Is Oxidative Stress Secretly Aging You Faster? Discover the Fix Walking into daily life stress, processed foods, and pollution can feel like living inside a slow-motion rusting machine. This “rust” isn't visible on your skin at first but inside your cells it shows up as oxidative stress in the body . According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), oxidative stress happens when free radicals outnumber antioxidants, damaging cells,...