What is an antioxidant? How does an antioxidant fight a free radical?
Antioxidants are molecules that can take many forms including proteins, enzymes, vitamins, and metabolites. These molecules are able to combine with free radicals and stabilize them, thus rendering them harmless. The earlier this can happen, the better for the cell, since many oxidative reactions start devastating chain reactions that result in considerable damage to each part of the cell’s anatomy.
