Is benfotiamine of any value?

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Is strengthening the ECM with for instance with glycine/collagen/Chondroitin sulfate (or other agents) possibly a preventive measure?

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Do Glycans have anything to do with Glycation? Turning Back the Glycan Clock, Hormone Replacement Therapy - Dr. Marina Martinić Kavur

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That sounds very bteresting. Thanks for doing it, @约瑟夫_拉维尔 .

I’d love to hear if exogenous carnosine (or beta-alanine precursor) really does have a positive impact on AGEs, or if it is BS (a non-biochemical acronym which appears to be important in the longevity space). I’ve seen a few papers in which is supposedly has a significant positive impact, but you appear to have done a much deeper dive into this and I’d love your opinion.

As a follow up, does it make sense for diabetics to be taking carnosine (and/or beta-alanine)? Does it make sense for both Type-1 and Type-2 diabetics? — it seems AGEs are a massive, massive health and longevity issue for diabetics (this is, I believe, what kills them early through stiffening and blocking blood vessels in kidneys, eyes, appendages, etc) and there is zero guidance on what to do to combat the not are there medications to remedy this. I’m particularly interested in this because my teenage daughter was recently (April) and suddenly diagnosed with T1D and the only real “remedy” we’ve worked out for her to reduce her glucose levels and A1c levels and prevent regular glucose spikes is to have her eat low carb (beyond the scope of your discussion). So having something like carnosine to prevent/reduce AGEs would be a terrific tool.

Another question I have is regarding skin: my understanding is the inelasticity of skin as we age are due to cross linked collagen: is some of this due to AGE instead of UV damage? If it does have an AGE component, is there some topical remedy to use?

I apologize if I’ve duplicated others’ questions. Thanks again.

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FWIW

The person you should interview about AGE’s is Dr. Helen Vlassara MD.

Director, Division of Experimental Diabetes and Aging Oct 1998 - Present 25 years

Professor of Geriatrics, Medicine and Molecular Medicine
Oct 1998 - Present 25 years

At Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

She is one of the major researcher in this field, laboratory and clinical…

Was one of the first people to make AGE’s know to the general public

https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-vlassara-3731025a

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Thanks @Ericross2 These are great questions for Dr Turner. I’ll be sharing the questions in advance so I may receive some answers before the podcast comes out. I’ll share the answers here.

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@Joseph Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll reach out to Dr Vlassara. I was able to find an email address.

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I’m interested in the carnosine question as well, and what percentage of carnosine survives intact (vs. broken down into its component amino acids). I have read some small percentage of exogenous carnosine can survive.

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Here’s the CML database you already have but I just happened upon it and thought I’d put it in the thread. I’m going through it now to see where I can reduce my intake.

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Yes, at least intracellularly.

I doubt it. These building blocks for the ECM mainly support synthesis of new ECM. They don’t really support removal of damage or prevent glycation damage from occurring so I think their effects would be minimal at best. I’m not aware of any research showing that glycine/collagen/Chondroitin sulfate reduce glycation damage and wouldn’t expect them to do so, at least not directly.

Some of it is caused by loss of elastin or damaged elastin. Some caused by cross-linking of collagen or elastin or other ECM components. Btw, UV damage can accelerate AGE formation in the skin. I’m not aware of any topical agents that have good evidence of reversing glycation of skin.

I second that! Vlassara is the name that comes up in my mind when thinking about dietary AGEs. I have been reading her papers since 15 years ago. She has published a lot on the subject and is definitely one of the biggest experts on the subject.

The proportion that is broken down is somewhat individual and depends largely on the activity of your carnosinase enzyme in the blood.

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Here’s the glycation episode. My introduction droned on a bit as I was anxious to get the message out. There isn’t much to learn here on supplements. The solution is in lifestyle: food cooking methods and exercise. But there is a solution. It matters.

The questions asked have not been answered yet but are promised to come soon. I’ll post here.

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Very easy to listen to and enjoyable as always. I find these experts almost the opposite of Sandra Kaufmann. She eats donuts and takes drugs and supplements like candy. They pretty much go for eating things raw or slow cooked and avoiding sugar. I’m doing both at once.

I really feel like an idiot for not knowing all these things when I was younger. I know it doesn’t matter so much, but still I’m nearing retirement age and have painful joints and a CAC of 290 and just think I should have started a little sooner. Oh, well good job putting it out there !!

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Doesn’t coffee have exogenous AGEs, and yet remains pro-longevity?

Is taurine, metformin, or carnosine (or the combination) more effective at preventing AGEs from doing damage? Should they be consumed with AGE-heavy meals?

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Vegetables have AGEs also. AGEs are unavoidable but you can minimize them via diet selection, especially in cooking methods. I’ve read a lot about ways to dodge AGEs (Dr Kaufmann has a huge list), but Dr Turner says nothing is proven to work in people, and certain methods (binders) may backfire. He says the best path is food/cooking method choice and exercise.

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Thanks! I feel the same. I am now avoiding AGEs as much as possible. Fortunately I was already dodging AGEs for the most part by skipping fried foods and grilled meats. It’s a bummer that there aren’t “silver bullet” solutions to let us eat whatever we want but when did silver bullets ever work? Exercise is the only other solution…good enough.

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Oh, and didn’t he make a crack about how glycated dog food is? Or did I hear that somewhere else? I wonder if irradiating and extreme cooking of dog food shortens their lives.

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Yes he did. “Kibble” he called it, so I’m guessing he means the hard, dry food. He says it shortens dogs lives…he does not feed his dog(s) “kibble”.

I must have misunderstood something here: there are AGEs in food, and they aren’t generally good. But the AGEs I am most concerned about are those that are created inside our bodies, such as glucose/AGEs crosslinked into epithelial and elastin proteins/tissues particularly in blood vessels (which reduces cardiovascular health/function, or kidney health/function. Did I misunderstand something? — Isn’t that what we are primarily trying to avoid when we discuss AGEs, and not the exogenous AGEs we consume (which may be important, but not AS important)?

According to the Anti-AGEs Foundation, there is little that can be done to stop the formation of AGEs in our bodies. It is a byproduct of energy production. Our bodies have defense mechanisms built in to deal with it but the defenses can be overwhelmed. Being metabolically unhealthy (over eating, insulin resistance, etc) leads to problems, so avoid or address that as possible. Exercise is good to avoid accumulating AGEs but it’s good for everything. The one thing everyone can do to reduce the accumulation of AGEs is to not eat them.

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I had thought that carnosine (and beta alanine) supplementation helps prevent formation of AGEs (I had originally incorrectly thought that they reduced already-created AGEs but it seems they simply prevent formation). Carnosine is the one you really want, but one turns into the other and these different forms address different organs/body parts. That was the thesis for taking them, no?

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