The Sugar Link to Aging

I hope most of you know how damaging blood sugar imbalance is to the body's organs. Just think of what it does to the kidneys and eyesight alone. What is happening is a process called glycosylation. Sugar is sticky. When it's in your bloodstream its sticky glucose molecule attaches to proteins. This is known as glycosylation. When this happens in places where it is not supposed to happen it sets in motion chemical reactions that end with proteins binding, or what they call cross-linking, forming a new chemical structure. Biochemist Anthony Cerami discovered this process in living tissue and termed it Advanced Glycosylation End-products or AGEs and suggests that it is a link to aging.

From an aging viewpoint think of collagen. Collagen is one of the first proteins to be affected. (Remember we have over 50,000 proteins throughout our bodies!) Collagen is the tough flexible connective tissue that holds your skeleton together, attaching your muscles to your bones and serving as the foundation of all your blood vessels, your skin, your lungs and your cartilage. When collagen becomes glycosylated and those AGEs form, the cross-linking destroys collagens flexibility. This means that your blood vessels, lungs, and joints all stiffen, your eye lens cloud over (cataracts), and yes your skin sags! This means you will age that much faster by consuming too much sugar and refined carbs.

Eating too much sugar/refined carbohydrates and being overweight both contribute to disease states like diabetes, but it ages you too.