Hyperglycemia and its Relationship with Atherosclerosis
A relative was tested and it was seen that she had high level of sugar in her blood and she has been going for treatment and is fine now and there is a possibility that a lot of people have had an experience with a person with high sugar in the blood or personally being diagnosed with Hyperglycemia.
Before you start to think about the complex name, it isn't as Hyperglycemia when broken down would be Hyper meaning High, Gly meaning Sugar, and emia meaning blood. Before you start to police me over eating my lovely M&M once in 2 weeks or even a month, or that cake I eat like every birthday only because of increased sugar in the blood, you should know that hyperglycemia isn't about a meal or one sugary snack you consume once, it is as a result of a culture of continually eating or a duration of sugar consumption.
We here all stuffs like junk food is bad, sugar is bad because it causes high blood sugar,, diabetes, and so on. You know what I mean; that pep talk your friend tells you so as to forfeit a particular meal because X causes Y in the body when consumed but the question most people do not ask is How? Instead of going into that endless debate that would only get you exhausted and burn the little calories you have, it is better you understand what really happens in the body after consuming sugar and how it could lead to such.
Hyperglycemia is a generally destructive state which could be as a result of insulin resistance, diabetes, and obesity. But in this post, I will be looking at blood sugar and its possibility in causing Atherosclerosis (cardiovascular disease). Talking about Atherosclerosis, we would mention oxLDL which is a derivative of LDL. You should know that the body usually start off with LDL which is healthy and normal but oxidative stress converts the LDL to oxLDL which is an unhealthy type of LDL.
Atherosclerosis is something that everyone should watch out against regardless of race, gender, or social faction. It occurs as a result of the blood vessels narrowing because of plaque buildup known as Thrombosis. When we here thrombosis, we quickly google fat and fat related condition and in our guise to avert such condition, we begin to buy fat free beverages, eat low fat food, and as many thing that can prevent fat from getting through your mouth.
LDL known in full as Low density Lipoprotein and its function is solely to move fat around in the blood since fat is insoluble, it need to be carried by something and LDL is that transporter but then it is vulnerable as it is easily attacked by free radicals which are unstable and highly reactive molecules in the body. Once free radicals causes an oxidative stress which lead to LDL becoming oxLDL which then triggers the immune system to start attacking with macrophages leading to inflammation. Once this happens, platelets are activated to clog bleeding but since there is no bleeding, it looks like it is being summoned when it is not needed. The immune system attacking the blood vessels causes it to lose its integrity and this lead to plaque.
After the engulfing of oxLDL by macrophages, they are unable to destroy it and so they become inactive. The macrophages then become foam cells compromising the blood vessel surface which in turn can lead to Atherosclerosis. So the question is, what brought about free radicals?
Free radical is caused by a receptor known as RAGE. This receptor when activated causes inflammation, and free radicals which are the driving force of oxidation which breaking down of molecules in the body. Glucose is one of the things that can unlock the rage receptor and the body runs on glucose which is the fuel of the body but when there is a lot of glucose in the body for a long period of time, it forms advance glycation end-product (AGE). While the body can let go of AGE in the body, it becomes quite impossible when the sugar is now excessive in the blood (hyperglycemia)
While the culprit has always been fat associated to the plaque that can lead to atherosclerosis, in reality, sugar plays a very big role. In fact, we consume more sugar than we consume fat, and increased blood sugar can lead to plaque in vessels.
Reference
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6600625/
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.621854
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5878883/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213231713001043
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7070562/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9199460/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5409724/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8509443/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6321244/
Our plumbing needs cares! good and informative post! =)
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