Hello Maggie,

Here is a paper where oxidative stress was monitored while the subjects were given an antioxidant versus a placebo.

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/137/12/2737.full.pdf+html


This will give you an idea of what is going on.

In addition, the Lubbers study involving humans drinking water which had chlorine dioxide added to it also monitored for oxidative stress. You can review the tests they did to monitor for those signs. Review Table 2 in the paper.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1569027/pdf/envhper00463-0059.pdf


Note that drinking acidified sodium chlorite which forms chlorous acid is different than drinking water to which chlorine dioxide has been added. Chlorous acid is a much stronger oxidizer than chlorine dioxide in water.

In general, oxidative stress is believed to be the major cause of aging. Here is a paper that suggests that chronic heart disease is caused by oxidative stress.

http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/120/6/2035.full


There are other papers that discuss the effect of oxidative stress on mental decline, and other body organ decline. The body requires oxidation to survive, but there needs to be a fine balance or it turns to oxidative stress and destroys the body.

The body uses oxidation to kill off pathogens, but it does so under a closed system. The white blood cells engulf the pathogen before producing the hypochlorous acid that kills the pathogen. This limits the oxidative stress to the rest of the body. We ingest antioxidants to keep the oxidative stress in check. Thus the importance of a balanced diet.

Oxidative stress causes damage to cells. One of the early indications involves checking the blood for changes.

Tom