In the 1990s, a Swedish neurologist, Peter Eriksson, realized it was possible to grow new brain cells in humans. He published a report that claimed our brains contain neural stem cells that are constantly being replenished, not fixed as we once thought. And the science of neuroplasticity was born.

The implications were, and are, huge. They include developing treatments for neurological disorders, as well as growing new neurons to keep the brain pliable and young. The latter is possible by controlling a gene that is key in creating these neurons. This gene is called “brain-derived neurotrophic factor,” or BDNF.

BDNF protects and connects neurons. Your brain uses these connections to function at high levels, and this includes your ability to think clearly and learn. So it comes as no surprise to learn that studies have found lower levels of BDNF in Alzheimer’s patients. BDNF also contributes to OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), epilepsy, depression, and a number of other neurologically based conditions.

What’s most exciting is that it’s now possible to protect yourself from neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and to even reverse many of them. Here are a few available and inexpensive therapies you can use to turn on this anti-aging gene. To produce and activate this gene, you may simply need to make some lifestyle changes.

Exercise can make you smarter: There’s no getting around it. To change your genes and protect your memory, you have to exercise regularly. Any exercise will help, but aerobic exercise stimulates neurons associated with longevity by turning on and increasing BDNF. Researchers have even found that it can reverse memory decline in seniors.

The concept “use it or lose it” has been applied to brain exercises like learning a new language or doing a puzzle. But it’s aerobic exercising that has been found
to reverse memory loss and increase the production of brain cells – not exercising your brain.

Heart-pumping exercise works to protect and preserve your brain in five ways: by controlling inflammation, increasing insulin sensitivity, getting better blood-sugar control, maintaining your brains’ size, and boosting BDNF. Exercise does more than merely produce brain cells. It connects and organizes them, making
them more able to multitask. What kind of physical exercise am I talking about that helps multi-tasking? Anything – including brisk walking, biking, vacuuming, gardening, and other household chores. Just keep moving.

A study from Rush University’s Memory and Aging Project compared the effect exercise had on sedentary people in their 80s vs those who were physically active. Those in the lowest 10% of daily exercisers had three times the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared with those in the highest 10%.

Eat less and remember more: Gerontologist Roy Walford, PhD of UCLA was a pioneer in anti-aging. He began exploring the association between food and longevity 35 years ago. His research was based on a low calorie, nutrient-dense diet. Wolford found that by restricting an animal’s diet, he could increase its lifespan.

Further studies focused on calorie restriction and the brain. They found that a lower calorie diet protects brain cells and promotes new brain cell growth. It reduced the incidence of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases as well as high blood sugar and obesity.

To get the benefits of a low calorie diet in brain-related conditions, study participants reduced their caloric intake by 30-40%. You might want to try this diet for three to six months and see if you notice a difference in your memory. It takes some self-control, but it costs nothing. And weight loss is a positive side effect.

You might think it’s difficult to be satisfied eating a low calorie diet, but you’d be wrong. Many people can do this just by greatly lowering their intake of refined sugar – high in empty calories. If you tend to crave sugar, you should know that increasing BDNF reduces your cravings. The opposite is also true: a high sugar diet decreases BDNF production.

Increase beneficial fats: You probably know by now that there are some fats that are more healthful than others. But you may not know how some of them affect the brain. Here are several that are particularly beneficial to healthy brain function.

* MCTs: Years ago, one of my favorite supplement companies introduced an oil they said would help people lose weight called Thin Oil. It was a medium-chain triglyceride or MCT made from coconut oil, and it burned quickly like a carb rather than slowly like a fat. The company attributed a number of benefits from this oil including increased energy and improved cognition, and they were right. They were just ahead of their time. I wrote about Thin Oil more than a dozen years ago. If you had been reading my newsletter, you would have known about the benefits of coconut oil at that time, also.

Now, decades later, the market is flooded with coconut-based products to provide quick energy to athletes and significantly improve the cognition in people with Alzheimer’s, ALS, and Parkinson’s.

A diet high in MCTs makes ketones, produced when your body is breaking down fats instead of carbohydrates for energy. This is a good thing, because your heart and brain function better on ketones than on blood sugar. In fact, healthy brain cells thrive on ketones.

You can increase your intake of MCTs by cooking with coconut oil and by adding it to smoothies and other foods. Or you can just eat a teaspoon of it once a day. Increasing MCTs won’t make you fat, because they burn quickly like a carbohydrate, not slowly like a fat. You can get detailed information on a ketogenic diet to support your brain function by reading Grain Brain by David Perlmutter, MD (Little, Brown, and Company, 2013).

* DHA: is an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oil and flaxseed oil – as well as in hundreds of other foods. One way in which DHA works to support brain function is by regulating inflammation and producing BDNF. Study after study found enhanced memory performance both in healthy people with memory complaints and in the development of Alzheimer’s disease when they were taking high doses of DHA. DHA makes up of over 90% of all omega-3 fats in the brain. So you want to make sure you’re getting plenty of this healthful fat.

In the Framingham Heart Study, the people who ate more than two servings of fish a week had a 59% reduction in Alzheimer’s. So one or two weekly servings plus a supplement high in DHA should be sufficient. Aim for a minimum of 200-300 mg of DHA daily. Dr. Perlmutter suggests as much as 1,000 mg a day. From all I’ve seen, you should get a minimum of 500 mg of DHA a day. Most supplements lack sufficient DHA to affect your brain. If this is a direction you want to take, I suggest taking two softgels a day of Eicosamax from ProThera (888-488-2488). This will give you 500 mg of DHA. If you like, you can take twice that amount. ProThera has them available in bottles of 120.

BDNF keeps your brain younger and more flexible. The first step in producing more BDNF is exercise, calorie restriction, and getting enough beneficial nutrients while eliminating or reducing harmful ones. This may not be easy, but it is simple. By making a few changes today you increase your ability to prevent or reduce some of the symptoms we all fear tomorrow.

Don’t Wait! If You Want to Prevent the Flu, Start this Program Today

We’re losing the war on influenza, and it’s our own fault. We are waiting too long before taking preventive measures. This leaves little options but vaccinations.

Every year, we face an epidemic or a more serious worldwide pandemic. Epidemics are the flu that comes around each year, while pandemics are less frequent but more harmful global infections. Thomas Frieden, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has said that vaccination is the best defense against the yearly flu. If that’s not enough, he asserts, people might want to consider taking antiviral medications.

This is a backward approach, primarily because thousands of pages of clinical trials found that conventional medicine has overplayed the effectiveness of Tamiflu and other vaccines, while their harms have been underplayed.
So how can you stop the flu and not sustain the damage the drugs can cause? You should first strengthen your immune system months before flu season so it’s strong enough to be protective. Then you need to increase your intake of friendly bacteria to keep pathogenic bacteria in check. And finally, I suggest you have herbs and other nutrients on hand to take at the first sign of a cold or flu like a sore throat, slight fever, or runny nose. If you wait even a day or two, they may not work.

Once again, scientists are putting the emphasis on the wrong solution. Instead of searching for a better vaccination, all of us should be modifying our lifestyles now – before next year’s flu arrives. That means getting started now.

A strong immune system

Have you noticed that the majority of deaths from this year’s flu occurred in people who had other health problems? They either lacked a strong enough immune system or had not built up immunity to the current flu strains. Many people who had been exposed to viruses in the past had built up a natural immunity to this year’s strain and survived.

Immunity is the key factor, and scientists know this. This is why they continually adjust vaccines to match the current viral strain, since it constantly mutates. Here are a few key nutrients to consider that may enhance your immunity and help you avoid the flu. Choose one or more to integrate into your present lifestyle.

Probiotics

Stress, aging, a poor diet, insufficient sleep, and environmental pollutants can all turn probiotics (friendly) into pathogenic (harmful) bacteria. Because probiotics boost immunity, taking them can be extremely beneficial when fighting the flu.

There are thousands of species of bacteria that make up the 100 trillion microorganisms in our bodies. The handful of species in fermented foods and supplements is but a fraction. We’ve just begun to scratch the surface of probiotics that strengthen immunity. Some of the species that researchers have found in sound studies to significantly reduce respiratory infections associated with the flu are L. casei, L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum, L. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, B. bifidum, and B. breve. They’re not the only ones that
regulate immunity, but they are some that we know work. For this reason, I suggest you take a number of these specific probiotic species morning and night to repopulate your body with immune-enhancing bacteria.

Most of these probiotics are found in Advanced Probiotic Formula by Advanced Bionutritionals (800-791-3395). There are plenty of other formulas to choose from that are available in stores and the Internet. Just be sure to get one containing a variety of these species that have been tested and found beneficial for immune support.

Other supplements

Sambucol: is a black elderberry-based botanical supplement found to be effective against 10 strains of influenza. In addition to its anti-viral properties, it activates a healthy immune system. One double-blind study showed that Sambucol shortened the duration of flu symptoms from two weeks to three to four days. It’s active against a number of bacterial infections and viruses, which makes it appropriate whether you are exposed to a cold or flu.

You can find an elderberry extract on the Internet or in health food stores, just make sure you get one that says it’s a standardized extract. This means it will have the same activity bottle after bottle.

Zinc: Your immune system needs sufficient zinc. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study found that seniors who were given 45 mg of zinc gluconate daily for one year had significantly fewer infections than the control group that were not given any zinc. We know from this and other studies that supplemental zinc can help prevent colds and flu. But not all forms are effective.
The best zinc for this purpose is found in zinc acetate lozenges. They allow the zinc to dissolve in the throat where it’s needed and have the strongest anti-viral effect.

Zinc acetate lozenges are hard to find. The only one I could find was developed by Frank Shallenberger, MD, editor of Real Cures newsletter, and is available from Advanced Bionutritionals (800-791-3395).

I have tried these lozenges on a number of people with excellent results. I suggest you have some on hand to take at the first sign of or exposure to a cold or flu.

Mushrooms: My favorite immune strengthener, which has repeatedly saved me from colds and flu, are medicinal mushrooms. You can find some at the grocers and include them in your meals. Shiitake mushrooms are known to boost immunity, but few people realize that the common button mushroom does, as well. That said, MycoPhyto Complex, a supplement made from powdered medicinal mushrooms that have been grown on immune-enhancing Chinese herbs along with beta glucan, which stimulates your immune system, has out-performed all other mushroom products both in studies and with my patients (800-791-3395). I take one capsule every day, and increase the amount at the first sign of a cold or flu to two capsules morning and night.

Barak, V., T. Halperin, and I. Kalickman. “The effect of Sambucol, a black elderberry-based, natural product, on the production of human cytokines: I. Inflammatory cytokines,” Eur Cytokine Netw. 2001 April-June;12(2):290-6.

Krawitz, C., M.A. Mraheil, M. Stein, C. Imirzalioglu, E. Domann, S. Pleschka, and T. Hain. “Inhibitory activity of a standardized elderberry liquid extract against clinically-relevant human respiratory bacterial pathogens and influenza A and B viruses.” BMC Complement Altern Med. 2011 February 25;11:16. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-11-16.

Olmstead, Stephen, MD, et al. “Making Sense of Probiotics,” Klaire Labs Technical Summary.

Prasad, A.S1., F.W. Beck, B. Bao, J.T. Fitzgerald, D.C. Snell, J.D. Steinberg, and L.J. Cardozo. “Zinc supplementation decreases incidence of infections in the elderly: effect of zinc on generation of cytokines and oxidative stress,” Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 March;85(3):837-44.

When Pain Just Won’t Go Away, Try This…

Let me share with you the story of a patient named Jessie. Jessie had four hip surgeries in the last three years to remove and replace parts of her hip joint that arthritis has affected. Her doctors replaced them with new, man-made parts that wouldn't deteriorate, thinking that would solve her problem.

But Jessie's pain only got worse over time. After enduring four surgeries in three years, Jessie was at her wit's end. The only thing that reduced her pain was opiod painkillers, but they caused her to experience fatigue and fuzzy thinking. So she didn't like to take them. Since they were her only source of relief, she took them periodically, but that meant she lived in pain the rest of the time.

A Mayo Clinic study gave me the clue I needed to understand the cause of and solution to Jessie's problem. It was inflammation! Jessie was suffering from postsurgical inflammatory neuropathy, an inflammation in the nerves of her leg.

Postsurgical inflammatory neuropathy can occur when nerves get damaged during surgery, whether by direct injury or poor positioning of the patient. Or, like in Jessie's case, it can simply be the result of inflammation without a direct injury. Whichever the cause, the immune system begins to attack the nerves, which causes weakness and pain, just like Jessie was experiencing.

The Mayo Clinic study looked specifically at hip surgery patients who were experiencing pain and weakness after surgery even when there had been no documented injury. Nerve biopsies revealed that all of the patients were suffering from inflammatory neuropathy. Many patients experienced the pain and numbness starting in the foot on the same leg that they had surgery on. The sciatic nerve was frequently affected as well.

For most, the nerve damage didn't develop immediately, so it was harder
for the patients' doctors to realize that it was related to the surgery. Other indications are severe pain and a different anatomical distribution than expected. When doctors know to look for these signs in the absence of an obvious injury, it can be easier for them to identify the underlying inflammatory issue, like I was able to do for Jessie. It's not uncommon for physical injuries to cause neuropathy as well, but it's typically easier to identify.

Once we knew what was causing Jessie's pain, we were able to treat it. I gave her a double dose of Reduloxin (800-791-3395), an anti-inflammatory herbal formula with turmeric, holy basil, ginger, and other complimentary herbal extracts. It's the most powerful supplement of its kind I've ever found, and it gave Jessie the relief she needed while she explored other solutions (like icing her hip after any exercise).

How Salt Water and Sugar Water Can Cure Your Joint Pain

If you’ve tried all the drugs and supplements, but still have joint pain, you might want to try prolotherapy. I wrote about it years ago. In fact, I even had prolotherapy on my own knee. Two sessions solved my knee problem! I never had to have surgery.

Prolotherapy helps chronic pain and stiffness related to joint osteoarthritis. It's a series of injections containing a safe, two-solution treatment. Prolotherapy works because it addresses the underlying cause of the pain instead of just covering up the pain. You see, chronic joint pain often occurs because unstable ligaments can cause inflammation. Ligaments don't have as big of a blood supply as muscles, so they heal more slowly. Lack of exercise and age can cause ligaments to become weaker and more easily injured. Prolotherapy helps strengthen and relax these weakened ligaments, relieving the pain around the affected joint.

If Reduloxin or Advanced Joint Support aren’t enough to solve your problem, you may want to try prolotherapy. You can learn more about prolotherapy by ordering the book Prolo Your Pain Away by Ross Hauser, MD. Right now, you can order the book for $20 off the retail price of $29.95 ($9.95 + $3.95 shipping) by calling 800-262-3164.

NUTRITION DETECTIVE

You May Not Be Able to Control Your Obesity or Metabolic Syndrome

When you can’t find a solution to a medical problem, look to genetics. This is the fastest growing subject in research today. And it’s going to keep expanding because it holds the key to so many problems.

Take obesity, for example. More than 60% of adults in this country think that what we eat and how much we exercise is responsible for our current obesity epidemic. But this is not necessarily the case. A number of researchers have insisted for over a hundred years that obesity is innate. Eating fewer calories and exercising more may not give you the results you expect.

A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (May 15, 2014) is challenging our beliefs around obesity and metabolic syndrome – a cluster of symptoms that includes early onset coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, and type-2 diabetes. Most people tend to believe that simply lowering our caloric intake can reduce our excessive weight. But you also may benefit from taking specific nutrients that support your liver and pancreas.

Current research found that a percentage of our population has a gene that is called DYRK1B. Its altered function is associated both with obesity and an inherited form of the metabolic syndrome. While scientists look for a drug that will treat its many risk factors, we can begin today to use herbs and nutrients to balance them.

Metabolic Defense (800-791-3395) is a formula I’ve found to be particularly effective. It combines Ayurvedic and Chinese herbs with medicinal mushrooms. This added support to the liver and pancreas may be just what your body needs, whether you have a genetic predisposition or have created weight problems through poor dietary and exercising choices.

New England Journal of Medicine, May 15, 2014.

LETTERS

Q: I’m highly allergic to all citrus – even tomatoes. I think I need to detoxify my body, but I’m reluctant to take PectaSol, even though it looks like a wonderful product. Is there any way I can take it? – L.A., Des Moines, IA

A: I like PectaSol products because they not only work well for my patients and me, they are the only detox products that researchers have used in sound scientific studies. I contacted the formulators and asked about your allergy to citrus. This is what they said:

“An allergic reaction to PectaSol is very unusual. We have never had a report of an allergic reaction to the PectaSol Modified Citrus Pectin in the 18 years it has been on the market. The pectin is derived from the water-soluble fraction of the white pith from the inner peels. It is highly purified away from citric acid, pulp, juice, and pigments from the outer skin. For someone with a known citrus allergy, it is recommended that they start with single capsule and work up to a full dosage, if no symptoms occur.”

PectaSol Detox Formula is phase one of two steps toward detoxification. This formula is made from pectin and alginate (seaweed). After taking it for at least three months, you need to add Detox Complete. This formula removes toxins from organ and brain tissues that would otherwise remain “stuck” in your body.
Most people should take two capsules of PectaSol Detox Formula morning and night on an empty stomach. When you add the Detox Complete, make sure you take two capsules twice a day with meals. But try our formulators’ plan and see if that works for you. You can order both products by calling 800-791-3395.

Q: I have type-2 diabetes and need to lose weight. A friend told me to eat small amounts of food throughout the day, but I find it difficult to integrate this into my work schedule. And I’m always thinking about food. Is there any way I can eat less often and still lose weight? – J.S., Austin, TX

A: I have good news that may surprise you. A study published in a European diabetes journal found that eating two larger meals a day, instead of six small meals with the same amount of calories, will help you control both your weight and blood sugar.

In this study, researchers divided 54 participants with type-2 diabetes into two groups and put them on a diet containing 500 calories less than the daily recommended amount. Half ate six small meals for three months, and the other half ate two meals a day with the same macronutrient and calorie content. Then the groups switched diets for another three months.

Although it’s common to suggest someone with blood sugar problems eat frequently throughout the day, the diabetics who ate just breakfast and lunch lost weight, had reduced liver fat, and had lowered fasting blood sugar. Those who ate six small meals a day did not.

So consider eating two large meals a day. If you can eat a large late lunch around 1:00 or so, it can help you stop thinking about food all day. It also will help you lose weight and fight diabetes.

Kahleová, Hana, et al. “Eating two larger meals a day (breakfast and lunch) is more effective than six smaller meals in a reduced-energy regimen for patients with type-2 diabetes: a randomised crossover study.” Diabetologia, May 2014 DOI: 10.1007/s00125-014-3253-5.