AGE Inhibitors, Benfotiamine and Pyridoxamine, Proven to Effectively Prevent AGEs
To date, the two most effective AGE inhibitors in living organisms are the Vitamin B1 derivative, benfotiamine; and the Vitamin B6 derivative, pyridoxamine. Booth (1996) demonstrated that benfotiamine was the most potent, that pyridoxamine was not quite as strong as benfotiamine, and that aminoguanadine (a drug now in testing) was the weakest at inhibiting AGE formation.
In order to determine the effectiveness of AGE inhibiting substances much testing is done to determine the impact on three of the most common AGE caused complications of diabetes: peripheral nerve damage (neuropathy), kidney failure (nephropathy), and retinal damage (retinopathy) (Karachalias 2003).
Most of these studies have been done with experimental laboratory animals. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that the AGE inhibitors tested will perform as well in humans. There are some small human studies which show that benfotiamine and pyridoxamine do prevent AGE formation in man in the same fashion and to the same degree that they do in animals. Full confirmation of these results awaits further testing.
