Are free radicals harmful?

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I’ve read that they are and aren’t depending on the context. [It’s been shown](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6025786/) that EM radiation from normal, every day use electronics can interfere with our bodies. [Apparently](https://www.popsci.com/what-are-antioxidants-good-bad-enough-too-much/), it’s not entirely obvious that free radicals are dangerous? Can someone break it down for me?

In: Biology

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Essentially, free radicals are highly reactive and have a tendency to damage biological things.

But sometimes you NEED to damage biological things, and in those cases it’s good to have some around.

Ultimately, you’ve evolved to have a certain level of free radicals, and any deviation from that level will make your body behave in a manner it isn’t optimised for. That means that too many or too few are *both* potentially dangerous for different reasons.

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