Advanced Glycation and Diabetes

Eating a low-AGE diet is a most daunting recommendation for most of us. The key, Joe recommends, is to “work toward your goal slowly and you will reach it….Any amount of reduction is to the good, and as time passes you will find it easier to further reduce your intake of AGEs…”

Almost four years ago, I wrote about early research on AGEs directed by Helen Vlassara, M.D. She is a professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Dr. Vlassara and her associates says that a lifelong diet high in AGEs leaves the immune system in a constant state of low-grade inflammation, which damages the small and mid-sized arteries. This, in turn, can lead to heart disease and other complications of diabetes.

While the focus on AGEs has taken off in the past decade, it dates back to 1912 when a French scientist, Louis Camille Maillard, described a browning reaction that occurred when he heated amino acids with sugars. Nobody paid much attention at the time, but his discovery is now known as the Maillard reaction.

Another outstanding article, Jill Pope’s “Cure for the Browning Blues", lucidly explains the Maillard reaction and some antioxidant and drug strategies being developed to counteract it.

Both Joe’s and Jill’s article are well worth your consideration. It’s looking more and more like reducing our AGEs will help us age better.

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