4 ms·
The mechanism they pinpointed is illustrated in "Figure 7": OPs (star) enter the human digestive system via food and are metabolized into acetic acid (trapezoi
by firasd 10y ago
The mechanism they pinpointed is illustrated in "Figure 7":
OPs (star) enter the human digestive system via food and are metabolized into acetic acid (trapezoid) by the gut microbiota (oval). Subsequently, acetic acid was absorbed by the intestinal cells and the majority of them were transported to the liver through the periportal vein. Eventually, acetic acid was converted into glucose (hexagon) by gluconeogenesis in the intestine and liver and thus accounts for glucose intolerance.
So the pesticide is being eventually converted into glucose, which has the same effect as if you were eating too much sugar/carbs.
- mirimir 10y agoWow. Does this mean that organophosphates aren't actually causing chemical damage, but are just a glucose source? On the one hand, that means that organophosphates are really not very toxic to humans. But also, it implies that exposures must be enormous.
- manmal 10y agoI can't believe that organophosphates are ingested in amounts that would be a problem when converted to glucose. That would have to be tens of grams every day. Something else must be the culprit.
- maxerickson 10y agoI would think the thing to investigate is the changes in the gut bacteria. What do they do differently after the chronic exposure?
- tonmoy 10y agoA point to be noted is that the study was done in India, where regulations on the amount of pesticide used may not be as enforced as in other developed countries.
- msandford 10y agoNot at all correct. Acetic acid at 5% is vinegar. You can consume substantial quantities of that without dramatically increasing your diabetes risk. The damage had to be happening upstream of acetic acid.
- gukov 10y agoIf anything, vinegar lowers glycemic response, ie blood glucose doesn't go as high after a meal.
- heisenbit 10y agoNope. The chemicals influences the microbes in your gut. Your gut microbes are responsible for a lot of the food pre-processing. What exactly microbes contribute is not always clear but they contribute significantly. Likely they contribute to the break-down of long chained carbohydrates. Disturbing the microbes in the gut is at least a possible mechanism for causing diabetes. There have been other studies that showed significant impact of fecal transplants on body weight. Generally it is so that correlation is not causation. In this case they backed up their statistics with investigations along the whole digestion tract so it is not so easy to dismiss the idea.