Aminoguanidine is an exciting new weapon in the armory of anti-aging medicine.

It is believed that the cross-linking of the proteins that make up the human body play a role in the human aging process. Everyone is familiar with the effects of cross-linking reactions, because the process causes food to turn yellow and become tough and it is the result of oxygen coming into contact with glucose and protein.

Cross-linking is medically referred to as Glycosylation and it may be responsible for many of the problems of old age, including senile cataracts, thickening of the arteries, cardiac enlargement, skin aging, some cancers and damage to the immune system. Aminoguanidine is a potent anti-glycation inhibitor, it appears to help prevent and possibility also break some protein cross-linking.

Animal experiments have shown aminoguanidine to prevent age-related heart enlargement and increase the collagen of arterial walls of aged subjects by 24-30%. Long term studies conducted in Italy, indicate that aminoguanidine reduces the "bad" form of cholesterol (LDL) in humans and improves blood platelet condition.

Recent human and animal studies also indicate that aminoguanidine improves diabetic conditions and improves the survival rates and longevity of animals. It even improves renal (kidney) condition.

Most interestingly of all, aminoguanidine may have the potential to slow the aging process by protecting the proteins that make up the human body. Proteins such as the skin proteins (collagen and elastin), eye lens protein, nerve protein and kidney proteins. All the body's proteins deteriorate with advancing age and more so in diabetes (diabetics have 2-3 times the number of cross-linked proteins when compared to non-diabetics and this has lead credence to the fact that diabetes can be viewed as a form of accelerated aging).

Aminoguanidine may be able to protect us from (or slow down the progression of) age-related cataract conditions and skin toughening and yellowing.

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