Diabetes Weblog

Note that in the following snip, although methods are similar to
those that might control disease, the focus of the longevity differs.
Optimal insulin and glucose levels are referred to rather than
"normal" levels, which are a lot higher; similarly optimal growth
hormone levels rather than "normal values for your age" are the goal.
Also, above normal levels of antioxidants are frequently discussed.

Duncan Crow

______________________________
<snip>
(I highly recommend that everybody should buy a glucose meter and
start to measure your blood glucose before and after eating, because
it changed my eating habits once I understood how food affects my
blood glucose… and once I understood how food affects my blood

glucose, I framed my new understanding in what I called "The Glucose
Theory of Aging" which is really "The Glucose Law of Aging" because
it is like the law of gravity, it works all the time, it is true for
everybody, and there are no exceptions. (maybe my interpretation of
the figures is not how you would call it.) See the Glucose Theory of
Aging and my interpretation of the meaning of blood glucose here:

But… quickly… 70 to 90 is ideal before eating, 70 to 105 is
acceptable and normal after eating (but try to bring it down to 90 as
soon as possible, "by hook or by crook" which means: by exercise or
by insulin or by however you can, just bring it down! 120 is BAD…
140 is TERRIBLE… 160 is HORRIBLE… 180 is DEATHLY… and 200 or
more is SUICIDAL…

You should memorize this table… use my words or use your own, but
that is the way it works. It may seem that I am exaggerating to call
180 "deathly" but I really am not, since 180 for a long time will
cause you kidney problems which is going to cause your "death" many
years before you should die.)

But… getting back to when we were young and we damaged our
pancreas, thus causing higher and higher blood glucose levels… We
know that glucose sticks to protein and damages it, in a process
called "glycosilation". Glucose also sticks to neurons and damages
it. The point to remember is that the amount of glycosilation is
proportional to blood glucose levels, so more glucose damages more
protein and neurons when glucos is high than when glucose is low.

We can actually measure this damage in a blood test called Hb-A1c,
which means "glycosilated hemoglobin" or hemoglobin that has a
glucose molecule attached to it. 5.5% is "normal" for the population.
Zero would be better, but we can’t get zero, because we need some
glucose in our body because glucose is energy, and we need energy.
So… glucose helps us, but it also hurts us because it sticks to and
damages neurons and proteins. We are forced to live with it, and we
will die someday because of it. We can, however, affect how fast we
will be damaged by glucose, because we can keep our glucose levels
"low", 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Now… it is important to understand how to interpret Hb-A1c… Since
we always have to have SOME glucose in our blood, because glucose is
"the fire within us" and we have to have some heat for energy,
minimum and normal glucose levels are 70 to 90 mg/dl… so we always
have some glucose that is stuck to hemoglobin… This minimum is
4.5%… If your Hb-A1c is 4.5%, that is EXCELLENT and about the least
possible. So.. if you could keep it that low after age 40, you will
lose your nervous system, but you will lose it as slow as is
compatible with life. Nobody knows how slow that could be, because
nobody has ever known this to try it for a lifetime (but maybe
"ltkpn" will try it, now that I hope he is reading it).

But as average 24 hour blood glucose rises, more glucose sticks to
hemoglobin, and presumably also to neurons… so glucose damages more
hemoglobin, and we guess it is also damaging more neurons. That is if
we could keep glucose levels at 90 mg/dl we have damage, but when
glucose levels shoot up to 160 for 2 hours because we drank a
delicious and healthy large glass of Florida Orange Juice, (which we
have all been told is wonderful for our health) we are causing more
glucose to stick to and damage more neurons. THAT IS WHY IT IS SO
IMPORTANT TO KEEP YOUR GLUCOSE LEVELS AS LOW AS IS HEALTHY, IE,
BETWEEN 70 AND 90, FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE, EVERY DAY, 24 HOURS A
DAY. Even glucose levels of 100 are a bit worse than glucose levels
of 90, which is why I have gone to the extreme of injecting insulin
even when my glucose levels are 100, which means I carry a syringe
with me in my pocket and I inject before a meal, and I inject after a
meal. I know this is an extreme, but if by doing this I might save a
few billion neurons for an extra decade or two, I think they will be
very useful when I will be 95 years old.

And this brings me back to EPO… There are several causes of loss of
neurons… the most important cause until age 50 is transient high
blood glucose levels, even if we are not diabetic, and especially if
we are diabetic (because glucose levels are higher for a longer time
in a diabetic.) But after age 50 there is another cause of loss of
neurons because now we also start to have an age related drop of red
blood cells, which means an age related drop of circulating OXYGEN…
This is why I try to keep my red blood cell constantly high with EPO.
I could be running 5 or 10 miles, and probably also keep my red blood
cell volume high. (many long distance runners and long distance
cyclists have a higher red blood cell volume than their peers, and
50% hematocrit is frequent.)

And the third cause of loss of neurons is probably the age related
drop in growth hormone. We know that growth hormone is good for the
nervous system. There have been studies that show that injectible
growth hormone restores some of the feeling after an accident, and
there are many reasons to think that growth hormone preserves the
nervous system, maybe even restores some of it. So the age related
drop in growth hormone, and probably other hormones that we know drop
with age, such as DHEA, melatonin, testosterone, thyroid and perhaps
other hormones might all be beneficial in one way or another to help
preserve the nervous system…
</snip>

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.