Sugars are carbohydrates that are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are numerous types of sugar: glucose, fructose,galactose, sucrose, maltose and lactose. Everyone loves sweets; we cannot resist ourselves when we see candies, ice cream or any types of sweet foods. Sugars are needed to provide us with energy and contribute to our wellness. They sweet-favored substances used in our food but we have never thought of sugar as “bad nutrient” that link to the causation of cancer in our body.On science news, it proposed that high levels of sugar is found in diabetics; it damages our cells to increase our chance of getting cancer. The key point is that obesity can cause diabetes; a disease where body fails to control blood sugar levels, and it can increase the risk of cancer development. Thus, the diabetic population has doubled the chances to suffer pancreatic or colon cancer according to the epidemiological studies. With obesity in British and Spanish children reaching about 16 percents, the highest in Europe, this epidemic has major health implications. Obesity and diabetes increase cancer risk has been a major health issue.
High sugar level in the body leads to obesity which causes diabetes
Discovery:
A picture of diabetes in body
Dr. Jimenez at the University Rey Juan Carlos linked obesity and diabetes with cancer due to high sugar levels which increase activity of a gene widely implicated in cancer progression. He conducted a laboratory study on how cells in the intestine respond to sugars and signal to the pancreas to release insulin, the key hormone that controls blood sugar levels. Sugars in the intestine trigger cells to release a hormone called gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) in which it enhances insulin release by the pancreas. In molecular cell study, Dr. Jimenez’s team presented that the ability of the intestinal cells to secrete gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) is manipulated by β-catenin which its activity is strictly dependent on sugar levels. Therefore, They have explained their discovery that increased activity of β-catenin increase the development of many cancers. Thus, the high sugar levels induce nuclear accumulation of β-catenin and leads to cell proliferation. The changes induced on β-catenin, the molecules involved and the diversity of cancer cells susceptible to these changes have been found.
There is a short clip about how sugar leads to initiation of cancer.
The World Health Organization (WHO) published that obesity are the fifth leading risk for global death and approximately 2.8 million adults die each year; addition, 44 % of the diabetes burden, 41% of cancer were attributed to obesity. The changes in our metabolism caused by dietary sugar impact on our cancer risk is a serious health issue in the world. Before the initiation of cancer in our body and suffer cancer, reducing the sugar level we intake must be limited.
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