Dr Khalil will allude to the role of free radicals in the pathology of Alzheimer s disease and delayed tissue repair with age, and clarify the beneficial and harmful effects of antioxidants, particularly in managing age-associated diseases. Ageing is genetically programmed. Ageing is due to wear and tear. Our bodies have adequate repair mechanisms for errors that occur in protein synthesis. But, as we get older, the ability to repair is outweighed by the cumulative errors occurring.
Systems eventually drift outside homeostatically controlled range.
These cumulative errors produce defects in information transfer from DNA to RNA, which in turn produce defective proteins. These proteins can feed back the errors. Oxygen free radicals are by-products of oxygen metabolism. Oxygen is utilised by the mitochondria to release energy and many essential enzymes require oxygen for their function. Oxygen free radicals are produced at the metabolic sites.