glucose

How to Utilize Glucose Well (And Why You Should Care) Constantine Kanargelidis Mar 11

Why is it important to utilize (or oxidize) glucose well?

There are many cells in our bodies that simply must use glucose. The brain is one example of an organ that heavily relives on glucose for energy. If the brain (or other organs and cells) cannot utilize glucose well, we run into trouble. There will be a drop in ATP for one, which means less energy is created for that specific cell or organ. In the brain, this can be catastrophic. Over time, if our brain has less ability to utilize glucose then this can lead to all sorts of neurodegenerative diseases and mood disorders. This is relevant for many other organs and cells, but I want to emphasize how important glucose utilization is for the brain as many people fear cognitive decline. Improving glucose utilization is likely the most important thing one can do to help protect against cognitive decline and related issues.

Oxidizing glucose is also a way for us to produce carbon dioxide (CO2). This is not a metabolic toxin. CO2 is needed for cells to utilize oxygen (O2). If we do not have enough CO2, we cannot use O2 effectively, regardless of the O2 levels in the blood. CO2 is also needed to convert ammonia (toxic) into urea (not toxic). CO2 is also a major vasodilator and is important for protecting against hypertension. There are many benefits of living at a higher altitude, this is (at least in part) due to the higher CO2 levels.

There are many relevant factors when considering how someone can utilize glucose well. The main required nutrients would be:

• Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)
• Magnesium
• Biotin
• Manganese
• Potassium
• Chromium
• B3
• B5
• B6

If we cannot utilize glucose well, it can start to increase in the blood and stay high. This can cause people to have elevated fasting blood glucose. The inappropriate utilization of glucose can also lead to an increase in lactic acid or lactate, which can lead to hypoxia.

One of the main glucose-utilizing enzymes (pyruvate is formed from glucose) is called pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH). The main nutrients required for this important enzyme are vitamin B1 (Thiamine) and magnesium. It is important to try and consume enough of these two nutrients in the diet, but it can be especially hard for these two. They are not the most abundant nutrients in food these days but eating a diet that contains a lot of non-packaged and non-canned food can help. If someone has a condition that can be improved by oxidizing glucose better (practically everyone can benefit from oxidizing glucose better) then they may want to supplement with some magnesium and vitamin B1. Getting a form of vitamin B1 that is utilized well is important, benfotiamine, fursultiamine (TTFD), allithiamine, prosultiamine and sulbutiamine are all useful. However, benfotiamine doesn’t seem to increase thiamin levels in the brain so it may not be very useful for someone with a neurodegenerative disease. The other forms of thiamine mentioned should be useful for someone with a neurodegenerative disease.

Another important glucose-utilizing enzyme is pyruvate carboxylase, which turns pyruvate into oxaloacetate. The main nutrients required for this enzyme are Biotin (Vitamin B7) and manganese. Biotin is high in egg yolks, but egg whites (especially uncooked) can lead to biotin deficiency. Organ meats (liver) are very high in biotin. Manganese is very high in mussels, pineapple and maple syrup. I don’t think manganese supplements would be necessary, but someone may investigate if they are deficient in biotin, if they are they can look into potentially supplementing with some extra biotin which may in turn help them utilize glucose better.

Potassium and chromium are two other nutrients needed for optimal glucose utilization. Potassium is high in fruits and vegetables, especially “root vegetables” and tubers such as potatoes. Coconut water and aloe vera juice (inner leaf fillet) are also very good sources of potassium. If we consume enough potassium, there is a lesser need for insulin as a response to consuming carbohydrates. Chromium is high in brewers’ yeast, grapes and certain spices like cinnamon. Speaking of cinnamon (1-6g a day), this herb/bark can be very useful for people who need to utilize glucose better, always buy Ceylon Cinnamon as opposed to the other types, like cassia, which is toxic in higher doses.

One reason someone could have a hard time utilizing their glucose would be if there is too much fat in the blood in the form of free fatty acids (FFAs). FFAs can be increased in the blood for many reasons, such as eating too much fat (especially polyunsaturated fatty acids “PUFAs”), increased adrenaline (fasting, not eating enough, stress, cold, hypothyroid) and many other factors such as high estrogen. This can interfere with the utilization of glucose and can lead to a decrease in the NAD/NADH ratio.

The form of vitamin B3 known as niacinamide can help with the oxidation of glucose in a couple of ways. The first is that niacinamide can help to increase NAD, and when there is a higher ratio of NAD/NADH the cells can oxidize glucose better. There are other ways to increase this ratio, one such way is to consume what are called “oxidizing agents” or “electron-accepting agents” where most of which are quinones or quinone-like. Two very famous quinones are Coenzyme Q10, also known as COQ10 and Ubiquinone the “ubiquitous” quinone if you will. there is also vitamin K2, known as menaquinone. Quinones don’t need to have “quinone” in the name, emodin and aloe-emodin, found in cascara sagrada and aloe vera respectively, are quinones. The pau d’arco bark contains some quinones as well, such as lapachol. Black seed contains thymoquinone. So, consuming these quinones can help someone accept excess electrons which will help the NAD/NADH ratio increase.

Why is this relevant? This will all help increase the utilization of glucose. Niacinamide can also help prevent the excess liberation of FFAs which means there will be less fat in the blood. Think of the fat and the glucose “competing” in the blood for utilization/oxidation, less free fatty acids in the blood gives your body a better chance to utilize the glucose. Furthermore, by lowering the free fatty acids in the blood, niacinamide is also increasing the NAD/NADH ratio, as when we are oxidizing too much fat at the expense of glucose there is a decrease in the NAD/NADH ratio, which is not good for glucose oxidation. Therefore, Niacinamide can be a helpful tool for anyone wishing to increase their utilization of glucose. This is especially important for diabetics and people with dementia (diabetes of the BRAIN it is often called).

It’s also important to bring up that having adequate active thyroid hormone (T3) is also essential for the utilization of glucose. The thyroid gland produces T4 (inactive thyroid hormone) and a little T3. The vast majority of the conversion of T4 to T3 happens in the liver. If someone has poor liver health, they can have a poor conversion of T4 to T3. This means they will have a harder time metabolizing carbohydrates like glucose. The thyroid gland could also not be producing enough thyroid hormone, this can be due to many reasons such as chorine, inadequate consumption of tyrosine and iodine, a diet high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and high estrogen, to name a few.

I do not recommend low-carbohydrate diets. Your body needs glucose and if you don’t supply it from foods like fruits, potatoes and honey then your body will make it. If you go on a very low carbohydrate diet for long, you will start to make glucose by catabolizing your body (like your thymus gland) and from dietary proteins. This is a stressful process, and it also leads to high levels of ammonia, as when you make glucose from amino acids, you get ammonia as a by-product. We need adequate CO2 to get rid of ammonia, but if we aren’t eating carbohydrates, we will be producing less CO2, making the ammonia that much more of a problem. Low-carb diets also lead to a lower ratio of NAD/NADH making it even harder to oxidize glucose well.

It is important to avoid eating starch on its own. Starch (white bread, pasta, white rice) is essentially just a long chain of glucose, when it is broken down it can massively increase blood glucose levels very quickly, making it difficult to oxidize the glucose well. We don’t want huge peaks and valleys of blood glucose, this can make people irritable and have brain fog. Starch on its own thus has a huge glycemic index. Combining foods can help and so can fibre. Fruit generally has a much lower glycemic index than say bread. So try to keep your carbohydrates to mostly fruit and fruit-vegetables like bell peppers and zucchini (all botanical fruits). Starches, such as potatoes, can be great, but have them with a fat such as butter or olive oil.

In conclusion, important nutrients for utilizing glucose well are Thiamine, Magnesium, Biotin, Manganese, Potassium, Chromium and other B vitamins like vitamin B6. Eating a good diet rich in shellfish (shrimp, oysters, mussels etc.), eggs, organ meats (liver, heart, kidney), fruits, roots and tubers, peas and lentils, butter, cheese/yogurt and olive oil can all help to make sure you get a wide variety of nutrients. However, if you have trouble utilizing glucose it may be worthwhile to look into supplementing with a good form of vitamin B1 and magnesium to help increase the oxidation of glucose. You may also want to experiment with niacinamide, so you can lower the amount of fat in the blood and so you can increase the NAD/NADH ratio, both of which will help with the utilization of glucose. Taking a quinone, or eating foods that contain quinones, like COQ10 (heart), Vitamin K2 (goose liver), pau d’arco tea, black seed, cascara sagrada and aloe vera, can also help with the oxidation of glucose. Making sure your thyroid hormone conversion is optimal will also help. Biotin supplementation may also be useful, please investigate the many articles that Chris Masterjohn has written on Biotin, especially “When High Dose Biotin is Truly Needed” for more information.