Improving Cellular Communication With Glyconutrients
By: David Lear

The body is just mind-bogglingly amazing. I mean, when you think of all the complicated bio-physiological things it does by itself without your help…

So what’s up with all of that when you get sick? Why is it healthy one day and sick the next? Is your body trying to tell you it’s low on pharmaceutical drugs? Or it is saying, “Look what happens, when you’re feeding me nothing but junk food.”

In my opinion, if a person incorporates a certain amount of a new type of supplement called “glyconutrients” into their diet, they can still eat junk food - well, every now and then - and still be healthier than most people.

Let me backtrack a little. You may not know it, but there’s a very fast growing, new area of science called glycobiology. The “glyco” part of the name means “sweet.” In a nutshell, glycobiology has to do with how cells communicate with each other. Scientists have uncovered 8 highly specific sugar molecules or saccharides that are vital for correct, disease-free functioning of your cells.

Now, this is very cutting edge stuff, and most doctors in the U.S. don’t have any idea it’s even on the horizon. So right now, you probably know more about glyconutrition than your doctor does.

Anyway, the thing to remember about glyconutrition is that it allows for crystal clear cell-to-cell communication and this is the most vital, important function of glyconutrients.

Let’s look for a sec at the implications of the word “communication.” For humans, communication is “the act of transmitting verbal and non-verbal information and understanding between two people.” Simple enough. And what happens when there’s a communication breakdown? Well, feelings are hurt, things don’t get done right, important things get over-looked, emotions flare, fights erupt, and sometimes people get killed.

That’s how bad it can get when lines of communication get messed up between people and the important thing here is it’s basically the same thing with cells.

See, cells have ways they communicate with each other and when that system breaks down, important messages don’t get communicated, wrong message DO get communicated, and a lot of innocent cells get caught in the crossfire.

No one knew very much about any of this until 1999 when the scientist, Günter Blobel, won the Nobel Prize for discovering how all cells use protein molecules to communicate with other cells. Then, another important discovery was made: these sugar molecules we’ve been talking about play a very active role in this communication process between cells.

The bottom line is that science is now starting to recognize how important these little sugars or monosaccharides are for crystal clear cell-to-cell communication. So if you know that your body isn’t producing enough of these sugars because of your diet, and stress and pollution, it might make sense to start considering how to boost the amount of these sugars in your diet with glyconutrition supplements.

About The Author David Lear is an independent nutrition researcher and free-lance writer. His principal area of interest is glyconutritional dietary supplements. For further information, see www.glycoresults.com.

This article was posted on April 24, 2005

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