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Medical Forum / General / Alternative / September 2005Sugar Can Impair Cell-Mediated Immunity
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/leukocytic_index.html In the constant fight against disease, our bodies have a sophisticated defense mechanism - our immune system. Part of this system are cells called neutrophils , a type of leucocyte or white blood cell, which circulate in our blood streams and mop up any bacteria or other foreign bodies they come across. This process is called phagocytosis . While phagocytosis is an energy requiring mechanism that needs an adequate supply of the blood sugar, glucose, (1) too much glucose has the effect of reducing the neutrophils' ability to ingest and kill off invading bacteria. (2) (3) The measure of how many organisms one leukocyte can eat in an hour is called the ' leukocytic index ' (LI). It is a simple measure: if a leukocyte eats 10 organisms in an hour, its leukocytic index is 10. The neutrophils that we rely on to kill any invading bacteria and viruses form 60% - 70% of the white blood cells in our bodies. They are generally much more active than any other blood cell. It can be disastrous to our health, therefore, if their effectiveness is compromised in any way. But this is exactly what happens if we eat too much carbohydrate and too much sugar in particular. By 'sugar' I do not mean just the white, granulated stuff we serve from a bowl on the table; this is called 'sucrose' but the term sugar applies to glucose, fructose (fruit sugar), maltose (grain sugar), honey (a mixture of glucose, fructose, sucrose and dextrin). Test results In a 1973 study, after an overnight fast and after their leucocytes had been tested for phagocytosis activity and their leukocytic index (LI) had been recorded, subjects were fed 100 grams of a specific carbohydrate (a sugar or starch). The table below shows that all forms of carbohydrate - starch as well as sugars - reduced the neutrophils' effectiveness at destroying bacteria and other micro-organisms. (2) This study was confirmed in 1976 by Ringsdorf, et al. (3) They tested the effect of sugar (sucrose) by giving their subjects 24 ounces of sugar sweetened Cola. In this test the leucocytic index of all their subjects was reduced by 50%. In other words, the ability of their disease-fighting blood cells was halved. If this claim is true, Americans should be succumbing to infectious diseases all the time, but that doesn't happen, so something more is at work here. They have some evidence, but what it means requires interpretation by someone who has a grasp of a large body of studies that encompass all aspects of the phenomenon. They do not demonstrate such a grasp in the study, but instead appear to be fixated on "the horrors of sugar." I don't doubt that people who drink super-size sodas all day long are going to have all kinds of "abnormalities," but you have to correlate it to a disease and there has to be a known mechanism before you can start thinking of making a scientific hypothesis. Then again, there's so much shoddy papers pretending to be "science" these days that most "scientists" probably don't understand this point. > If this claim is true, Americans should be succumbing to infectious > diseases all the time, but that doesn't happen, so something more is at [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > "science" these days that most "scientists" probably don't understand > this point. Americans are succumbing to infectious and other diseases all of the time.The proof is in the clinical studies. Read this thoroughly: http://faculty.washington.edu/ely/JOM1.html Leukocyte Suppression by Glucose (In Vitro). Most of the studies of sugar suppression have been done on neutrophils which, of course, although somewhat similar metabolically are not the leukocytes of interest in viral and neoplastic disease. Some work has reported an analogous suppression of lymphocytes. This would be expected from the strong correlation of cancer incidence with high sugar consumption in epidemiological studies (Hems 1978). The four functions of neutrophils (chemotaxis, adherence, phagocytosis and intracellular killing) have each been shown, in separate studies, to be strongly suppressed in blood drawn from groups of diabetic patients (Mowat 1971; Bagdade 1974, 1978; Nolan 1978). In virtually every case, the neutrophils exhibited improved performance, approaching that of normal controls after better management had lowered the BG levels in these same patients. Patients with the poorest initial intracellular killing showed the most striking increases (almost 3 times) after 27% reductions in BG (310 to 225 mg%). Granulocyte adherence as a function of BG level fell linearly (best fit for 22 tests) from 100% of controls at 100 mg% to 20% of controls at 400 mg%. Serum from the untreated diabetics uniformly reduced these same processes in poly's from the controls, and serum from the controls improved the performance of the diabetic patients' leukocytes. Most striking of all were the two results that the transferable inhibitory effect of hyperglycemic diabetic serum on control poly's was (1) eliminated by dilution and (2) produced in normal serum simply by the isosmotic addition of glucose. Apparently the suppression is entirely due to sugar. Lymphocytes from diabetics and leukemics (both hyperglycemic hosts) were shown to have depressed glucose utilization via the HMP shunt and decreased mitogenic response to PHA. The authors suggest these depressions as etiologic of inadequate CMI in the hosts (Brody 1970). Leukocyte Suppression by Sugars (In Vivo). Although phagocytosis is endoergic, stopping at levels of BG <10 mg% (Cohn 1960), a number of investigators have consistently demonstrated a hyperglycemic limit also. We cite two such reports of prompt significant suppression of neutrophil phagocytosis (of staph epidermidis or beads) by transient hyperglycemia induced in humans by ingestion of various sugars, and one of monocyte ascorbic acid depletion demonstrated by iv GTT (also, indirect evidence of cellular anergy induced by rCHO is given in following sections). In one study of ten subjects (max. age 34), oral 100 gram portions of glucose, fructose, sucrose, and rCHO from honey, and orange juice all decreased the phagocytic index (PI; rate of ingestion of beads, etc) by 39 to 45% from fasting level in from 1 to 2 hours. However, 100 grams of starch produced no significant decrease. The average Pl of eight patients with diabetic type responses decreased 57% from their fasting value (which was already nearly 30% below that of the ten normals). A final point of considerable clinical interest in that paper was the recording of PI over a 60 hour fast by seven normal subjects. During this interval, the group's average BG fell from 90 to 75 mg% and its PI rose by 60% (Sanchez 1973). Although neutrophils are not CMI effector cells, fasting results suggest that anorexia might be a host defense mechanism in cancer. In the second study, five male dental students drank 24 ounces of sucrose sweetened cola (66 grams of rCHO) on one occasion leading to an average PI decrease of 49.8% in 45 minutes as BG rose from 85 mg% (fasting) to 157 mg%, and 24 ounces of sugar free cola on another day resulting in no significant change in PI (Ringsdorf 1976). Intra-cellular ascorbic acid was found to fall over 50% in monocytes in less than 20 minutes after a 25 gram iv GTT (Hutchinson 1983). Thus, in vivo and in vitro results agree. Immune Suppression by Sugar Elevation of Cortisol. It is known that prolonged elevation of cortisol, through its lympholytic and other anti-inflammatory effects, results in impairment of both monocyte recruitment and effectiveness, inhibition of interferon production, and atrophy of thymus, spleen, and lymph nodes, etc (Turner 1976; Fenner 1976). In their investigations on the effects of high sugar diets, Yudkin and Szanto (1971, 1972) found that glucose tolerance decreased to some significant extent in virtually all people, but that, in about 25% of the tested population, two strong effects developed in only two weeks: a "sucrose-induced hyperinsulinism" of about 30% and a cortisol elevation of over 300%. ln view of the preceding discussions and the epidemiological evidence to follow, one wonders how much overlap exists between the above 25% and the same fraction of our high rCHO population predicted to present with clinical cancer. Cancer Incidence: Correlation with Sugar Intake (Epidemiological Evidence) Yudkin's claim of a correlation of 0.6 between cancer and sugar consumption (see p. 144, 1972) appears supported by other studies. In a 41 country epidemiological study of breast cancer incidence, Hems found it correlated with sugar consumption at 0.73 independently of the only other three foods that had high correlations (1978). In an extensive analysis of the variables in colon cancer, high sugar, fat, and low fiber intakes were impugned by Walker and Burkitt as the leading etiological factors (1976). A recent analysis of dietary factors in colon and rectal cancer found a correlation with sugar intake in those cases where the available data permitted assessment of rCHO ingestion (Graham 1978). An empirical approach to the question of rCHO toxicity was taken by Cheraskin and Ringsdorf (1974). Using a 7 day dietary survey, these authors assessed the rCHO intake of 395 dentists and 320 wives. The clinical state of the same 715 person group was recorded on the Cornell Medical Index Health Questionnaire (CMIHQ) on which 195 questions on signs and symptoms indicate pathology by an affirmative answer, the higher scores indicating more health problems. When the rCHO intake in grams was plotted against CMIHQ score, the two converged toward zero together, suggesting that zero rCHO intake is consistent with optimal health. This and a large number of similar analyses on AA, vitamin A, etc., conducted by this U. of Alabama group quantitatively substantiated the clinical impressions they had reached and motivated their successful experiment also discussed herein on rCHO and AA control, adjunctive to tumor therapy (Cheraskin 1968). [snipped] Thanks for the interesting posts. This is all consistent with the observations that animals (including humans) on calorie restriction (which greatly lowers average BG and usually FBG) do not get sick easily (and recover faster when they do) even though their white blood cell counts are generally always lower than normally fed animals. --Paul Wakfer MoreLife for the rational - http://morelife.org Reality based tools for more life in quantity and quality The Self-Sovereign Individual Project - http://selfsip.org Rational freedom by self-sovereignty & social contracting > 30% below that of the ten normals). A final point of considerable clinical > interest in that paper was the recording of PI over a 60 hour fast by seven [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > from 85 mg% (fasting) to 157 mg%, and 24 ounces of sugar free cola on > another day resulting in no significant change in PI (Ringsdorf 1976). Interesting article. To bad most of the studies cited in it are pretty old and are not available on pubmed. Contradictory to the article, in the study below (the full text of PMID: 4117287) there was no significant difference between the phagocytic activity of the 100mg/100 ml and the 50mg/100 ml glucose concentrations. Only at very high glucose concentrations (200mg/100 ml and higher) a decrease in phagocytic activity was found. Influence of Glucose Levels on the In Vitro Phagocytosis of Bacteria by Human Neutrophils Carel J. van Oss Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York Abstract A previously developed in vitro method for studying the phagocytosis of bacteria and particles by human neutrophils was used to investigate the influence of different glucose levels on phagocytosis. It was found that high glucose levels (200, 400, and 800 mg of glucose/100 ml) significantly depressed the phagocytosis of Staphylococcus epidermidis, S. aureus, and Escherichia coli. At very low glucose levels, a somewhat decreased phagocytic activity was noted. The strongest phagocytic activity occurred at glucose concentrations of 50 and 100 mg/100 ml. A second effect noted at the higher (200, 400 and 800 mg/100 ml) glucose concentrations was a decreased adhesiveness of the neutrophils to solid surfaces. The mechanism of the decrease in phagocytosis and in neutrophil adhesiveness at higher glucose levels is unknown, but it is not linked to increased osmotic pressures due to the presence of glucose, as ethanol, at the same and even higher osmolal concentrations, had no effect on the phagocytosis. These results show that not only the phagocytic activity of those neutrophils that do adhere to a solid surface is diminished at higher glucose concentrations but also that fewer neutrophils adhere to solid surfaces at higher glucose levels. These two phenomena combined may provide at least part of the explanation for the well-known decrease in resistance to bacterial infections of diabetics. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=4117287 > > 30% below that of the ten normals). A final point of considerable clinical > > interest in that paper was the recording of PI over a 60 hour fast by seven [quoted text clipped - 45 lines] > least part of the explanation for the well-known decrease in resistance > to bacterial infections of diabetics. http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=4117287 Correct me if I'm wrong, but the first study that I posted was referring to the ingestion of 100 gm of different sugars. Your study is referring to glucose concentrations which means that 100mg/100ml is not the same as ingesting 100 gram portions of glucose. Therefore it isn't contradicting my first post. The study I posted was in vivo and the other is referring to neutriphil adhesiveness to glass. These are very different studies. I still found your post quite interesting. > Correct me if I'm wrong, but the first study that I posted was referring to > the ingestion of 100 gm of different sugars. Your study is referring to [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > neutriphil adhesiveness to glass. These are very different studies. I still > found your post quite interesting. Hi, You're right, these are very different studies and not fully comparable. What I was comparing the study I posted to was this particular quote from the article you posted: "A final point of considerable clinical interest in that paper was the recording of PI over a 60 hour fast by seven normal subjects. During this interval, the group's average BG fell from 90 to 75 mg% and its PI rose by 60% (Sanchez 1973). Although neutrophils are not CMI effector cells, fasting results suggest that anorexia might be a host defense mechanism in cancer. In the second study, five male dental students drank 24 ounces of sucrose sweetened cola (66 grams of rCHO) on one occasion leading to an average PI decrease of 49.8% in 45 minutes as BG rose from 85 mg% (fasting) to 157 mg%, and 24 ounces of sugar free cola on another day resulting in no significant change in PI (Ringsdorf 1976)." Notice the blood glucose levels reported above f.ex. 90 mg% and 75 mg%. Assuming that by mg% they mean mg/dl this would equal 90mg/dL and 75mg/dL which are typical blood glucose numbers seen in a healthy human. Since a dL equals 100ml the numbers can be further converted to 90mg/100ml and 75mg/100ml. These numbers can than be compared to the concentration used in the study I posted. In that study phagocytic activity was highest at 50 and 100 mg/100ml glucose concentration but it was lower at 200, 400 and 800 mg/100 ml. What I found interesting is that in this study the phagocytic activity was not found to be any lower at 100mg/100ml than at 50mg/100ml, while the article you posted reported a lower phagocytosis index at 90mg/dL than at 75mg/dL and lower at 157mg/dL than at 85mg/dL. There are two things that might explain why the study I posted reported no difference between the 50 and 100mg/100ml concentrations: 1)The study is not comparable to the studies refered to in the article you posted. 2)The inverse relationship between glucose concentration and phagocytic activity does not hold at very low glucose concentrations. I actually think number 2 might be the case here. Phagocytes use glucose as energy and 50mg/dL glucose is probably a low enough concentration to cause them to have sub optimal energy resulting in reduced phagocitic activity. > If this claim is true, Americans should be succumbing to infectious > diseases all the time, but that doesn't happen, so something more is at > work here. Actually they are "succumbing to infectious diseases all the time", in greater numbers than they need to. What infectious diseases? Colds, flus, west nile, HIV, infected cuts, ear infections, etc. They may not all be "succumbing" to them but they suffer more symptoms for longer periods. Those who have a better nutritional status, especially with vit C, get fewer infectious diseases or suffer fewer and lesser symptoms than those who are nutritionally deficient. TC > They have some evidence, but what it means requires > interpretation by someone who has a grasp of a large body of studies [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > "science" these days that most "scientists" probably don't understand > this point. Just for funzies, TC: "The therapeutic powers of vitamin C beyond the prevention of scurvy were championed by Linus Pauling, the double Nobel Prize winner, who, in common with many other Nobel Laureates, seemed to lose the plot ever so slightly in the latter stages of his career. Pauling believed massive doses of vitamin C could protect against cancer, and also the common cold. That's where we come in. A new study published in the current PLoS Medicine, an open source journal from the same people that brought us PLoS Biology, has conducted a meta-analysis of existing trials to determine if there really is any truth to the claims made by Pauling (and my mother). And as it turns out, there aren't: ...the lack of effect of prophylactic vitamin C supplementation on the incidence of common cold in normal populations throws doubt on the utility of this wide practice. So there you have it: Rhinovirus 1, Vitamin C 0" http://arstechnica.com/columns/science/science-20050703.ars The actual studies can be found here: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/jour nal.pmed.0020168 So tell me TC: Does this "throw doubt on the utility of" your beliefs? Batting 100 again? Still laughing, PH. Vit C does work to prevent cold (and other illnesses) if you take 8-15 grams aday. but after you got a cold you need much larger doses, typically 30-50 grams a day in order to lessen the symptoms and shorten the duration of the cold. of course the dtudies dont follow thid protocol, therefore this debate will continue until a proper trial will be conducted. I tried it on myself a lot of time and it works every time. see also Dr. klenner and Cathcart articles. beni. > http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/leukocytic_index.html I would suggest you try reading about the complications of diabetes and the dangers of sepsis with ketoacidosis and poor wound healing infections of wounds in diabetes. Basic stuff but I guess it's news for some people. > > http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/leukocytic_index.html > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Basic stuff but I guess it's news for some people. You must be referring to his post, not mine, and I agree with you: From: "montygram" <nazztrader@lycos.com> Newsgroups: misc.health.alternative,sci.med.nutrition,sci.life-extension Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 5:40 PM Subject: Re: Sugar Can Impair Cell-Mediated Immunity > If this claim is true, Americans should be succumbing to infectious > diseases all the time, but that doesn't happen, so something more is at [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > "science" these days that most "scientists" probably don't understand > this point. |
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