The Great Glycation Race: An Excerpt from Wheat Belly

Here’s a discussion on a very important–and empowering–topic: hemoglobin A1c, or HbA1c. It sounds dull and tedious, I know, but if understood and put to work properly yields enormous power in health, preservation of youth, and weight loss. I was planning on writing a new discussion about it, but decided instead to share an excerpt from the original Wheat Belly book that provides the essential background information on this important number. (The full discussion can be found in Wheat Belly on page 130, Chapter 9: Cataracts, Wrinkles, and Dowager’s Humps: Wheat and the Aging Process). The Great Glycation Race There is a widely available test that, while not capable of providing an index of biological age, provides a measure of the rate of biological aging due to glycation. Knowing how fast or slow you are glycating the proteins of your body helps you know whether biological aging is proceeding faster or slower than chronological age. While AGEs [Advanced Glycation End-Products] can be assessed via biopsy of the skin or internal organs, most people are understandably less than enthusiastic about a pair of forceps being inserted into some body cavity to snip a piece of tissue. Thankfully, a simple blood test can be used to gauge the ongoing rate of AGE formation: hemoglobin A1c, or HbA1c. HbA1c is a common blood test that, while usually used for the purpose of diabetes control, can also serve as a simple index of glycation. Hemoglobin is the complex pro...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle anti-aging blood sugar diabetes glycation HbA1c pre-diabetes Source Type: blogs