(Advanced Glycation End Products/AGES)
AKA carbohydrate oxidation
Glucose is important for the body and brain and it provides fuel/energy for life. Excess glucose (sugar) that is not metabolized circulates in the body, where it can interact with proteins, lipids and DNA, causing oxidation. Excess glucose can interact with the proteins of your extra cellular matrix (ECM, which houses fibrous structural proteins including collagen, elastin and laminin that are very important for skin integrity and strength). Collagen and elastin become targets for the chemical reactions that occur between glucose and proteins.
A chemical browning process between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its desirable flavor. This reaction can take place in your body. For example, your skin’s proteins react the same way to sugar (glucose) as food does when you’re cooking. What’s known as Maillard reaction in food is also called carmelization. The name of this reaction, involving glucose and the proteins, lipids and nucleic acids of the body and skin, is called glycation and it results in irreversible Advanced Glycation End Products (AGES.).