place. Acids, free radicals, bad bacteria, viruses, yeasts, and funguses will be neutralized, oxygen and other essential nutrients will be provided to the cells in due measure, and wastes will be eliminated effectively.
A heart attack is due to heart muscle cells deprivation of oxygen and can no longer function.
The same continuous oxygen requirement applies to every single cell in every single organ, gland, muscle, nerve, and bone in our bodies. You can go without food for months. You can go without water for days, but no matter how healthy you are, if you stop breathing for several minutes, you die. That is exactly what happens with acidosis, except it happens slowly over an extended period of time.
The deficiency of oxygen caused by an acidic environment combined with the direct damage due to the acids causes degeneration that will continue to get worse until it kills you... unless you make the changes necessary to correct the condition.
Credit to Mark Hathaway
