Dr. Alexis Zarkov
Reinventing the Fountain of Youth
Why Fish Oils Work Swimmingly Against Inflammation and Diabetes
Sep 3rd
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified the molecular mechanism that makes omega-3 fatty acids so effective in reducing chronic inflammation and insulin resistance.
The discovery could lead to development of a simple dietary remedy for many of the more than 23 million Americans suffering from diabetes and other conditions.
Writing in the advance online edition of the September 3 issue of the journal Cell, Jerrold Olefsky, MD, and colleagues identified a key receptor on macrophages abundantly found in obese body fat. Obesity and diabetes are closely correlated. The scientists say omega-3 fatty acids activate this macrophage receptor, resulting in broad anti-inflammatory effects and improved systemic insulin sensitivity.
Macrophages are specialized white blood cells that engulf and digest cellular debris and pathogens. Part of this immune system response involves the macrophages secreting cytokines and other proteins that cause inflammation, a method for destroying cells and objects perceived to be harmful. Obese fat tissue contains lots of these macrophages producing lots of cytokines. The result can be chronic inflammation and rising insulin resistance in neighboring cells over-exposed to cytokines. Insulin resistance is the physical condition in which the natural hormone insulin becomes less effective at regulating blood sugar levels in the body, leading to myriad and often severe health problems, most notably type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Olefsky and colleagues looked at cellular receptors known to respond to fatty acids. They eventually narrowed their focus to a G-protein receptor called GPR120, one of a family of signaling molecules involved in numerous cellular functions. The GPR120 receptor is found only on pro-inflammatory macrophages in mature fat cells. When the receptor is turned off, the macrophage produces inflammatory effects. But exposed to omega-3 fatty acids, specifically docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), the GPR120 receptor is activated and generates a strong anti-inflammatory effect.
“It’s just an incredibly potent effect,” said Olefsky, a professor of medicine and associate dean of scientific affairs for the UC San Diego School of Medicine. “The omega-3 fatty acids switch on the receptor, killing the inflammatory response.”
The scientists conducted their research using cell cultures and mice, some of the latter genetically modified to lack the GPR120 receptor. All of the mice were fed a high-fat diet with or without omega-3 fatty acid supplementation. The supplementation treatment inhibited inflammation and enhanced insulin sensitivity in ordinary obese mice, but had no effect in GPR120 knockout mice. A chemical agonist of omega-3 fatty acids produced similar results.
“This is nature at work,” said Olefsky. “The receptor evolved to respond to a natural product — omega-3 fatty acids — so that the inflammatory process can be controlled. Our work shows how fish oils safely do this, and suggests a possible way to treating the serious problems of inflammation in obesity and in conditions like diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease through simple dietary supplementation.”
However, Olefsky said more research is required. For example, it remains unclear how much fish oil constitutes a safe, effective dose. High consumption of fish oil has been linked to increased risk of bleeding and stroke in some people.
Should fish oils prove impractical as a therapeutic agent, Olefsky said the identification of the GPR120 receptor means researchers can work toward developing an alternative drug that mimics the actions of DHA and EPA and provides the same anti-inflammatory effects.
Co-authors of the paper are Da Young Oh, Saswata Talukdar, Eun Ju Bae, Hidetaka Morinaga, WuQuiang Fan, Pingping Li and Wendell J. Lu, all in the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of California, San Diego; Takeshi Imamura, Division of Pharmacology, Shiga University of Medical Science; and Steven M. Watkins, Lipomics Technologies, Inc.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2010)
http://www.ilifelink.com/omega-3_fish_oil_with_epa_and_dha.html
Grapefruit’s Bitter Taste Holds a Sweet Promise for Diabetes Therapy
Aug 25th
Naringenin, an antioxidant derived from the bitter flavor of grapefruits and other citrus fruits, may cause the liver to break down fat while increasing insulin sensitivity, a process that naturally occurs during long periods of fasting.
A team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report that naringenin activates a family of small proteins, called nuclear receptors, causing the liver to break down fatty acids. In fact, the compound seems to mimic the actions of other drugs, such as the lipid-lowering Fenofibrate and the anti-diabetic Rosiglitazone, offering the advantages of both. If the results of this study extend to human patients, this dietary supplement could become a staple in the treatment of hyperlipidemia, type-2 diabetes, and perhaps metabolic syndrome. The report appears in this week issue of the online journal PLoS ONE.
“It is a fascinating find,” says Yaakov Nahmias, PhD, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem the paper’s senior author. “We show the mechanism by which naringenin increases two important pharmaceutical targets, PPARα and PPARγ, while blocking a third, LXRα. The results are similar to those induced by long periods of fasting.”The liver is the main organ responsible for the regulation of carbohydrate and lipid levels in the blood. Following a meal, the blood is flushed with sugars, which activate LXRα, causing the liver to create fatty acids for long-term storage. During fasting, the process is reversed; fatty acids are released by fat cells, activate PPARα in the liver, and are broken down to ketones. A similar process, involving PPARγ, increases sensitivity to insulin.
“It is a process which is similar to the Atkins diet, without many of the side effects,” says Martin L. Yarmush, MD, PhD, director of the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine and one of the paper’s authors.
“The liver behaves as if fasting, breaking down fatty acids instead of carbohydrates.” Yarmush is the Helen Andrus Benedict Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering at Harvard Medical School.
“Dual PPARα and PPARγ agonists, like naringenin, were long sought after by the pharmaceutical industry,” says Nahmias, “but their development was plagued by safety concerns. Remarkably, naringenin is a dietary supplement with a clear safety record. Evidence suggests it might actually protect the liver from damage.”
Grapefruit’s bitter taste is caused the presence of the flavonoid naringin, which is broken down in the gut into naringenin. Earlier evidence has shown the compound has cholesterol lowering properties and may ameliorate some of the symptoms associated with diabetes. The researchers demonstrated that the compound activates PPARα and PPARγ by dramatically increasing the levels of a co-activator peptide of both, called PGC1α. At the same time, naringenin bound directly to LXRα, blocking its activation. These effects culminated with increased fatty acid oxidation and the inhibition of vLDL (’bad cholesterol’) production.
Additional co-authors of the PLoS ONE paper are Jonathan Goldwasser, PhD, Eric Yang, PhD, MGH; Pazit Cohen, PhD, Hebrew University; and Patrick Balaguer, PhD, INSERM Univ. Montpellier France. The work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and European Research Council (ERC).
This work was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (K01DK080241), a European Research Council starting grant (TMIHCV 242699), and the Harvard Clinical Nutrition Research Center (P30-DK040561). Resources were provided by the BioMEMS Resource Center (P41 EB-002503), Shriners Burns Hospital, and the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences.
ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2010)
Green Tea Extract Appears to Keep Cancer in Check in Majority of CLL Patients
Aug 15th
An extract of green tea appears to have clinical activity with low toxicity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients who used it in a phase II clinical trial, say researchers at Mayo Clinic.
The findings were presented June 7 during the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). They are the latest in a series of Mayo studies to show promise for use of the chemical epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) — the major component of green tea — in reducing the number of leukemia cells in patients with CLL. Mayo first tested EGCG in a variety of laboratory assays about eight years ago, and it was found to reduce the survival of CLL leukemic cells. This laboratory finding was followed by a successful phase I clinical trial — the first time green tea extract had been studied in CLL patients.
“Although only a comparative phase III trial can determine whether EGCG can delay progression of CLL, the benefits we have seen in most CLL patients who use the chemical suggest that it has modest clinical activity and may be useful for stabilizing this form of leukemia, potentially slowing it down,” says Tait Shanafelt, M.D., a Mayo Clinic hematologist and lead author of the study.
“These studies advance the notion that a nutraceutical like EGCG can and should be studied as cancer preventives,” says Neil Kay, M.D., a hematology researcher whose laboratory first tested the green tea extract in leukemic blood cells from CLL patients. “Using nontoxic chemicals to push back cancer growth to delay the need for toxic therapies is a worthy goal in oncology research — particularly for forms of cancer initially managed by observation such as CLL.”
Drs. Shanafelt and Kay caution that EGCG is not a substitute for chemotherapy. All of the patients Mayo tested with EGCG were early stage, asymptomatic CLL patients who would not otherwise be treated until their disease progressed. The extract was supplied by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Polyphenon E International for these initial clinical trials.
CLL is a blood cancer that is a hybrid between leukemia and lymphoma. Progression of the disease is measured by the quantity of leukemia cells in the blood and bone marrow as well as enlargement of lymph nodes due to infiltration by the leukemia cells. In the phase I study, published in May 2009 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers found that the blood lymphocyte (leukemia cell) count was reduced in one-third of participants, and that the majority of patients who entered the study with enlarged lymph nodes due to involvement by CLL saw a 50 percent or greater reduction in their lymph node size.
Using the highest dose tested in the phase I study, the researchers launched their phase II clinical trial in an additional 36 patients. The results presented at the ASCO meeting evaluate the effects in these 36 patients as well as the six patients from the phase I trial treated at the same dose (total 42 patients). Results from 41 patients who have completed the study show that 31 percent of patients had a 20 percent or greater sustained reduction in blood leukemia count, and 69 percent of patients with enlarged lymph nodes saw a reduction of node size of 50 percent or greater.
In all, 69 percent of CLL patients had a biological response to EGCG as evidenced by a 20 percent or greater sustained reduction in blood lymphocyte count and/or a 50 percent or greater reduction in lymph node size, the researchers say.
Because EGCG was being studied in patients who did not otherwise need treatment, the researchers took a rigorous approach toward studying side effects. Most clinical trials of therapeutic agents only report grade 3 and higher side effects, but the researchers looked at and reported grade 1 and grade 2 as well. While a number of patients had transient grade 1 or 2 side effects, only three of 42 experienced a grade 3 side effect during their six months of treatment.
“All in all, the treatment was well tolerated with very mild side effects in most patients,” Dr. Shanafelt says.
The researchers say that the prior publications on the effects of EGCG on CLL leukemia cells in the laboratory and the data from the published phase I study have been widely disseminated via the Internet by patient advocacy groups. Based on information from patients and colleagues throughout the country, the Mayo researchers have become aware that many CLL patients nationwide have started to use EGCG supplements, which are readily available over the counter.
“Without a phase III clinical trial, we cannot make a recommendation that EGCG be used by CLL patients, but those who want to take supplements should consult with their oncologists and need to receive appropriate monitoring using laboratory tests,” Dr. Kay says.
The study was funded by grants from the NCI, the Mayo Comprehensive Cancer Center and from donors and patient advocacy foundations.
ScienceDaily (June 4, 2010)
Biochemist Proposes Worldwide Policy Change to Step Up Daily Vitamin D Intake
Aug 9th
Anthony Norman, a leading international expert in vitamin D, proposes worldwide policy changes regarding people’s vitamin D daily intake amount in order to maximize the vitamin’s contribution to reducing the frequency of many diseases, including childhood rickets, adult osteomalacia, cancer, autoimmune type-1 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity and muscle weakness.
“A reduction in the frequency of these diseases would increase the quality and longevity of life and significantly reduce the cost of medical care worldwide,” said Norman, a distinguished professor emeritus of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at the University of California, Riverside. “It is high time that worldwide vitamin D nutritional policy, now at a crossroads, reflects current scientific knowledge about the vitamin’s many benefits and develops a sound vision for the future.”
Currently, the recommended daily intake of vitamin D in the United States is 200 international units (IU) for people up to 50 years old; 400 IU for people 51 to 70 years old; and 600 IU for people over 70 years old. Today there is a wide consensus among scientists that the relative daily intake of vitamin D should be increased to 2,000 to 4,000 IU for most adults.
“Worldwide public health is best served by a recommendation of higher daily intakes of vitamin D,” Norman said. “Currently, more than half the world’s population gets insufficient amounts of this vitamin. At present about half of elderly North Americans and Western Europeans and probably also of the rest of the world are not receiving enough vitamin D to maintain healthy bone.”
Reporting in a review paper in the July 28, 2010, issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, Norman and Roger Bouillon of the Laboratory of Experimental Medicine and Endocrinology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, warn that if the current nutritional guidelines for vitamin D remain unchanged, rickets and osteomalacia, which could be easily prevented, will continue to occur.
They add that if the present guidelines for vitamin D intake are strictly implemented and applied worldwide to pregnant or lactating women, newborns and children, the occurrence of rickets in infants could be effectively eradicated.
Norman, the first author of the review paper, and Bouillon note that if the daily dietary intake of vitamin D is increased by 600-1000 IU in all adults above their present supply, it would bring beneficial effects on bone health in the elderly and on all major human diseases (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic and immune diseases).
The researchers add, however, that if the vitamin D dietary intake were increased to 2000 IU per day and even more for subgroups of the world population with the poorest vitamin D status, it could favorably impact multiple sclerosis, type-1 diabetes, tuberculosis, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular risk factors and most cancers.
About vitamin D:
Also known as the “sunshine vitamin,” vitamin D was discovered 90 years ago as a dietary agent that prevented the bone disease rickets.
Exposure to the sun is the body’s natural way of producing the vitamin. Skin exposed to solar UVB radiation can produce significant quantities of vitamin D. But this vitamin D synthesis is reliably available year-round only at latitudes between 40 degrees north and 40 degrees south. A combination of sunshine, food, supplements, and possibly even limited tanning exposure can raise the daily intake of the vitamin to 2000 IU.
Vitamin D is itself biologically inert. Its biological effects result only after it is metabolized first in the liver and then in the kidney — a process that converts the vitamin into a steroid hormone.
The best sources of unfortified foods naturally containing vitamin D are animal products and fatty fish and liver extracts like salmon or sardines and cod liver oil. Vitamin D-fortified food sources in the United States (the fortification levels aim at about 400 IU per day) include milk and milk products, orange juice, breakfast cereals and bars, grain products, pastas, infant formulas and margarines.
Vitamin D excess can cause health problems such as hypercalcemia, vomiting, thirst and tissue damage. The precise upper limit for daily vitamin D intake is not well defined.
ScienceDaily (Aug. 9, 2010)
Effectiveness of statins is called into question
Aug 8th
The drugs clearly help patients who have already had a heart attack. But their use has skyrocketed in patients hoping to prevent a first heart attack. In those cases, the benefits are dubious.
As the world’s most-prescribed class of medications, statins indisputably qualify for the commercial distinction of “blockbuster.” About 24 million Americans take the drugs — marketed under such commercial names as Pravachol, Mevacor, Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor — largely to stave off heart attacks and strokes.
At the zenith of their profitability, these medications raked in $26.2 billion a year for their manufacturers. The introduction in recent years of cheaper generic versions may have begun to cut into sales revenues for the brand-name drugs that came first to the market, but better prices have only fueled the medications’ use: In 2009, U.S. patients filled 201.4 million prescriptions for statins, according to IMS Health, which tracks prescription drug trends. That’s nearly double the number of prescriptions written for statins in 2001, four years after they arrived on the American pharmaceutical landscape.
But in recent months the drugs’ touted medical reputation has come under tough scrutiny.
Statins were initially approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of repeat heart attacks and strokes in patients with high cholesterol who had already had a heart attack. And used for that purpose — called “secondary prevention” — the drugs are powerful and effective medications, driving down patients’ risk of another heart attack or stroke by lowering their levels of LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol.
Then physicians came to believe statins could also reduce the risk of a first heart attack in people who have high LDL cholesterol but are nonetheless healthy. This use of statins — called “primary prevention” — has driven the growth in the market for statins over the last decade.
Today, a majority of people who use statins are doing so for primary prevention of heart attacks and strokes. It is this use of statins that has come under recent attack.
“There’s a conspiracy of false hope,” says Harvard Medical School’s Dr. John Abramson, who has cowritten several critiques of statins’ rise, including one published in June in the Archives of Internal Medicine. “The public wants an easy way to prevent heart disease, doctors want to reduce their patients’ risk of heart disease and drug companies want to maximize the number of people taking their pills to boost their sales and profits.”
The stakes of many
Heart patients and their physicians are not the only ones to pin their hopes on statins. The drug companies that brought statins to the market have explored the medications’ benefits in prevention or treatment of such conditions as Alzheimer’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, prostate and breast cancer, kidney disease, macular degeneration and diabetic neuropathy. Although clear proof that statins could forestall or treat any of these diseases might bring in millions of new, paying customers, results have largely been mixed, inconclusive or disappointing.
In an ideal world, debate over the clinical virtues or vices of a drug would be long settled by the time the medication saw a meteoric rise in use. But in a healthcare system that relies on commercial incentives to spur drug development, prescription medications are a product like any other.
The FDA assesses drugs’ safety and effectiveness for specific use; but its judgments are based on preliminary data, most of it generated by a drug company seeking approval for its product. Once the agency approves a drug for marketing, the company that makes it will move quickly and aggressively to expand the universe of patients taking its product.
Sometimes, by the time the deliberate pace of medical research and debate suggests that a drug is not all it’s been cracked up to be, it’s already become a bestseller. Statins, say some who study the relationship between medicine and the drug industry, seem to fit that pattern.
Statins appear to drive down the risk of heart attack or stroke by lowering the levels of fatty deposits circulating in the bloodstream. Research suggests that the drugs dampen inflammatory processes that can prompt deposits of plaque to break away from blood vessel walls and cause sudden blockages of arteries leading to the heart or brain.
And yet, the relationship between cholesterol-lowering and heart disease is not perfectly understood, and the precise role of inflammation in heart disease is also uncertain.
Statins certainly decrease rates of heart attack in people who have clear signs of cardiovascular disease, but it’s not so clear they work that way in people who are healthy. In spite of that uncertainty, statins’ use for primary prevention has skyrocketed.
Behind the numbers
That’s the issue in the latest round of debate, which spilled onto the pages of the Archives of Internal Medicine in late June: whether statins prevent, safely and at a reasonable cost, the development of cardiovascular disease in people who are still healthy but are considered to be at high risk of a heart attack or stroke.
In the first of three studies published in the Archives last month, medical researchers found that, contrary to widely held belief, statins do not drive down death rates among those who take them to prevent a first heart attack. A second article cast significant doubt on the influential findings of a 2006 study, called JUPITER, that has driven the expansion of statins’ use by healthy people with elevated blood levels of C-reactive protein, a measure of inflammation. A third article suggested potential ethical, clinical and financial conflicts of interest at work in the execution of the JUPITER study and concluded the widely hailed trial was “flawed” and raises “troubling questions concerning the role of commercial sponsors.”
“Tens of billions of dollars of revenue for the sponsor over the patent life of the drug were at stake in the JUPITER trial, as well as potentially millions of dollars in royalties for the principal investigator,” wrote Dr. Lee Green of the University of Michigan Medical School in an editorial accompanying the trio of studies. “Doubtless, both sponsor and investigative team believe they made their design decisions for the right reasons,” Green added. “But social psychology research provides abundant evidence that we human beings both respond strongly to self-interest incentives and firmly believe that we do not.”
Statins still have ardent admirers, including cardiologist Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. For many patients on a clear collision course with heart disease but not there yet, he said, statins make a difference. And even though recent studies question whether statins reduce heart attack deaths, Nissen added, many patients’ lives are clearly improved by pushing a heart attack further into the future.
The stakes of this debate are big and continuing to grow (see related story, “Pinning down the side effects of statins“). As many as three-quarters of patients currently taking statins haven’t yet had a stroke or heart attack; they have diabetes or high LDL cholesterol, conditions widely thought to put them at high risk of having one.
Those patients largely joined the ranks of statin consumers after 2001, when the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute adopted guidelines on the treatment of patients with high cholesterol. The guidelines, updated again in 2004, suggested that as many as 36 million Americans should take statins — essentially tripling overnight the potential American market for the drugs. Of the nine experts involved in drafting the cholesterol treatment guidelines, the National Institutes of Health later acknowledged that eight had substantial financial ties to statin makers — links that may have predisposed them to view evidence of statins’ benefit in its most positive light.
Said Abramson, the author of “Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine”: The best way to drive down the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the first place is to exercise regularly, not smoke, drink in moderation and eat a healthy Mediterranean-style diet. But, he added, “this message gets drowned out by the commercial interests” of pharmaceutical companies who stand to benefit from increased sales.
melissa.healy@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times
http://www.ilifelink.com/red_rice_yeast_600_mg_x_120_capsules.html
How Dietary Supplements Reduce Health Care Costs
Jul 10th
Spending just pennies a day on healthcare can reduce our expenditures by $24 billion over five years.
New research from the Lewin Group has shown that spending pennies a day on a few key nutritional supplements can dramatically reduce sickness and chronic disease — and greatly decrease healthcare expenditures as a result.(i) How did they come to this conclusion? And why haven’t we heard about it?
The Lewin Group looked only at rigorous scientific studies that documented the benefits of nutritional supplements. They used the Congressional Budget Office’s accounting methods to determine the economic impact of supplements. And they kept their analysis specifically to Medicare patients and women of childbearing age.
Today I will review the Lewin Group’s research, explain the remarkable conclusions they came to, and outline the supplements I recommend you take every day if you want to optimize your health and possible reduce health care costs in the process.
Reviewing the Research: Supplements Have Dramatic Health Benefits
Although nutritional therapies can help a broad range of illnesses, the group only looked at four supplements and disease combinations because of the rigor and validity of the scientific evidence available for these nutrients and diseases.
While there are many other beneficial nutritional therapies that have been proven helpful in studies, the ones in this particular study are only those that are unquestionable, beyond scientific doubt, well-accepted, and proven to help. Yet they are also under-used and not generally recommended by healthcare providers. The study looked at:
1. Calcium and vitamin D and their effect on osteoporosis
2. Folic acid and its ability to prevent birth defects
3. Omega-3 fatty acids and their benefits for heart disease
4. Lutein and zeaxanthin and their benefit in preventing major age-related blindness, or macular degeneration
In this study, the researchers were extremely strict and only looked at nutrient interventions that met three criteria.
1. The supplement had to produce a measurable physiological effect.
2. This physiological effect had to create a change in health status.
3. The researchers only looked at health problems where a change in health status is associated with a decrease in healthcare expenditures.
Now, most of us hear the refrain from our physicians that nutritional supplements just produce expensive urine, that you do not know what you are getting, or that there is no scientific proof to support their claims. Based on this study and many others like it, my advice to these doctors is to do their scientific homework. Let’s start by looking at the effects of calcium and vitamin D.
First, I want to point out the vitamin D research referred to in The Lewin Group study is older research. Newer research, as I discussed in my vitamin D blog, suggests that higher doses of vitamin D3, such as 1,000 to 2,000 IU a day, have even greater benefit.
Yet even by focusing only on the older research, this study’s authors determined that providing Medicare-age citizens with 1,200 mg of calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D would result in reduced bone loss and fewer hip fractures. The researchers estimated these supplements could prevent more than 776,000 hospitalizations for hip fractures over five years and save $16.1 billion.
Next let’s look at omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fatty acids help prevent cardiac arrhythmias, improve cell membrane function, reduce inflammation, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and have many other benefits.
The Lewin Group found that giving the Medicare population about 1,800 mg of omega-3 fats a day would prevent 374,000 hospitalizations from heart disease over five years. The Medicare savings from reduced hospital and physician expenses would be $3.2 billion.
This is pretty convincing data, but it doesn’t stop there. The Lewin Group also analyzed the economic effects of lutein and zeaxanthin--carotenoids that are found in yellow and orange vegetables. I recommend taking them in combination with the hundreds of other carotenoids found in yellow and orange foods.
Taken as supplements, these have been shown to treat macular degeneration, which is the loss of central vision, a major reason people over age 65 require nursing home care. The study found that taking 6 to 10 mg of lutein and zeaxanthin daily would help 190,000 individuals avoid dependent care and would result in $3.6 billion in savings over five years.
Lastly the Lewin Group looked at the effects of taking folic acid. 44 million women of childbearing age are not taking folic acid. If only 11.3 million of them began taking just 400 mcg of folic acid on a daily basis before conception, we could prevent birth defects called neural tube defects in 600 babies and save $344,700,000 in lifetime healthcare costs for these children. Over 5 years, this would account for $1.4 billion in savings.
Taken together, these four simple interventions, which cost pennies a day, could produce a combined savings of $24 billion over five years. This does not even include benefits to people younger than 65 or any of the other benefits of nutritional supplementation, such as improved immunity, cognitive function, and mood.
The Lewin Group’s study is intriguing. The economic impact of investing a few pennies a day in nutritional supplements is compelling. But what’s downright frightening is that studies by the US Department of Health and Human Services prove that the typical American diet does not always provide a sufficient level of vitamins and minerals — meaning we are at greater risk for conditions like those outlined above.
Because of our consumption of low-nutrient, high-calorie foods that are highly processed, hybridized, genetically modified, shipped long distances, and grown in nutrient-depleted soils, many of us are nutritionally depleted.
In fact, a whopping 92 percent of us are deficient in one or more nutrients at the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) level, which is the minimum amount necessary to prevent deficiency diseases like rickets or scurvy — diseases that are the result of not getting enough vitamins and minerals. The RDA standards do not necessarily outline the amount needed for optimal health.
What’s more, our government’s nutrient guidelines ignore the fact that many Americans, because of genetic variations and unique needs, may need higher doses of vitamins and minerals than the RDA. Vitamin deficiency does not cause acute diseases such as scurvy or rickets, but they do cause what have been called “long-latency deficiency diseases.” These include conditions like blindness, osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, and more.
What all this adds up to is clear. Nutritional supplements do not just make expensive urine. Based on mounting evidence and confirmed by the Journal of the American Medical Association (ii) and The New England Journal of Medicine (iii), I strongly believe that we should all be taking certain basic supplements.
Supplements You Should Take Every Day
Here are the supplements I recommend for everyone:
1. A high-quality multivitamin and mineral. The multivitamin should contain mixed carotenoids, which include lutein and zeaxanthin as part of their mix, as well as at least 400 mcg of folate and a mixed B-complex vitamin.
2. Calcium-magnesium with at least 600 mg of calcium and 400 mg of magnesium. The calcium should be calcium citrate or chelated versions of minerals. Do not use calcium carbonate or magnesium oxide, which are cheap minerals that are poorly absorbed.
3. Vitamin D3, 1,000 to 2,000 IU a day (people who are deficient in vitamin D will need more).
4. Omega-3 fatty acids that contain the fats EPA and DHA, 1,000 to 2,000 mg a day.
The cost is low, the benefit is high, and the risk is non-existent for these nutritional supplements. Not only will you feel better, have better immune function, and improve your energy and brain function, but you will also prevent many problems down the road. So, eat a healthy diet — and take your nutritional supplements every day. It is essential for lifelong vibrant health.
by Mark Hyman, MD
High Blood Levels of Vitamin E Reduces Risk of Alzheimer’s, Swedish Study Finds
Jul 7th
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)
Excellent source of mixed tocopherols: http://www.ilifelink.com/vitamin_e_mixed_400_i_u_x_100_softgels.html
Antioxidants Do Help Arteries Stay Healthy
Jul 6th
Long-term supplementation with dietary antioxidants has beneficial effects on sugar and fat metabolism, blood pressure and arterial flexibility in patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism report these positive results in a randomized controlled trial of combined vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme Q10 and selenium capsules.
Reuven Zimlichman worked with a team of researchers from Wolfson Medical Center, Israel, to carry out the study in 70 patients from the centre’s hypertension clinic. He said, “Antioxidant supplementation significantly increased large and small artery elasticity in patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors. This beneficial vascular effect was associated with an improvement in glucose and lipid metabolism as well as significant decrease in blood pressure.”
Previous results from clinical trials into the cardiovascular health effects of antioxidants have been equivocal. In order to shed more light onto the matter, Zimlichman and his colleagues randomised the 70 patients to receive either antioxidants or placebo capsules for six months. Tests at the beginning of the trial, after three months and at the six month mark revealed that the patients in the antioxidant group had more elastic arteries (a measure of increased cardiovascular health) and better blood sugar and cholesterol profiles.
According to Zimlichman, “The findings of the present study justify investigating the overall clinical impact of antioxidant treatment in patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors.”
Source: ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010)
Anti-aging pill shows hope in female infertility
Jul 2nd
Taking anti-aging pills could improve the chances of conception in infertile women, says a study.
Adrian Shulman, professor of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, has found a connection between the vitamin supplement DHEA, used to counter the effects of aging, and successful pregnancy rates in women.
DHEA is a naturally-occurring steroid found in the brain and plays an important biological role in humans and other mammals. It is a supplement marketed as an anti-aging drug around the world.
In the first study on the effects of the supplement, Shulman found that women being treated for infertility who received supplements of DHEA were three times more likely to conceive than women being treated without the additional drug.
After hearing anecdotal evidence from his patients and the medical community on the benefits of combining fertility treatments with DHEA, Shulman decided to put this theory to test.
He and fellow researchers conducted a study in which a group of women received
treatment for poor ovulation and another group received the same treatment with the addition of the DHEA supplement.
The latter group took 75 mg of the supplement daily for 40 days before starting fertility treatments.
Not only were women who combined infertility treatment with DHEA more likely to conceive, they were also more likely to experience a healthy pregnancy and delivery.
“In the DHEA group, there was a 23 percent live birth rate as opposed to a four percent rate in the other group. Moreover, in the DHEA group, all but one ended in healthy deliveries,” explains Shulman.
Shulman believes that women who are finding little success with their current fertility treatments could look to DHEA to improve their chances of conceiving, said a Tel Aviv University release.
“We recommend that women try this DHEA treatment, in conjunction with fertility treatments, for four to five months,” Shulman says.
The results were recently published in AYALA, the journal of the Israeli Fertility Association.
If you aren’t in perfect health, then your immune system may need help.
Jun 26th
Beta-glucan is a family of complex carbohydrates that serve as structural elements in the cell walls of plants, yeasts, and mushrooms. LifeLink’s beta-glucan comes from baker’s yeast. This supplement is now of great interest to medical researchers because of its ability to stimulate immune function, to improve cholesterol profiles, and to inhibit (or even reverse) cancer progression. Its immune effects are broad and can be directed at many health problems, including:
- cancer
- high cholesterol
- hypertension
- allergies
- diabetes
- wounds
- over-eating, obesity
- viral infections, such as hepatitis, HIV
- bacterial infections
- parasitic infections
Immune system modulation. The body’s first lines of defense against infections involve physical barriers and the destruction of invading microorganisms by antibodies. Pathogens that manage to evade these defenses will (one hopes) trigger further defensive processes known as “cell-mediated immunity”. Beta-glucan operates at both of these stages of immunity..
Beta-glucan acts in very complex ways upon the immune system. It stimulates the production of various signaling molecules, and these, in turn, activate immune cells. In this way, beta-glucan activates a wide variety of immune defenses, protecting the body against infections by viral, bacterial, fungal and protozoal pathogens, and even defending it against cancer.
Cancer-fighting properties. Beta-glucan’s anti-cancer effects result from its ability to modulate the immune system. And its immune effects derive from its activation of macrophage cells. Macrophages are immune cells that trap and engulf foreign cells and particles, scavenge cellular debris, and destroy infectious agents such as viruses, parasites, bacteria, and fungi.
Studies in cell culture, in lab animals, and in humans have shown that the anti-tumor activity initiated by beta-glucan can be long-lived and can occur even when beta-glucan is given orally one month prior to the presence of a tumor. Some of the cancer types that have been shown to be sensitive to beta-glucan supplementation include:
• breast cancer• lymphoma• colon cancer• sarcoma• liver cancer• lung cancer
Pollen allergies. Pollen allergies are caused by a poorly regulated immune system. Beta-glucan seems to improve immune regulation. Researchers at Meiji University have shown that beta-glucan “is able to alleviate cedar pollen-induced allergic symptoms.”
» For a more detailed discussion of beta-glucan and the medical studies that support its use, see the article on our website at: http://www.ilifelink.com/beta-glucan_250_mg_x_30_capsules.html
Ingredient in red wine may prevent some blinding diseases
Jun 25th
Resveratrol — found in red wine, grapes, blueberries, peanuts and other plants — stops out-of-control blood vessel growth in the eye, according to vision researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The discovery has implications for preserving vision in blinding eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in Americans over 50.
The formation of new blood vessels, called angiogenesis, also plays a key role in certain cancers and in atherosclerosis. Conducting experiments in mouse retinas, the researchers found that resveratrol can inhibit angiogenesis. Another surprise was the pathway through which resveratrol blocked angiogenesis. The findings are reported in the July issue of the American Journal of Pathology.
“A great deal of research has identified resveratrol as an anti-aging compound, and given our interest in age-related eye disease, we wanted to find out whether there was a link,” says Washington University retina specialist Rajendra S. Apte, MD, PhD, the study’s senior investigator. “There were reports on resveratrol’s effects on blood vessels in other parts of the body, but there was no evidence that it had any effects within the eye.”
The investigators studied mice that develop abnormal blood vessels in the retina after laser treatment. Apte’s team found that when the mice were given resveratrol, the abnormal blood vessels began to disappear.
Examining the blood-vessel cells in the laboratory, they identified a pathway — known as a eukaryotic elongation factor-2 kinase (eEF2) regulated pathway — that was responsible for the compound’s protective effects. That was a surprise because past research involving resveratrol’s anti-aging effects had implicated a different mechanism that these experiments showed not to be involved.
“We have identified a novel pathway that could become a new target for therapies,” Apte says. “And we believe the pathway may be involved both in age-related eye disease and in other diseases where angiogenesis plays a destructive role.”
Previous research into resveratrol’s influence on aging and obesity had identified interactions between the red-wine compound and a group of proteins called sirtuins. Those proteins were not related to resveratrol’s effects on abnormal blood vessel formation. Instead, the researchers say that in addition to investigating resveratrol as a potential therapy, they also want to look more closely at the eEF2 pathway to determine whether it might provide a new set of targets for therapies, both for eye disease and other problems related to abnormal angiogenesis.
Apte, an assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences and of developmental biology, says because resveratrol is given orally, patients may prefer it to many current treatments for retinal disease, which involve eye injections. The compound also is easily absorbed in the body.
In mice, resveratrol was effective both at preventing new blood vessels and at eliminating abnormal blood vessels that already had begun to develop.
“This could potentially be a preventive therapy in high-risk patients,” he says. “And because it worked on existing, abnormal blood vessels in the animals, it may be a therapy that can be started after angiogenesis already is causing damage.”
Apte stresses that the mouse model of macular degeneration they used is not identical to the disease in human eyes. In addition, the mice received large resveratrol doses, much more than would be found in several bottles of red wine. If resveratrol therapy is tried in people with eye disease, it would need to be given in pill form because of the high doses required, Apte says.
There are three major eye diseases that resveratrol treatment may help: age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity. Age-related macular degeneration involves the development of abnormal blood vessels beneath the center of the retina. It accounts for more than 40 percent of blindness among the elderly in nursing homes, and as baby boomers get older, the problem is expected to grow, with at least 8 million cases predicted by the year 2020.
In diabetic retinopathy, those blood vessels don’t develop beneath the retina. They grow into the retina itself. Diabetic retinopathy causes vision loss in about 20 percent of patients with diabetes. Almost 24 million people have diabetes in the United States alone.
Retinopathy of prematurity occurs when premature babies with immature retinas experience an obstruction in blood flow into the retina. In response, those children often develop abnormal blood vessels that can cause retinal detachment and interfere with vision. Worldwide, that condition blinds 50,000 newborn babies each year.
Apte says the pathway his laboratory has identified may be active not only in those blinding eye diseases, but in cancers and atherosclerosis as well. If so, then one day it might be possible to use resveratrol to improve eyesight and to prevent cardiovascular disease and some types of cancer, too.
Khan AA, Dace DS, Ryazanov AG, Kelly J, Apte RS. Resveratrol regulates pathologic angiogenesis by a eukaryotic elongation factor-2 kinase-regulated pathway, American Journal of Pathology, vol. 177, pp. 481-492. July, 2010. DOI:10.2353/ajpath.2010.090836
Vitamin D and mental agility in elders
Jun 25th
At a time when consumer interest in health-enhancing foods is high, Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-funded scientists have contributed to a limited but growing body of evidence of a link between vitamin D and cognitive function.
Cognitive function is measured by the level at which the brain is able to manage and use available information for activities of daily life. Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of age-related dementia, affects about 47 percent of adults aged 85 years or older in the United States. Identifying nutritional factors that lower cognitive dysfunction and help preserve independent living provides economic and public health benefits, according to authors.
The study, which was supported by ARS, the National Institutes of Health, and others, was led by epidemiologist Katherine Tucker with the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University in Boston, Mass. Tucker collaborated with HNRCA laboratory directors Irwin Rosenberg, Bess Dawson-Hughes and colleagues.
Metabolic pathways for vitamin D have been found in the hippocampus and cerebellum areas of the brain involved in planning, processing, and forming new memories. This suggests that vitamin D may be implicated in cognitive processes.
The study involved more than 1,000 participants receiving home care. The researchers evaluated associations between measured vitamin D blood concentrations and neuropsychological tests. Elders requiring home care have a higher risk of not getting enough vitamin D because of limited sunlight exposure and other factors.
The participants, ages 65 to 99 years, were grouped by their vitamin D status, which was categorized as deficient, insufficient, or sufficient. Only 35 percent had sufficient vitamin D blood levels. They had better cognitive performance on the tests than those in the deficient and insufficient categories, particularly on measures of “executive performance,” such as cognitive flexibility, perceptual complexity, and reasoning. The associations persisted after taking into consideration other variables that could also affect cognitive performance.
The 2009 study appears in the Journals of Gerontology, Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.
Jetting off without the jet lag
Jun 24th
Everyone hates the jet lag – the nighttime insomnia, loss of appetite, decreased alertness, and depressed mood – that accompanies travel to locations in different time zones. The symptoms of jet lag are caused by misalignment of a person’s internal body clock (also known as the circadian clock) and external time. Now, Gregor Eichele and colleagues, at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany, have provided new insight into the molecular mechanisms responsible for resetting the internal circadian system in the mouse. One of their key observations indicates that modulating the speed with which the adrenal gland shifts its rhythmic production of glucocorticoid hormones to the new light/dark cycle (the equivalent of the new time zone when considering human travel) regulates the resetting of the entire internal body clock. The authors suggest that their data point to new potential therapies to overcome jet lag.
In an accompanying commentary, Mary Harrington, at Smith College, Northampton, discusses how these data have implications not only for those who suffer jet lag but also for those who perform rotating shift work, which has been linked to many serious health problems, including breast cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular disease. She also cautions that it will be important to determine whether treatments for jet lag that allow the body clock to shift rapidly are actually better for one’s health than the slower adjustments that occur naturally.
Science Centric | 24 June 2010 12:40 GMT
Poor Control of Diabetes May Be Linked to Low Vitamin D
Jun 24th
Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in patients with Type 2 diabetes and may be associated with poor blood sugar control, according to a new study.
The results are being presented at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.
“This finding supports an active role of vitamin D in the development of Type 2 diabetes,” said study co-author Esther Krug, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an endocrinologist at Sinai Hospital, Baltimore.
Krug and her colleagues reviewed the medical charts of 124 patients with Type 2 diabetes who came to an endocrine outpatient clinic for specialty care from 2003 to 2008. Patients’ age ranged from 36 to 89 years. All patients had a single measurement of their serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels as part of their evaluation at the clinic. The researchers divided the patients into quartiles based on vitamin D level.
Despite receiving regular primary care visits before referral to the endocrine clinic, 91 percent of patients had either vitamin D deficiency (defined as a level below 15 nanograms per deciliter, or ng/dL) or insufficiency (15 to 31 ng/dL), the authors reported. Only about 6 percent of patients were taking vitamin D supplements at their first visit.
Additionally, the investigators found an inverse relationship between the patients’ blood levels of vitamin D and their hemoglobin A1c value, a measure of blood sugar control over the past several months. Lower vitamin D levels were discovered in patients with higher average blood sugars as measured by HbA1c, Krug said. Compared with whites, blacks had a higher average A1c and lower average vitamin D level.
“Since primary care providers diagnose and treat most patients with Type 2 diabetes, screening and vitamin D supplementation as part of routine primary care may improve health outcomes of this highly prevalent condition,” she said.
ScienceDaily (June 21, 2010)
Good news for smokers: Lung cancer risk could be halved by taking vitamin B6
Jun 17th
Smokers with plenty of a B-vitamin in their blood have a lower risk of getting lung cancer, a European study suggests.
High levels of Vitamin B6 and the amino acid methionine cut the risk by half, according to the study of 400,000 people.
Scientists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said that the results may be a clue to why some smokers never get lung cancer and some non-smokers or former smokers do.
Lung cancer is the most common form of the disease in the world and 90 per cent of all cases are caused by cigarette smoking. It kills 1.2 million people a year.
Around one in 10 smokers develop lung cancer – although they often die of other smoking-related causes like heart disease, stroke or emphysema. Lung cancer is also known to kill people who never smoked or who gave up years ago.
The IARC study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It looked at around 900 people with lung cancer and found a link to low levels of vitamin B6 and an amino acid called methionine, which occur naturally in nuts, fish and meat.
‘What we have found is that these two things are strong markers of lung cancer risk, but we have not shown they are causing that rise in risk,’ said study author Paul Brennan.
‘This indicates that diet may have an important role in lung cancer development, but it’s still a little premature to say simply that if you change your diet and eat more foods with these vitamins then you’ll change your future lung cancer risk.’
Most of the patients were smokers but there were also 100 who never smoked and 260 who had quit.
Dr Brennan said the change in risk of lung cancer linked to B6 and methionine levels was the same for all three groups, although the overall risk of getting the disease was much higher in the smokers to start with.
He said: ‘For the two nutrients together, the risk reduction was about 60 percent.
‘Obviously if you had a very high risk because you smoke, then a 60 percent reduction of that is quite important, although not as important as quitting smoking.’
The latest findings reinforce previous research which suggested deficiencies in B vitamins may increase the probability of DNA damage and subsequent gene mutations.
A Swedish study in 2005 found that women with high levels of vitamin B6 had a lower risk of developing colorectal cancer.
‘Basically, these B vitamins and nutrients are all involved in the pathway which is responsible for the creation and maintenance of DNA,’ Dr Brennan said.
‘”So obviously you would want that pathway to work as well as possible.’
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:31 AM on 16th June 2010
Scientists find gene links to vitamin D deficiency
Jun 10th
Scientists have found three genetic differences that affect a person’s risk of being deficient in the “sunshine” vitamin D and say their work helps explain why sunlight and a good diet aren’t always enough.
British and American researchers studied the genes of almost 34,000 white Europeans and found that variants of three genes involved in cholesterol synthesis, vitamin D metabolism and vitamin D transport may increase the risk of deficiency.
“Our findings establish a role for common genetic variants in regulation of circulating vitamin D concentrations,” said Elina Hypponen of the University College London Institute of Child Health, who worked on the study.
She said the presence of the variants at the three specific genes more than doubled the risk of vitamin D insufficiency.
Most vitamin D is made by the body as a natural by-product of the skin’s exposure to sunlight. It is vital for health, as it helps cells absorb calcium and is key for bone strength.
Some recent studies have also suggested vitamin D may protect against cancer, artery disease and tuberculosis.
A normal level of vitamin D is defined as a concentration greater than 30 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml), while vitamin D insufficiency is 20 to 30 ng/ml and vitamin D deficiency is less than 20 ng/ml.
Almost half of the world’s population has lower than optimal levels of vitamin D and scientists say the problem is getting worse as people spend more time indoors or cover up too quickly and completely when they are exposed to sunshine.
Non-white populations in less sunny climates are at higher risk since dark skin can make it harder for the body to absorb ultraviolet light.
Hypponen said there was no doubt that sunshine and a good diet were still the most important factors for vitamin D levels, but the study helped explain why some people who should get enough from these sources still appear to be deficient.
“Sometimes when we look at geographical variations in vitamin D deficiency, they do not always go logically in the way we would expect, for example, on the basis of sunlight,” she said in a telephone interview. “So this study raises the possibility that that is down to genetic influences.”
Besides the sunlight source, vitamin D can also be found in fish liver oil, eggs and fatty fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel, or taken as a supplement.
There are no definitive studies on the optimal daily vitamin D dose but some experts recommend 25 to 50 micrograms.
A study published in March found that vitamin D is important in activating the immune system’s killer cells, known as T cells, which remain dormant and unaware of threats from infections if vitamin D is lacking in the blood.
(Reuters) June 9,2010
Polyphenols in Red Wine and Green Tea Halt Prostate Cancer Growth, Study Suggests
Jun 10th
In what could lead to a major advance in the treatment of prostate cancer, scientists now know exactly why polyphenols in red wine and green tea inhibit cancer growth. This new discovery, published online in The FASEB Journal, explains how antioxidants in red wine and green tea produce a combined effect to disrupt an important cell signaling pathway necessary for prostate cancer growth. This finding is important because it may lead to the development of drugs that could stop or slow cancer progression, or improve current treatments.
“Not only does SphK1/S1P signaling pathway play a role in prostate cancer, but it also plays a role in other cancers, such as colon cancer, breast cancer, and gastric cancers,” said Gerald Weissmann, MD, editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal. “Even if future studies show that drinking red wine and green tea isn’t as effective in humans as we hope, knowing that the compounds in those drinks disrupts this pathway is an important step toward developing drugs that hit the same target.”
Scientists conducted in vitro experiments which showed that the inhibition of the sphingosine kinase-1/sphingosine 1-phosphate (SphK1/S1P) pathway was essential for green tea and wine polyphenols to kill prostate cancer cells. Next, mice genetically altered to develop a human prostate cancer tumor were either treated or not treated with green tea and wine polyphenols. The treated mice showed reduced tumor growth as a result of the inhibited SphK1/S1P pathway. To mimic the preventive effects of polyphenols, another experiment used three groups of mice given drinking water, drinking water with a green tea compound known as EGCg, or drinking water with a different green tea compound, polyphenon E. Human prostate cancer cells were implanted in the mice and results showed a dramatic decrease in tumor size in the mice drinking the EGCg or polyphenon E mixtures.
“The profound impact that the antioxidants in red wine and green tea have on our bodies is more than anyone would have dreamt just 25 years ago,” Weissmann added. “As long as they are taken in moderation, all signs show that red wine and green tea may be ranked among the most potent ‘health foods’ we know.”
ScienceDaily (June 9, 2010)
Court victory against FDA for free speech
Jun 6th
US Court Rules in Favor of Free Speech on Health Claims
Will this precedent influence European policy on health claims for foods and food supplements?
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lost its bid to overturn a health claim for selenium-containing dietary supplements last Thursday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle ruled unconstitutional the FDA’s censorship of selenium dietary supplement claims relating to the reduction of cancer risk. Jonathan Emord of Emord & Associates on behalf of the plaintiffs in the case (including lead plaintiff Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA); Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw; and the Coalition to End FDA and FTC Censorship). The verdict, unless reversed on appeal, protects the First Amendment right of dietary supplement manufacturers to provide “qualified health claims”, which accurately communicate the state of science concerning dietary supplements. This is a remarkable seventh victory over the FDA by the Emord firm (six of which invalidated FDA health claim censorship).
The lawsuit was initiated last summer in response to the FDA’s 19th June 2009 decision to suppress selenium/cancer-risk reduction claims. Ten of the claims (all appealed by the plaintiffs) were held unconstitutionally censored. The plaintiffs expressed their belief that this violated their right to communicate truthful health information to the public. The judge found that the FDA had denied claims despite credible evidence supporting them and had thereby infringed on free speech.
Prior to this ruling the FDA required near conclusive scientific evidence for any nutrient claim. The judge ruled that so long as the claim is an accurate reflection of the state of science, the First Amendment protects it.
European policy on health claims for foods and food constituents has yet to be tested in court. Yet, the European food and natural product industries, as well as many consumers, are currently up in arms as the European Commission attempts to implement a law, the Nutrition & Health Claims Regulation (No 1924/2006) that aims to ban all health claims on food, food constituents or supplements—unless they are specifically approved by Europe’s highest authority on food, the controversial European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Contrary to the US court verdict, EFSA is only approving claims based on conclusive evidence from studies on healthy human populations.
Commenting on the court decision and its possible impact on the European health claims environment, Robert Verkerk PhD, executive and scientific director of ANH International, said, “The verdict in our case against the FDA should be sending shock waves across the Atlantic to EFSA. If European authorities implement the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation as planned in 2011, it is the European consumer that will be the main loser. Disease prevention using good diets and nutrients will effectively be thrown out of the window. EFSA needs to either shift to using credible evidence as in the US, or it should expect to argue its case in the courts.”
Verkerk added: “EFSA’s rejections of hundreds of health claims is causing mayhem with the European food and supplement industry and a meeting of stakeholders on 1 June at its headquarters in Parma in Italy has been convened to discuss ways forward.
There are several reasons why EFSA is rejecting so many claims. Sometimes it’s because the health relationship has only been studied in diseased populations. In other cases it’s because the health benefits are so obvious that extensive clinical trials have not been justified. Other claims are being rejected simply through lack of adequate funds to support the very costly human research required to generate definitive conclusions. Scientific inference and common sense simply don’t come into EFSA’s equation.”
It remains to be seen whether EFSA and the European Commission will successfully quash freedom of speech in relation to the health benefits of foods and food constituents. While human rights for Europeans have in theory been given greater legal protection under the newly passed Lisbon Treaty, these rights can be vetoed by unelected European institutions on public health or national security grounds.
ANH-Intl is calling on European citizens to raise their concerns with their duly elected Member of the European Parliament over how the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation is likely to drastically reduce their ability to select healthy foods and nutrients.
DHEA: For bones, mood, lupus, and lots more…
May 27th
DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) is a substance produced in many tissues of the body, where it is used as raw material for making hormones, including testosterone and estrogens. Youthful bodies make large amounts of DHEA, but this production peaks at puberty in women and at about age 20 in men, then decreases dramatically with age. The intensifying DHEA deficiencies seen with aging, and the resulting decline in hormone levels, suggests that DHEA supplementation might correct age-related problems caused by shortages of these hormones.
DHEA has been studied by biological researchers since the 1950s, and has more recently been the focus of thousands of studies of its potential for treating a wide variety of ailments and for improving health. Many of these studies have led to positive results, others have not. The areas in which DHEA supplementation has shown especially good results include: fat and obesity • hormone replacement • heart disease • cancer • muscle building • bone and osteoporosis • skin and aging • energy and fatigue • immunity and infections • cognition • mood and depression • lupus • menopausal symptoms • fibromyalgia • sexual function. There is also some evidence that DHEA may be useful in the following areas: multiple sclerosis • Parkinson’s • allergies and asthma • schizophrenia • herpes encephalitis • diabetes • nerve cell growth and survival. Let’s look at several of these applications:
Fat and obesity. In 1988 a small clinical trial was conducted in which healthy men consumed 1600 mg/day of DHEA for 28 days. The astonishing result was an average loss of bodyfat of 31%, and a corresponding increase in muscle mass. Much smaller doses were used in later studies, and the fat losses were smaller but sometimes substantial. • DHEA has been shown to reduce the body’s production of cortisol — the hormone that causes the storage of visceral (internal) fat and makes the belly protrude even when the skin is lean. DHEA also reduces the lipodystrophy caused by HIV drugs.
Bone and osteoporosis. In elderly women and men, bone density increases were seen with DHEA supplementation at 50 mg/day. A 2000 study, for example, showed significant increases in bone mineral density after six months of DHEA usage. Even a 25 mg/day DHEA regimen reduced joint pain in men.
Skin and aging. When DHEA was applied to the buttock skin of volunteers 12 times during 4 weeks it promoted the synthesis of procollagen and protein; the researchers concluded that DHEA could be an anti-aging agent for the skin • Improvement in skin pigmentation took place in elderly women given DHEA orally at 50 mg/day. • DHEA also accelerates healing of wounded skin.
Cancer. DHEA treatment inhibits cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, liver, and skin. Epidemiological studies have shown that women with high DHEA levels develop less breast cancer than those with low levels. DHEA has only mild side effects in other tissues, yet has a strong inhibitory effect in breast tumors. • Current treatments for prostate cancer are based on the notion that androgens promote tumor growth, but recent evidence suggests the exact opposite: androgens (such as testosterone or DHEA) actually protect the prostate the prostate from tumor growth.
» For a more detailed discussion of DHEA and its medical applications, with supporting references, see the article on our website at http://www.ilifelink.com/dhea_25_mg_x_100_capsules.html
Uncovering lithium’s mode of action
May 22nd
Though it has been prescribed for over 50 years to treat bipolar disorder, there are still many questions regarding exactly how lithium works. However, in a study appearing in this month’s Journal of Lipid Research, researchers have provided solid evidence that lithium reduces brain inflammation by adjusting the metabolism of the health-protective omega-3-fatty acid called DHA.
Inflammation in the brain, like other parts of the body, is an important process to help the brain combat infection or injury. However, excess or unwanted inflammation can damage sensitive brain cells, which can contribute to psychiatric conditions like bipolar disorder or degenerative diseases like Alzheimers.
It’s believed that lithium helps treat bipolar disorder by reducing brain inflammation during the manic phase, thus alleviating some of the symptoms. Exactly how lithium operates, though, has been debated.
Mireille Basselin and colleagues at the National Institute of Aging and University of Colorado, Denver, took a detailed approach to this question by using mass spectrometry analysis to analyze the chemical composition of brain samples of both control and lithium-treated rats stressed by brain inflammation.
They found that in agreement with some other studies, rats given a six-week lithium treatment had reduced levels of arachidonic acid and its products, which can contribute to inflammation.
In addition, they also demonstrated, for the first time, that lithium treatment increased levels of a metabolite called 17-OH-DHA in response to inflammation. 17-OH-DHA is formed from the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and is the precursor to a wide range of anti-inflammatory compounds known as docosanoids. Other anti-inflammatory drugs, like aspirin, are known to also enhance docosanoids in their mode of action.
Basselin and colleagues noted that the concentration of DHA did not increase, which suggests that lithium may increase 17-OH-DHA levels by affecting the enzyme that converts DHA to 17-OH-DHA.
By reducing both pro-inflammatory AA products, and increasing anti-inflammatory DHA products, lithium exerts a double-protective effect which may explain why it works well in bipolar treatment. Now that its mechanism is a little better understood, it may lead to additional uses for this chemical.
Science Centric | 22 May 2010 10:11 GMT
Source: American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)
For excellent sources of dietary Lithium and Omega-3:
http://www.ilifelink.com/monolith_135_mg_x_100_tablets.html
http://www.ilifelink.com/omega-3_fish_oil_with_epa_and_dha.html
Nutraceuticals and Nootropics for Anti-Aging
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