Re: Glyconutrients (prebiotics) and Butyrate

A Friendly Skeptic Looks at Glyconutrients and A*****ose®
By Dr. Ralph Moss
from CancerDecisions.com Newsletter

Note from Dr. Moss: This week I begin a two-part discussion in my
occasional Friendly Skeptic series, looking at a group of products
sold by M****tech, Inc., a network marketing giant. My goal, as a
Friendly Skeptic, is not to prejudge or to disparage unfairly, but
simply to determine whether or not there is a solid scientific basis
for the claims made on behalf of these products.

I take the same strictly objective, evidence-based approach in the 200
Moss Reports, each one of which is an in-depth study of the available
conventional and alternative treatments for a particular type of
cancer. My aim in writing these reports is to present an impartial and
clear-eyed analysis of the most promising treatment options. People
dealing with cancer need a reliable source of up-to-date information,
a source they can count on to be honest and even-handed in assessing
the many conflicting claims that assail them. The Moss Reports are
designed to do just that.

If you would like to order a Moss Report for yourself or someone you
love, you can do so from our website at
http://www.cancerdecisions.com,
or by
calling Diane at 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the US). We
look forward to helping you.

Recently a client asked my opinion of A*****ose®. She had advanced
cancer and her doctors held out little hope. Her medical history had
been a succession of failures. After being told that her condition was
essentially untreatable, she found details of a promising clinical
trial on the Internet. She tried to enroll, but at the last minute was
rejected because of the trial's rigid exclusion criteria. (It turned
out that her 9-millimeter diameter tumor was one millimeter too small
to permit her inclusion in the study.)

She became increasingly frustrated with the medical profession,
perhaps understandably transferring onto her doctors some of the anger
she felt at this cruel disease. She then turned towards alternative
medicine. In particular, a neighbor sold her on a substance called
A*****ose.

What exactly is A*****ose, and does it have any role in the treatment
of cancer?

A*****ose is the brand name for a mixture containing certain plant
sugars called glyconutrients. It is widely promoted for its health-
giving properties. A*****ose is produced and marketed by M****tech,
Inc., a publicly traded company based in Coppell, Texas, which does
about US $190 million per year in business (2003) and has grossed more
than US $1.5 billion since its start in 1994. Its various nutritional
products - there are now about thirty - are sold through what the
company calls a global network marketing program.

In this sort of multi-level sales structure, independent entrepreneurs
become associated with the parent company as private contractors. They
themselves receive a discount for shopping within the network, for
selling products, and for expanding their network of people (the so-
called "downline") who are doing the same thing. Those who sign up
receive a percentage of the profits that are generated by the network
of all other entrepreneurs who are introduced to the system by him or
her, and also of the profits generated by the people introduced by
those entrepreneurs, and so on.

In practice, this means that the sales pitch you hear tends to come
from someone you know personally, who not only uses and sells the
stuff, but has a strong incentive to recruit you to become
a "downline" salesperson of the same products. I have had people in my
own extended family try to convince me of the virtues of M****tech's
products.

Only later did I realize this was not a disinterested excursion into
medical Science but part of a well rehearsed sales pitch. It is hard
to resist this sort of pressure when it is a friend, neighbor or
relative who comes a-calling. This helps account for the remarkable
growth not just of M****tech but of this network marketing phenomenon.
The network marketing of health products (including other huge sellers
such as noni and mangosteen juices) appeals to two of the most
fundamental human desires, the simultaneous quest for health and
wealth.

M****tech began its meteoric rise in the world of network marketing
with the development of a proprietary substance called Manapol®. The
company offers a scientific rationale for the use of this product,
claiming that various sugars - technically, monosaccharides and
polysaccharides - provide specific sugars to the body that help
support the immune system and facilitate cell-to-cell communication.
In 1996, the company introduced its A*****ose Complex®, a blend of
Manapol and additional glyconutrients.

Describing A*****ose, the company's website states the following:

A*****ose is a glyconutritional, a blend of specific plant saccharides
that provides support for the immune system. These saccharides are
necessary for the body's creation of glycoforms, the structures on
cell surfaces used to ‘talk' to other cells.

A*****ose later evolved into A*****ose Complex®, which, according to
the company, is a mixture of Arabinogalactan (a gum from the Larix
decidua tree), Manapol, which is a gel extracted from the inner leaf
of aloe vera gel plant, gum ghatti, and gum tragacanth. Advanced
A*****ose in turn is said to contain gum acacia, aloe vera gel extract
(inner leaf gel) or Manapol powder, oat fiber, brown macroalgae
(Undaria pinnatifida) sporophyll, vegetarian glucosamine-HCl, ghatti
gum, gum tragacanth and xylitol.

The price of Advanced A*****ose is between $69 and $76 for 75 grams in
bulk, almost one dollar per gram or $28 per ounce.

In 2001, the company further broadened its line of proprietary
ingredients by developing Ambroglycin®, which it describes as a
balanced food-mineral matrix that helps deliver certain nutrients to
the body. Additionally, in 2004 M****tech developed a proprietary
blend of antioxidant nutrients, called MTech AO Blend, which is used
in its proprietary antioxidant product A*****ose AO®. (AO stands for
antioxidants.)

Trademarked Terminology
Don't be surprised if you have difficulty keeping all this new and
registered or trademarked terminology in mind. It is dizzyingly
complicated. As far as I can gather almost all of the company's
products contain A*****ose, which in turn contains Manapol. An earlier
key ingredient was Acemanan. Then there's Ambroglycin.

I do not mean to disparage or diminish the totally respectable field
of glycobiology or the potential use of polysaccharides in cancer.
There is for instance the work of Prof. Hans-Joachim Gabius of the
Ludwigs-Maximilians University of Munich and his coworkers. They have
done pioneering research in glycobiology, investigating cell-
agglutinating proteins known as lectins and the role they play in
tumor formation.

Another very important area in glycobiology concerns the investigation
of polysaccharides in mushrooms such as maitake, shiitake and reishi.
This kind of research deserves the most serious consideration. So too
do the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) that are associated with the cancer
treatment known as Coley's toxins (mixed bacterial vaccine). But this
is a very far cry from the claims sometimes made by proponents of
M****tech's products concerning the efficacy of orally administered
sugars, such as are found in A*****ose or related products.

A Promising Avenue
Glycobiology is a promising avenue of research, to be sure. However,
network marketing creates a rah-rah atmosphere, in which a chemical
becomes a product and a product then becomes a profit center…and an
ideological cause.

There have been reports in the media that glyconutrients have been
sold with an implicit claim that they have benefit in the management
of existing cancers. What is the scientific basis of such claims? I
experienced a disconnect when I tried to track down the hard science
behind such claims. Here for instance are the numbers of Google search
engine 'hits' for various M****tech products or their components
compared to the number of citations in the standard 15-million entry
US medical database, PubMed.

Product Google Hits PubMed PubMed + Cancer*
Acemanan 19 400 42 7
A*****ose 20 700 0 0
Manapol 14 100 0 0

*PubMed + Cancer refers to peer-reviewed article delimited by the
further search term 'cancer'

For A*****ose in particular, we see an enormous popularity in
publications by and for lay people but nothing listed in the standard
medical literature to substantiate claims of health benefits, at least
not under this particular brand name. To put it mildly, this isn't
very reassuring.

I also searched for arabinogalactan, a prime ingredient in A*****ose.
This is a Sugar derived from the wood of the Larix, or larch, tree.
Larch arabinogalactan is in fact approved by the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) as a source of dietary fiber. I had more success
with this search. There were nearly 600 references to this topic in
PubMed. But when I limited my search to articles investigating
arabinogalactan in relation to cancer, there were only 17, mostly cell
line studies.

According to PDRhealth.com, arabinogalactans mainly occur in the
Western larch. It is not one substance but in fact a mixture of
several different arabinogalactans with widely varying molecular
weights. Arabinogalactans are water-soluble polysaccharides widely
found in plants, fungi and bacteria. They may be involved in
intercellular signal transduction pathways in plants.

Dietary sources of arabinogalactans are found in carrots, radishes,
tomatoes, pears and wheat, among other plant foods. So whether we
realized it or not, we all probably had some today. Gum arabic, a
commonly used food additive, is also composed of highly branched
arabinogalactans (from which the substance derives its name).
Arabinogalactans are also found in herbs such as Echinacea and edible
mushrooms such as Ganoderma lucidum (reishi) and may contribute to
their possible immune-enhancing ability. But does this mean that
M****tech's products, taken orally, would be good for cancer patients?

I can find no hard evidence for this at all. While there is some
indication that products derived from aloe, polysaccharides in
particular, may possibly have a role in cancer treatment, the
substantiation of such an effect is weak at best, and I can find no
evidence whatever in standard sources that would point to the
superiority of M****tech's products. What's more, they seem quite
expensive compared to other sources of monosaccharide sugars, such as
generic aloe or plant gums.

According to a press release from a non-profit trade organization, the
International Aloe Science Council, Inc.:

To assert, as several writers have done - seemingly with information
obtained from the developers of Manapol™ - that aloe-based products
not containing Manapol cannot offer the benefits associated with aloe
vera - seems little more than product ballyhoo...

The main danger I believe is that patients will not only lose money
but will also lose precious time. Cancer is a complex disease. It
requires professional help. Regardless of the sometimes uncaring
attitude of certain errant members of the medical profession, one
should not reject everything that conventional medicine has to offer
in favor of a regimen discovered on the Internet.

The answer is not simply to construct a do-it-yourself program, but to
find expert and sympathetic guidance in the rapidly expanding realm of
complementary oncology.

Next...........


UC Berkeley Medical Center

Glyconutrients


Claims, Benefits: Enhances the immune system, and treats a wide range
of medical conditions, from diabetes and high cholesterol to
psoriasis, and multiple sclerosis.

Bottom Line: There’s no convincing evidence to support the claims.


Full Article, Wellness Letter, January 2006:

Q. Can so-called “glyconutrients” boost immunity and cure illness, as
claimed?

A. There’s no convincing evidence that these supplements enhance the
immune system, let alone fight AIDS, colitis, diabetes, high
cholesterol, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, or any other medical
condition.

Sold primarily by the supplement manufacturer M****tech under the
product line A*****ose, glyconutrients contain eight monosaccharides
(that is, simple carbohydrates, or sugars). M****tech alleges that
because of soil depletion and overprocessing, our diets are lacking in
all but two—glucose and galactose—of these sugars.

You may be surprised to know that sugars are not just “empty” calories
but do, in fact, play an essential role in many biological functions,
including cell-to-cell communication and immunity. There’s actually an
emerging and important field of science, called glycobiology, which
explores the function of carbohydrates in health and disease. But
glyconutrient marketers take a big leap when they say that consuming
sugars in supplements has health benefits.

First, we are not deficient in any sugars. Our bodies are able to
convert the sugars in foods (such as fruits and vegetables) from one
form to the other forms as needed. There is no evidence that toxins,
stress, drugs, or other factors interfere with the conversion process,
as the marketers claim. Nor is there evidence that relying on our
bodies to create the sugars instead of ingesting them in food or
supplements causes any problems.

Marketers provide long lists of studies that supposedly support the
use of glyconutrients for all kinds of medical conditions, as well as
for general health. But these are unpublished conference
presentations, anecdotes, and lab or animal studies, or they are from
obscure journals of questionable reputation. We could find no well-
designed research showing health benefits of glyconutrient
supplements. Don’t waste your money on these expensive products.



Keep in mind: Glyconutrients are sold primarily via multilevel
marketing. If you buy the product, you can become a distributor and
then sell it to your friends and relatives, who sell it to their
friends, etc., with profits passing up to the top of the pyramid, at
least in theory. Such marketing often involves questionable practices
and dubious health claims. Indeed, M****tech is being sued by
investors on such charges.

UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, January 2006

Next..................

Mayo Clinic complementary and alternative medicine specialist Brent
Bauer, M.D., and colleagues answer select questions from readers.

Glyconutrients: Are they important for good health?

Answer
The term "glyconutrients" refers to eight specific sugars
(saccharides), which proponents say help form important compounds
called glycoproteins in your body. Glycoproteins — such as digestive
enzymes and antibodies — are Sugar molecules attached to protein
molecules. These compounds help your cells communicate with each
other, which is important for good health.

Glyconutrients are now being sold as supplements over the Internet.
Advocates of such products assert that most people have a deficiency
of glycoproteins due to a poor diet. They maintain that
glyconutritional supplements provide the essential sugars your body
needs to make glycoproteins. Manufacturers of these supplements claim
that glyconutrients may help prevent and treat dozens of diseases,
such as cancer, Rheumatoid Arthritis , attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder and cystic fibrosis.

Although animal studies suggest possible health benefits from
glyconutrient supplementation, there is very little research to
support any of these health claims in humans. This makes it difficult
to assess the potential risks and benefits of glyconutritional
supplements. Also, because supplements aren't regulated by the Food
and Drug Administration, they haven't been rigorously tested or
approved. As a result, the long-term safety of these products isn't
known.

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