NaturaLift MD Review Blog

Whether you consume sugar in soda, candy, cereals, bread, potatoes, carrots, or anything sweet, or in complex carbohydrates that are broken down into simple sugars, it interferes with the skin’s ability to maintain its youthful texture and appearance.

High blood glucose interferes with the ability of fibroblast cells to produce the skin’s ground matrix substances, collagen and hyaluronic acid. A child’s skin has these in abundance; adults can rebuild this abundant supply, using NexDerma® Naturalift MD: Advanced Face Lift Therapy.

Glucose & Skin. High glucose has been shown to limit the healing ability of skin by hurting fibroblast cell function. Fibroblasts are cells that produce the ground matrix substances collagen and hyaluronic acid. These ground matrix substances also hold everything in the body together, make the skin soft and plump, and allows for flexibility at the same time.

Glucose also attaches to proteins, a process known as glycation. As time passes, metabolism alters glycation, resulting in advanced glycation end-products that directly damage cell membrane lysosomes. Lysomes have potent enzymes that defend the body by attacking and destroying foreign matter, such as bacteria.

Advanced glycation end-products hasten photoaging of skin by increasing the negative effects of free radical oxidants, including the oxygen molecule with a missing electron (O2-), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and the hydroxyl ion (OH-) generated from UV-A sunlight. These advanced glycation end-products directly reduce the skin’s ability to synthesize hyaluronic acid.

Glycemic Index v. Glycemic Load. Understanding the difference between glycemic index and glycemic load will help you determine what to eat and why. This directly affects weight as well as health and appearance and is of even more importance if you are diabetic.

Not all carbohydrates are equal in their ability to raise blood sugar levels. The ability to raise the level of sugars in the blood per gram of carbohydrate weight is the glycemic index. Refined sugar has a glycemic index of 100. Some foods have more carbohydrates by weight than others. The carbohydrate weight for a serving times the glycemic index is the glycemic load.

Not all foods contain the same percentage of carbohydrates by weight. Some foods with a high glycemic index contain only a small amount by weight of high glycemic index carbohydrates. For example, the average serving of cooked carrots has a glycemic load of only 1.5.

A half-cup of watermelon has a glycemic index of 72, but its glycemic load is only 4. On the other hand, a 12-ounce soft drink has a glycemic index of 68 and a glycemic load of 35.

Sugar. Sugar binds to body protein components, including col agen in the skin and the walls of arteries, and causes severe damage. These sugar-bound compounds are called advanced glycation end-products (AGE). AGE is an appropriate and ironic way of describing what this does to the skin: cause more and deeper wrinkles.

Sugar interferes with fibroblast cells. High and medium glycemic index and glycemic load carbohydrates raise blood sugar too high after consumption. In addition, sugar causes fibroblast cells to be “… resistant to growth factors such as IGF-1 and EGF.”