DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I don’t remember you ever discussing high-fructose corn syrup and condensed corn syrup. Almost every product includes these ingredients. Please let us know the dangers and why the government allows it. — T.L.    ANSWER: Fructose is the sugar found in fruits. Table sugar is sucrose, a combination of fructose and glucose. up to the 1980s, sucrose was the universal sweetener. In the 1980s, a process was discovered that turned cornstarch into corn syrup and then into fructose. Fructose was then combined with glucose to produce a sugar product with the terrible name of high-fructose corn syrup. It’s very similar to sucrose, table sugar. High-fructose corn syrup consists of 45 percent glucose and 55 percent fructose. Table sugar is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose.     High-fructose corn syrup is as sweet as and cheaper than table sugar, the sugar that comes from sugar cane and sugar beets. Those are powerful motivations for manufacturers to use it in commercial products like soft drinks, baked goods, energy bars and many candies.    So why all the fuss? People have increased their consumption of high-fructose corn syrup foods and drinks to such an extent that they have become a main source of their calorie intake. some feel it is the reason that the obesity epidemic has struck North America. like other sugars, it has a high glycemic index, meaning that it produces high spikes in blood sugar, which may lead to problems like diabetes. Excessive amounts cause fat accumulation in the liver.    One 12-ounce can of most soft drinks has the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar, 150 calories — a large sugar load and a large calorie load. The average American drinks 36 gallons of soft drinks in a year. It contributes to the girth expansion of Americans, but it’s not the only factor. Blaming high-fructose corn syrup for all the ills of people is too extreme. All the same, it does add to the obesity surge, and it does have all the negatives that ordinary table sugar has, like dental decay and empty calories — calories without any other nutrients. The government allows it because, in moderation, it’s not a danger to health.    I can’t find any information on “condensed” corn syrup, and believe me I have looked hard.    DEAR DR. DONOHUE: A gentleman wrote to you about needing a prostate biopsy because his PSA was high. I went through the same experience. My PSA climbed, and my doctor suggested a biopsy. One was done, and everything was fine. later, after looking on the Internet, I came across an item by a doctor who said men should not have a PSA test for 72 hours after an ejaculation. I checked the dates of my tests and found that my wife and I had had intercourse prior to those tests. now I wait 72 hours before the test, and my results have come back normal. do you think my doctor will be upset if I take this paper from the Internet to him? He thinks this had nothing to do with my PSA elevation. — W.S.    ANSWER: The doctor will be glad you brought him your reference from the Internet. that doctor-author is a recognized authority on prostate cancer.     “PSA” stands for “prostate-specific antigen,” a blood test used to screen for prostate cancer. It’s far from a perfect test. It can be high when no cancer is present, and it can be low when cancer isn’t present. Nevertheless, it is the only prostate cancer lab test we have.     Prostate enlargement and prostate inflammation also raise the PSA.    DEAR DR. DONOHUE: will you explain a ganglion cyst? why do they occur? where do they go when they disappear? I was about to have surgery on mine, and it just disappeared. — D.B.    ANSWER: A ganglion is a soft lump filled with semisolid protein material. It’s attached to the lining of a joint or the covering of a tendon. The back of the wrist is the place where most ganglions appear. many produce no symptoms. some are painful or interfere with motion. No one knows what causes them. Equally mysterious is why some disappear. The body absorbs the gelatinous material. be thankful; your body did you a favor.

    * * *Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from rbmamall.com.

    (c) 2011 North America Syndicate inc.    All Rights Reserved

The white crystalline substance we know of as sugar is an unnatural substance produced by industrial processes (mostly from sugar cane or sugar beets) by refining it down to pure sucrose, after stripping away all the vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes and other beneficial nutrients.

What is left is a concentrated unnatural substance, which the human body is not able to handle, at least not in anywhere near the quantities that is now ingested in today has accepted lifestyle.  Sugar is addictive.  The average American now consumes approximately 150 lbs. of sugar per year.  this is per man, woman and child.

The biggest reason sugar does more damage than any other poison, drug or narcotic is twofold:

• (a) it is considered a “food” and ingested in such massive quantities, and
• (b) The damaging effects begin early, from the day a baby is born and is fed sugar in its formula.  even mothers milk is contaminated with it if the mother eats sugar, and
• (c) Practically 95% of people is addicted to it to some degree or other.

It has been said that the criteria as to whether a substance (any substance) is harmful or medically beneficial is the quantity in which it is used in the human body.  to point to a dramatic illustration: we all know that the venom of a rattlesnake, a cobra, water moccasin, coral, and other venomous snakes is deadly to the human system.  there are some snakes whose bite is so deadly it can cause death within a matter of seconds.  nevertheless, even snake venom, deadly as it is, has been used for therapeutic, medical purposes when used in minute quantities.

Whereas sugar had been around in minute quantities for several thousand years, it was practically unknown and formed an insignificant part of the average diet in the Classical civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome.  The Greeks (who had a word for nearly everything!) did not even have a word for it.  even in medieval Europe it was practically unknown and then only a rare delicacy in the royal courts.

During the last major Crusade that ended in 1204, some of the Christian Crusaders were introduced to sugar freely used by the Saracens.  The Moors when invading and colonizing the southern part of Spain grew sugar cane on Spanish soil and refined sugar.  When Spain drove out the Moors, it inherited some of the cane plantations.  it was during this time that Christendom took its first big bite of the forbidden fruit and liked it.

Why is sugar so devastating to our health?  One reason is it is pure chemical and (like heroin) through refining has been stripped of all the natural food nutrition that it originally had in the plant itself.

Heroin and sugar are arrived at by very similar processes of refinement.  in producing heroin, the opium is first extracted from the poppy: The opium is then refined into morphine.  The chemists then went to work on morphine and further refined it into heroin, proclaiming they had “discovered” a wonderful new painkiller that was non-addictive.  So they said.

Similarly, sugar is first pressed as a juice from the cane (or beet) and refined into molasses.  then it is refined into brown sugar, and finally into strange white crystals C12H22O, that are an alien chemical to the human system.

A second reason that sugar is so harmful is that like heroin, it is addictive, and being delectable and seductive to the taste, it is habit forming.  Starting with sugar in the baby’s formula, people not only develop a strong taste for sugar but an insatiable craving for it so that they never seem to get enough of this poison.

A third reason is that the damage sugar does is slow and insidious.  it takes years before it ruins your pancreas, your adrenal glands, throws your endocrine system out of kilter, and produces a huge list of damage.

A fourth reason is the outrageous amounts of sugar-civilized nations consume.  Americans in particular are told how they are the best-fed and best-nourished people on the face of the earth.  If we are talking about processed junk food – this is true.

If you examine the “foods” in any supermarket more closely and start reading labels, you will find just about everything contains sugar.  Most of the foods are loaded with it – from cereals, to soups, to ketchup, to hotdogs.  even flue-cured tobacco can contain as much as 20% sugar by weight.  Some cereals are as much as 50% sugar.

We have stated that sugar is deleterious to your health: that it is more damaging than all other narcotics combined; that it is a long-term chemical poison.  Just what damage does sugar do to the human body?  The list is endless.

When we talk about sugar, we are including bad nutrition as a whole, since anyone who indulges in sugar has bad dietary habits per se.

1. Sugar is by far the leading cause of dental deterioration – cavities in teeth, bleeding gums, failure of bone structure, and loss of teeth.
2. Sugar is the main cause of diabetes, hyperglycemia, and hypoglycemia.
3. It is either a significant or a contributory cause of heart disease, arteriosclerosis, mental illness, depression, senility, hypertension, cancer.
4. It has an extremely harmful effect in unbalancing the endocrine system and injuring its component glands such as the adrenal glands, pancreas, and liver, causing the blood sugar level to fluctuate widely.  it has a number of other extremely damaging effects on the human body.

Some of the other effects of sugar on the body are:

• Increases overgrowth of Candida yeast organism
• Increases chronic fatigue
• Can trigger binge eating in those with bulimia
• Increases PMS symptoms
• Increases hyperactivity in about 50% of children
• Increases tooth decay
• Increases anxiety and irritability
• Can increase or intensify symptoms of anxiety and panic in susceptible women
• Can make it difficult to lose weight because of constantly high insulin levels, which causes the body to store excess carbohydrates as fat.

There are a number of books available on the subject, but perhaps one of the most interesting ones is “Sugar Blues” by William Duty.  it is available in most Health Food stores.