Advanced Glycosylated end-products is a mouthful.  It’s a lot easier to remember the initials: AGE.  Those initials are especially fitting since these compounds accelerate aging.

Under certain conditions, glucose combines abnormally with proteins.  The result is called an advanced glycosylated end-product.  These compounds are very reactive, so they then go on to combine with other proteins.  That’s when the damage starts.

AGE compounds have been extensively studied in diabetic patients because researchers suspect they initiate the major complications of diabetes — blindness and kidney failure (diabetes is a leading cause of both).  AGEs appear to bind to the membranes of the cells lining blood vessels, interfering with their normal functions. 

AGEs also make LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) more prone to oxidize and then deposit in a vessel wall, ultimately leading to hardening of the arteries.

In short, to avoid aging, avoid AGEs.

AGEs develop in many ways.  One, as you probably guessed from the association with diabetes, has to do with high blood sugars.  A high level of blood sugar drives more glucose to combine with proteins, thereby making AGEs.

In fact, physicians use blood levels of one AGE — hemoglobin A1C — to judge how well diabetics are doing in controlling their blood sugars.  But it’s not only diabetics who need to be concerned about AGEs.  They form in all of us when our blood sugar rises sharply, as it does after eating sugary or refined foods.

And elevated blood glucose isn’t the only way AGEs get into our system.  We get them from our diet as well.  Many foods contain AGEs.  Just how much depends on how the food is cooked. 

Methods that cook food dry at high heats, like frying or broiling, increase AGEs.  Cooking food in moisture and at low temperatures keeps AGEs low.  The difference can be significant.  For example, an uncooked chicken breast has 692 AGE kilounits.  Cook it in a stew and it rises to 1010 kilounits.   Broiling, on the other hand,  raises it to 5245 and frying to 6651!¹

We all know we should avoid sugars and refined foods and some of us have gotten the word that charred food contains cancer-promoting compounds.  Now we have another good reason to pay attention to these dietary factors — minimizing our AGE levels.

Reference

1. Goldberg T, et al; J Am Diet Assoc 2004; 104:1287-1291.

[Ed. Note: Joseph F. McCaffrey, MD, FACS is a board-certified surgeon with extensive experience in alternative medicine, including certification as a HeartMath Trainer.  His areas of expertise include mind-body interaction and cognitive restructuring.  Dr. McCaffrey strives to help people attain their optimum level of vitality through attention to all aspects of wellness.  For more information, click here.]

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