certain incidents in mammals trigger the generation of free - radicals which are associated with cell death . animals experiencing such medical incidents are dosed with pyruvate salts or esters in an amount of 5 to 20 weight percent of the total carbohydrate intake . the dosage of pyruvate may be provided to the animal before the medical incident , during the medical incident and after the medical incident . in addition to the known property in pyruvate for scavenging free - radicals , this disclosure points out the unexpected effectiveness of pyruvate as an inhibitor of free - radical generation .