Posted by Larry Hoover on November 4, 2004, at 11:02:03
In reply to Re: dopamine oxidation » Larry Hoover, posted by raybakes on November 3, 2004, at 14:15:25
>
> >
> > Am I wrong to think that high glutathione burden due to ascorbate might indicate that you are consuming the ascorbate, i.e. you need it?
> >
>
> Thanks Lar for the EPA/DHA abstracts...and thanks being involved!!You're welcome. In case you didn't realize, PMC is only full-text articles. Sometimes, if you're lucky, there will be hotlinks in the references that get you "inside" fee-based journals without having to pay. If that happens, don't save the link. It won't work later. Instead, email the article to yourself.
> My thoughts were that severe brian fogging I get with high dose ascorbate might be using up too much glutathione for me and causing excess production of the ascorbyl radical? This article suggests it might be possible.
>
> "For example, after vitamin C donates an electron to a free radical, it becomes what is known as the ascorbyl radical. The antioxidant known as reduced glutathione can restore ascorbyl radical to the antioxidant form of vitamin C."
>
> RayThe key term in the above exchange is that vitamin C donates an electron to a free radical. What that does is it stabilizes that free radical, so it can no longer participate in chain reactions. (As an aside, the ozone depletion in the atmosphere is caused by free radical chain reactions.)
The ascorbyl radical can then participate in chain reactions, but it is less reactive than the originating free radical. Glutathione quenches the ascorbyl radical, but is itself now a radical. There are a few processes by which glutathione is regenerated, and one of those is via alphalipoic acid.
There are lots of free radials running around in your body. Some of them are astoundingly dangerous, in a chemical sense, like superoxide. Antioxidants are sacrificial (they are used up), but in the process they become somewhat dangerous themselves. Just less dangerous. Antioxidants are best thought of as a network, because they interact and "rearrange" the reactivity.
One of the most common free radicals in the body is molecular oxygen. Although it's often represented as double-bonded, i.e. O=O, it doesn't stay like that. It resonates to the diradical form, represented as ·O-O· The dots represent unpaired electrons, called radicals. Molecular oxygen is so reactive that it can turn solid iron to powder (rust). Our bodies have evolved haemoglobin molecules to bind free molecular oxygen to iron atoms without oxidizing it permanently. This safely carries oxygen through the body without allowing its free radical character access to sensitive molecules. Oxygen is wicked dangerous, from a chemical perspective. Superoxide (O2-) cannot form a stable resonance structure, so it remains an oxygen free radical until it finds something to react with. It's all about stabilizing oxygen.....that's what life is all about.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:404137
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20041022/msgs/411631.html