Sugars (scientists call these sugars/carbohydrates glycans) are attached to proteins (amino acids) or lipids (fatty acids) in trillions of different patterns. While there are hundreds of sugars in nature, only 8 simple sugars (monosaccharides) are used by cells in the biological process called glycosylation. These glycans are glucose, galactose, mannose, fucose (not fructose), xylose, n-acetyl glucosamine, n-acetyl galactosamine, and n-acetyl nueraminic acid (sialic acid for short). They are arranged in various geometric shapes and these patterns represent distinct letters in a sugar-coded alphabet. The alphabet constitutes the communication system for our cells. Our immune system relies upon it to communicate and function correctly.  

I have put together this 10-part series to explore the fundamental nature and structure of sugar—why carbohydrates were ignored by scientists in favor of protein and how sugar determines and governs the metabolic processes of life within viruses, bacteria, animals, and humans. I will explore some of the phenomenal discoveries and demonstrate how glycans overrule protein as it relates to the field of genetics (study of genes) and helped establish the field of epigenetics (control above the genes). We will even explore how sugar chains were used to create gain-of-function biological warfare in the last global pandemic. 

Glycobiology is the study of the structure, creation (biosynthesis), biology, and evolution of sugar chains (carbohydrates, saccharides or glycans) that are widely distributed in nature, in all life-forms. The National Academy of Science issued a 200-page publication in October 2012 titled, Transforming Glycoscience—A Roadmap for the Future. This landmark publication by the nation's top scientific institution directed the American educational system to focus intense effort in training future students in this obscure, but critical field of science. The timeline to meet this goal was ten years.

In November of 2022, Dr. Christopher Palmer, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard University, highlighted his discoveries in a book, Brain Energy. Dr. Palmer theorizes that mitochondrial disorders are the root cause of all mental illnesses. Mitochondria are the power stations in each cell of the body. They provide the energy or power for the cell to operate correctly. If those mini-power plants become damaged, the cell is unable to perform at 100%. His pivotal insight came in 2016 when he helped a patient with schizoaffective disorder lose weight. The patient suffered from severe mental illness and low self-esteem due to his weight gain experienced while on psychotropic medication. Palmer initially couldn't believe that switching to a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet could stop auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions. But he quickly began using this intervention in other patients and found equally dramatic results. This experience put him on a path investigating how a change in diet could alter severe mental illness.

Stephanie de Garay allowed her three children to sign up for the trial of the new Pfizer COVID-19 shot. She believed in vaccines. Her daughter, Maddie de Garay, was 12 years old and her good friend had already signed up for the trial. The $119 per visit monetary compensation was an incentive too. Maddie loved to dance and play soccer, but that all changed when she suffered a severe adverse reaction from her second dose of the shot. She struggled through 11 Emergency Room (ER) visits and four hospital admissions during the next 18 months. Injuries from the shot have left her unable to walk or eat. She has to use a feeding tube and suffers constant pain, vision problems, tinnitus, allergic reactions, and lack of neck control. If that were not enough, the medical system has continually dismissed her case, labeling her health problems as psychological. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pfizer, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the medical system have never offered one iota of help, choosing to ignore her situation and her family's trauma and financial burden. See her story here as told on The Highwire.