Its
not just any antioxidant...you need ones which fight... Advanced
Glycation Endproducts, or "AGEs" as they're
appropriately called, are the end result of the complex
chemical process through which the structure of proteins
is warped by exposure to sugars or by other, much more
reactive molecules.
AGE
chemistry is the cause of the "browning" you
see when you roast a chicken or make toast, but the same "browning"
chemistry is at work in your body every day of your life. In
your arteries. In your kidneys. In your heart, your eyes, your
skin, your nerves.
In
every cell, the sugar that your body uses for fuel is busily
at work at this very moment, caramelizing your body through
exactly the same chemical processes that caramelize onions
or peanut brittle. Its this chemistry which changes nerve tissue
and facilitates the change in senses in aging.
Glycation
math is simple: more sugar equals more AGE'd proteins. As a
result, people with diabetes begin to feel the effects of glycation
at much younger ages than do people with more normal blood
sugar levels. Watching people with diabetes age is like watching "normal" aging
played on fast-forward.
Scientists
have come to understand this pathway of AGE formation - a distinctly
biological pathway, which only occurs within your cells because
of the body's metabolism of carbohydrates....and don't we know
what a problem carbohydrates are in North America with more
than 60% of the populations registering as "obese".
When blood sugar levels rise, some key kinds of cell - including
nerve cells (neurons) and the cells that make up the fine blood
cells of the retina of the eye and the filtering units (glomeruli)
of the kidney - are also flooded with glucose. The resulting
high sugar levels within these cells cause a logjam in the normal
cellular metabolism of glucose.
This
backlog results in a buildup within the cell of super-reactive
glucose-metabolic intermediates known as triosephosphates.
And once that happens, the excess triosephosphates attack the
surrounding proteins, lipids, and DNA, causing AGE damage from
within the heart of the cell. It's these cells are thus the
most vulnerable to the complications of diabetes and other
functional disorders.
Drugs do exist which can inhibit the formation of AGE, but none
are available on the market as yet, and one of the most promising
candidate (aminoguanidine) has shown signs of toxicity in human
trials so therefore appears to have been abandoned by its developers.
On
the other hand, some companies are selling supplements are
marketed as "AGE-inhibitors." But while many of the
herbs and other nutrients may be valuable, and many even inhibit
AGEing in a test tube, there's no evidence that most of these "AGE-blocking" antioxidants
have any effect on prevention against AGEing in your body at
the dosages used.
Just more myths and aging....possibly.
Examples
include thyme extract, inositol, acetyl-L-carnitine, taurine,
and a whole host of antioxidants (including n-acetyl-cysteine
(NAC) and flavonoids, such as quercetin and resveratrol).
There
is a nutrient that could, in theory, pack a potent wallop against
the AGE onslaught: Thiamin Pyrophosphate (TPP), the active
coenzyme form of the B-complex vitamin thiamin. In 1996, researchers
showed that TPP could step in to stop AGE formation at the
most important point in the process: the late, irreversible
conversion of Amadori products into full-blown AGEs.
What's
more, TPP can exert a two-pronged AGE-inhibiting effect in
the body, because boosting TPP in cells stressed by high glucose
concentrations opens up an important biochemical "safety
valve"
in the normal metabolism of blood sugar through an enzyme known
as transketolase. Activating transketolase allows the body to
shunt excess triosephosphates into a safe alternative metabolic
pathway, preventing the logjam that leads to the buildup of triosephosphates
and the formation of AGE.
Unfortunately, this does not mean that loading up on regular
thiamin (vitamin B1) will free you from glycation's sticky shackles.
The problem is that your body's ability to absorb and metabolize
conventional thiamin supplements is very limited. In fact, no
matter how much thiamin you take, you don't materially increase
plasma levels beyond what you get from the first 12 milligrams
of the dose. And then getting thiamin into the cells to do its
job is just as tricky.
You might think that you can get around this problem by taking
supplements containing TPP itself, instead of plain old thiamin.
Unfortunately, as part of the normal cellular absorption process,
specific enzymes actually strip TPP of its phosphate groups.
As
a result, you get no additional AGE-battling benefit from taking
preformed thiamin pyrophosphate instead of standard thiamin.
In fact, when you take supplements based on TPP itself, studies
show that thiamin levels and biological activity are actually
lower than if you take the same amount of regular thiamin!
Benfotiamin: the TPP Solution
Fortunately, an effective way to boost thiamin pyrophosphate
in your cells does exist: Benfotiamin (S-benzoylthiamine-O-monophosphate).
Benfotiamin is the most potent of the allithiamines, an unique
class of thiamin-derived compounds present in trace quantities
in roasted crushed garlic and other vegetables from the Allium
genus (such as onions, shallots, and leeks).
Benfotiamin's
unique open-ringed structure makes it able to pass directly
through cell membranes, readily crossing the intestinal wall
and being taken straight into the cell.......MORE
Dr. Deb's Favourite Anti-Aging Products:
OSTEOPOROSIS
