The Good and Bad Sides of Glucose

A professor emeritus of Yale University, Dr. Rex Mahnensmith continues to provide patient care in Waterbury, Connecticut. He is an accomplished internal medicine physician whose specialties include diabetes medicine. In a published article, Dr. Rex Mahnensmith explained the positive and negative facets of glucose once it is inside our body. 

Glucose is a molecule that is found in various plants we eat such as potatoes, wheat, and rice, as well as from other plants such as beets, sugarcane, and various fruits. Absorbed into the bloodstream via the intestinal tract, glucose is taken up by different tissues where it eventually reaches the body's cells. Once inside the cell, it performs its all-important function of being the main provider of energy for the cell or is stored for later energy use. 

In individuals who are prediabetic or diabetic, where circulating glucose molecules in the bloodstream are not delivered efficiently into the body's cells, glucose can interact with circulating oxygen and other molecules in a reaction known as glycation. Glycation can permanently change the structures and functions of a tissue or organ. 

The adverse, chaotic, and random glycation reactions occur daily in people who are diabetic or prediabetic. And the culprit is a glucose molecule that has circulated in the bloodstream for far too long.