Here are some differing views on glycation causes from people
advocating low-carb, high-carb, and moderate-carb diets (summary of identified
causes in parentheses):
Ron Rosedale, MD: (glucose, starch and other carbohydrates)
"In
everyone, when one eats starches
it quickly turns to sugar, glucose, fructose,
galactose, etc. that will circulate and glycate the collagen that lines
the arteries causing inflammation and cardiovascular disease and all of the
other adverse effects of glycation."
From:
http://drrosedale.com/blog/2012/08/18/a-conclusion-to-the-safe-starch-debate-by-answering-four-questions
“glucose
will cause some damage when above 0 mg/dl …. At any level of glucose compatible with life some more meaningful
degree of glycation, hormonal response and genetic expression will take place.”
From:
November 20, 2011, http://drrosedale.com/blog/2011/11/22/is-the-term-safe-starches-an-oxymoron/
Jimmy Moore: (glucose)
“a
process known as glycation–where the glucose (sugar) in your
blood finds proteins to stick to to form what is know as advanced glycation end
products, aka AGEs. As the acronym implies, these ages will age you. The
more sugar you eat, the more ages that get produced.”
From:
Low-Carb Diet Prevents Sagging Skin, Prostate Tumor Growth, And
Hypercholesterolemia
November
26th, 2007
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/low-carb-diet-prevents-sagging-skin-prostate-tumor-growth-and-hypercholesterolemia/2137
Nora Gedgaudas: (nonfibrous
carbohydrates)
"All
nonfibrous carbohydrates
stimulate the secretion of insulin, which is the fat storage hormone, or damage
the body and brain via a process known as [i]glycation[/i] (in which sugars in the bloodstream
react with proteins and fats and cause them to deteriorate). ...
Glycation
and its damage is ultimately a cumulative process, so every bit of sugar or
starch we eat eventually counts. Every piece of candy, cookie, bread, or
potato, every spoonful of honey, and every drop of soda effectively shortens
your life—something to think about."
From:
Primal Body, Primal Mind, c. 2011, pp. -127
Ray Peat, PhD: (oxidized
PUFA’s, repeated cellular stress, inadequate carbon dioxide)
"Glycation
is something that is identified with diabetes and alzheimer's disease and so
on. It means the attachment of sugar-like fragments to proteins and especially
to receptors, or sensitive points in the cell (regulatory points). ... [T]hey call it glycation as if it's
caused by glucose, but actually, the oxidized products of PUFA's are many times more active in
causing glycation, and the glycation happens mainly on lysine amino groups of
proteins, but you can glycate any molecule that has an amino group, and
that pretty well inactivates it, but the normal function of a good concentration
of carbon dioxide is to bind to
glycine groups [and thus prevent glycation]."
From:
(2005-10) Ray Peat - Nervous System Protect & Restore, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdLHWFJI2y0,
starting at 1:00:54
“The free fatty acids released by the stress hormones serve as
supplemental fuel, and increase the consumption of oxygen and the production of
heat. (This increased oxygen demand is a problem for the heart when it is
forced to oxidize fatty acids. [A. Grynberg, 2001]) But if the stored fats
happen to be polyunsaturated, they damage the blood vessels and the
mitochondria, suppress thyroid function, and cause “glycation” of proteins.
They also damage the pancreas, and impair insulin secretion.
A repeated small stress, or
overstimulation of insulin secretion, gradually tends to become amplified by
the effects of tryptophan and the polyunsaturated fatty acids, with these fats
increasing the formation of serotonin, and serotonin increasing the liberation
of the fats.
The name,
“glycation,” indicates the addition of sugar groups to proteins, such as occurs
in diabetes and old age, but when tested in a controlled experiment, lipid peroxidation of
polyunsaturated fatty acids produces the protein damage about 23 times faster
than the simple sugars do (Fu,
et al., 1996). And the oxidation of fats rather than glucose means that the
proteins won't have as much protective carbon dioxide combined with their
reactive nitrogen atoms, so the real difference in the organism is likely to be
greater than that seen by Fu, et al.
These
products of lipid peroxidation, HNE, MDA, acrolein, glyoxal, and other highly
reactive aldehydes, damage the mitochondria, reducing the ability to oxidize
sugar, and to produce energy and protective carbon dioxide.”
From: Glycemia, starch, and sugar in context, c. 2009
"Glycation
imitates mutated forms of proteins, for example normal transthyretin behaves
like the prion protein, forming amyloid. Transthyretin, the protein that
carries thyroid hormone and vitamin A, is normally taken up along with
cholesterol under the influence of thyroid hormone. Abnormal cholesterol
metabolism is one of the traits associated with Alzheimer's disease. In the absence of thyroid-supported
respiration, carbon dioxide and other respiration-associated molecules (e.g.,
acetate) are replaced by lactate and unused sugar, causing abnormal
modifications of proteins such as tau, which regulates microtubule assembly.
Glycation of collagen in the extracellular matrix alters the properties of the
matrix. The glycated matrix would become a preferred site for glycated
prion-like proteins.
It
is possible that the altered transthyretin makes vitamin A less available to
cells. Vitamin A deficiency creates major disruption of the framework proteins.
Fragments of starch molecules inhibit the enzymes that remove inappropriately
bound sugar molecules from proteins, and the inability to metabolize sugar into
carbon dioxide increases that binding. Starches and unsaturated fats cooperate
in this process of inappropriate sugar binding, while thyroid hormone, and the
carbon dioxide it produces, tend to prevent the binding.
Considering
the universal importance of carbon dioxide to
life, the ways it interacts with all of the important substances that make up
organisms, that it is involved closely with ATP synthesis and other
"energy-related" processes, that it participates intimately in the
regulation of water and ions, that it is therapeutic in a range of conditions
including angina pectoris, hypoxia, epilepsy, inflammation, shock, lipid
peroxidation, pneumonia, and asthma, I think we can at least conclude that it
is a largely overlooked mediator between chemical energy and life processes. In
many cases, its movements and reactions constitute the actual motive force that
so many fantasy theories have failed to explain. In other situations, it fills
out the context for understanding the energy-mediating actions of ATP, calcium,
and hormones."
From:
Energy, structure, and carbon dioxide: A realistic view of the organism,
http://members.westnet.com.au/pkolb/peat2.htm
Chris Masterjohn,
PhD: (oxidative stress, PUFAs, dicarbonyls, depleted glutathione)
...
There are a lot of misconceptions about
AGEs, and one of them is that they are mostly formed from glucose directly
glomming on to proteins. The term
"glycation," which is clearly derived from "glucose,"
certainly contributes to this misconception, but the situation is actually much
more complex than this. Glucose does
indeed have the hots for proteins, but the high school glycation prom has a
sexy chaperone named fructosamine 3-kinase who's kicking carbonyls and taking names, and if the two dance too close, F3-K
steps in the way.
It
is instead the sneaky dicarbonyls
(pronounced like "DIE-carb-o-NEELS") that escape the attention of our
otherwise striking chaperone. They are
on average 20,000 times more reactive
than glucose, and they emerge from
the broken pieces of glucose, protein, and fat — and not just PUFAs. Nevertheless, they do no harm unless they
slip past our good friend glutathione, who polices the streets at night and
renders the balance of these creepy would-be criminals as impotent as the
mythical sorcerer lurking in the shadows of Maasai-land. ...
most AGEs in plasma
are derived from methylglyoxal and 3-deoxyglucosone (13), and that it is methylglyoxal-derived AGEs that
increase the most in diabetes...
peroxidation
of PUFAs is very unlikely to be a major source of AGEs.
Are
PUFAs off the hook? Not at all. We will see below that oxidative stress is a
central factor in AGE formation, and guzzling corn oil gets that oxidative
stress a-goin'.
...
Treatments that deplete cells (27) or live animals (28) of their glutathione
cause large increases in methylglyoxal concentrations, suggesting that the
glyoxalase system is ordinarily efficiently detoxifying much or most of the
methylglyoxal that crosses its path. Little is known about the molecular
mechanisms by which our cells regulate their production of the two glyoxalase
enzymes themselves, but we know so far that zinc and insulin increase the
production of glyoxalase-1 (29). This
suggests that zinc, insulin, and
glutathione are critical components of our defense against dicarbonyls and the
AGEs they produce.
...
oxidative stress depletes glutathione
...
AGEs and their dicarbonyl precursors may emerge as key signaling molecules, but
... in many situations they do indeed cause harm.
From:
Where Do Most AGEs Come From? O Glycation, How Thy Name Hast Deceived Me!
Friday,
October 7, 2011
http://blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/2011/10/where-do-most-ages-come-from-o.html
