What Is Redox Signaling?

Written by Chu Tang, Founder & Creator of All Health Info

Why Do I Need to Know?

On March 2020, on the first second of waking up each morning, I was checking the worldometers.info & other websites on how many COVID-19 cases worldwide, in US, in my state, county, city, and community. I was saturated with worry and insecurity. After living in a short perpetuated fear for over a month, I decided to take a firm action to tone down that my overwhelmed reaction to the pandemic.

I asked myself what do I have at hand? I have a body and an immune system which I didn’t know exactly how it worked, but it has been keeping me alive all these years. If the virus enters my “house” (my body), how does the body know? How do the cells really communicate with each others to get help from the immune system (which I knew it releases killing agents from my anatomy class in college)? Does it need to give the right signals?

I decided to learn from the expert. The timing was perfect. On the very same month in April, I enrolled in a cellular health program trained by world famous Dr. Gary Samuelson, Ph.D. Atomic Medical Physicist and received my certification. I repeated the program to assist new students in cellular health coaching.

I learned inside our body, we have 70 trillion cells! I learned what “redox” is (which I will explain below) which I was not even aware that our body actually produces these cell signaling molecules! I learned that hydrogen peroxide (yes, it is the same name as the one we use to disinfect open wounds) is one type of redox signaling molecules that our body produces inside our white blood cell. Our white blood cell also produces hypochlorous acid which is 100 times stronger than bleach! When I was bitten by a huge insect during my travel in Fiji and had plate size swollen leg, I remember taking antihistamine medicine and applying antihistamine cream. I didn’t know that it was hypochlorous acid that releases the histamine. What if our cell couldn’t communicate well, then our body does not know when to stop the release of histamine and the immune system starts attacking itself (aka autoimmune disorder)?

I learned the size of SARS-CoV-2 is 0.125 microns. A micron (μm) is a millionth of a meter. The average size of a human cell is about 100 μm in diameter. So I know our body has to fight the virus at a cellular level!

What is being produced inside the cell for cell communication? For cell repair? When is the cell is so damaged and beyond repair, what signals the cell to destroy itself?

I found my answer: Our cell produces this thing called “redox signaling molecules”.

Redox Diseases

Before we learn about what redox is, let us google search “redox disease” to learn about what diseases are associated with redox imbalance. It is an extensive list of informative science articles including the ones below:

What Is Redox?

Redox stands for “reduce oxidation”. When a cell oxidizes, it is like a cell on fire. Oxidation damages the cell. If there is no cell communication, the damaged cell cannot get the signal to repair or destroy itself if it is not repairable. Over time, when the redox production is depleted and cannot reduce oxidation at the rate our body needs:

  1. The cell will stop able to communicate to get help from the immune cells.

  2. The cell will stop functioning.

  3. The cell will lose its capability to repair itself.

  4. Damaged cell will continue to replicate itself and keep replicating and become cancer cells.

“Cellular redox homeostasis mediates a plethora of cellular pathways that determine life and death events.” See source.

Dr. Gary Samuelson presented Redox Biochemistry in Health And Aging at the Anti Aging Conference.

 

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