Reinventing the Fountain of Youth
Posts tagged Brain
Anti-herpes, anti-aging, anti-cancer… BHT opposes the same things we do!
1393 days
BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene) , a distant relative of vitamin E, is an antioxidant widely used as an anti-aging supplement and to protect food from damage by oxidation and microorganisms.
BHT has two medically useful properties: it is a good antioxidant for neutralizing peroxide radicals that damage cells; and it “dissolves” in the membranes of cells and viruses, altering their interactions with other cells. BHT’s antioxidant properties are responsible for its benefits with regard to aging, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and brain damage; its membrane effects are responsible for its anti-viral benefits.
The body produces its own antioxidants, such as the enzyme catalase, so why do we need to add BHT and other supplemental antioxidants? The reason is that the body makes an inadequate supply and variety of its own antioxidants. Unless we supplement these with additional ones, considerable damage to DNA and other essential biological structures will take place.
In BHT’s other function, as a membrane manipulator, molecules of BHT merge with the membranes of viruses that have lipid envelopes (such as the herpes virus). The presence of enough BHT molecules in a viral envelope alters the envelope’s physical properties, making the viral particle unable to infect a human cell. This halts a viral infection’s spread within the body.
What is BHT good for?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires us to state here that BHT is a food additive, not a supplement. Nevertheless, the medical literature suggests that BHT is also useful for:
- preventing viral infections, such as herpes, and terminating their outbreaks
- prevention of DNA damage and cancer by certain carcinogens
- protection of the brain from damage by alcohol
- increasing the tissue concentrations of Vitamin E
- preventing birth defects in diabetic pregnancies
- inhibiting atherosclerosis
BHT for herpes infections
To put it briefly, BHT has been shown to lower the incidence of herpes outbreaks, and to shorten the duration of those outbreaks that do occur. What’s more, the virus cannot develop resistance to BHT as it can to anti-viral drugs such as acyclovir — to which the herpes virus has already developed significant resistance. This is because BHT alters membrane properties that are not determined by viral genes — thus, the herpes viruses cannot evolve resistance to BHT by any rearrangement or mutation of their genes.
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Today, the Food and Nutrition Board has Failed Millions
3415 days
After 13 years of silence, the quasi governmental agency, the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), yesterday recommended that a three – pound premature infant can take virtually the same amount of vitamin D as a 300 pound pregnant woman. While that 400 IU/day dose is close to adequate for infants, 600 IU/day in pregnant women will do nothing to help the three childhood epidemics most closely associated with gestational and early childhood vitamin D deficiencies: asthma, auto-immune disorders, and, as recently reported in the largest pediatric journal in the world, autism (1). Professor Bruce Hollis of the Medical University of South Carolina has shown pregnant and lactating women need at least 5,000 IU/day, not 600.
The FNB also reported that vitamin D toxicity might occur at an intake of 10,000 IU/day (250 micrograms), although they could produce no reproducible evidence that 10,000 IU/day has ever caused toxicity in humans and only one poorly conducted study indicating 20,000 IU/day may cause mild elevations in serum calcium but not clinical toxicity.
Viewed with different measure, this FNB report recommends that an infant should take 10 micrograms/day (400 IU) and the pregnant women 15 micrograms/day (600 IU). As a single 30 minutes dose of summer sunshine gives adults more than 10,000 IU (250 micrograms), the FNB is apparently also warning that natural vitamin D input “as occurred from the sun before the widespread use of sunscreen” is dangerous. That is, the FNB is implying that God does not know what she is doing.
Disturbingly, this FNB committee focused on bone health, just like they did 14 years ago. They ignored the thousands of studies from the last ten years that showed higher doses of vitamin D helps: heart health, brain health, breast health, prostate health, pancreatic health, muscle health, nerve health, eye health, immune health, colon health, liver health, mood health, skin health, and especially fetal health. Tens of millions of pregnant women and their breast-feeding infants are severely vitamin D deficient, resulting in a great increase in the medieval disease, rickets. The FNB report seems to reason that if so many pregnant women have low vitamin D blood levels then it must be OK because such low levels are so common. However, such circular logic simply represents the cave man existence of most modern day pregnant women.
Hence, if you want to optimize your vitamin D levels ‘not just optimize the bone effect’ supplementing is crucial. But it is almost impossible to significantly raise your vitamin D levels when supplementing at only 600 IU/day (15 micrograms). Pregnant women taking 400 IU/day have the same blood levels as pregnant women not taking vitamin D; that is, 400 IU is a meaninglessly small dose for pregnant women. Even taking 2,000 IU/day of vitamin D will only increase the vitamin D levels of most pregnant women by about 10 points, depending mainly on their weight. Professor Bruce Hollis has shown that 2,000 IU/day does not raise vitamin D to healthy or natural levels in either pregnant or lactating women. Therefore supplementing with higher amounts — like 5000 IU/day — is crucial for those women who want their fetus to enjoy optimal vitamin D levels, and the future health benefits that go along with it.
For example, taking only two of the hundreds of recently published studies, Professor Urashima and colleagues in Japan gave 1,200 IU/day of vitamin D3 for six months to Japanese 10 year-olds in a randomized controlled trial. They found vitamin D dramatically reduced the incidence of influenza A as well as the episodes of asthma attacks in the treated kids while the placebo group was not so fortunate. If Dr. Urashima had followed the newest FNB recommendations, it is unlikely that 400 IU/day treatment arm would have done much of anything and some of the treated young teenagers may have come to serious harm without the vitamin D. Likewise, a randomized controlled prevention trial of adults by Professor Joan Lappe and colleagues at Creighton University, which showed dramatic improvements in the health of internal organs, used more than twice the FNB’s new adult recommendations.
Finally, the FNB committee consulted with 14 vitamin D experts and ‘after reading these 14 different reports’ the FNB decided to suppress their reports. Many of these 14 consultants are either famous vitamin D researchers, like Professor Robert Heaney at Creighton, or in the case of Professor Walter Willett at Harvard, the single best-known nutritionist in the world. So, the FNB will not tell us what Professors Heaney and Willett thought of their new report? Why not? Yesterday, the Vitamin D Council directed our attorney to file a federal Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the IOM’s FNB for the release of these 14 reports.
I, my family, most of my friends, hundreds of patients, and thousands of readers of the Vitamin D Council newsletter, have been taking 5,000 IU/day for up to eight years. Not only have they reported no significant side-effects, indeed, they have reported greatly improved health in multiple organ systems. My advice: especially for pregnant women, continue taking 5,000 IU/day until your (OH)D] is between 50 ng/ml and 80 ng/ml (the vitamin D blood levels obtained by humans who live and work in the sun and the mid-point of the current reference ranges at all American laboratories). Gestational vitamin D deficiency is not only associated with rickets, but a significantly increased risk of neonatal pneumonia (2), a doubled risk for preeclampsia (3), a tripled risk for gestational diabetes (4), and a quadrupled risk for primary cesarean section (5).
Yesterday, the FNB failed millions of pregnant women whose as yet unborn babies will pay the price. Let us hope the FNB will comply with the spirit of “transparency” by quickly responding to our freedom of Information requests.
John Cannell, MD
1241 Johnson Avenue, #134
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
(1) Cannell JJ.. On the aetiology of autism. Acta Paediatr. 2010 Aug;99(8):1128-30. Epub 2010 May 19.
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Neurogenesis: How to Change Your Brain
148442 days
“In adult centers the nerve paths are something fixed, ended, immutable. Everything may die, nothing may be regenerated.”
– Santiago Ramon Y Cajal, “Degeneration and Regeneration in the Nervous System,” 1928
This long-held tenet, first proposed by Professor Cajal, held that brain neurons were unique because they lacked the ability to regenerate.
In 1998, the journal Nature Medicine published a report indicating that neurogenesis, the growth of new brain cells, does indeed occur in humans. As Sharon Begley remarked in her book, “Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain,” “The discovery overturned generations of conventional wisdom in neuroscience. The human brain is not limited to the neurons it is born with, or even the neurons that fill in after the explosion of brain development in early childhood.”
What the researchers discovered was that within each of our brains there exists a population of neural stem cells which are continually replenished and can differentiate into brain neurons. Simply stated, we are all experiencing brain stem cell therapy every moment of our lives.
As one might expect, the process of neurogenesis is controlled by our DNA. A specific gene codes for the production of a protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which plays a key role in creating new neurons. Studies reveal decreased BDNF in Alzheimer’s patients, as well as in a variety of neurological conditions including epilepsy, depression, schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Fortunately, many of the factors that influence our DNA to produce BDNF factors are under our direct control. The gene that turns on BDNF is activated by a variety of factors including physical exercise, caloric restriction, curcumin and the omega-3 fat, DHA.
This is a powerful message. These factors are all within our grasp and represent choices we can make to turn on the gene for neurogenesis. Thus, we can treat ourselves to stem cell therapy by taking control of our gene expression.
Physical Exercise
Laboratory rats that exercise have been shown to produce far more BDNF in their brains compared to sedentary animals. And there is a direct relationship between elevation of BDNF levels in these animals and their ability to learn, as one might expect.
With this understanding of the relationship of BDNF to exercise, researchers in a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, entitled “Effect of Physical Activity in Cognitive Function in Older Adults at Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease,” found that elderly individuals engaged in regular physical exercise for a 24-week period had an improvement of an astounding 1,800 percent on measures of memory, language ability, attention and other important cognitive functions compared to an age-matched group not involved in the exercise program.
The mechanism by which exercise enhances brain performance is described in these and other studies as sitting squarely with increased production of BDNF. Just by engaging in regular physical exercise, you open the door to the possibility of actively taking control of your mental destiny.
Caloric Restriction
In January, 2009, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science published a study entitled “Caloric Restriction Improves Memory in Elderly Humans.” In this study, German researchers imposed a 30 percent calorie reduction on the diets of elderly individuals and compared their memory function with a similar age group who basically ate whatever they wanted. At the conclusion of the three-month study, those who ate without restriction experienced a small, but clearly defined decline in memory function, while memory function in the group consuming the calorie-reduced diet actually increased, and fairly profoundly. In recognition of the obvious limitations of current pharmaceutical approaches to brain health, the authors concluded, “The present findings may help to develop new prevention and treatment strategies for maintaining cognitive health into old age.” What a concept. Preventive medicine for the brain.
Curcumin
Because curcumin, the main active ingredient in the spice turmeric, increases BDNF, it has attracted the interest of neuroscientists around the world. Interestingly, in evaluating villages in India where turmeric is used in abundance in curried recipes, epidemiological studies have found that Alzheimer’s disease is only about 25 percent as common as in the U.S. There is little doubt that the positive effects of enhanced BDNF production on brain neurons is at least part of the reason why those consuming curcumin are so resistant to this brain disorder.
DHA
Like curcumin, DHA enhances gene expression for the production of BDNF. In a recently completed double-blind interventional trial, 485 healthy older individuals (average age 70 years) with mild memory problems were given a supplement containing DHA from marine algae or placebo for six months. Lead researcher of the study, Dr. Karin Yurko-Mauro, commented, “In our study, healthy people with memory complaints who took algal DHA capsules for six months had almost double the reduction in errors on a test that measures learning and memory performance versus those who took a placebo … The benefit is roughly equivalent to having the learning and memory skills of someone three years younger.”
Harnessing the expression of our DNA is empowering, and the tools to better brain health are available to us all — right now!
Sources:
Results of the MIDAS trial: Effects of docosahexaenoic acid on physiological and safety parameters in age-related cognitive decline. Karin Yurko-Mauro, Deanna McCarthy, Eileen Bailey-Hall, Edward B. Nelson, Andrew Blackwell, MIDAS Investigators
Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, July 2009 (Vol. 5, Issue 4, Supplement, Page P84).
David Perlmutter, MD, FACN, ABIHM is a Board-Certified Neurologist and Fellow of the American College of Nutrition who received his M.D. degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine where he was awarded the Leonard G. Rowntree Research Award. After completing residency training in Neurology, also at the University of Miami, Dr. Perlmutter entered private practice in Naples, Florida.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
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Brain Food: How to Eat Smart
3447 days
It’s common to resolve to lose weight, but any sane person dreads a diet’s dulling effect on the brain.
In fact, many studies have shown that counting calories, carbs or fat grams, is truly distracting to the point that it taxes short-term memory. But how we eat can affect our minds at more fundamental levels, too.
Whether you are seeking brain food for exams or just want to be at your sharpest ever day, here are five things you should know about feeding your brain:
1. Fuel it up
The brain, which accounts for 2 percent of our body weight, sucks down roughly 20 percent of our daily calories. A picky eater, it demands a constant supply of glucose primarily obtained from recently eaten carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, grains etc.). Only in extreme instances of deprivation will the brain use other substances for fuel.
More recently evolved areas of the brain, such as the frontal cortex (it’s like the CEO of the brain), are particularly sensitive to falling glucose levels, while brain areas regulating vital functions are more hardy, said Leigh Gibson of Roehampton University in England. “When your glucose level drops, the symptom is confused thinking, not a change in breathing pattern,” he said.
This is not to suggest that we should constantly slurp soda to keep our brains functioning optimally. On the contrary, high glucose levels slowly but surely damage cells everywhere in the body, including those in the brain, said Marc Montminy of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California.
And according to a recent study published in the Oct. 3 issue of the journal Cell, by Dongsheng Cai and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin, the brain may react to excess food as if it were a pathogen. The resulting immune response, which occurs irrespective of weight gain, may cause cognitive deficits such as those associated with Alzheimer’s.
Similarly, high blood sugar, coupled with a cognitive task, is associated with elevated cortisol – a hormone known to impair memory in high doses, Gibson said. In other words, don’t get out the flash cards after that second (or third) piece of cake.
2. Become a grazer
The brain needs Goldilocks portions of energy: not too much, not too little.
To optimize brain power, Michael Green of Aston University in England suggests one tactic would be “more frequent but smaller meals.” The brain works best with about 25 grams of glucose circulating in the blood stream – about the amount found in a banana, said Gibson.
If trading three-meals-a-day for an all-day nibble seems unappealing, unpractical or simply anti-social, read on.
3. Eat lower on the glycemic index (GI)
The glycemic index ranks foods according to how they affect blood glucose levels. Pretzels are high on the index, because they cause blood sugar to rise very quickly. Raw carrots, by comparison, have a low glycemic ranking.
Carbs in lower glycemic food are broken into glucose molecules more slowly, thereby providing a steadier supply of energy to the brain. Low GI meals, gratefully, also best satiate hunger, writes J.M. Bourre of the French National Medicine Academy in the September 2006 issue of The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging.
High fiber carbohydrates are relatively low glycemic but combining them with fat or protein can slow absorption even more. For example, the traditional white Wonder Bread is high glycemic; it is digested quickly, causing a stressful, and brief, spike in glucose levels. Dark fiber-rich whole wheat bread is lower on the index; its spike is slightly less sharp. But add some meat or other protein to the bread and the glucose absorption rate becomes a gentle curve. Top it off with a little olive oil and presto: brain-friendly fuel masquerading as a tasty lunch.
The key is a balanced diet, where all macronutrients – carbohydrates, fats and proteins – are given their due, Green said.
4. Know your fats
Despite fat’s ability to lower the GI of a meal, not all fats are equal. Trans fats, common in fast food, are the worst. Saturated fats are not great. Unsaturated fat is the healthiest.
“People who eat diets high in saturated fat are more susceptible to cognitive deficits,” said Gibson. The increased likelihood of strokes is just one acute example. Rats that gorged on saturated fat for several weeks had obvious damage to the hippocampus – a brain area critical to memory formation, he said.
Still, “the brain is 60 percent fat,” Green said, and very low levels of cholesterol have been associated with depression, aggression and anti-social behavior. While most people in developed countries need to limit their fat intake, “zero fat is definitely not the way to go,” he said.
Essential fatty acids, such as Omega-3s, are proving valuable in treating depression and other psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, as well as benefiting infant brain development, Green said. However, he added, the effect of supplements on a healthy adult brain is controversial. It may be best to stick to natural sources, such as cold-water fish, seeds and nuts.
5. Know yourself
Despite broad similarities, food affects everyone’s brain a little differently. For example, Gibson explained, extroverts are more likely to succumb to the “post-lunch dip” – that desire to nap, or chug coffee, mid-afternoon. And size matters: Children and the very thin may feel faint or grumpy due to low blood glucose faster than an average-sized adult, explained Montminy.
Thinking about brain food is wise. But overall nutritional habits are also important. People who chronically under-eat, over-exercise or regularly skip meals can become fuzzy-headed even after a minor dip in glucose. They become sensitized to not getting enough, Gibson said.
But with the Goldilocks approach, there is no need to diet to distraction. “Every single fad diet is total rubbish,” Green said, but there is merit to eating low glycemically.
By Robin Nixon, Special to LiveScience, posted: 07 January 2009 07:17 am ET
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High Blood Levels of Vitamin E Reduces Risk of Alzheimer’s, Swedish Study Finds
3562 days
High levels of several vitamin E components in the blood are associated with a decreased risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in advanced age, suggesting that vitamin E may help prevent cognitive deterioration in elderly people. This is the conclusion reached in a Swedish study published in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
“Vitamin E is a family of eight natural components, but most studies related to Alzheimer’s disease investigate only one of these components, alpha-tocopherol,” says Dr. Francesca Mangialasche, who led the study. “We hypothesized that all the vitamin E family members could be important in protecting against AD. If confirmed, this result has implications for both individuals and society, as 70 percent of all dementia cases in the general population occur in people over 75 years of age, and the study suggests a protective effect of vitamin E against AD in individuals aged 80+.”
The study was conducted at the Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, in collaboration with the Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, University of Perugia, Italy. The study included a sample of 232 participants from the Kungsholmen Project, a population-based longitudinal study on aging and dementia in Stockholm (Kungsholmen parish). All participants were aged 80+ years and were dementia-free at the beginning of the study (baseline). After 6-years of follow-up, 57 AD cases were identified.
The blood levels of all eight natural vitamin E components were measured at the beginning of the study. Subjects with higher blood levels (highest tertile) were compared with subjects who had lower blood levels (lowest tertile) to verify whether these two groups developed dementia at different rates. The study found that subjects with higher blood levels of all the vitamin E family forms had a reduced risk of developing AD, compared to subjects with lower levels. After adjusting for various confounders, the risk was reduced by 45-54%, depending on the vitamin E component.
Dr Mangialasche notes that the protective effect of vitamin E seems to be related to the combination of the different forms. Another recent study indicated that supplements containing high doses of the E vitamin form alpha-tocopherol may increase mortality, emphasizing that such dietary supplements, if not used in a balanced way, may be more harmful than previously thought.
“Elderly people as a group are large consumers of vitamin E supplements, which usually contain only alpha-tocopherol, and this often at high doses,” says Dr Mangialasche. “Our findings need to be confirmed by other studies, but they open up for the possibility that the balanced presence of different vitamin E forms can have an important neuroprotective effect.”
Source: ScienceDaily (July 7, 2010)
