Wonder Nutrients for Cognition, Part 2

Spencer Johansen is the Police Chief in Lexington, Ill. He was only 49 years of age when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Unfortunately the early onset of Alzheimer’s Disease in Spencer Johansen’s case is not isolated. Cases of younger and younger people, some in their early forties, are being reported.

The reasons behind this frightening trend are many and varied. Chronic stress, poor body composition, environmental toxicity, cell phones use, and nutrient deficiency are just some of the many reasons why people get Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia. Thus, lifestyle modification is a key component in not only preventing but also treating cognitive decline with age.

Eating a whole foods diet comprised of fresh fruits and vegetables (preferably organic), lean meats, whole grains, and lots of purified water (not tap water), while cutting back on or eliminating fast foods and packaged foods is the starting place. That needs to be followed up by getting more active, as research is now showing that exercise is as good for the brain as it is the rest of the body.

Removing one’s self from stressful situations, if possible, is also another important component of prevention and treatment. Stress raises cortisol and inflammatory mediators which, if chronic, can cause a catabolic state throughout the body which can break down muscle tissue and effect the brain and nervous system. It is now thought that even negative emotions such as anger, resentment, and unforgiveness can likewise effect all the organ systems by causing these same “molecules of emotion” – as they have been called – to continue coursing through the body.

Brain Protection in Nature
Nature’s pharmacy provides some of the most remarkable substances on the planet in preventing and treating diseases of the brain.

The herb, Ginko Biloba, while no longer considered cutting-edge like newer and novel agents such as huperzine A (see my last post of huperzine), is still an important consideration in brain health because of its broad-spectrum effect on brain tissue and its relatively low cost.

Ginko is an approved treatment for dementia in Germany, and is the only non-prescription substance considered a treatment for dementia in Canada. Many European studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of Ginko in the treatment of patients with age-associated memory and cognitive impairments as well as dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.

The first clinical trial in the U.S. showed that patients with dementia and Alzheimer's receiving 120 mg per day improved the cognitive performance and social functioning of a substantial number of cases compared to a worsening of the conditions in the control group.1

Other benefits of Ginko include:

• Scavenges oxidative radicals
  
• Inhibits platelet aggregation
  
• Improves circulation to the brain
  
• May help normalize cerebral metabolism under hypoxic conditions
  
• May prevent changes in mitochondrial morphology and function associated with aging of the brain.
  
• Shown in animal studies to possess anti-stress and adaptogenic properties by decreasing blood glucocorticoid levels and increasing adrenocorticotrophic hormone levels, showing positive potential for stress-related cognitive impairment; prevents stress-induced learning impairment and elevations in stress hormones; and increases acetylcholine synthesis and turnover of norepineprhine. 2,3,4
  

Some recent studies have called into question the effectiveness of Ginko, but it is important to note that the leaf of Ginko is the most therapeutic part of the plant, rather than the stem or the root. However, a company can use the various parts of the plant in a Ginko product and still call it Ginko. Yet the therapeutic effect of the product would be substantially lower than a product utilizing strictly the standardized extract of the leaf.

It is also now widely held that many negative reports on natural substances are from studies funded in part by drug companies who cannot patent or sell substances like Ginko and who therefore wish only to cast these therapeutic substances in a negative light so as to protect the profit on the sale of their drugs. Upon investigating the poor study design of many of these studies, it would appear that that belief certainly has the ring of truth to it.

In the case of Ginko, the well-designed studies clearly show marked improvement in many aspects of cognition and brain health.

A cutting-edge approach for Ginko supplementation is to combine 60 mg of standardized Ginko leaf extract along with the added therapeutic and antioxidant benefits of Rosemary. Two tablets provide the therapeutic dose of 120 mg used in the studies.
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References:

1. Le Bars PL, Katz MM, Berman N, et al. A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trial of an extract of Ginko Biloba for Dementia. JAMA 1997;278(16):1327-32.

2. Rai GS, Shovlin C, Wesnes KA. A double-blind, placebo controlled study of Ginko Biloba extract in elderly outpatients with mild to moderate memory impairment. Curr Med Res Opin 1991;12:350-55.

3. Rapin JR, Lamproglou I, Drieu K, et al. Demonstration of the “anti stress” activity of an extract of Ginko Biloba using a discrimination learning task. Gen Pharmacol 1994;25(5):1009-16.

4. Sastre J, Pallardo FV, Vina J. Mitochondrial oxidative stress plays a key role in aging and apoptosis. IUBMB Life 2000 May;49(5):427-35.

Wonder Nutrients for Cognition, Part 1

Cognitive decline is an increasing concern in industrialized nations. While advances in hygiene, science, and medicine has led to the longest life expectancy in modern history, diseases that affect the nervous system are now being diagnosed in record numbers in the U.S. For example:

— 6.8 million Americans suffer from dementia (1 in 10)
— 4 million have Alzheimer’s Disease, a number expected to quadruple in the next 40 years.
— 1.5 million suffer from Parkinson’s Disease with 50,000 new diagnoses each year.1,2

It is generally agreed that genetics play an important role in whether or not a person develops a neurological disease. However, the loss of physiological function in humans is not relegated to genetics alone. Research indicates that nutrition and other environmental factors can modify the phenotype – the ways our genes are expressed.3 If a person has a genetic predilection for Alzheimer’s Disease, for example, that person’s diet, toxin exposure, and level of stress can turn that biochemical switch on or off. Thus, a person may or may not express the disease depending on their lifestyle.

Natural Support for Cognitive Function
One of the more exciting discoveries in the field of natural medicine pertaining to cognitive function was by the Chinese. In the 1980s the Chinese government began to explore new applications for many of their traditional herbs, and they discovered a compound in Chinese Club Moss – traditionally used for trauma – called, Huperzine A, which has shown promising benefit for cognitive function by acting as an acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitor.

Acetylcholine is a chemical formed from the precursors choline and acetylcoA and catalyzed by choline acetyltransferase (CHAT). Acetylcholine facilitates communication between neurons and mediates release of other neurotransmitters. Its function is critical for cognitive processing, memory, arousal, and attention. It can be destroyed, however, by the presence of the AChE enzyme, which breaks down acetylcholine back into choline and acetylcoA. Therefore, current drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s exert their effects by blocking AChE and increasing synaptic acetylcholine levels. Unfortunately, these drugs are not without unfavorable side effects.

The compound, Huperzine A, however, has shown inhibitory effects against AChE without the negative side effects associated with AChE-inhibiting drugs. It is so effective that there are pharmaceutical companies attempting to make drugs from Huperzine A, it has been favorably reported on by JAMA, and it is now licensed for distribution through the Mayo Clinic. Huperzine not only protects acetylcholine from the damaging effects of AChE, but it also provides multiple neuroprotective effects via its brain-specific antioxidant properties, and it also readily crosses the Blood-Brain Barrier.

Other benefits of Huperzine A include:

• Anti-excitotoxic and anti-apoptotic effects
• Greater activity at N-methyl-D-asparate (NMDA) receptors
  -NMDA antagonist
  -Inhibits glutamate neurotoxity, an effect not seen with donepezil or tacrine (Ved, 1997)
  -Direct, specific activity at NMDA receptor (Wang, 1999; Gordon, 2001; Zhang, 2001
• Antioxidant effect
• Huperzine A protects against hydrogen peroxide induced apoptosis in PC12 cells (Xiao, et al, 1999)
• Reduces hippocampal oxidative damage in aging rats (Shang, et al., 1999)
  -Protection against amyloid toxicity in vitro and in vivo
• Blocks suppressive effect of AB on long-term potentiation in rat hippocampal slices (Ye, 1999)
• Attenuates AB toxicity in cell lines (Zhang, 2002) and primary neuron cultures (Xiao, 2002)

One needs to be aware that currently 100% of the research available on Huperzine A is done with the purified form, not the standardized extract. The purified form is the more expensive version, but currently it is considered the better of the two forms.

Palm Tocotrienols
There are a number of natural vitamin-E tocotrienols, most of which are derived from palm. Based on the NIH-funded study at the Ohio State Medical Center on neuron protection, it was found that the palm tocotrienols are extremely effective in protecting brain cells from toxicity, with alpha-tocotrienols showing the best benefit. Palm tocotrienols are the only source of significant levels of alpha-tocotrienols, and are the most widely researched source for antioxidant cardiovascular protection.

5-Methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF)
5-Methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF) is the end metabolite of folate metabolism. It is able to enter the cerebrospinal fluid where folic acid does not. It likewise crosses the Blood-Brain Barrier where folic acid does not. It is also effective in reducing homocysteine, an important factor in maintaining proper neurological and cardiovascular health. Folate is a major contributor to methylation, as well as playing an important role in overall neurological function.

Putting it Together in One Formula to Support Acetylcholine/Brain Function
There is only one company that I know of offering a cognitive support product rich in the purified Huperzine A, along with palm tocotrienols and 5-MTHF. Individuals benefitting most from this unique formula would be those who are:

• Over 40 years of age and want proven protection
• Feels their memory is not as sharp as it used to be
• Forgets names of people
• May have a family history of dementia
• Has a personal history of head trauma
• Can’t learn new things as fast as they used to (e.g., hooking up a DVD player, remote control)
• Is in the early to mid stages of dementia or Alzheimer’s.

While the prevalence of neurological disease is on the rise, thankfully so are natural and proven approaches for neuro protection.

References:

1. MSNBC Health: Neurological Disorders (March 1, 2001 www.msnbc.com/news/Neurology_front.asp.
   
2. Family Caregiver Alliance. Clearinghouse: Fact Sheets. www.caregiver.org
   
3. Kelly PJ, Eisman JA, Sambrook PN. Interaction of genetic and environmental influences on peak bone Density. Osteoporos Int. 1990;1(1) :56-60.

Studies Say Most Women Still Unaware of Importance of Folate Supplementation

Just the other day I saw something I had never seen before – a public service announcement on the side of a bus encouraging women to supplement their diets with folic acid. I was glad to see that the importance of supplementing with this vital nutrient is going mainstream.
Even so, studies show that the majority of U.S. women of childbearing age do not comply with government requirements to take a daily supplement of folic acid.

Folic acid and folate are two forms of vitamin B-9, and sufficient levels are required for the proper development of the fetal nervous system. Low maternal levels of folate can cause neural tube defects, including brain and spine abnormalities that can lead to disability or death.Because the neural tube develops within the first weeks of pregnancy - before women typically realize that they are pregnant - it is important that women of childbearing age maintain sufficient levels of folate at all times.Two studies published in the Journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report highlight folic acid intake as a continuing maternal health issue.

In the first, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed the results of Gallup surveys conducted between 2003 and 2007 to determine women's awareness, knowledge and use of folic acid supplements. All women surveyed were between 18 and 45 years of age. Excluding those with confirmed pregnancy, no more than 48 percent of women in any one age group took a folic acid supplement daily. Rate of supplementation was lowest among women between 18 and 24, ranging between 25 and 31 percent. Women between 18 and 24 also had the lowest awareness and knowledge about the importance of folic acid for healthy pregnancy.

In the second study, researchers from the CDC and the Puerto Rico Department of Health compared folic acid knowledge and consumption with the occurrence of neural tube defects among Puerto Rican women between 18 and 44 years of age between 1996 and 2006. In 1997, only 22.4 percent of women surveyed were aware of the importance of folic acid, and only 20.4 percent used supplements. These numbers rose to 70.2 and 30.9 percent respectively by 2003, but had fallen to 56.5 and 24.8 percent by 2006. The occurrence of neural tube defects among Puerto Rican children fell between 1997 and 2003, and has remained steady since then.

Folic acid is important not only for prevention of neural tube defects, but also for prevention of various cancers. It is a major player in the prevention of heart disease, and deficiencies have been shown to be involved in depression and other neurological conditions. In light of the vital role that folate plays in our health, and in consideration of how many women (and men) still don’t understand its importance – at least not enough to actually begin taking it, it seems imperative that practitioners begin promoting its use among their patients.

The Right Form
Folate in the form of folic acid is effective in many people, but research has shown that there is a significant portion of the population that cannot metabolize folic acid in that form. Folic acid must be metabolized through five biochemical processes from an enzyme called, L-5-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (I must really be a nerd because I didn’t even have to look that up to spell it!) into the end metabolite called, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF). Because of specific genetic mutations referred to as single-nucleotide polymorphisms, as much as 40% of the adult female population is missing the L-5-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase enzyme, and therefore cannot metabolize folic acid. However, the enzymatic processes leading to conversion of folic acid can be bypassed entirely by supplementing with the end metabolite – 5-MTHF – instead of using folic acid.
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NOTE: Refer to the ingredient index in the back of your product catalog to find 5-MTHF-rich products.

Children's Life Spans Now Expected to be Shorter than Parents

For the first time in modern history, children's life spans are expected to be shorter than their parents.

In 2005 the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine asked the troubling question, "Why are we witnessing the forecast of a decline in life expectancy in the next generation in the face of being the most medicated society the world has ever seen?"1

Well, part of the answer lies in their question. We are the most heavily medicated society the world has ever seen! Every year there are over 2.2 million adverse drug reactions in the U.S., and 106,000 of those result in the patients' death.2 One person dies every 3-5 minutes of causes traceable to side effects of approved and properly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs, which is almost five times the number of deaths caused by illicit drugs.3 Yet, incredibly, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recently urged doctors to begin prescribing cholesterol-lowering statin drugs - now thought to be a possible cause of brain cell damage - to 8-YEAR OLD children!

So the methods of the ultra-conservative medical community ("ultra-conservative" meaning that they use only drugs and surgery as the primary methods of care, and shun "alternative" and "complementary" methods such as supplementation, acupuncture, chiropractic, etc) unfortunately have much to do with why children are not expected to live as long as their parents. In fact, iatrogenic disease, or death by medicine, is now considered to be the leading killer of Americans, taking more lives annually than heart disease or cancer.4 It is statistics like these that is causing a mammoth shift in the thinking of many open-minded medical practitioners.

The Childhood Obesity Factor

According to a 2004 report by the US Department of Health and Human Services, 1 in every 6 children are now considered "obese," and nearly 1 in 3 are classified as "overweight." The same report went on to say that the obesity rate in children age 6-11 has more than doubled since 1980, and it has tripled in children ages 12-19. Lack of exercise and horrific eating habits are to blame for this cataclysmic shift.

Being overweight is known to significantly increase the risk for heart disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and dementia, and the probability of these maladies manifesting increases profoundly the earlier in life that a person experiences unfavorable shifts in body composition.

What We Can Do to Protect our Children

In consideration of the above statistics, it would seem prudent to endeavor to refrain from medicating our children at all except in times of emergencies or life-threatening conditions. Furthermore, efforts to govern our children's diets and encourage physically-active forms of recreation rather than the sedentary kinds (i.e. TV, video games, etc) could result in improvements in children's health that are so profound that on-going use of medications for many conditions may no longer be necessary.

A first step toward that end would be to pay attention to the glycemic index of the food our children are eating, especially as it relates to the first meal of the day.

A report in Pediatrics in 1999 demonstrated that "Voluntary energy intake after the high-GI meal was...81% greater than after the low-GI meal." In other words, kids tend to crave less sugar when they fill up on the right kinds of foods. However, "The rapid absorption of glucose after consumption of high-GI meals induces a sequence of hormonal and metabolic changes that promote excessive food intake in obese subjects." In other words, the more sugar you eat, the more sugar you crave. Sugar is indeed an addiction.

How to Kick the Sugar Addiction in Kids

Zig Ziglar, in his book and audio series entitled, Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World, emphasizes the importance of diet in children's behavior and development. In addressing the issue of the difficulty in getting kids to eat better, he tells the story of a man showing off his dog to a neighbor. The neighbor asked, "What do you feed him?", to which the owner of the dog replied, "Carrots." "Carrots!?", exclaimed the neighbor. "My dog would never eat carrots." The owner calmly replied, "My dog wouldn't either....for the first five days."

In other words, after five days of eating nothing, the dog was hungry enough to eat anything set before him. And Zig Ziglar's point was to take exactly the same approach with stubborn children.

While this may seem cruel to soft-hearted parents, Ziglar assures his listeners that children will not allow themselves to go hungry. They may turn up their noses the first several meals, but if the same plate that they originally rejected is set before them time and again with no other options in the cabinets, they WILL eventually hungrily devour anything set before them without any need for prodding or yelling. And if parents can themselves observe a healthy diet and remove temptations from the cupboards, then everyone wins, and children will reap the benefits. Eating habits, whether good or bad, will nearly always follow children into adulthood.

Medical Foods to the Rescue

In an effort to help parents address the monumentally important task of dietary modification in children, I recommend the use of the landmark medical food, Ultra Meal. Available in several flavors in both the powdered drink mix form and the form of a bar, Ultra Meal is designed especially for the needs of both overweight adults and children. It is a nutrient-dense, low-glycemic, good tasting supplement to the diet packed with micronutrients. It is a healthy alternative to snacks and desserts. It could even be used as a total meal replacement.

Several pilot trials and university studies show consistent improvement in body composition, cardiovascular markers, blood sugar, and metabolic rates among Ultra Meal users as compared to over-the-counter drink mixes or dietary modification alone. (Click here to access one of the studies.)

Conclusion

Any way you slice it, achieving weight loss takes effort, especially in children who may not be terribly motivated to give up their Cheerios and Pop-Tarts for breakfast. But it MUST be done if we truly care about the longterm health of our kids. Allowing them to eat whatever they want to their hearts desires so that they develop body composition, health, and behavorial consequences for which they are then medicated with toxic drugs is not, in the humble opinion of this blogger, responsible parenting. But policing their dietary habits, difficult as that may be, is a true demonstration of love because of the longterm health benefits for possibly generations to come.

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References:

1. N Engl J Medicine 2005; 352: March 17

2. Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN. Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies. JAMA 1998 Apr 15;279(15). 1200-5.

3. Brennan TA, et al, Incidence of Adverse Events and Negligence in Hospitalized Patients, N Engl J Medicine 324(6); Feb 7, 1991: 370-376.

4. Dean C, Feldman M, Null G, Rasio D, Death by Medicine, Nutrition Institute of America, 2003-2004, nutritioninstituteofamerica.org.

Dispelling the Whole Food Supplement Myths

There is quite a bit of misunderstanding these days about the value of whole food supplements versus isolated compounds like vitamin C. I have been surprised at how many lay persons and practitioners alike have not come to fully understand this debate, so my purpose here is to attempt to dispel truth from error, research versus hypothesis.

What are Whole Food Supplements?
In quoting a popular online resource and advocate for natural health, “Whole food supplements are what their name suggests: Supplements made from concentrated whole foods. The vitamins found within these supplements are not isolated. They are highly complex structures that combine a variety of enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, trace elements, activators and many other unknown or undiscovered factors all working together synergistically, to enable this vitamin complex to do its job in your body.”

That is a very accurate explanation of what whole food supplements are. What is not being said, however, is that in order to make supplements out of whole foods, manufacturers have to freeze dry the food sources – perhaps destroying much of the enzyme content, turn them into powder, and then tablet or encapsulate them.

Let’s attempt to understand this from the perspective of common sense. Let’s say the manufacturer wants to make a supplement containing whole carrot. That might seem like a good idea, right? But by the time the carrot is freeze dried and turned into tablets, how much of all the natural constituents of the carrot are you actually getting? After all, the carrot is in teeny-tiny tablets now. So each tablet is smaller – much smaller – than a single bite of the carrot. So it stands to reason that you end up with much smaller amounts of the nutrients in the supplement than you would from just eating the carrot…and you would have spent much less money eating the carrot compared to buying the supplement.

Is Isolating Nutrients “Unnatural”?
Again quoting the online doctor, “The perfect example of this difference [between whole food supplements versus micronutrient isolates] can be seen in an automobile. An automobile is a wonderfully designed complex machine that needs all of its parts to be present and in place to function properly. Wheels are certainly an important part of the whole, but you could never isolate them from the rest of the car, call them a car or expect them to function like a car. They need the engine, body and everything else.”

The un-named doctor making these statements is well-read and intelligent, and I agree with most of what I have read from him. This is one of the few times, however, where I believe he has made a serious error. His analogy, unfortunately, is frankly not a very good one, with due respect to him. Plants and the nutrient complexes within them are vastly more sophisticated and mysterious than an automobile. I can show you how an automobile comes together on the assembly line, but I cannot tell you how a seed falls to the ground, works itself into the soil, sprouts roots and a stalk, and then grows and thrives all by itself, providing constituents perfectly designed for benefit in human biology. It is nothing short of a Divinely-designed miracle that none of us have any idea how to wrap our minds around. But a car? The complexities of a car compared to a plant are not even worthy of comparison.

A wheel, for example, has almost no benefit apart from the car, that’s true. But that is certainly not true of isolated living nutritive substances like vitamin C, vitamin D, lycopene, limonene, green tea catechins, etc. The fact is, this doctor’s statement sounds sensible to the uneducated lay person, but it is void of support in the scientific literature.

Before I expound further, allow me to quote the good doctor one last time:

“Taking these isolated nutrients, especially at the ultra-high doses found in formulas today, is more like taking a drug. Studies show the body treats these isolated and synthetic nutrients like xenobiotics (foreign substances).”

The doctor mentions studies, but he fails to reference any in the article. No double-blind placebo controlled trials are used to support his assertion. (And out of respect for this doctor and his otherwise good work I will not say what I really think about his above statement, except to say it is very, very wrong.) For that matter, no study of any kind was referenced, but he simply references three other authors at the end of his article, one of which has ties with a whole food supplement company. The fact is, there are no studies to support such a statement. Now, if he is referring to chemical variations of certain nutrients, like dl-tocopherol versus natural forms of vitamin E like alpha tocopherol, then that’s different. I would agree if that’s the case. But he didn’t say that. He implied that ALL “isolated” nutrients are “synthetic,” and that simply is not accurate.

For example, Alpha tocopherol, beta tocopherol, and delta tocopherol are all plant-based vitamin E isolates which have rich support in the scientific literature for their various biochemical benefits. DL-tocopherol is a cheap chemical variation of vitamin E and cannot be compared with its natural counterparts. Some isolates are indeed synthetic in that sense, but to say that all nutritive isolates are synthetic and unhealthy is like saying one kernel of corn is synthetic if it is not still attached to the ear and stalk. It simply doesn’t make sense.

What Does the Research Say?
The fact is, the third-party research supporting the efficacy of whole food supplements is almost non-existent, while the amount of research supporting the safety and efficacy of high-potency isolates for various disease states and even prevention is massive. There are over 12,000 studies alone on EPA and DHA, the two ISOLATED fatty acids from fish oil. And if I were to count up the number of studies showing the obvious benefit of all manner of isolated compounds from various plants, I wouldn’t have room to list them.

The Journal of the American Medical Association even demonstrated the benefit of isolating certain plant compounds for use in cancer patients in their 1995 article, How Phytochemicals Help Fight Disease. They showed that researchers worked out how many oranges one would have to eat every day to get a therapeutic level of a compound called limonene for use in cancer patients. The answer was 400 oranges per day! Yet providing limonene in isolated form prevented and even reversed cancer in laboratory animals.

Just the Facts, Please!
Sometimes I feel like Detective Friday from the old Dragnet series. I just want to say to people sometimes, “Just the facts, Ma’am.” Like many who read this blog (and thanks for doing so), I’m not really that interested in someone’s opinion, in conjecture, educated guesses, marketing hype, or even anecdotal reports. I want to know what the research says, and so far I have seen ZERO research on the benefits of freeze drying turnips and chick peas and making vitamin tablets out of them. But I have seen more research than I can even wade through that show the benefits of adding certain isolated nutritive substances to the diet. If research begins to emerge showing an obvious advantage to taking whole food supplements over isolates, then I will be the first to reverse direction. But until that time I have to go where the research leads.

To qualify, I never said that no one ever got a positive response from using a whole food supplement. I’m certain that there is some nutritive value in whole food supplements, but it is my humble opinion that whatever value they offer is not to be compared with simply eating the fresh, unaltered whole food that the supplements came from. And the suggestion some people are making that whole food supplements are somehow superior to isolating certain compounds in therapeutic amounts is….well…misguided.

The Bottom Line
Ultimately, I think this argument suggesting that whole food supplements best representing what Mother Nature had in mind sells nature terribly short. The whole food advocates, sincere as they are, preach that isolated compounds of plants are somehow useless if they are not combined with the other constituents of the plants. I must respectfully but emphatically disagree. I personally believe that that thinking fails to acknowledge the grandeur and exquisite design of God’s creation. I think that God in His wisdom created plants for at least two reasons: 1) to support and nourish human and animal life, and 2) to provide therapeutic substances for medicinal purposes.

God, in His infinite wisdom, knew that there would be a population of the human race who would be living in the most toxic, disease-infested, and nutritionally-deficient time in history, and who would need therapeutic amounts of certain substances to combat chronic disease. And He has made provisions for the discovery through modern technology of these various nutritive isolates. Indeed, modern technology demonstrates the wisdom of our Creator in putting these incredible substances in the plants that we eat and use for medicine.

So is it really that much of a stretch to imagine that God’s design of plants was for many purposes? Cherry trees, for example, provide humans with a high quality wood with numerous uses, produces oxygen to breathe, they grow tasty fruit for food, and that same fruit contains wonderful phytochemicals that are medicinal. It is very obvious that plants have numerous uses, and so with due honor to the whole food supplement advocates, I would like to respectfully suggest that the whole-foods-only argument is probably well-intentioned, but is also myopic and archaic. It limits what I believe God had in mind in creating various plants, which is for food in the whole food form, and for medicinal purposes with the individual constituents they contain.

Thank you God, for Your incredible creation! I’m off now to take my multivitamin.

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A great choice for foundational nutrition support can be found in the Wellness Essentials line of products, each one containing 4 products (Multigenics multiple formula, EPA DHA fish oil, and 2 others depending on the application) packaged together in one unit. All are great micronutrient blends to add to your whole foods diet. :-)

Managing Inflammation, Part 4: Autoimmunity

In my final installment of the inflammation series, the last but certainly not least issue we need to consider is that of the autoimmune connection with inflammation and how it occurs.

Autoimmunity leading to chronic and systemic inflammation can be multi-faceted, but perhaps the most important connection to consider is that of its origin in the gut.

Unbeknownst to many, the gut appears to be the command center for many important biological processes not related specifically to digestion. For example, approximately 70% of the body’s serotonin is made in the GI, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-70% of the body’s immune defenses are concentrated in the Gut-Associated Lymphoid Tissue (GALT). When there are problems with immune compromise it can often be linked to gut health.

As it relates to autoimmunity, here’s a simplistic understanding of how it happens.

The gut mucosa is a filtering system of sorts, allowing through very small digested particles, such as amino acids from digested proteins. It can be likened to a screen door which is porous but allows through only the tiniest particles. However, because of disruptions in gut flora through dietary insults and damage to the mucosa itself because of toxins and various pharmaceuticals, particularly antiobiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs, the mucosa becomes more like chicken-wire, allowing through very large undigested particles, such as intact proteins.

An intact protein is not supposed to be wandering around in systemic circulation, so even though proteins are necessary in the diet, the immune system doesn’t recognize an intact protein as friendly like it does individual amino acids. Thus, an intact protein will mobilize the body’s immune defenses. The immune system sends out antibodies to attach themselves to the foreign protein, just like it would any bacteria or virus. And then the killer cells identify the targeted substances and blast away until it is destroyed.

However, intact proteins present a unique problem. Sometimes they can resemble other proteins that are part of the body, such as proteins that make up the synovial membranes of the joints. In the case of autoimmunity, the immune system is so busy carrying out its search-and-destroy mission on undigested proteins that it will target anything with a similar shape. So it gets confused and targets host tissue. Thus the term, antigenic mimicry.

It is well established in the scientific literature that certain conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis have an autoimmune connection linked to intestinal permeability, or leaky gut syndrome. So one important step in modifying the immune system and cooling inflammation is to heal the gut mucosa with probiotics first and foremost to inoculate the gut with friendly and healing bacteria, but also with other supportive and nutritive substances like L-glutamine. Together, these approaches can begin the process of healing a leaky gut mucosa and turning off the –over activated immune system.

Deficiencies of certain substances, most notably vitamin D, zinc, and selenium, have also been linked to a malfunctioning immune system that doesn’t know when to shut down.

Several pilot trials have been performed on these substances in patients with autoimmune conditions at the Functional Medicine Research Center to determine the efficacy of specific supplementation in patients with conditions such as Rheumatoid Arthritis. A combination of probiotics with featuring B. Lactis and the NCFM strain of acidophilus; a formula containing reduced iso-alpha acid from hops, vitamin D3, and zinc; an anti-inflammatory medical food, and high potency EPA and DHA from fish oil was used in these patients with remarkable success. I have attached graphs depicting the results of these studies below, and you can also click here to access the paper one of these trials.

'MSQ' scores below represent the Multiple Symptoms Questionnaire results

Managing Inflammation, Part 3: The Kinase Connection

A diagram showing the ribbon-like

structure of the CaMKII protein kinase.

A new era of understanding the human body is emerging. Soon the concept of biochemical pathways will be as antiquated as Charles Darwin’s understanding of the human cell as a simplistic blob. The electron microscope proved that the human cell was far beyond what Darwin could ever have imagined (and thus placed his theory on shaky ground since he himself wrote that his theories about evolution were based upon the understanding that cells were simplistic), and recent scientific discoveries are proving that even the concept of biochemical pathways are elementary.

Think of it this way: In your hometown there is probably a Main Street. But Main Street is not the only street in town. It is simply a primary thoroughfare within a network of intersecting streets.

Similarly, a pathway is simply an intersecting side street in a huge network of other streets, or other messaging signals.

The human kinome is like the map of a large metropolitan city, complete with main thoroughfares, secondary streets, and alleyways. The kinome is literally a network of kinases, or biochemical signals.

When you eat an organic salad, for example, a set of kinases are activated which send messages throughout the body which result in strength and vitality. However, when you eat a Big Mac with French fries and a chocolate milkshake, another set of kinases are activated which send signals that result in inflammation, fat cell accumulation, degeneration, and endocrine imbalance.

When a person has lived a lifestyle of being sedentary and eating highly processed nutrient-depleted convenience foods, certain kinases, such as glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3), can get stuck in the “on” position, and even initial efforts to eat better, exercise, and supplement the diet can yield little results because inflammatory signals are still coursing through the body systems. This chronic state of inflammation deep inside the body can lead to elevated triglycerides, high insulin and insulin resistance, high blood sugar, chronic pain, fatigue, accelerated aging, and hormone imbalances.

Selective Kinase Response Modifiers (SKRMs)
Kinase modifiers are any substance that can shift the balance of kinase expression. In other words, if there is a roadblock on Health Street that is detouring the flow of traffic down Inflammation Boulevard, a Selective Kinase Response Modifier is the traffic officer that blocks off Inflammation Boulevard and redirects traffic to Health Street. Kinase modifiers are substances, natural or otherwise, that shut off the expression of kinases like GSK-3 mentioned above and upregulates the more healthful kinases.

SKRMs for Inflammation
In keeping with our series on the management of inflammation, there are kinase modulators that can attenuate the expression of certain kinases that result in inflammation. Among the most powerful of these are various compounds from hops. Reduced Iso-Alpha Acids (RIAA) and Tetra Iso-Alpha Acids (THIAA) are two families of compounds found in hops that have shown extraordinary benefit in cooling the fires of inflammation. The herb, Rosemary, and oleonolic acid from olive leaf are two others that show enormous potential in addressing inflammation deeper and earlier in the process by modulating the activity of specific kinases.

There is only one natural pain and inflammation formula combining these compounds. This combination has been demonstrated in clinical studies to reduce inflammatory markers like C-Reactive Proteins, as well as reduce the expression of certain COX enzymes.

The counterpart of this nutriceutical is the medical food containing the same hops extracts, along with Rosemary, curcumin, and a list of nutrients too numerous to list here. The medical food has shown profound benefit in patients with chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, IBS, Fibromyalgia, eczema, and even sciatica. (Click here to access a clinical study on these two formulas.)

The anti-inflammatory medical food, by the way, is one of my favorite all-time products that I use on an ongoing basis for breakfast and snacks. Boasting an antioxidant ORAC value of over 17,000 (antioxidant-packed foods like prunes have ORAC scores of about 4,000), this sophisticated medical food is like napalm to toxins, inflammatory mediators, and oxidative stress.

Adding specific nutrients in the diet that can change kinase expression and quench inflammation can be an important step in reducing oxidative stress and preventing and treating chronic disease. There is no question that many people need higher and more therapeutic levels of certain inflammation-cooling nutrients than what the diet alone can provide. We now live in a time where because of increased oxidative stress due to pollution, toxins in our food and water supply, and more stressful lifestyles, underlying inflammation can rob us of vitality and longevity. But thankfully, we also live in a time when technology is allowing us to discover various compounds in nature that can counter the various toxic insults with which we are now exposed so readily.