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In Medicine It Is Unethical to Deny that Free Radicals Cause Disease

Updated on March 1, 2014

Metabolism of glucose showing the cytochome system where energy and superoxide are produced

Free radicals cause disease

We are going to prove that free radicals:

(1) as atom or molecule exist;

(2) are being used by humans;

(3) are by-products of metabolism;

(4) cause disease;

(5) kill cancer cells.

Free radicals

To start with, atomic oxygen (O) as an element exists. Atomic oxygen has 8 electrons spinning around its nucleus along a path called orbital. Atomic oxygen has three orbitals. Usually electrons are in pairs for stability. Two paired electrons occupy the first orbital. Four paired electrons occupy the second orbital plus two unpaired electrons. The third orbital is unoccupied during the ground state (normal) of oxygen. This empty orbital is attractive to electrons of other elements that is why oxygen readily combines with other elements in reactions to form compounds.

The unpaired electrons in the second orbital makes oxygen atom a free radical.

Two atoms of oxygen bind together by means of six electrons. Still two unpaired electrons spin around the whole compound that is now called molecular oxygen or oxygen molecule. The unpaired electrons spin in parallel direction.

A free radical consists of an atom or molecule or fragment of a molecule with at least one unpaired electron spinning in its outermost orbital. This definition is a functional definition, not a deductive definition. Being functional. It is derived from an occurrence in nature. Therefore, it is not an invention that is the usual feature of a deductive definition.

So far, we have described two free radicals: atomic oxygen and molecular oxygen. We have attributed existence on these descriptions. This is important. Existence is asserted on a definite description, according to the theory of definite description by Bertrand Russell. (Russell is a Nobel Prize winner in Literature. He is also a philosopher and mathematician.) This feature assures us of existence of concepts in science and guards against fictitious concepts.

We have described two free radicals and asserted their existence. In layman’s language, atomic oxygen and molecular oxygen exist.

Humans use free radicals

We come now to the second part of our discussion. As human beings, we are using, breathing in molecular oxygen. Molecular oxygen has been benefiting us. We are also breathing carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide from pollution but these have not benefited us.

That we breathe molecular oxygen is obvious and seems preposterous to prove that we do. Anyway, if we lacked oxygen we would suffer from hypoxia. A person who has arterial plaque and breathes only a small amount of oxygen would suffer angina. And a person who is severely starved for oxygen suffers heart attack.

Another free radical that is a by-product of the metabolism of blood sugar or glucose is superoxide. It consists of two atoms of oxygen with one unpaired electron in its outermost orbital. It was formerly a molecular oxygen whose one unpaired electron had reacted with another element to make a compound like water.

In metabolism a molecule of glucose goes through the cytochrome system (illustration below). One glucose molecular yields 38 adenosine triphosphates (ATP) the currency of energy that we use as human beings. The metabolism is likened to a waterfall. At the head of the waterfall, two electrons (from hydrogen) are liberated and fall down. These electrons had been separated from their partners, two protons that stand by. Each electron follows its own path. As each electron falls, it produces energy. At the foot of the waterfall is molecular oxygen waiting or rather pulling down the falling electron. If molecular oxygen is lacking, the cytochrome system backs up resulting in lack of energy, like the occurrence of hypoxia, or angina, or heart attack.

At the foot of the waterfall, one of the unpaired electron of molecular oxygen pairs up with one falling electron and two protons and make a molecule of water. One unpaired electron of molecular oxygen remains unreacted and makes a superoxide. That is, two atoms of oxygen with one unpaired electron. This superoxide is a by-product of glucose metabolism. Superoxide is also a free radical.

A human being needs a lot of ATP. One brain cell uses 10 million of ATPs per second. That means a lot of superoxides is produced in the production of a lot of ATPs. ATPs are also used in cell pumps of the 3 trillion of cells of the human body. ATPs are used in growth and reproduction. There are other sources of superoxides.

There are other forms of free radicals like singlet oxygen. This was formerly a molecular oxygen that was excited and ionized by extra energy from the sun. The spin of one unpaired electron is reversed so that a singlet oxygen has two unpaired electrons that spin in opposite directions.

The physicist, the chemist, the biologist, the biochemist, the physiologists and the doctor of medicine recognize the existence of free radicals.

Interpretation of free radicals

In 1947 yet a book in animal husbandry said that in livestock vitamin C is destroyed. A pig and a human being are similar in having metabolism of food. Livestock also produces free radicals. In the past, that vitamin C is destroyed is an interpretation. Another possible interpretation is that vitamin C donates one electron to a free radical like superoxide or singlet oxygen. It is the electron from the hydrogen of vitamin C that is donated. Seen another way, the electron is grabbed by a free radical. The electron from hydrogen is the easiest to grab because the bond between particles in a hydrogen is only 5% as strong as other bonds like covalent bond (between atoms of iron, for example) and ionic bond (between atoms of salt, for example).

To back track a little bit. An unpaired electron is unstable and to stabilize itself, it takes away one electron from another molecule that belongs to a tissue. The two unpaired electrons of molecular oxygen each grabs one electron at a time owing to the parallel direction of their spin. The two unpaired electrons of singlet oxygen grab electrons at the same time owing to the opposite directions of their spin. The singlet oxygen is more destructive than molecular oxygen or superoxide.

Free radicals cause disease

It was Dr. Denham Harman, MD who made the interpretation that a free radical causes disease, in 1962 (Cranton, E. MD. Bypassing Bypass. Updated second edition. 1995). When an unpaired electron grabs another electron it injures the molecule that owns the grabbed electron. One or several electrons that had been grabbed can result in injury that, in turn, results in disease. For example, when free radicals grab electrons from the DNA, the DNA is injured that results in mutation that, in turn, results in tumor or cancer.

Free radicals at work can be detected by means of the electron spin resonance spectroscopy (Sharma, H. Freedom from Disease. 1993). The tissue under attack shows as a red spot.

The study of free radicals is now advanced as shown in the book “Nitric Oxide Protocols” edited by Aviv Hassad, published in 2004.

The drugs used in chemotherapy show how free radicals cause disease.

Let’s back track again. Conventional medicine uses chemo drugs to treat cancer. The drug can treat cancer, alright. How? The active agents of a chemo drugs are free radicals, especially singlet oxygen (Pressman, A. and S. Buff. Glutathione: The ultimate Antioxidant). Singlet oxygen kills cancer cells and healthy cells in the vicinity of cancer cells. That is the reason why chemo has side effects. The free radical also kills healthy cells, especially those that are fast dividing like blood cells, hair follicle cells, and bone morrow.

The illustration above shows a dividing cell in a process called mitosis. Tumor that may graduate into cancer starts with one mitotic cell only. When tumorous cells break out of the cell membrane and spread to other parts of the body in a process called metastasis, they turn into cancer. Free radicals kill or mutate chromosome of the dividing cell in step 3. Cells with killed or mutated chromosomes cannot assemble proteins to make new daughter cells. Cancer cells divide faster than normal cells. Cell division makes for growth to a certain limit. Tumor and cancer cells grow beyond this limit.


Conventional medicine will not tell about the free radical ingredients of chemo drugs. However, the evidence of their existence in chemo drugs is the death of cancer cells and healthy cells that are hit. You will see that labels of chemo drugs show “carcinogenic” meaning it causes cancer when given in overdose. Chlornaphazine causes bladder cancer. Melphalan, and cyclophosphamide (cytoxan) cause acute leukemia (Epstein, S.S., MD. The Politics of Cancer. 1978:506). The DNA of healthy cells hit by free radicals in chemo drugs are injured that result in mutation that results in tumor or cancer.

It is clear that free radicals in chemo drugs are indiscriminate. The main reason is that they are not delivered in cancer cells in a specific manner. A free radical delivered specifically to a cancer cell will kill that cancer cell only. I have a Hub on how chemotherapy works.

Gene therapy

Gene therapy is a method of delivering a free radical in cancer cells in a very specific manner. The free radical is nitric oxide. It is less potent than singlet oxygen because it has only one unpaired electron.Nitric oxide kills cancer cells nevertheless.

Gene therapy benefits from the completed Human Genome project. The genes of human being has been mapped. It is assumed that each gene is known in terms of what enzyme it controls. For example, it is known what gene controls the production of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), the enzyme that produces inducible nitric oxide. Of course, this kind of information is not given to the public. It is available to the contributors to the Human Genome project.

Given the assumption that the gene that controls iNOS is known and is now available for cloning.

The iNOS gene can be cloned. This technology is now commonplace called biotechnology. I have Hubs on the gene therapy in curing cancer, “Better than chemotherapy, this new method to cure cancer,” and “Chemotherapy and gene therapy compared.”

The theory of gene therapy for cancer is now available. The laboratory procedure had been applied successfully on mice (Hassad, A. Editor. Nitric Oxide Protocols. Kuroki, M. "Gene Therapy in Cancer Via Use of a Retrovector Having a Tumor Specificity and Expressing Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase." 2004:201-211). It is now up to enterprises to come up with formulations and protocol for use by consumers.

Of course, gene therapy for cancer in humans must go through three phases of trials.

Unethical attitude and practice towards free radicals

Even at this stage of the gene therapy for cancer, it is unethical to ignore the fact that free radicals cause disease. It is unethical because to ignore is to be blind to the truth. However, this act is not considered as medical malpractice and not punishable by law. It is unethical because to ignore this fact is to deny people of correct medication and good health.

To ignore this fact that free radicals cause disease is to succumb to pressures being applied by the American Medical Association (AMA) that accredits doctors, by institutions of leaning like universities and colleges offering courses in medicine, by journals that publish reports of medical research, and by Big Pharma. The overall source of pressure is Big Pharma.

If a doctor prescribed essiac, a natural cure for cancer, his license would be withdrawn by AMA. If a university taught that free radicals cause disease, it would not receive grants from Big Pharma. Journals tamper with data on the efficacy and effectiveness of drugs. Doctors of medicine get their information from universities and journals censored by Big Pharma. If you go to a doctor you will get a prescription ultimately approved by Big Pharma.

Why do AMA, universities, journals, and Big Pharma block the interpretation that free radicals cause disease? If free radicals were used as framework in dealing with cancer and heart disease it would be easier to treat and cure these diseases. And treating and curing them would be cheaper. In addition, they could be prevented.

However, if heart disease and cancer were cured, Big Pharma would lose big markets because, respectively, these are the number one and number two victimizers of people in the world. That is why they are the number one and number two killers in the world.

Steps in mitosis showing step 3 where chromosomes are killed by free radicals

A chemo drug with a warning as being carcinogenic (Photo derived from Forbidden Cures)


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