A good friend recently told me that one of her relatives just found out she has Alzheimer’s disease. Of course, her family wondered if there was any new information on stopping its progression. So I decided to take a closer look at current research. This relative is only in her early 60s. As you can imagine, her diagnosis shook her family to its core. After all, we’ve all heard that Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease with no cure. But what I found in my search suggests you can stop it and, at times, even reverse it – without expensive high-tech treatments.

There are foods and inexpensive nutrients that researchers have shown in studies to be effective in stopping Alzheimer’s. If you (or someone you know) have been diagnosed with this disease, I suggest you seriously consider adding them to your diet and supplement regime. You have nothing to lose by including a few natural substances into your diet, and possibly a lot to gain. What’s more, these natural substances can often go straight to the cause of Alzheimer’s.

For instance, one cause of Alzheimer’s is amyloid plaques. These are insoluble deposits of a toxic protein found in the spaces between the brain’s nerve cells. As we age, this protein either interferes with the signaling between neurons, or destroys them. It also breaks down the proteins in plaque that contain metals. We know that too much copper, iron, and zinc can lead to neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s. Now we are finding that a molecule in green tea, Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG, interferes with the formation of these unwanted and dangerous amyloid plaques.

EGCG, an organic chemical, is the main ingredient in green tea. It helps make neural progenitor cells. These are similar to stem cells, and they can turn into many different kinds of beneficial cells.

In a small double blind placebo-controlled study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers gave participants MRIs to see the effects of EGCG in the brain. The people who took the green tea extract had increased activity in the area of their brains responsible for processing working memory. What’s more, the higher the dosage, the higher the increase in brain activity.

I’m not suggesting that a cup of green tea with breakfast will stop Alzheimer’s. Drinking a cup or two of green tea each day is unlikely to give you everything you need to guard against this type of neurodegenerative disease. One reason is that water extracts only a fraction of EGCG. Most are trapped in the tea leaves that you throw away. However, there is an available form of green tea that contains the whole leaf and it’s much higher in EGCG than ordinary green tea. It’s called matcha. Matcha is made from ground up green tea leaves. You can find it in health food stores and on the Internet. One cup of matcha equals the amount of EGCG found in ten cups of ordinary green tea.

If you prefer, you can take EGCG capsules in a Green Tea Extract supplement from Advanced Bionutritionals (800-791-3395). Each capsule contains 750 mg of the extract with 40% EGCG. To protect against Alzheimer’s, I’d suggest taking at least one capsule morning and night. More would be better if you can afford it.

Curcumin dissolves these plaques

Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric, an Indian spice found in curry that protects against neurodegenerative diseases. It is a potent antioxidant with a strong anti-inflammatory effect. Curcumin binds to plaques and prevents them from spreading. In a study out of Duke University Medical Center, plaques dissolved in the brains of older mice fed a diet high in curcumin. This diet also prevented the formation of new plaques in younger mice.

These benefits extended into human studies, as well. People who ate two to three servings a week of meals high in curry had less dementia than those who ate little to no curry.

There’s less curcumin in foods than in many supplements, and curcumin is poorly absorbed orally. The exception is Meriva®, a patented and highly absorbable combination of curcumin and phosphatidylcholine, which is 29 times stronger than ordinary turmeric. You can find Meriva along with EGCG and other anti-inflammatory substances in a supplement like Reduloxin (800-791-3395) or on the internet.

But don’t just attack plaques

In addition to fighting the build-up of plaques, you also need to help keep your neurons healthy. The healthier they are, the better they communicate. Most supplements that support brain health stimulate neurons. This can give short-term cognitive benefits. However, eventually the need for increased amounts is needed to maintain the same effects. Magnesium l-threonate helps neurons achieve and maintain a balance without either over- or under-stimulating. Researchers believe that this allows the brain to more easily perform cognitive tasks. Over-stimulation may be initially beneficial, but over time it can cause neuronal burnout.

Magnesium may be the most valuable nutrient to reverse cognition in advanced Alzheimer’s. In an MIT study led by Dr. Guosong Liu, a world-renowned and respected researcher on cognition, raising the levels of magnesium in the brains of mice gave sustained improved cognition. This discovery is huge. Elevating magnesium levels in the brain made aging brains young again! But not just any magnesium can get past the bloodstream and into the brain. To get these results you need magnesium threonate.

Dr Liu’s study used Magtein®, a patented form of magnesium threonate. This product is available on the Internet. Take two capsules in the morning and one in the evening.

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August 2013.

Hyung, S.-J., A.S. DeToma, J.R. Brender, S. Lee, S. Vivekanandan, A. Kochi, J.-S. Choi, A. Ramamoorthy, B.T. Ruotolo, an M.H. Lim. “Insights into antiamyloidogenic properties of the green tea extract (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate toward metal-associated amyloid- species.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1220326110.

Sbarro Health Research Organization (SHRO) (2013, April 12). “The power of cocoa polyphenols against neurodegenerative diseases.” ScienceDaily, retrieved April 13, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.com- /releases/2013/04/130412132229.htm.

Wang, Yanyan, Maoquan Li, Xueqing Xu, Min Song, Huansheng Tao, and Yun Bai. “Green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) promotes neural progenitor cell proliferation and sonic hedgehog pathway activation during adult hippocampal neurogenesis,” Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, September 2012, doi: 10.1002/mnfr.201200035.

The Pungent Ginger Root Does More Than Calm an Upset Stomach and Nausea

When I was a child and felt nauseated or bloated, my mother would give me a glass of ginger ale and my stomach usually settled down. Ginger ale is made from ginger root. It is a popular remedy for the nausea associated with morning sickness, motion sickness, and chemotherapy. People also use it for mild indigestion. But recent scientific studies have found that ginger does much more. It kills ovarian cancer cells, treats migraines, and protects the liver from toxicity.

The Chinese have used ginger for digestive complaints for over 2,000 years. Using ginger for nausea or an upset stomach is a common example of folk medicine that has crossed over into contemporary medicine with sound scientific studies to explain its effectiveness. In fact, ginger is so effective against several serious medical conditions that the FDA could consider it to be a drug. Fortunately, they haven’t gone this far.

Headaches

Even without auras, migraines are considered to be among the most painful and debilitating of headaches. Many of the 28 million people in this country who get migraines also experience a sensitivity to light, nausea, and vomiting. Sumatriptan (Imitrex, Imigran) is one pharmaceutical answer for 75% of migraine sufferers. However, it can give you side effects like headaches – caused by overuse – if you take it for more than 10 days a month. And these drugs are not recommended for people who have risk factors for vascular or heart disease.

Ginger has no such side effects. In a randomized, double-blind clinical trial with 100 participants who had acute migraines without aura, ginger powder was just as effective as sumatriptan.

You can find ginger root powder and capsules in health food stores or on the Internet. And of course you can find fresh ginger root at just about every supermarket. Grate it or chop it finely and make a ginger tea. Or just suck on some crystallized ginger if you find a migraine is coming on.

Cancer

Laboratory tests on cells may have their limitations, but they give us preliminary data and point to a direction that can prove to be valuable. And if there’s no downside like uncomfortable or toxic side effects, they can be worth trying.

A study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center was recently presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. For this study, researchers exposed ovarian cancer cells in a solution of ginger powder. One hundred percent of these cancer cells either committed suicide or attacked and digested themselves.

But that’s not all.

This ginger solution also prevented cancer cells from becoming resistant to cancer treatment.

It’s too early to know how much powdered ginger it takes to destroy ovarian cancer cells, or to know whether or not this applies to other cancer cells. We have reason to believe it does. Another study from the University of Michigan found that ginger root capsules reduced inflammation in the colon after participants took it for a month. Inflammation is a condition that increases your risk of developing colon cancer. So ginger may both destroy cancer cells and prevent them from developing. Since ginger isn’t toxic, a few cups of ginger tea made from powdered ginger could be an effective addition in your fight against cancer.

Ibuprofen

You may have heard that Tylenol and other acetaminophens can lead to
liver toxicity and even death. They can cause chemically driven liver damage – especially in people who already have liver disorders.

A study in the Journal of Dietary Supplements found that ginger can prevent injury to the liver that’s similar to the protective effect of vitamin E. This is why it’s good to combine ginger with acetaminophen.

The effect is cumulative, so if you have ever taken a lot of acetaminophen, or if you have any liver disorders, speak with your doctor or pharmacist about other options. Then, reach for the ginger. You can grate some of the fresh ginger root into your food, add ginger powder to your foods, buy capsules of ginger at the health food store, or make ginger tea.

If high doses of acetaminophen are indicated for your health challenge and you can find no other solution, then you should take some ginger along with it. Or if you’ve taken a lot of Tylenol in the past and feel it’s your best option at present, like reducing a fever, then ginger might help reduce the damage it does to your liver.

Nordqvist, Christian. “What are the benefits of ginger?” Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 11 September 2013.

The Very Best “Supplement” to Improve Your Health

Friends and patients often ask me which supplement I think is the most valuable to take. My answer is not one they want to hear, although there are a huge number of sound scientific studies to back it up. It costs nothing, is easily available, and is effective in reducing inflammation. The most important supplement you can take is not in a pill. It’s daily exercise.

If you’re ignoring inflammation by not exercising regularly, you’re at a high risk for conditions affected by inflammation. These include diabetes, heart disease, vision problems, and stroke. And you’re at an increased risk for getting another inflammatory disease: Alzheimer’s.

Reduce inflammation and you lower your risk for just about all chronic illnesses. C-reactive protein (CRP) is an indication of inflammation somewhere in the body. Exercise, like a brisk walk, lowers CRP. A preliminary study presented last November at the annual meeting of the World Congress on Insulin Resistance found that the more a person exercised, the less inflammation they had.

There is no better way to supplement your health than with regular exercise. I wish there was. I happen to be one of those people who don’t enjoy exercising. I do it because I don’t want to experience the consequences from being sedentary. And I must admit that I feel better after exercising. Frankly, I’d rather read a book — or write one! But my body is getting older, and if I don’t exercise regularly, I know it will get weaker and sicker, not stronger. That’s not the way I want to spend my golden years.

This article is not only for those of you I don’t know personally. It is for several dear friends of mine who don’t get enough exercise no matter what I do or say. You know who you are. I am writing this with the hope that it will encourage you to increase your physical activity enough to keep you free from serious chronic illnesses including dementia.

Vigorous vs moderate

What is enough exercise? It depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. The more vigorous exercise you do, the lower your CRP and the lower your risk of contracting major illnesses. But even moderate exercise has its place in preserving your health. It can actually improve your cognition. An Australian study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, followed study participants with memory problems but no dementia and had half of them increase their physical activity to 20 minutes a day for six months. I’d call that “moderate.” The people in this study who exercised the most scored better on cognitive tests and had better recall. But moderate exercise helped all of them.

However, there’s an exception to the benefits of moderate exercise. It may not be enough if you’re overweight. Then you need to exercise harder. This is because body fat creates its own inflammation that moderate exercise can’t overcome. So aim for the most vigorous exercise you can do if you’re overweight – the more consistent and the more vigorous the better.

What constitutes “vigorous” differs from person-to-person, but it means pushing yourself to your limits. This may mean anything from gardening or walking to your mailbox, to a brisk walk or running several miles.

Physical activity prevents depression, lessens falls, and improves your quality of life. This includes non-exercise physical activities like housework. The 10% least active participants in an Alzheimer’s study were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s as the most active 10%.

Studies have shown that exercise is as effective as, or more effective than, many pharmaceutical drugs. Research presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2014 found that moderate exercise reduced strokes by 20%. In fact, a brisk walk was as beneficial as running.

If you’re depressed, you may find you don’t need antidepressants once you have been exercising regularly. But be sure to reduce any medications with input from your doctor. Stopping suddenly can result in unpleasant side effects. With or without antidepressants, you’ll feel better after exercising.

If, like me, you have trouble motivating yourself, try the buddy system. A friend and neighbor of mine loves exercising as much as I do – not very much. So we encourage one another to walk or go to the gym together. This has increased our exercising from one or two to five days a week.

Being physically active is not optional if you want to age comfortably and healthfully. Inactivity is as detrimental to your health as smoking, drinking too much alcohol, and obesity. One study found a direct association between healthy aging and exercise. The people who exercised moderately or vigorously at least once a week were three to four times healthier than those who were couch potatoes.

A world-class runner was once asked what was the most difficult part of exercising. “Putting on my shoes,” she said. For me, it’s just standing up and reaching for my jacket. I don’t have to like exercising. I know I just need to do it. And it really is the absolute best supplement to a good diet you can ever take.

“2Now, what about you? What are you willing to do to save your brain and vision?”

British Journal of Sports Medicine, November 2013.

Buchman, A.S., MD, P.A. Boyle, PhD, L. Yu, PhD, R.C. Shah, MD, R.S. Wilson, PhD, and D.A. Bennett, MD. “Total daily physical activity and the risk of AD and cognitive decline in older adults,” Neurology, April 18, 2012.

“Exercise ‘as effective as drugs’ for common diseases,” Medical News Today, October 3, 2013.

Journal of the American Medical Association, September 3, 2008.
Journal of Neuroscience, February 2014.

Susman, Ed. “Exercise May Lower C-Reactive Protein,” MedPage Today, November 8, 2013.

NUTRITION DETECTIVE

The FDA Finally Takes Action on Antibiotics

The way we’re presently raising animals for food uses up more than 29 million pounds of antibiotics a year. I’ve talked about this in the past and the need for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to do something. It’s taken way too long, but these two agencies are finally concerned. A report from the CDC said “Up to half of antibiotic use in humans and much of antibiotic use in animals are unnecessary.” Both organizations are poised to help phase out their routine use. It’s about time!

The problem with antibiotics in food-producing animals is that they are causing antibiotic resistance both in animals and humans. When they’re the most appropriate solution, they often don’t work. What does work is to eat animal products that are organic. This is just what the FDA and CDC would like to see happen.

Reducing our consumption of antibiotics is easy, states Jessica Shade, PhD, Director of Science Programs for The Organic Center. She points out that by simply choosing one organic product out of every 10 we buy, we could eliminate over 2.5 million pounds of antibiotics that we don’t need to keep us healthy. The reason for this is that organic livestock tend to be healthier than conventionally grown animals.

With organic livestock there are no toxic pesticides and herbicides, they are not genetically engineered, and they are not grazing on fields containing sewer sludge. Their conditions promote health, so they’re healthier. Studies have shown that there are fewer antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria on organic meats.

You can increase your health by increasing the amount of organic meats and dairy products you eat. It really is quite simple. And one final point: Never wait for the FDA to make dietary changes. They’re almost always the last ones to join the party.

Organic Trade Association, www.ota.com

LETTERS

Q: I had an elevated alkaline phosphatase level on a recent blood test, and am wondering if you have any information about this. I wonder if mine is elevated because I started taking strontium, doing weight bearing exercises, and jumping on a mini-trampoline. I am 60 years old, and have been diagnosed with osteopenia, and recently over the line to osteoporosis. – G.R., Anaheim, CA

A: First, you should know that osteopenia is a non-existent, made up, disease designed by pharmaceutical companies to frighten women into taking bisphosphonates. I’ve written about this before. You can read this in past newsletter articles on my website, available to all newsletter subscribers.

As to your elevated alk phos: I don’t have enough information to suggest its cause. It could be due to osteoporosis, in which case Ultimate Bone Support (with strontium) and calcium plus magnesium would help, not harm, you. In fact, if you have early osteoporosis, that combination would be both safe and wise to take.

However, if you take strontium, you need to also take calcium and magnesium – and at different times. You should take strontium on an empty stomach, and take calcium and magnesium with food. Why? Because strontium blocks the absorption of calcium and magnesium. Strontium, without these other minerals, may contribute to bone loss. Preventive measures like strontium and weight-bearing exercises would not cause osteoporosis.

Other causes of elevated alkaline phosphatase could be various cancers, parathyroid activity, or liver or gall bladder disease. Yours is likely due to your bones, but be sure to check with your doctor to rule out any other problem.

Q: I have fibrocystic breasts and I was trying to see if iodine would help me. I had the urine test for iodine, but I was already taking iodine. The test came back saying I was out of range, at 16,700 H and that the range should be 34-523 mcg/L. I do not know how many micrograms 16,700 is. My doctor wanted me to get off the iodine immediately. Can you give me any information regarding how much I should be taking? – B.G., e-mail

A: It’s impossible to answer your question because there’s no way to adequately measure your iodine levels when you’re still taking it. Your doctor is right. First, you need to stop taking iodine. Then you need to wait a month or two and re-test your levels. Only then can you know whether or not iodine is safe for you to pursue.

Either the laboratory that did your initial test, or a skilled integrative doctor who is familiar with iodine, can help you figure out how much, if any, you should take. If you need a doctor to work with on this, which I suggest, you can contact Dr. Richard Shames, MD, a thyroid expert and author of Thyroid Power (Harper Collins 2001). His book can explain why iodine is more harmful for some people. He also gives private consultations — for a fee, of course ([email protected]).

But before you explore iodine, you may want to look at other reasons for
your fibroids. They could be linked to dietary sugar, so begin by eliminating
it and use some of Dr Shames’ dietary suggestions.