Increased Amount Of Sugar Leads To A Decrease In Sex Steroids

Glucose and fructose are metabolized in the liver. When there’s too much sugar in the diet, the liver converts it to lipid. Using a mouse model and human liver cell cultures, the scientists discovered that the increased production of lipid shut down a gene called SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin), reducing the amount of SHBG protein in the blood. SHBG protein plays a key role in controlling the amount of testosterone and estrogen that’s available throughout the body.

This would indicate that the bodies liver metabolism is all “out of whack” before there are even disease symptoms and we could in turn use SHGB as a bio-marker for liver function. Pretty good idea, huh?

Less SHGB protein means more testosterone and estrogen released in the body and an increased risk for infertility, uterine cancer and heart disease, especially in women. This discovery also debunks the earlier assumption that too much insulin reduces SHBG, a view which arose from the observation that overweight, pre-diabetic individuals have high levels of insulin and low levels of SHBG. Quite the opposite indeed. This would make insulin not to blame and suggest that it is actually the liver’s metabolism of sugar that counts.