Memory Loss Reversed in Small Trial reported in Science Daily

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140930143446.htmmemhttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140930143446.htm

Memory loss associated with Alzheimer's reversed: Small trial succeeds using systems approach to memory disorders

Date:

September 30, 2014

Source:

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences

In the case of Alzheimer's disease, Bredesen notes, there is not one drug that has been developed that stops or even slows the disease's progression, and drugs have only had modest effects on symptoms. "In the past decade alone, hundreds of clinical trials have been conducted for Alzheimer's at an aggregate cost of over a billion dollars, without success," he said.

Credit: © Fenton / Fotolia

Patient one had two years of progressive memory loss. She was considering quitting her job, which involved analyzing data and writing reports, she got disoriented driving, and mixed up the names of her pets. Patient two kept forgetting once familiar faces at work, forgot his gym locker combination, and had to have his assistants constantly remind him of his work schedule. Patient three's memory was so bad she used an iPad to record everything, then forgot her password. Her children noticed she commonly lost her train of thought in mid-sentence, and often asked them if they had carried out the tasks that she mistakenly thought she had asked them to do.

Since its first description over 100 years ago, Alzheimer's disease has been without effective treatment. That may finally be about to change: in the first, small study of a novel, personalized and comprehensive program to reverse memory loss, nine of 10 participants, including the ones above, displayed subjective or objective improvement in their memories beginning within three to six months after the program's start. Of the six patients who had to discontinue working or were struggling with their jobs at the time they joined the study, all were able to return to work or continue working with improved performance. Improvements have been sustained, and as of this writing the longest patient follow-up is two and one-half years from initial treatment. These first ten included patients with memory loss associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), or subjective cognitive impairment (SCI; when a patient reports cognitive problems). One patient, diagnosed with late stage Alzheimer's, did not improve.

The study, which comes jointly from the UCLA Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, is the first to suggest that memory loss in patients may be reversed, and improvement sustained, using a complex, 36-point therapeutic program that involves comprehensive changes in diet, brain stimulation, exercise, optimization of sleep, specific pharmaceuticals and vitamins, and multiple additional steps that affect brain chemistry.

The findings, published in the current online edition of the journal Aging, "are very encouraging. However, at the current time the results are anecdotal, and therefore a more extensive, controlled clinical trial is warranted," said Dale Bredesen, the Augustus Rose Professor of Neurology and Director of the Easton Center at UCLA, a professor at the Buck Institute, and the author of the paper.

In the case of Alzheimer's disease, Bredesen notes, there is not one drug that has been developed that stops or even slows the disease's progression, and drugs have only had modest effects on symptoms. "In the past decade alone, hundreds of clinical trials have been conducted for Alzheimer's at an aggregate cost of over a billion dollars, without success," he said.

Other chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV, have been improved through the use of combination therapies, he noted. Yet in the case of Alzheimer's and other memory disorders, comprehensive combination therapies have not been explored. Yet over the past few decades, genetic and biochemical research has revealed an extensive network of molecular interactions involved in AD pathogenesis. "That suggested that a broader-based therapeutics approach, rather than a single drug that aims at a single target, may be feasible and potentially more effective for the treatment of cognitive decline due to Alzheimer's," said Bredesen.

While extensive preclinical studies from numerous laboratories have identified single pathogenetic targets for potential intervention, in human studies, such single target therapeutic approaches have not borne out. But, said Bredesen, it's possible addressing multiple targets within the network underlying AD may be successful even when each target is affected in a relatively modest way. "In other words," he said, "the effects of the various targets may be additive, or even synergistic."

The uniform failure of drug trials in Alzheimer's influenced Bredesen's research to get a better understanding of the fundamental nature of the disease. His laboratory has found evidence that Alzheimer's disease stems from an imbalance in nerve cell signaling: in the normal brain, specific signals foster nerve connections and memory making, while balancing signals support memory loss, allowing irrelevant information to be forgotten. But in Alzheimer's disease, the balance of these opposing signals is disturbed, nerve connections are suppressed, and memories are lost.

The model of multiple targets and an imbalance in signaling runs contrary to the popular dogma that Alzheimer's is a disease of toxicity, caused by the accumulation of sticky plaques in the brain. Bredesen believes the amyloid beta peptide, the source of the plaques, has a normal function in the brain -- as part of a larger set of molecules that promotes signals that cause nerve connections to lapse. Thus the increase in the peptide that occurs in Alzheimer's disease shifts the memory-making vs. memory-breaking balance in favor of memory loss.

Given all this, Bredesen thought that rather than a single targeted agent, the solution might be a systems type approach, the kind that is in line with the approach taken with other chronic illnesses -- a multiple-component system.

"The existing Alzheimer's drugs affect a single target, but Alzheimer's disease is more complex. Imagine having a roof with 36 holes in it, and your drug patched one hole very well -- the drug may have worked, a single "hole" may have been fixed, but you still have 35 other leaks, and so the underlying process may not be affected much."

Bredesen's approach is personalized to the patient, based on extensive testing to determine what is affecting the plasticity signaling network of the brain. As one example, in the case of the patient with the demanding job who was forgetting her way home, her therapeutic program consisted of some, but not all of the components involved with Bredesen's therapeutic program, and included:

(1) eliminating all simple carbohydrates, leading to a weight loss of 20 pounds;

(2) eliminating gluten and processed food from her diet, with increased vegetables, fruits, and non-farmed fish;

(3) to reduce stress, she began yoga;

(4) as a second measure to reduce the stress of her job, she began to meditate for 20 minutes twice per day;

(5) she took melatonin each night;

(6) she increased her sleep from 4-5 hours per night to 7-8 hours per night;

(7) she took methylcobalamin each day;

(8) she took vitamin D3 each day;

(9) fish oil each day;

(10) CoQ10 each day;

(11) she optimized her oral hygiene using an electric flosser and electric toothbrush;

(12) following discussion with her primary care provider, she reinstated hormone replacement therapy that had been discontinued;

(13) she fasted for a minimum of 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, and for a minimum of three hours between dinner and bedtime;

(14) she exercised for a minimum of 30 minutes, 4-6 days per week.

The results for nine of the 10 patients reported in the paper suggest that memory loss may be reversed, and improvement sustained with this therapeutic program, said Bredesen. "This is the first successful demonstration," he noted, but he cautioned that the results are anecdotal, and therefore a more extensive, controlled clinical trial is needed.

The downside to this program is its complexity. It is not easy to follow, with the burden falling on the patients and caregivers, and none of the patients were able to stick to the entire protocol. The significant diet and lifestyle changes, and multiple pills required each day, were the two most common complaints. The good news, though, said Bredesen, are the side effects: "It is noteworthy that the major side effect of this therapeutic system is improved health and an optimal body mass index, a stark contrast to the side effects of many drugs."

The results for nine of the 10 patients reported in the paper suggest that memory loss may be reversed, and improvement sustained with this therapeutic program, said Bredesen. "This is the first successful demonstration," he noted, but he cautioned that the results need to be replicated. "The current, anecdotal results require a larger trial, not only to confirm or refute the results reported here, but also to address key questions raised, such as the degree of improvement that can be achieved routinely, how late in the course of cognitive decline reversal can be effected, whether such an approach may be effective in patients with familial Alzheimer's disease, and last, how long improvement can be sustained," he said.

Cognitive decline is a major concern of the aging population. Already, Alzheimer's disease affects approximately 5.4 million Americans and 30 million people globally. Without effective prevention and treatment, the prospects for the future are bleak. By 2050, it's estimated that 160 million people globally will have the disease, including 13 million Americans, leading to potential bankruptcy of the Medicare system. Unlike several other chronic illnesses, Alzheimer's disease is on the rise--recent estimates suggest that AD has become the third leading cause of death in the United States behind cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Dale E. Bredesen. Reversal of cognitive decline: A novel therapeutic program. Aging, September 2014

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University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences. "Memory loss associated with Alzheimer's reversed: Small trial succeeds using systems approach to memory disorders." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 September 2014. .

World Renown Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease

Published On: Fri, Aug 29th, 2014

World Renown Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease

We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong.. As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries,today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact.

I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labelled “opinion makers.”  Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.

The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.

It Is Not Working!

These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.

The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.

Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.

Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people in greater numbers every year.

Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.

Inflammation is not complicated — it is quite simply your body’s natural defence to a foreign invader such as a bacteria, toxin or virus. The cycle of inflammation is perfect in how it protects your body from these bacterial and viral invaders. However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods the human body was never designed to process,a condition occurs called chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute inflammation is beneficial.

What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or other substances that are known to cause injury to the body?  Well,smokers perhaps, but at least they made that choice willfully.

The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream dietthat is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. Thisrepeated injury creates chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity.

Let me repeat that: The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine.

What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.

Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. you kept this up several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body right now.

Regardless of where the inflammatory process occurs, externally or internally, it is the same. I have peered inside thousands upon thousands of arteries. A diseased artery looks as if someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall. Several times a day, every day, the foods we eat create small injuries compounding into more injuries, causing the body to respond continuously and appropriately with inflammation.

While we savor the tantalizing taste of a sweet roll, our bodies respond alarmingly as if a foreign invader arrived declaring war. Foods loaded with sugars and simple carbohydrates, or processed withomega-6 oils for long shelf life have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades. These foods have been slowly poisoning everyone.

How does eating a simple sweet roll create a cascade of inflammation to make you sick?

Imagine spilling syrup on your keyboard and you have a visual of what occurs inside the cell. When we consume simple carbohydrates such as sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell where it is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works.

When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat.

What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.

While you may not be able to see it, rest assured it is there. I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who all shared one common denominator — inflammation in their arteries.

Let’s get back to the sweet roll. That innocent looking goody not only contains sugars, it is baked in one of many omega-6 oils such as soybean. Chips and fries are soaked in soybean oil; processed foods are manufactured with omega-6 oils for longer shelf life. While omega-6’s are essential -they are part of every cell membrane controlling what goes in and out of the cell — they must be in the correct balance with omega-3’s.

5) Foods To Never Eat perfectorigins.com/5BadFoods.php Here are 5 foods you should never eat if you want to lose belly fat.

If the balance shifts by consuming excessive omega-6, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that directly cause inflammation.

Today’s mainstream American diet has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats. The ratio of imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of omega-6. That’s a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation. In today’s food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy.

To make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from eating these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar. The process that began with a sweet roll turns into a vicious cycle over time that creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and finally, Alzheimer’s disease, as the inflammatory process continues unabated.

There is no escaping the fact that the more we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.

There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural state. To build muscle, eat more protein. Choose carbohydrates that are very complex such as colorful fruits and vegetables. Cut down on or eliminate inflammation- causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil and the processed foods that are made from them.

One tablespoon of corn oil contains 7,280 mg of omega-6; soybean contains 6,940 mg. Instead, use olive oil or butter from grass-fed beef.

Animal fats contain less than 20% omega-6 and are much less likely to cause inflammation than the supposedly healthy oils labelled polyunsaturated. Forget the “science” that has been drummed into your head for decades. The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is non-existent. The science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is also very weak. Since we now know that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, the concern about saturated fat is even more absurd today.

The cholesterol theory led to the no-fat, low-fat recommendations that in turn created the very foods now causing an epidemic of inflammation. Mainstream medicine made a terrible mistake when it advised people to avoid saturated fat in favor of foods high in omega-6 fats. We now have an epidemic of arterial inflammation leading to heart disease and other silent killers.

What you can do is choose whole foods your grandmother served and not those your mom turned to as grocery store aisles filled with manufactured foods. By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage in your arteries and throughout your body from consuming the typical American diet.

Dr. Dwight Lundell is the past Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital , Mesa , AZ. His private practice, Cardiac Care Center was in Mesa, AZ. Recently Dr. Lundell left surgery to focus on the nutritional treatment of heart disease. He is the founder of Healthy Humans Foundation that promotes human health with a focus on helping large corporations promote wellness. He is also the author of The Cure for Heart Disease and The Great Cholesterol Lie.

Spirulina: A Luxury Health Food That Can Help Fight Malnutrition

Spirulina: A Luxury Health Food That Can Help Fight Malnutrition

The Heart Sutra Buddhist Chanting (English)

Full-Fat Dairy May Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes

Full-Fat Dairy May Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes

Fluoridated Water Can Calcify Arteries Study Finds

Fluoridated Water Can Calcify Arteries, Study Finds

Posted on: Sunday, September 28th 2014 at 12:15 pm

Written By: Sayer Ji, Founder

Fluoride is put in your drinking water 'for your teeth' without your consent, but did you know that it could also be calcifying your arteries?

A few years ago, we reported on a study evaluating a new diagnostic technology that inadvertently revealed a link between fluoride exposure and coronary artery disease. Our report stirred up quite a lot of controversy and criticism, even leading one of the most respected figures in alternative medicine (deservedly so) – Dr. Russell Blaylock -- to call us out on Infowars for our allegedly sophomoric interpretation of the following article: "Association of vascular fluoride uptake with vascular calcification and coronary artery disease." As one can see, the study's results revealed a hitherto largely unknown connection between fluoride exposure, coronary artery disease and cardiovascular events (e.g. heart attack).

"There was significant correlation between history of cardiovascular events and presence of fluoride uptake in coronary arteries. The coronary fluoride uptake value in patients with cardiovascular events was significantly higher than in patients without cardiovascular events."

The argument, at the time, was the study was simply about a new diagnostic technique and shouldn't be 'read into,' and that, presumably, the increased fluoride uptake value observed in patients with a higher frequency of cardiovascular events was a an 'effect' of the heart disease itself and not in any way indicative of fluoride's causative role as a cardiotoxic agent -- despite the fact that fluoride's cardiotoxicity has already been consistently demonstrated in the biomedical literature.

Now, a provocative new study published in the journal Toxicology not only provides some vindication for our previous interpretations, but also raises serious concern over the cardiovascular complications associated with water fluoridation practices, showing for the first time that despite exhibiting an anti-calcification effect in vitro (cell model) fluoride exposure at levels found in people who drink fluoridated water exhibits artery-calcifying effects in the more important in vivo (animal) model.

Titled, "Effect of water fluoridation on the development of medial vascular calcification in uremic rats," the study opens with a description of the common medical justification for public water fluoridation:

"In order to improve dental health in the population, fluoride is included in tooth pastes and mouthwash solutions or is added to public water supplies at 0.5–1.5 mg/L (WHO, 2008), which has been a common practice in some countries since 1945."

And yet, the study acknowledges that fluoride is a well-established toxicant that our body has to either incorporate into its tissues or excrete through the kidney's to sequester or eliminate:

 "More than 90% of ingested fluoride is absorbed through the intestine and quickly distributed between plasma/soft tissues and calcified structures, where it can be sequestered for years (Buzalaf and Whitford, 2011). When water is fluoridated at the WHO- recommended levels, the range of plasma fluoride concentration is usually 1–6 uM (Husdan et al., 1976; Singer and Ophaug, 1979). Fluoride is not under homeostatic control, and it is cleared from the plasma within few hours by the complementary action of calcified tissues and the kidneys."

Those with chronic kidney disease have a harder time clearing the fluoride, which results in increased blood plasma levels, especially as the length of exposure increases.

The study noted that in healthy people, almost without exception, fluoride accumulates in the aorta, and in the elderly can exceed 100 ug/g [microgram/gram] tissue. Since atherosclerosis involves the gradual hardening and final calcification of the arteries with a form of calcium known as hydroxylapatite, fluoride's role in replacing hydroxyls within hydroxylapatite crystals to form fluorapatite can be considered enhancing the cardiotoxicity of these calcium deposits due to the fact that fluorapatite is less soluble than hydroxylapatite and therefore more resistant to the body's demineralization mechanisms (or de-calcification with natural substances such as magnesium, hawthorn or vitamin K2). The authors address this point:

"From a therapeutic point of view, this incorporation [of fluoride into hydroxylapatite as fluorapatite] may involve an additional problem, because these calcifications will be more difficult to eliminate, if at all possible."

The report discussed how despite the observation that fluoride accumulates in the main arteries, "the effects on the vascular wall are not clear." A brief review of the literature shows highly contradictory results, with some studies implying fluoride exposure actually reduces aortic calcification and others showing (as would be expected) deleterious effects on the cardiovascular system.  This uncertainty was one of the main reasons they designed their study:

F

Fluoride is put in your drinking water 'for your teeth' without your consent, but did you know that it could also be calcifying your arteries?

A few years ago, we reported on a study evaluating a new diagnostic technology that inadvertently revealed a link between fluoride exposure and coronary artery disease. Our report stirred up quite a lot of controversy and criticism, even leading one of the most respected figures in alternative medicine (deservedly so) – Dr. Russell Blaylock -- to call us out on Infowars for our allegedly sophomoric interpretation of the following article: "Association of vascular fluoride uptake with vascular calcification and coronary artery disease." As one can see, the study's results revealed a hitherto largely unknown connection between fluoride exposure, coronary artery disease and cardiovascular events (e.g. heart attack).

"There was significant correlation between history of cardiovascular events and presence of fluoride uptake in coronary arteries. The coronary fluoride uptake value in patients with cardiovascular events was significantly higher than in patients without cardiovascular events."

The argument, at the time, was the study was simply about a new diagnostic technique and shouldn't be 'read into,' and that, presumably, the increased fluoride uptake value observed in patients with a higher frequency of cardiovascular events was a an 'effect' of the heart disease itself and not in any way indicative of fluoride's causative role as a cardiotoxic agent -- despite the fact that fluoride's cardiotoxicity has already been consistently demonstrated in the biomedical literature.

Now, a provocative new study published in the journal Toxicology not only provides some vindication for our previous interpretations, but also raises serious concern over the cardiovascular complications associated with water fluoridation practices, showing for the first time that despite exhibiting an anti-calcification effect in vitro (cell model) fluoride exposure at levels found in people who drink fluoridated water exhibits artery-calcifying effects in the more important in vivo (animal) model.

Titled, "Effect of water fluoridation on the development of medial vascular calcification in uremic rats," the study opens with a description of the common medical justification for public water fluoridation:

"In order to improve dental health in the population, fluoride is included in tooth pastes and mouthwash solutions or is added to public water supplies at 0.5–1.5 mg/L (WHO, 2008), which has been a common practice in some countries since 1945."

And yet, the study acknowledges that fluoride is a well-established toxicant that our body has to either incorporate into its tissues or excrete through the kidney's to sequester or eliminate:

 "More than 90% of ingested fluoride is absorbed through the intestine and quickly distributed between plasma/soft tissues and calcified structures, where it can be sequestered for years (Buzalaf and Whitford, 2011). When water is fluoridated at the WHO- recommended levels, the range of plasma fluoride concentration is usually 1–6 uM (Husdan et al., 1976; Singer and Ophaug, 1979). Fluoride is not under homeostatic control, and it is cleared from the plasma within few hours by the complementary action of calcified tissues and the kidneys."

Those with chronic kidney disease have a harder time clearing the fluoride, which results in increased blood plasma levels, especially as the length of exposure increases.

The study noted that in healthy people, almost without exception, fluoride accumulates in the aorta, and in the elderly can exceed 100 ug/g [microgram/gram] tissue. Since atherosclerosis involves the gradual hardening and final calcification of the arteries with a form of calcium known as hydroxylapatite, fluoride's role in replacing hydroxyls within hydroxylapatite crystals to form fluorapatite can be considered enhancing the cardiotoxicity of these calcium deposits due to the fact that fluorapatite is less soluble than hydroxylapatite and therefore more resistant to the body's demineralization mechanisms (or de-calcification with natural substances such as magnesium, hawthorn or vitamin K2). The authors address this point:

"From a therapeutic point of view, this incorporation [of fluoride into hydroxylapatite as fluorapatite] may involve an additional problem, because these calcifications will be more difficult to eliminate, if at all possible."

The report discussed how despite the observation that fluoride accumulates in the main arteries, "the effects on the vascular wall are not clear." A brief review of the literature shows highly contradictory results, with some studies implying fluoride exposure actually reduces aortic calcification and others showing (as would be expected) deleterious effects on the cardiovascular system.  This uncertainty was one of the main reasons they designed their study:

"The aforementioned divergent findings can be explained by the use of different procedures, including very high doses of fluoride, the duration of treatment, and the animal species, in addition to either an experimental or epidemiological setup. In this work, our objective was to clarify the effect of fluoride, if any, on the development and course of medial vascular calcification (MVC, Mönckeberg's sclerosis) in uremic rats, using low, recommended concentrations in drinking water. Our rationale was that de novo calcified tissue in aorta should incorporate fluoride when exposure to this halogen is concomitant with the course of calcification, and subsequently the rate of calcium phosphate crystallization and/or mineralization should be altered, similar to the effects in tooth enamel or bone. We used two established experimental models of calcification, rat aortic smooth muscle cells incubated with 2 mM Pi, and rats with 5/6-nephrectomy [5/6^th of their kidneys removed to model chronic kidney disease] and fed a Pi-enriched diet [Pi = Inorganic phosphate], in combination with low concentrations of fluoride (similar to that of public water fluoridation). Our findings have shown that the results are inverse depending on the experimental model, which highlights the need to carry out in vivo approaches when studying complex multifactorial processes, such as Mönckeberg's sclerosis [a type of arterial calcification]."

The study found a striking contrast between the in vitro (cell model) and in vivo (animal model) results: within the former, fluoride prevented calcification, within the later, it enhanced medial [middle portion of the artery] vascular calcification in the arteries of animals whose kidneys were weakened. Keep in mind that they did not use 'mega doses' of fluoride in the animal study, opting for the administration of the World Health Organization's recommended concentration of fluoride in public drinking water to 'prevent cavities.'

The researchers determined that fluoride's adverse effects on vascular function in the animal model were mediated by the inherent kidney-damaging properties of fluoride (nephrotoxicity). Whereas healthy individuals are not prone to significant or at least acutely discernible damage from low level fluoride exposure (though some functional damage and proteomic changes are observed at 5-8 ppm), those with chronic kidney disease (CKD), have impaired fluoride clearance, subsequent elevated plasma fluoride levels, which creates a vicious self-perpetuating cycle of fluoride-induced aggravation of their decline in kidney function.

The researchers summarized their main finding as follows:

"The main conclusion of our study is that CKD is aggravated even by low concentrations of fluoride, which in turn accelerates medial vascular calcification (MVC), thereby confirming and extending previous reports on fluorosis in CKD patients exposed to WHO-recommended fluoride concentrations in drinking water (Greenberg et al., 1974; Lyaruu et al., 2008)."

Their final comments are to call for a reappraisal of the risks/benefits associated with fluoridation of municipal drinking water:

"In summary, the effects of fluoride on renal function and vascular health are more complicated than expected. Our findings could help to decide whether the use of fluoride to improve the dental health of the population through indiscriminate practices, such as adding it to municipal drinking water, should be reconsidered and should be replaced by a fluoridation policy based on the health status of individuals."

It should be noted that fluoride's association with soft tissue calcification also extends to brain structures, including the pineal gland, which we documented in a previous article: Fluoride: Calcifier of the Soul, and that its neurotoxicity -- especially as evidenced by lowered I.Q. -- is well documented.

For additional research use the following database sections and/or articles and videos:

• Fluoride | GreenMedInfo | Toxic Ingredient
• The Spice That Prevents Fluoride From Destroying Your Brain
• Reducing Fluoride Toxicity | GreenMedInfo
• Fluoride: Killing Us Softly
• Can Fluoride Lower Human Intelligence?
• 'Fluoridated Water Amounts to Public Murder on a Grand Scale'
• Nursery Water: "Purified" with Fluoride?
• Fluoride is Poison: Abby Martin
• Fluoride in your Drinking Water Making You LOOK Older
• Fluoride Does Not Reduce Tooth Decay- But THIS Does!

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/fluoridated-water-can-calcify-arteries-study-finds

Sayer Ji is the founder of GreenMedInfo.com, an author, educator, Steering Committee Member of the Global GMO Free Coalition (GGFC), and an advisory board member of the National Health Federation.

He founded Greenmedinfo.com in 2008 in order to provide the world an open access, evidence-based resource supporting natural and integrative modalities. It is widely recognized as the most widely referenced health resource of its kind.

Is there Scienfic Evidence that We Can Heal Ourselves

Is There Scientific Proof We Can Heal Ourselves?

THE MIND UNLEASHED on 28 April, 2014 at 20:28

Whether you’re battling a life-threatening illness, saddled with a “chronic” health condition that Western medicine hasn’t been able to cure, or battling nuisance symptoms that decrease your quality of life, or just hoping to optimize your energy, vitality, looks, and longevity, there is scientific proof that you can heal yourself.

As a skeptic herself, Dr. Lissa Rankin makes an irrefutable case, documenting with cold, hard science that the medical establishment has been proving that the mind can heal the body for over 50 years.

Loads of data proves that the mind can believe itself well. In clinical trials, we call it “the placebo effect.” Patients treated with placebos don’t just feel better. It’s not just “in their heads.” They’ve actually had warts disappear, bronchi dilate, colons become less inflamed, hair growth on the heads of bald men, ulcers heal, and other measurable physiological phenomena. We also know that the opposite is true, and the mind can think itself sick, which researchers call “the nocebo effect.” When patients are given injections with saline and told it is chemotherapy, they vomit and lose their hair.

How do such things happen physiologically? In her book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself, Lissa Rankin, MD, explains the science behind how a positive or negative thought or emotion in the mind translates into spontaneous repair in the body. As it turns out, the body has built in self-repair mechanisms that fix damaged proteins, repair DNA, correct hormonal imbalances, and gobble up cancer cells, infectious agents, and foreign bodies that our bodies are exposed to everyday. These mechanisms explain the spontaneous remissions that are reported in the medical literature from seemingly “incurable” diseases like Stage 4 cancer, HIV, hypothyroidism, diabetes, and even an untreated gunshot wound to the head. Yet patients often feel powerless to harness these natural self-repair mechanisms.

Not anymore. In this book, Dr. Rankin teaches a scientifically-founded six step process you can follow to optimize the body’s capacity to flip on its natural self-repair mechanisms when the body becomes ill. She also teaches the tools to implement the power of the mind as preventative medicine, to increase the chance that you will one day die of “old age,” rather than dying too young as the result of disabling of the body’s ability to repair itself.

What disables the body’s natural self-repair mechanisms? We all know that stress is bad for the body. But do you understand how this works? Loads of data proves that stress comes in different forms — the stress of feeling lonely, work stress, financial stress, marital stress, family stress, the stress of feeling creatively blocked or spiritually disconnected. Regardless of what triggers it, stress flips on a series of physiological cascades associated with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the “fight or flight” response of the sympathetic nervous system. In other words, whether you’re stressed about money, your marriage, or your job, your body can’t tell the difference between a perceived threat, such as impending bankruptcy, and a real threat, such as getting chased by a lion.

But here’s the kicker. The body can only repair itself when the body is in a state of physiological rest. Whenever the body thinks it’s time to run away from the lion (or whatever chronic, repetitive perceived threat it believes itself to be under), it shuts down self-repair. After all, who cares about long term maintenance like killing unwanted cancer cells if you’re about to be eaten by a lion? In Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself, Dr. Rankin shares not just the scientific proof that you can heal yourself, but also tips for using the power of the mind to optimize the body’s natural self-repair mechanisms, so disease prevention and spontaneous remissions aren’t just something that happens randomly, but something you might be able to experience for yourself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Lissa Rankin, launched the Whole Health Medicine Institute to train doctors, nurses, alternative and other health care providers, and life coaches about mind-body medicine. She is the author of several books including the New York Times bestseller Mind Over Medicine.

References:
lissarankin.com
mindovermedicinebook.com

Credits: Dr. Lissa Rankin,  PreventDisease, Guest contributor for The Mind Unleashed. 

Featured image credits: TalentDrivenSociety.tumblrhttp://themindunleashed.org/2014/04/scientific-proof-can-heal.html

How Prolonged Sitting Kills You, and What You Can Do About It

How Prolonged Sitting Kills You, and What You Can Do About It

Science Shows Herbs Can Significantly Enhance Bioavailability of Nutrients

Science Shows Herbs Can Significantly Enhance Bioavailability of Nutrients

Posted on: Tuesday, September 23rd 2014 at 10:15 am

Written By: Rohan Jasani

Just because you consume a particular food or drink, doesn't mean all the nutrients make their way into the body, to the locations where they end up being used or stored. Sometimes they just pass right out of your gastrointestinal tract without being absorbed and other times they are broken-down immediately by the liver and excreted by the kidneys.

Nutrients have to make it through a variety of obstacles, starting from the moment they enter your mouth to the moment they are used or stored. The bioavailability of a particular nutrient refers to the ability of the nutrient to pass through some or all of these obstacles, so that they are absorbed into your body and become available for use or storage [1].

Why Bioavailability Is So Important!

There are many factors that can increase or decrease the bioavailability of nutrients, many of which are associated with aspects of modern living and society.

Rushed meals, consumption of processed foods and other dietary habits can contribute to inflammation & damage to the gastrointestinal wall to varying degrees, impairing adequate absorption of nutrients. In more severe cases, gastrointestinal conditions such as Celiacs Disease, Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Crohn's, have a strong inflammatory component resulting in significant reductions in the bioavailability of nutrients.

Chronic stress can increase gut motility, causing loose stools. In more severe cases, such as certain types of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, this can result in regular episodes of diarrhea. When food passes through the gastrointestinal tract too fast, adequate absorption cannot occur fast enough, resulting in a portion of the nutrients getting eliminated out of the body.

Many of the foods that we do consume consist of plants that have been grown on depleted soils or using agricultural practices that result in reduced nutrient content. So our foods can be deficient from the outset, making it more important for our bodies to extract out as many nutrients as possible from our foods.

Other factors that affect bioavailability include impaired digestive enzyme secretion throughout the gastrointestinal tract, the consumption of improper combinations of food and many others.

Herbal Bioenhancement Is The Key

The modern term, "herbal bioenhancer", refers to herbs that enhance the bioavailability of other substances that they are administered with. They are typically added in small amounts and don't exert any noticeable therapeutic effects themselves.

The concept of an herbal bioenhancer has been used by all the herbal traditions of the world for centuries. Among western herbal medicine practitioners, the term "activator" or "catalyst" is used to describe the bio-availability enhancing role these herbs play, while in traditional Chinese medicine, the term "harmonizer" is used to describe this action. Furthermore, these same herbs are used in a similar capacity in various culinary traditions for the exact some reasons. 

Herbal bioenhancers have been shown to enhance absorption across the gastrointestinal (GIT) tract via various mechanisms such as increasing blood supply to the GIT and stimulating enzymes & membrane transporters that facilitate nutrient absorption [2] [4]. Additionally, they been shown to help reduce the activity of liver enzymes that would normally breakdown and filter out these nutrients [2] [3] [4]. 

Here are a few common herbs have been shown to boost the bioavailability of various types of nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, anti-oxidants and phytonutrients [2]:

Black Pepper

Piperine, a single phytochemical constituent extracted from Black Pepper (Piper nigrum), was found to enhance bioavailability of a variety of nutrients [2] [3]:

Vitamins (water soluable)	Vitamin B1 Vitamin E2 Niacinamide Vitamin B6 Vitamin B12 Folic acid Vitamin C
Vitamins (fat soluable)	Vitamin A B-Carotene (provitamin) Vitamin D Vitamin E Vitamin K
Amino Acids	Lysine Isoleucine Leucine Threonine Valine Tryptophan Phenylalanine Methionine
Minerals	Iodine Calcium Iron Zinc Copper Selenium Magnesium Potassium Manganese
Herbal Constituents	Boswellic acid (Boswellia serrata) Ginsenosides (Gingko biloba) Withanaloids (Withania somnifera) Curcuminoides (Curcuma longa) Pycnogenol (Pinus pinaster)

Page 2

Posted on: Tuesday, September 23rd 2014 at 10:15 am

Written By: Rohan Jasani

Ginger

An extract of Ginger (Zingiber officinale) was found to enhance bioavailability of a variety of nutrients and in many cases, when Piperine was added, the percentage of bioenhancement increased further [2].

Vitamins	Vitamin A Vitamin E Vitamin C Folic acid	30% 27% 25% 34%
Amino Acids	Methionine Lysine Leucine Valine Isoleucine	25% 15% 17% 25% 31%
Micronutrients	Zinc Potassium	19% 21%
Anti-oxidants	B-carotene Silymarin (from Milk Thistle)	36% 28%
Herbal Constituents	Curcumin (from Turmeric) Rutin	43% 21%
Herbs	Echinacea Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi) Picrorhiza kurroa Andrographis paniculata Emblica ribes Asparagus racemosus (Shatavari) Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha)	66% 67% 56% 55% 65% 44% 64%

Cumin

An extract of Cumin (Cuminum cyminum) was found to enhance bioavailability of a variety of nutrients and in many cases, when Piperine was added, the percentage of bioenhancement increased further [2].

Vitamins	Vitamin A Vitamin B1	26% 37%
Amino Acids	Methionine Lysine Leucine Valine Isoleucine	27% 35% 31% 25% 40%
Micronutrients	Iron	23%
Anti-oxidants	B-carotene Silymarin (from Milk Thistle)	45% 32%
Herbal Constituents	Curcumin (from Turmeric)	39%
Herbs	Echinacea Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi) Picrorhiza kurroa Andrographis paniculata Emblica ribes Asparagus racemosus (Shatavari) Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha)	72% 98% 78% 72% 72% 35% 55%

Caraway

An extract of Caraway (Carum carvi) was found to enhance bioavailability of a variety of nutrients and in many cases, when Piperine or Ginger was added, the percentage of bioenhancement increased further [2].

Vitamins	Vitamin A Vitamin B1	19% 42%
Amino Acids	Methionine Lysine Leucine Valine Isoleucine	28% 29% 21% 19% 34%
Anti-oxidants	B-carotene Silymarin (from Milk Thistle)	55% 38%
Herbal Constituents	Curcumin (from Turmeric) Rutin	50% 40%
Herbs	Echinacea angustifolia Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi) Picrorhiza kurroa Aegles marmelos Andrographis paniculata Asparagus racemosus (Shatavari) Terminalia chebula Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) Centella asiatica (Gotu Kola)	10% 50% 50% 1000% 50% 50% 50% 60% 30%

Many of the herbal bioenhancer research studies, which weren't included here, showed how various isolated constituents from different herbs enhanced the bioavailability of pharmaceutical drugs.  The mechanisms underlying this bioavailability enhancement, could potentially apply to nutrients as well, however, further research is needed.

The studies cited above only tested for a small set of specific nutrients using only a single constituent from an herb as the bioenhancing agent. Additionally, there are many other known nutrients that were not tested and many other constituents within an herb, as well as the synergistic combination of constituents of an herb, that can potentially be exerting bioavailability enhancing effects.  So, the potential for greater bioavailability enhancement by a variety of different herbs absolutely exists, however, further research is required to show this scientifically.

In the meantime, there is no reason why these herbs shouldn't be used, as they have traditionally been used in this way for centuries, they are safe and very affordable. In fact, these herbs are some of the most commonly used in the world's culinary & medicinal traditions. I wonder why!  Go out and integrate these herbs into your daily life, into your meals, your herbal medicines and use science & tradition as your guide to do so.

REFERENCES

[1]  Wikipedia (2014). Bioavailability. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioavailability

[2]  Dudhatra, G., Mody, S., Awale, M., Patel, H., Modi, C., Kumar, A., et. Al (2012). "A Comprehensive Review on Pharmacotherapeutics of Herbal Bioenhancers". The Scientific World Journal
Volume 2012, Article ID 637953, 33 pages

[3]  Jhanwar, B., Gupta, S. (2014 ) Biopotentiation using Herbs: Novel Technique for Poor Bioavailable Drugs.  International Journal of PharmTech Research. Vol.6, No.2, pp 443-454

[4]  Kang, M., Cho, J., Shim, B., Kim, D., Lee, J. (2009). Bioavailability enhancing activities of natural compounds from medicinal plants. Journal of Medicinal Plants Research Vol. 3(13), pp. 1204-1211, December, 2009

About Rohan

Rohan Jasani is on a mission to help people rediscover the natural healing power of plants as food & medicine used to achieve optimal health & wellness. Rohan has a background in engineering and the arts, is now a practicing clinical herbalist with an M.S. in Therapeutic Herbalism from the Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH) and can be reached at: www.rohanjasani.com.

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Rohan Jasani is on a mission to help people rediscover the natural healing power of plants as food & medicine used to support greater health & wellness. He is an engineer & artist turned clinical herbalist with an M.S. in Therapeutic Herbalism from the Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH) and can be reached at: www.rohanjasani.com.

Your Kitty May Be Suffering from Demodectic Mange

Your Kitty May Be Suffering from Demodectic Mange

Diabetes, Cannabinoid Therapy & Magnesium

Diabetes, Cannabinoid Therapy & Magnesium

Posted by Dr Sircus on August 22, 2011 | Filed under Diabetes, Magnesium, Medical Marijuana, Medicine

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There is nothing more needed in medicine today than a way of treating diabetes and metabolic syndrome because these syndromes lead directly to cancer, heart disease and stroke. I wrote New Paradigms in Diabetic Care to address what doctors and medical officials are loath to face—the real causes of diabetes. Diabetes is not the hopeless disease that most doctors would have us believe. There are safe treatments and lifestyle changes that will prevent diabetes from destroying your life.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta declares that 33% of the babies born this year will be diabetic by the year 2050.

- Dr. Alan Cantwell

When we find out that diabetes and metabolic syndrome are caused by toxic insults from heavy metals, radiation exposure and chemicals running smack into major nutritional deficiencies, we begin to stumble upon treatment pathways that actually work. Diabetes is actually an extremely serious warning to civilization; it is an announcement that the rising tide of radiation, mercury, other deadly chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs are poisoning humanity. The cost of not treating diabetes in a truly effective way is steep. Diabetes can contribute to, among other things, eye disorders and blindness, kidney failure, amputation, nerve damage, heart disease and stroke.  Diabetes makes pregnancy more difficult and can cause birth defects.

Populations are being simultaneously poisoned and starved by the food they eat.

Dangerous or Safe Approaches to Diabetes

What we are introducing in this chapter is a pair of medicinals that will positively impact diabetic treatment. Magnesium chloride and cannabinoid medicine together shame contemporary medicine’s shockingly dangerous approach, which cures no one. “Conventional drug treatment for diabetes does not have a good track record. Prescription drugs have various side effects and are associated with severe health complications. Several researchers have revealed that long-term use of some common diabetes drugs can increase the risk of cancer and heart disease. An analysis of five-year data collected from an ongoing 10-year study, conducted by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, showed a link between the common anti-diabetes drug Actos and increased risk of bladder cancer”, writes Dr. Marc Ott.

80% of patients use 2 or more diabetes drugs every day.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires oral diabetes medicines to carry a warning regarding increased risk of heart attack. Medications for type-2 diabetes actually do more harm than good. In February 2008, researchers heading a large, government-funded trial made a sobering announcement. The Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) study, designed to evaluate the effectiveness of various medication regimens, found that the most intensive drug regimens aimed at driving blood sugar way down resulted in a much higher cardiovascular death rate. Intensive blood-sugar-lowering treatment proved to be so harmful that the researchers halted the study 18 months early to prevent this aggressive drug use from killing even more people.^[1]

Avandia raises the risk of heart attacks and possibly deaths. Yet more than 6 million people worldwide have taken the drug to control blood sugar since it came on the market 12 years ago.

Medical science has known about the fatal complications of diabetes drugs since 1969 when results of a similar study called the University Group Diabetes Program were made public. That study also had to be stopped two years early because participants who were taking the drugs had a 250-300 percent higher death rate than those taking the placebo.^[2]

Dr Julian Whitaker says that, “The majority of patients with type-2 diabetes who come to the Whitaker Wellness Institute are taking at least one oral medication. We stop these drugs on sight. If they’re on insulin and they’re overweight, we stop the insulin as well. Giving insulin to heavy type-2 diabetics is a recipe for further weight gain and does more harm than good. As you might imagine, this is a new concept. Patients are conditioned to trust their doctors, who have convinced them of the absolute necessity of taking drugs to lower blood sugar. However, once they hear the truth about diabetes drugs, most of our patients opt to stop their medications and adopt a much healthier treatment approach targeted at lowering blood sugar and reducing risk of heart disease and other complications.”

Most pain and anti-inflammatory medications are not safe; even the over-the-counter pain medications hold unforeseen dangers. Despite more than a decade’s worth of research showing that taking too much acetaminophen can ruin the liver, the number of severe, unintentional poisonings from the drug is on the rise, a 2005 study reports.^[3] The drug, acetaminophen, is best known under the brand name Tylenol. Compounds containing Tylenol include Excedrin, Midol Teen Formula, Theraflu, Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine, NyQuil Cold and Flu and Paracetamol as well as other over-the-counter drugs and many prescription narcotics, like Vicodin and Percocet.

Inflammation, Magnesium and Diabetes

Inflammation plays a key role in a set of disorders that include type-2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease—collectively called the metabolic syndrome (or Syndrome X). Dr. Steve Shoelson, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School has focused squarely on inflammation. Epidemiologists have found that patients with type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease have slightly elevated levels of inflammatory markers in their bloodstream.

Magnesium deficiency is pro-inflammatory. Magnesium deficiency induces insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia, endothelial activation and prothrombic changes in combination with the upregulation of markers of inflammation and oxidative stress.^[4] Though it is magnesium that modulates cellular events involved in inflammation, we can find another powerful and exceptionally safe medicine that can head inflammation off at the pass.   When we understand the process of inflammation, and treat it with magnesium chloride, and other of my protocol items (Cannabinoids^[5]) we can put an end to a large amount of suffering.

Inflammatory reactions in the body are a valuable predictor of impending heart attack. Magnesium deficiency causes and underpins chronic inflammatory buildups. Magnesium deficiencies feed the fires of inflammation and pain. Increases in extracellular magnesium concentration cause a decrease in the inflammatory response. Magnesium literally puts the chill on inflammation especially when used transdermally.

Dr. Andrzej Mazur ^[6] said, “Magnesium deficiency induces a systemic stress response by activation of neuro endocrinological pathways. Magnesium deficiency contributes to an exaggerated response to immune stress and oxidative stress is the consequence of the inflammatory response.” Magnesium improves and helps correct insulin sensitivity, which is the fundamental defect that characterizes pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome and even full blown diabetes and heart disease. An intracellular enzyme called tyrosine kinase requires magnesium to allow insulin to exert its blood-sugar-lowering effects. In several studies, daily oral magnesium supplementation substantially improved insulin sensitivity by 10% and reduced blood sugar by 37%.^[7],^[8]

Let’s Not Forget the Sun. Researchers from Tuffs and Harvard are telling us that daily supplements of vitamin D boosts the function of the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.^[9]

Medical Marijuana and Diabetes

Dr. Gregory T. Carter, Clinical Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine says, “Marijuana is a complex substance containing over 60 different forms of cannabinoids, the active ingredients. Cannabinoids are now known to have the capacity for neuromodulation via direct, receptor-based mechanisms at numerous levels within the nervous system. These have therapeutic properties that may be applicable to the treatment of neurological disorders including anti-oxidative, neuroprotective, analgesic and anti-inflammatory actions, immunomodulation, modulation of glial cells and tumor growth regulation.^[10] Intracellular changes and altered signaling of the neurons seems to be the principle effects of the cannabinoids in marijuana.

Cannabinoids reduced inflammation in the brain and prevented cognitive decline. Cannabinoids have also been shown to alleviate neuropathic pain.^[11]

Marijuana has strong anti-inflammatory effects. “This is why I believe that people who used marijuana a few decades ago are much less likely to develop any disease, such as Alzheimer’s, that relies upon the slow development of brain inflammation,” said Dr. Gary Wenk. The recent discovery of an endogenous cannabinoid system with specific receptors and ligands (compounds that activate receptors and trigger their characteristic responses) has increased our understanding of the actions of marijuana. Excessive inflammatory responses can emerge as a potential danger for organisms’ health. Physiological balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory processes constitutes an important feature of responses against harmful events.

There is mounting evidence pointing to dysfunction of the endocannabinoid system having an important role in the development of type 2 diabetes and obesity.^[12] Insulin-induced glucose uptake increases with increasing THC concentration.

Professor Mike Cawthorne and the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline believe that plant-based medicines might be the way to approach the treatment of diabetes. The particular plant they are studying is marijuana. Cannabis is an excellent anti-inflammatory that lacks the side effects of steroids, the NSAIDS, and the COX-2 inhibitors like Vioxx. This anti-inflammatory action may help quell the arterial inflammation common in diabetes.

Cannabidiol (CBD)^[13] arrested the onset of autoimmune diabetes in NOD mice in a 2007 study. Researchers at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem ^[14] in 2006 reported that injections of 5 mg per day of CBD (10-20 injections) significantly reduced the prevalence of diabetes in mice from an incidence of 86 percent in non-treated controls to an incidence of only 30 percent. In a separate experiment, investigators reported that control mice all developed diabetes at a median of 17 weeks (range 15-20 weeks) while a majority (60 percent) of CBD-treated mice remained diabetes-free at 26 weeks. Investigators also reported that CBD significantly lowered plasma levels of the pro-inflammatory cykotines (proteins), INF-gamma and TNF-alpha, and significantly reduced the severity of insulitis compared to non-treated controls.

Cannabidiol – CBD – CBD also occurs in almost all strains and is the second most interesting cannabinoid in regards to medical cannabis. Unlike THC, CBD lacks noticeable psychoactive effects. Nevertheless, CBD has valuable medical properties. CBD appears to work synergistically with THC, bolstering its medical effects while moderating its psycho-activity. It is also thought to improve wakefulness and to enhance THC’s activity against pain. Taken by itself CBD has anti-inflammatory, antianxiety, anti-epileptic, sedative and neuro-protective actions. It is also a potent anti-oxidant, protecting against chemical damage due to oxidation. Studies have suggested that CBD could protect against the development of diabetes, certain kinds of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, brain and nerve damage due to stroke, alcoholism, nausea, inflammatory bowel disease and Huntington’s disease.

Researchers concluded that confirmation of the observed immunomodulatory effects of CBD “may lead to the clinical application of this agent in the prevention of type-1 diabetes” and possibly other autoimmune diseases. They note that many patients diagnosed with type-1 diabetes have sufficient residual cells that produce insulin at the time of diagnosis, and may be candidates for immunomodulation therapy.

Bioactive cannabinoids have an anti-inflammatory effect. Marijuana can also be used to make topical creams to relieve neuropathic pain and tingling in hands and feet. Cannabis helps still diabetic “restless leg syndrome” (RLS), so the patient can sleep better: “It is recommended that patients use a vaporizer or smoke cannabis to aid in falling asleep.”

In studies THC essentially countered the effects of insulin resistance. These results support previous findings that smoking cannabis can reduce blood glucose in diabetics (Gallant, Odei-Addo, Frost, & Levendal, 2009).

Cannabidiol protects retinal neurons by preserving glutamine synthetase activity in diabetes. In current research on how to modulate cannabinoid receptors in the human body, Dr. Gregory I. Liou, a molecular biologist at the Medical College of Georgia, has found that cannabidiol (a cannabis compound) could prevent the overabundance of leaky eye blood vessels associated with diabetic retinopathy. As the leading cause of blindness in the United States, diabetic retinopathy is a major health concern for more than 16 million American adults.

Dr. Liou’s work, published in the January issue of the American Journal of Pathology indicates that cannabidiol can interrupt the destructive points of action in diabetic animals. “What we believe cannabidiol does is go in here as an antioxidant to neutralize the toxic superoxides. Number two, it inhibits the self-destructive system and allows the self-produced endogenous cannabinoids to stay there longer by inhibiting the enzyme that destroys them.” Dr. Liou believes that cannabinoids act as a type of negotiator, trying to keep peace, harmony and balance between a host of potentially volatile and dangerous factions of cells. “Cannabinoids are trying to ease the situation on both sides.”

Cannabis is neuroprotective.^[15] It is believed that much of neuropathy comes from the inflammation of nerves caused by glycoproteins in the blood that deposit in peripheral tissues and trigger an immune response. Cannabis helps protect the nerve covering (myelin sheath) from inflammatory attack. Cannabis also lessens the pain of neuropathy by activating receptors in the body and brain. Some components of cannabis (perhaps cannibidiol) act as anti-spasmodic agents similar to the far more toxic anti-convulsants like Neurontin. This action of cannabis helps relieve diabetic muscle cramps and GI upset.

The Journal of the American College of Cardiology stated, “Collectively, our results strongly suggest that cannabidiol may have tremendous therapeutic potential in the treatment of diabetic cardiovascular and other complications.”^[16]

[1] public.nhlbi.nih.gov/newsroom/home/GetPressRelease.aspx?id=2551

[2] www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC1931116/pdf/canmedaj01624-0065.pdf

[3] www.nytimes.com/2005/11/29/health/29cons.
html?ei=5088&en=dcdd26e735aa717b&ex=129092
0400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

[4] Potential mechanisms include the priming of phagocytic cells, the opening of calcium channels, activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, the activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NFkB) and activation of the renin-angiotensin system. Magnes Res. 2006 Dec;19(4):237-4

[5] www.mtmedicalmarijuana.com/GP_Understanding_Cannabinoids.pdf

[6] Mazur A, Maier JA, Rock E, Gueux E, Nowacki W, Rayssiguier Y. Magnesium and the inflammatory response: Potential physiopathological implications. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2006 Apr 19; PMID: 16712775Equipe Stress Metabolique et Micronutriments, Unite de Nutrition Humaine UMR 1019, Centre de Recherche en Nutrition Humaine d’Auvergne, INRA, Theix, St. Genes Champanelle, France.Arch Biochem Biophys. 2006 Apr 19
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db
=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16712775&itool=icona
bstr&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum

[7] Guerrero-Romero F, Tamez-Perez HE, Gonzalez-Gonzalez G et al. Oral magnesium supplementation improves insulin sensitivity in non-diabetic subjects with insulin resistance. A double-blind placebo-controlled randomized trial. Diabetes Metab. 2004 Jun;30(3):253-8.

[8] Rodriguez-Moran M and Guerrero-Romero F. Oral magnesium supplementation improves insulin sensitivity and metabolic control in type 2 diabetic subjects: a randomized double-blind controlled trial. Diabetes Care. 2003 Apr;26(4):1147-52.

[9] news.yahoo.com/vitamin-d-may-improve-
pancreas-function-214501419.html

[10] Curr Opin Investig Drugs. 2002 Mar;3(3):437-40.

[11] A pair of studies published in the journal Neuroscience Letters in 2004 reported that mice administered a cannabis receptor agonist experienced a reduction in diabetic related tactile allodynia (pain resulting from non-injurious stimulus to the skin) compared to non-treated controls. The findings suggest that “cannabinoids have a potential beneficial effect on experimental diabetic neuropathic pain.” Dogrul et al. 2004. Cannabinoids block tactile allodynia in diabetic mice without attenuation of its antinociceptive effect. Neuroscience Letters 368: 82-86.

[12] www.medscape.com/viewarticle/738863_3  

[13] a major constituent of the  cannabis plant, representing up to 40% in its extracts. It may decrease the rate of clearance of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from the body, perhaps by interfering with the metabolism of THC in the liver.  Medically, it has been shown to relieve convulsion, inflammation, anxiety, and nausea, as well as inhibit cancer cell growth. Recent studies have shown cannabidiol to be as effective as atypical antipsychotics in treating schizophrenia. Studies have also shown that it may relieve symptoms of dystonia. In November 2007, it was reported that CBD reduces growth of aggressive human breast cancer cells in vitro and reduces their invasiveness.  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabidiol

[14] Autoimmunity; 2006, Vol. 39, No.2 , Pages 143-151

[15] The research with the cannabis-source cannabinoids, conducted in mice, rats, and in vitro, has shown remarkable effectiveness in reducing brain damage from injected toxins, hypoxia, and head trauma.1 Other research has found that anandamide levels in the brains of rats naturally rise after brain injury or death and the cannabinoid system may play a primary role in limiting brain damage.

[16] Lab Notes: Pot Has Benefits for Diabetic Hearts (news – 2010)
www.medpageto…/LabNotes/23853