Human World

Antioxidants might protect against diabetes

In the United States alone, more than 20 million people have diabetes. That’s according to Paul Robertson, president of Medicine & Science at the American Diabetes Association.

Paul Robertson With all diabetes, the diagnosis is made because blood glucose, or blood sugar levels, rise above normal.

He said that diabetes is so devastating because it’s a progressive illness that does lots of organ damage, and the disease gets worse with time.

Paul Robertson: The longer that the blood glucose levels stays elevated, the more damage it does to very important tissues in the body. Actually it damages the pancreas itself, after a while.

The pancreas is the organ that helps the body regulate blood sugar. So it’s a vicious cycle, he said, and the cause is still unknown. Robertson is investigating that diabetes might be triggered, in part, by an accumulation of toxic molecules in the body. That is what’s called oxidative stress.

Paul Robertson: Oxidative stress is an accumulation of molecules that come about because of chemical reactions, of stuff we ingest. These can get inside the cell and really wreak havoc, with cellular function, and with the DNA inside the cell.

Dr. Robertson was recently awarded almost 2 million dollars from the U.S. Department of Defense. To see if a kind of molecule called antioxidants – ordinary vitamins like C and E – might protect cells against damage from oxidative stress.


Paul Robertson:
Which means that it becomes a vicious cycle going forward – the disease gets worse with time.
He said that the high blood sugar common in diabetes patients can help accelerate oxidative stress.

Paul Robertson: If you have an excess amount the body doesn’t know what to do with it.

Robertson explained that these molecules are actually unstable forms of oxygen.

Paul Robertson: We have a lot of new information about why it is that oxidative stress is associated with complications of diabetes. There are enzyme deficiencies in certain tissues. So that if you replace those enzymes through genetic methods, you will actually reverse the complications of diabetes. And that leads to the challenge of finding a drug that will do the same thing. Because we can’t be giving people new genes to fight hyperglycemia and its adverse affects.

He added that the high blood sugar common in diabetes patients can help accelerate the accumulation of oxidants, or oxidative stress.

Paul Robertson: If you have an excess amount, the body doesn’t know what to do with it.

Robertson added that the damage caused by diabetes is not just physical, but also economic:

Paul Robertson: I have friends in India, China who are scared of what the costs of treating diabetes could do to their economies 15-20 years from now.

Visit EarthSky Tonight for easy-to-use night sky charts and info. Updated daily.

Posted 
January 18, 2010
 in 
Human World

Like what you read?
Subscribe and receive daily news delivered to your inbox.

Your email address will only be used for EarthSky content. Privacy Policy
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

More from 

Beth Lebwohl

View All