From pyruvate to lactate or from lactate to pyruvate? That is the Question!
Lactic acid, or lactate (not to be confused with lactose - milk sugar) is such an ugly duckling, pushed aside. It is considered by most to be an insignificant product of tired muscles that tells us when we have had enough and that we should rest. However, this is a very narrow view. I have already mentioned here that we have an immediate supply of glucose in the blood equivalent to only about one teaspoon of sugar. It is said that we have up to 20 times more lactate in our blood! Well, I don't have proof of that, but it's certainly a fuel that needs to be reckoned with, not ignored. Every cell can convert lactate to pyruvate and vice versa. Don't you know what pyruvate is? This is a product of glucose processing in the cell. Once the cell takes in glucose, it tags it with a phosphate tag and the glucose can no longer escape from the cell. There is no going back for glucose. It will be converted to pyruvate. The fate of glucose in the cell is determined by many things. If we