In my prior post Ellie, in her letter to Dr. Atkins, referred to the
Picower Institute studies on
AGE's, Advanced Glycation Endproducts. The below explains this is more
detail. Don.
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 04:55:43 +0000
Sender: Raw Food Diet Support List <[log in to unmask]>
From: Judy Pokras <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Cooked foods and aging (long)
Here's another article (from the Picower Resaerch Institute) on how cooked
foods cause aging in the body. It talks about diabetes, but note (where I
have placed asterisks) that the aging implications apply to everyone.
The Picower Institute on ABC News
Research at The Picower
Institute was featured in the Solutions segment on World
News Tonight with Peter Jennings; on Tuesday, February 4,
1997, at 6:30 pm EST. The piece was filmed on location at The
Picower Institute with ABC News correspondent
John McKenzie and director Nicholas Regush.
More information on the segment is provided below.
Send a e-mail to: [log in to unmask]
if you would like additional information about
this topic or about The Picower Institute.
Here is expanded information on the topics presented in the
segment:
COOKING METHOD MAY POSE NEW RISK FOR DIABETIC
COMPLICATIONS
Browning Foods Increases Levels of AGEs
(Press Release)
CENTER
Research presented at the American Diabetes Association annual
meeting in June 1996, revealed for the first time that dietary
AGEs (Advanced Glycation Endproducts), previously thought to be
harmless in foods, are potentially toxic and may pose a new risk
for diabetic complications, especially in patients with kidney
dysfunction. Foods containing sugars, when cooked, form far greater
quantities of AGEs and, as a result, may carry the greatest health
threat.
This study is significant because it shows that certain dietary
AGEs or glycotoxins are reactive agents, that, when absorbed by
the body, remain chemically active and may bind with proteins
to form a molecular glue that adheres to the lining of tissues
and organs, stiffening them. A large body of evidence implicates
AGEs as a primary contributor to damaging complications in diabetics,
such as kidney and heart disease.
Because food-derived AGEs are just as reactive as those
AGEs that form internally in diabetics, there is reason to think
that they are at least equally damaging," said Helen Vlassara, M.D.,
study
investigator and Head of the Laboratory of Diabetes and Aging at
The Picower Institute for Medical Research.
*****What Are AGEs?
*****AGEs are products that form spontaneously in all natural environments
where proteins and lipids come in contact with glucose or other
sugars. AGEs are known by food chemists to exist in cooked foods,
such as baked goods, glazed meats, and roasted coffee but were
not believed to be toxic or absorbed into the bloodstream or to
have any biological effect other than imparting flavor and color.
AGE formation, also known as the Maillard or browning reaction,
occurs independently and slowly inside the human body. In a sense,
human beings are perpetually cooking internally over many years.
*****AGEs accumulate in everyone, but at a faster rate when blood
glucose is elevated, as in patients with diabetes. In fact, people
with diabetes typically have 2 to 3 times higher levels of AGEs
than nondiabetics. In diabetic patients with kidney dysfunction,
the risk of complications is more pronounced because the AGEs
are retained in the body longer due to impaired urinary clearance.
The food AGE findings described here were discovered by the same
researchers who, together with others, first showed that in diabetic
patients elevated levels of blood sugars accelerate this process
and contribute to the development of diabetic complications. The
combination of accelerated AGE formation due to diabetes, plus
the daily ingestion of AGEs from cooked foods over the years,
may pose an increased risk to the vascular system and kidneys.
The Study's Findings
In the study, normal and diabetic subjects with and without
kidney disease received a single meal consisting of egg heated
for two hours with sugar or without sugar. Urine and blood samples
were monitored for three days for AGE levels. Less than one-third
(30 percent) of the AGEs consumed were excreted in the urine in
the first day, suggesting that the remaining 70 percent of food-derived
toxic AGEs linger in the body for a longer period. Diabetics with
existing kidney impairment retained over 95 percent of their dietary-AGEs
(glycotoxins), putting these patients at an even greater risk
for diabetic complications.
Our study showed that patients on the diet that contained
high levels of AGEs had significantly higher levels of AGEs in
both their blood and urine samples compared to those on the non-sugar
diet. These levels, though elevated in all the patients studied
-- normal and diabetic patients -- remained higher for much longer
in diabetic patients with kidney dysfunction, said Dr. Vlassara.
*****The formation of AGEs occurs slowly at normal temperatures but
heating causes the process to accelerate vastly. Broiling, roasting
and baking amplifies browning, producing great amounts of AGEs.
Our research suggests that limited intake of dietary-AGEs
may be of benefit to diabetic patients with kidney dysfunction.
Analysis of AGE levels in food cooked in a variety of ways is
imperative if we are to assist first, and most importantly, patients
with diabetes. Avoiding foods rich in glycotoxins may, in the
future, prove beneficial for people with vascular disease, renal
disease or hypertension, as well as for the elderly; noted
Dr. Vlassara.
Diabetes is the fourth-leading cause of death by disease in
the United States. This year alone, more than 160,000 people will
die from diabetes and its related complications. 20,000 new cases
of kidney disease occur in people with diabetes each year. Diabetes
is also the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease, accounting
for 36 percent of new cases annually.
The Picower Institute for Medical Research, located in Manhasset,
New York on the campus of North Shore University Hospital, is
dedicated to facilitating basic and clinical research focused
on human disease. Founded in July 1991 with an endowment from
The Jeffry M. and Barbara Picower Foundation, The Picower Institute
for Medical Research applies the insights gained from basic laboratory
and clinical research to the cure of disease.
AGING AND ASSOCIATED
DISEASES
Backgrounder
Aging is inevitable, and is often accompanied by ailments
that reduce both the quality and quantity of life. The elderly
are most susceptible to the nation's top killers -- heart disease,
cancer, and diabetes -- and their treatment and prevention represents
major challenges to biomedical science.
The Picower Institute scientists are studying how the body ages and what
causes aging. To do so they are studying diabetes because its long-term
complications and propensity to shorten lifespan are similar to the coronary,
renal and visual problems that plague the aged. The key difference
is that they occur quicker and earlier in the diabetic. Aging
research at The Picower Institute began with work examing the
role of the blood sugar glucose in damaging the body's proteins,
lipids, and nucleic acids. Glucose, the body's principal sugar,
is central to metabolism and is essential for life. Unfortunately
glucose also participates in spontaneous chemical reactions which
can produce toxic, damaging compounds which result in cellular
and organ dysfunction later in life. Because of their elevated
blood glucose levels, diabetics more rapidly accumulate these
compounds, called advanced glycation endproducts, or
*******A.G.E.s.
They are familiar to everyone as the golden-brown colors which
form during the cooking of foods, and are enhanced with the application
of a sugar glaze. These products of the caramelization process
also cause toughening by cross-linking, or gluing together at
the molecular level, of protein molecules in food. In the body,
such cross-links damage proteins and activate various cellular
processes which ultimately derange their associated cells, tissues
and organs.
****Researchers at The Picower Institute identified the role of
A.G.E.s in the complications of diabetes
*****and aging and developed
the compound aminoguanidine, which blocks the formation of A.G.E.s.,
and prevents the development of diabetic complications in animal
models. In addition, they have identified a new class of compounds
to break pre-existing A.G.E.s, in order to eliminate them from
the body. Current research is directed at identifying A.G.E. receptors
on various cell types which are believed responsible for initiating
the deleterious effects of A.G.E.s on blood vessel walls, kidney,
and other susceptible organs. Exploring of the link between A.G.E.
formation and Alzheimer+s disease is another active research area
in this group.
Recently, Picower Institute scientists have begun to explore
why certain risk factors other than diabetes influence the development
of complications of aging, especially vascular disease. Smoking
is a known risk factor for coronary disease; low-level alcohol
consumption seems to reduce the risk. Early studies point to an
association of AGE with these factors. Cigarette smoke contains
large quantities of AGEs which enter the body through the respiratory
system and may induce cellular and organ damage in much the same
way that AGEs arising internally from elevated blood glucose occur
in diabetic individuals. Alcohol metabolism may chemically subvert
the formation of AGEs to less damaging compounds. From studies
to elucidate the mechanism of a disease e process will undoubtedly
come new means to intervene.
THE PICOWER INSTITUTE
FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH
The Picower Institute for Medical Research, founded in 1991,
is a diversified human health research institution dedicated to
discovering treatments and preventions to problems associated
with aging, infectious diseases and inflammatory diseases. The
primary goal of this unique Institute is to move discoveries gained
from basic laboratory research into clinical use as quickly as
possible. Scientists at The Picower Institute have established
a highly creative and interactive team approach to the study of
many long-standing and perplexing human health problems.
Key research areas under investigation at The Picower Institute
include: Aging and; associated diseases....
The Picower Institute for Medical Research is currently headed
by interim chief executive officer, Charles L. Massey, former
chief executive officer of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Massey, an experienced administrator, was instrumental in the
Salk Institute's founding and was the first President Emeritus
of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation.
The staff at The Picower Institute includes more than 80 scientists,
postdoctoral investigators and technical research assistants as
well as administrative and support staff....
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