Excess sugar shuts gene key to hormones

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Eating too much fructose and glucose can turn off the gene that regulates the levels of testosterone and estrogen in the body, a Canadian study found.

Study leader Dr. Geoffrey Hammond of the Child & Family Research Institute, in Vancouver, explains that glucose and fructose are metabolized in the liver, but when there's too much sugar in the diet, the liver converts it to lipid.

Using a mouse model and human liver cell cultures, Hammond discovered that the increased production of lipid shut down the gene SHBG, 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.

If there's less SHBG protein, then more testosterone and estrogen will be released throughout the body, which is associated with an increased risk of acne, infertility, polycystic ovaries and uterine cancer in overweight women, Hammond said.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, found that low levels of SHBG in a person's blood means the liver's metabolic state is out of whack -- because of inappropriate diet or something that's inherently wrong with the liver -- long before there are any disease symptoms.