Health & Nutrition | Vanguard Neurologist

Our Site Network	Dr. Perlmutter »	Vanguard Neurologist »	Perlmutter Health Center »

Alpha Lipoic acid explored as an anti-aging compound

December 21st, 2010

Researchers said today they have identified the mechanism of action of lipoic acid, a remarkable compound that in animal experiments appears to slow down the process of aging, improve blood flow, enhance immune function and perform many other functions.

The findings, discussed at the Diet and Optimum Health conference sponsored by the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, shed light on how this micronutrient might perform such a wide range of beneficial functions.

The evidence suggests that lipoic acid is actually a low-level stressor that turns on the basic cellular defenses of the body, including some of those that naturally decline with age, said Tory Hagen, an LPI researcher and associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at OSU. In particular, it tends to restore levels of glutathione, a protective antioxidant and detoxification compound, to those of a young animal. It also acts as a strong anti-inflammatory agent, which is relevant to many degenerative diseases.

Researchers at LPI are studying vitamins, dietary approaches and micronutrients that may be implicated in the aging or degenerative disease process, and say that lipoic acid appears to be one of those with the most compelling promise. Its normally found at low levels in green leafy vegetables, but can also be taken as a supplement.

According to Hagen, research on the natural processes of aging, and steps that could slow it or improve health until near the end of life, are of growing importance.

Were coming into the middle of an aging epidemic in the country, he said. In a short time more than 70 million Americans will be over 65. This is partly because of the Baby Boom, but also people are living longer, being saved with antibiotics and other medical treatments. In any case, it will be an unprecedented number of elderly people in this nation.

The goal of LPI research, Hagen said, is to address issues of healthspan, not just lifespan

meaning the ability to live a long life with comparatively good health and vigor, free of degenerative disease, until very near death. The best mechanisms to accomplish that, scientists say, have everything to do with diet, exercise, healthy lifestyle habits and micronutrient intake.

At the moment, Hagen said, thats not the way things appear to be headed

diabetes is skyrocketing, about 50 percent of people over 65 have high blood pressure, heart disease often leads to permanent disability, and almost half of the elderly people in America have malnutrition that is easily preventable.

No single intervention can address all of these issues, Hagen said, but one that scientists keep coming back to is lipoic acid.

Our studies have shown that mice supplemented with lipoic acid have a cognitive ability, behavior, and genetic expression of almost 100 detoxification and antioxidant genes that are comparable to that of young animals, Hagen said. They arent just living longer, they are living better

and thats the goal were after.

What the OSU researchers now believe is that the role of lipoic acid is not so much a direct one to benefit cells, but rather an indirect aid that kick starts declining function in cells and helps them recover the functions that came more easily and naturally in young animals.

In various effects, lipoic acid appears to help restore a cellular signaling process that tends to break down in older blood vessels. It reduces mitochondrial decay in cells, which is closely linked to the symptoms of aging. With age, glutathione levels naturally decline, making older animals more susceptible to both free radicals and other environmental toxins

but lipoic acid can restore glutathione function to near normal. And the expression and function of other genes seems to come back to life.

We never really expected such a surprising range of benefits from one compound, Hagen said. This is really unprecedented, and were pretty excited about it.

Many other presentations have been made at this conference on the role of diet, lifestyle and micronutrients in health and degenerative disease, including cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and aging

Dr. Perlmutter’s comment:

This is supportive of our longstanding recommendation of lipoic acid in our programs geared at preserving and enhancing brain function. NeuroActives BrainSustain

Coenzyme Q10 Does Not Improve Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms

November 24th, 2010

Please see my comment at the end of the article.

Science Daily

Small doses of the antioxidant coenzyme Q10 appear to increase blood levels of this naturally occurring compound in patients with Parkinson’s disease, but does not improve Parkinson’s disease symptoms, according to an article that will appear in the July 2007 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by tremors and difficulty with walking or other movements. The biological mechanisms underlying the condition are not fully understood, but researchers suspect a malfunction of the mitochondria, parts of the cells that help convert food to energy, according to background information in the article.

Coenzyme (CoQ10), an antioxidant sold as a dietary supplement, is also involved in mitochondrial processes. “Because of these functions, CoQ10 has attracted attention concerning neuroprotective actions in neurodegenerative disorders linked to mitochondrial defects or oxidative [oxygen-related] stress, such as Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease,” the authors write. Previous studies indicate that high doses of CoQ10 (1,200 milligrams) may slow the deterioration associated with Parkinson’s disease.

Alexander Storch, M.D., of the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial of a 300-milligram dose of CoQ10 in 131 patients with Parkinson’s disease who did not have changes in motor functions and were on stable treatment for their condition. Those assigned to the treatment group took 100 milligrams of CoQ10 three times daily for three months, followed by a two-month “washout” period. The researchers assessed Parkinson’s disease symptoms before treatment began, each month during treatment and again after the washout period. Blood tests were performed at the beginning of the study, after three months of treatment and after the washout period.

A total of 106 patients completed the full three months of the study–55 in the CoQ10 group and 51 in the placebo group. The compound was well tolerated overall, and the percentage of patients who experienced adverse effects–including viral infection, diarrhea and hearing loss–did not differ between the two groups. Blood levels of CoQ10 increased in the treatment group from an average of 0.99 milligrams per liter to an average of 4.46 milligrams per liter after three months.

“Although we demonstrated a significant increase in plasma levels of CoQ10 toward levels observed with high doses of standard CoQ10 formulations in Parkinson’s disease and other disorders, our study failed to show improvement of Parkinson’s disease symptoms and did not meet its primary or secondary end points,” which were changes on scales that measured Parkinson’s disease symptoms and their effects on physical and mental functioning, the authors write. “Our study further demonstrated that 300 milligrams per day of nanoparticular CoQ10 is safe and well tolerated in patients with Parkinson’s disease already taking various antiparkinsonian medications.”

“Since we did not find symptomatic effects of CoQ10 in Parkinson’s disease, our study does not support the hypothesis that restoring the impaired energy metabolism of the diseased dopaminergic neurons leads to symptomatic benefits in Parkinson’s disease,” the authors conclude. “Future studies will need to explore the protective effects of CoQ10 at the highest effective dose (equivalent to about 2,400 milligrams per day of a standard formulation) over a long treatment period and in a large cohort of patients both sufficient to clearly define the protective potential of this compound in Parkinson’s disease.”

Dr. Perlmutter’s comment:

And nobody said it would. We have never expected CoQ10 to affect symptoms of PD. Nevertheless, the studies showing a dramatic slowing of progression are quite sound thank you very much. Again, let’s focus on treating the fire, not just the smoke. Renegade Neurologist

Slowing the Decline in Parkinsons Disease

Physicians Lacking in Nutrition Education

November 15th, 2010

From:

Medical News Today

Almost 60 per cent of US medical schools do not meet recommendations for nutrition education for med students, producing physicians – the first port of call for nutrition advice for many consumers – who may have inadequate nutrition knowledge. Twenty years ago the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) reported that 21 hours of education in nutrition was required but found that many medical schools did not offer nutrition courses.

The 1985 NAS report said: Nutrition education programs in US medical schools are largely inadequate to meet the present and future demands of the medical profession. A new survey, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Vol. 83, pp. 941S-944S), re-examined the state of nutrition education in 106 medical schools. The two-page survey contained 12 questions, with respondents – usually the person responsible for the nutrition teachings – indicating in which year of study that students were taught and in which context (eg nutrition, physiology, biochemistry).

The respondents were also asked whether current nutrition education was sufficient or if more was needed. Remarkably, less than one half (41 per cent) of the responding schools provided the minimum 25 hours or more recommended by the NAS in 1985, said lead author Kelly Adams from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Also surprising was the finding that 17 schools (18 per cent) required only [less than or equal to] 10 hours of nutrition instruction, she said.

The researchers also found that during the clinical years (third to fourth year) 36 per cent of schools offered less than five hours of teaching nutrition. Eighty-eight per cent of the instructors questioned also indicated that the students needed more tuition. Thus, it appears that we are producing a pool of physicians who feel largely unprepared to counsel their patients about nutrition, concluded Adams. Other surveys in the literature have reported that physicians feel unprepared to deal with the growing problem of obesity, with 32 per cent of US adults clinically obese.

Shockingly, the number of overweight children is reported to have tripled since 1980. With the rising epidemic of obesity in the US population and the knowledge that prevention is more likely to be successful than treatment, it is clearly imperative to ensure that medical students are adequately prepared, wrote the researchers.

Dr. Daniel Fabricant, vice president of scientific affairs for the industry association, the National Nutritional Foods Association, applauded the authors of the study, but said that it seemed to confirm what many in the research community have long believed to be true. There is an ever increasing amount of good science that demonstrates how very important nutritive factors, like the use of dietary supplements, are for not only maintaining health, but in preventing disease.

Based on the study, information on nutrition, diet and supplementation cannot be accurately provided to the public by their physicians, which means that the public, who works longer hours and has more demands on their time than ever, making it harder to find good information, suffers the most. Fabricant said that the NNFA hoped that such studies would be the impetus for major wholesale changes in medical education to implement curriculum and instructors that provide the tools to best serve the public with. Additionally, if the majority of physicians are not properly educated on these topics is it really surprising that many stories appearing in journals/publications geared towards physicians are misinterpreted and sometimes misleading?

The American Medical Association refused to comment on the study since it was published in a non-AMA journal.

Coffee drinking may cut liver cancer risk – meta-analysis

November 9th, 2010

From FoodNavigator.com Regular and high coffee drinking may reduce the risk of liver cancer by 55 per cent, says a new meta-analysis of observational studies.The study, published in this month’s Hepatology, pooled data from six case-control and four cohort studies and found that an increase of one cup of coffee every day was associated with a 23 per cent reduction across all the studies.

The study, published in this month’s , pooled data from six case-control and four cohort studies and found that an increase of one cup of

every day was associated with a 23 per cent reduction across all the studies.“Moreover, the apparent favorable effect of coffee drinking was found both in studies from southern Europe, where coffee is widely consumed, and from Japan, where coffee consumption is less frequent, and in subjects with chronic liver diseases,” wrote lead author Francesca Bravi from the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan.

Liver cancer is the sixth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world, and third most common cause of death from cancer, according to Cancer Research UK. Despite these figures, the cancer remains relatively rare, with 18,500 new cases in the US every year, and about 3,000 in the UK.

The highest incidences of the disease are in east and Southeast Asia, particularly China, and for this reason the current researchers looked at the effects of probiotic supplements on markers for the disease.

The new study included 2,260 liver cancer cases (hepatocellular carcinoma – HCC) from studies based in Southern Europe and Japan. The researchers found drinkers of coffee were associated with a 46 per cent lower risk of HCC from case-control studies, and a 36 per cent lower risk from cohort studies.

In addition, the authors calculated that moderate coffee drinking was associated with a 30 per cent lower risk, while heavy coffee drinking was associated with a 55 per cent lower risk.

“The consistency of an inverse relation between coffee drinking and HCC across study design and geographic areas weighs against a major role of bias or confounding,” stated the researchers.

Bravi and co-workers point out that animal and laboratory studies have indicated that certain compounds found in coffee may act as blocking agents by reacting with enzymes involved in carcinogenic detoxification. Moreover, other components, including caffeine, have been shown to have favorable effects on liver enzymes.

“Despite the consistency of these results, it is difficult to derive a causal inference on the basis of the observational studies alone,” they added.

“The results from this meta-analysis provide quantitative evidence of an inverse relation between coffee drinking and liver cancer,” concluded the authors. “The interpretation of this association remains, however, unclear and the consequent inference on causality and worldwide public health implications is still open for discussion.”The beverage, and its constituent ingredients, has come under increasing study with research linking it to reduced risk of diabetes, and improved liver health.The beverage, and its constituent ingredients, has come under increasing study with research linking it to reduced risk of , and improved liver health.Coffee, one of the world’s largest traded commodities produced in more than 60 countries and generating more than $70bn in retail sales a year, continues to spawn research and interest, and has been linked to reduced risks of certain diseases, especially of the liver and diabetes.

The beverage, and its constituent ingredients, has come under increasing study with research linking it to reduced risk of , and improved liver health.Coffee, one of the world’s largest traded commodities produced in more than 60 countries and generating more than $70bn in retail sales a year, continues to spawn research and interest, and has been linked to reduced risks of certain diseases, especially of the liver and diabetes.

Seizures and Gluten Sensitivity

November 1st, 2010

It has been estimated that about 2.3 million Americans, suffer from epilepsy. While epileptic seizures can be caused by a variety problems including head trauma, stroke, infectious agents, metabolic disturbances, drugs, developmental disturbances, and brain tumors, most commonly epilepsy is termed idiopathic, a term describing a disease for which there is no identifiable cause.

For those who have been following the RenegadeNeurologist.com blog site, you no doubt have noted not only the large number of articles dealing with various neurological problems associated with gluten sensitivity including headache, confusion, vertigo and coordination difficulties, but the vigorous comments that have followed from our readers as well.

Now we can add epilepsy to the list of neurological disorders associated with eating gluten containing foods like wheat, barley and rye in some individuals. In an article appearing in the February 13, 2007 issue of the journal Neurology, PubMed Home Vanderbilt researchers not only presented compelling evidence supporting the association of celiac disease (gluten sensitivity) with epilepsy in some people, but in addition, they actually described one patient whose seizures were cured after adopting a gluten-free diet.

I suspect many epileptic patients may have gluten sensitivity which could be identified by simple blood testing that any doctors office could perform. Whether adopting a gluten-free diet would cure their seizures is obviously unknown, but if it did, and allowed even a small percentage to reduce or even stop medication, it certainly seems worth a try.