Free radicals occur naturally in the body when nutrients are broken down to create the energy that allows our bodies to function and when the immune system is responding to invaders. They are also generated by the body in response to environmental stressors, such as smoke, pollution, and UV rays.
Free radicals are like pinballs in your body that bounce around and cause damage to anything they come in contact with. More technically, they are atoms with one or more unpaired electron in their outer shell. These atoms are inherently unstable and cause damage when they steal electrons from other atoms.
