Paul Saladino· MD
oxidation is the loss of electrons so if we say a molecule like a fatty acid molecule is oxidized it's losing electrons now usually in an electron bond there's two electrons in one of those bonds and so if you strip one of them away you have an unpaired electron which is where you get to a free radical people probably heard that term free radical and then other electrons uh can react with that so it's essentially a molecule comes in with one unpaired electron a free radical or some peroxide molecule that has an unpaired electron it can be all sorts of molecules can be like that hydroxyl radicals these molecules are very reactive when they have unpaired electrons it's just the way biochemistry works on this planet in this universe and they come in and they actually want to pull one of those electrons out of that double bond well that creates a an unpaired electron in the fatty acid and that's what we call a lipid peroxide and that can create a cascade of reactions where that will go around and strip electrons of other molecules and that's probably that's at the same time essential for human life and in excess it's a very problematic thing for humans