Oxidative Damage: Prevention is Important
What is oxidative damage in terms of skincare, and why is its prevention important?
Oxidation is simply summarised as the process of oxygen combustion, which is naturally occurring.
It helps our cells to build proteins and to produce energy.
It produces byproducts called free radicals, which also play a vital role in the health of our bodies.
Free radicals are important for killing off bad bacteria and for building bridges between collagen fibres in our skin. However, problems can occur when these free radicals become overly active and connect to things like fats, proteins, and even DNA.
When this happens, they attack these molecules, which can lead to a whole host of problems, including the accelerated ageing of your skin.
Usually, when the body is in perfect balance, the natural number of antioxidants in our cells, aka nature’s neutralising agents, prevent this damage from happening.
However, our world is full of pollution, radiation, detergents, fertilisers, and highly processed foods containing damaged or industrially modified fats (some of which are not even recognised by your body – ie industrial trans fats), all of which can accelerate the production of free radicals, and accelerate their negative effects.
Including more antioxidants in your diet can help, but so can tallow applied topically because of its many antioxidant and skin protective properties.