What is ATP?

Adenosine triphosphate is the energy source that the cells in your body use to function.  Both carbohydrates (sugars, starches) and fats are transformed into ATP before being burned by the cells as energy.

ATP is often called the ‘molecular unit of currency’ as it is continuously recycled throughout the body, transferring energy in a chemical form around the body.  When one of the phosphate groups is dropped off in a cell to provide energy, the ATP returns to it’s substrate form adenosine diphosphate where it can easily pick up another phosphate group and start the process all over again.  The human body recyucles so much ATP each day that if it were added up it would be equivalent in weight to an entire human body.

When sugar is taken from the blood stream into the cells by the hormone insulin, it still needs to be turned into ATP and this is where the problem appears to occur for women with PCOS.

An insulin mediator called ‘D-chiro inositol containing inositolphophoglycan’ has recently been discovered as an important part of this process, turning glucose into ATP so that it can be used by the cells for energy.

Some people have a functional deficiency in DCI-IPG; there is very little of it in their cells, which causes great difficulty for them in metabolising carbohydrates.  A large percentage of these people find that supplementing with exogenous d-chiro inositol, or DCI from a source outside their body, will correct this problem, allowing them to metabolise carbohydrates properly.

Adenosine is involved in a great many physiological processes from muscle contraction to cellular metabolism, nerve signal transduction to the function of the heart and blood components such as platelets.  It is also involved in the metabolism of glycogen in the liver.  Adenosine is a ‘purine nucleotide’ and it is present in every single human cell.

It contains a purine base, adenine, along with a ribose sugar forming adenosine and between 1 and 3 phosphate groups.  Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), the one with 3 phosphate groups is broken down to adenosine diphosphate (ADP), which has 2 phosphate groups and then to adenosine monophosphate (AMP) with only one phosphate group.  Finally it loses all of the phosphate groups and is converted into just adenosine.