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Posted by: admin | Posted on: September 17, 2026

Brighter Daytime Light Is Linked to a Lower Dementia Risk

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2026/09/17/brighter-daytime-light.aspx

Analysis by Dr. Joseph MercolaS eptember 17, 2026

Story at-a-glance

Research suggests that spending more time in bright daytime light was linked to a lower risk of developing dementia, with measurable brightness targets that are often reached outdoors. However, the researchers caution these thresholds may not transfer directly to other populations
In the study’s machine-learning analysis, bright daytime light ranked as a stronger predictor of future dementia risk than several familiar factors, including alcohol consumption, obesity, hearing loss, and traumatic brain injury
The strongest association between brighter daytime light and lower dementia risk was found in people already at higher risk, including those with an evening chronotype and people who carry the APOE4 gene variant
Research suggests sunlight supports your body in ways that extend beyond vitamin D, influencing compounds involved in circulation, mood, sleep, immune function, and your body’s natural daily rhythm
Building simple habits such as spending time outdoors in the morning, taking daylight breaks during the day, and reducing dependence on dim indoor lighting may be a practical way to support long-term brain health

Dementia is characterized by progressive loss of memory, thinking, judgment, and the ability to carry out everyday tasks. This means the brain gradually loses the ability to process information normally, making familiar conversations, appointments, and even simple daily routines increasingly difficult. In advanced stages, it can lead to dependence on others for daily care, which is exactly why the modifiable factors discussed in the featured research below are worth your attention.

Yet research points to a surprisingly simple factor tied to your future brain health — the amount of bright light you receive during the day.

A large prospective cohort study of 87,577 U.K. Biobank adults (with an average age of 62.36 years) followed participants for a 8.1 years after measuring their daily bright-light exposure with wrist-worn devices for seven days, and found a consistent pattern linking brighter days to lower dementia risk.¹

The associations held across the study’s adjusted models, and the specific brightness targets the researchers identified give you something more concrete to aim for than vague advice to simply “get outside more.” However, keep in mind that the effect sizes were modest and the design was observational, so the study shows association rather than cause.

Meanwhile, decades of research show that sunlight does much more than support vitamin D production. Natural daylight also appears to influence your internal body clock, blood vessel function, circulation, mood, and sleep — systems that research links to brain health as you age. This matters because modern life keeps so many of us indoors beneath artificial lighting that rarely approaches the brightness found outdoors.

Researchers Identified Specific Daylight Targets Linked to Lower Dementia Risk

For the General Psychiatry study, investigators wanted to determine whether the amount of bright light received during an ordinary day influences long-term dementia risk. They equipped dementia-free adults with wrist-worn devices that continuously measured light exposure for seven days.

The participants, whose average age was just over 62, were then followed for a median of 8.1 years. During that time, 741 people developed dementia. Because the study used objective measurements rather than personal estimates, the findings provide a more reliable picture than self-report studies — though the authors note that wrist-worn sensors are only a coarse representation for the light actually reaching your eyes.

• Brighter daytime light was consistently linked to lower dementia risk — People whose average daytime light exposure exceeded 1,000 lux, roughly the brightness near a sunny window or outdoors on an overcast day (a practical comparison rather than a figure reported in the study), had a 16% lower risk of developing dementia than those who remained below that level, even after researchers adjusted for age, education, physical activity, smoking, diet, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, hearing loss, and other important risk factors.

Researchers also identified practical brightness targets. Spending more than 1.4 hours each day above 3,000 lux, more than 0.7 hours above 5,000 lux, or more than 0.45 hours above 7,000 lux was each associated with roughly 17% to 18% lower dementia risk than shorter exposure times. One caveat worth knowing: The wrist sensors used in this study had an approximately linear response only up to about 5,500 lux, so the 7,000-lux threshold should be read with more caution than the lower two.

• The greatest reductions appeared in people who already faced higher risk — The strongest protective associations were found among individuals exposed to higher nighttime light levels, people with an evening chronotype — meaning they naturally prefer later bedtimes and wake times — and those who carry the APOE4 gene variant, one of the strongest inherited risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.

Depending on the group and the amount of daytime light received, brighter daytime light was associated with a 19% to 41% lower dementia risk. Researchers also found that the relationship between brighter daytime light and lower dementia risk remained consistent across different ages and between men and women, though they caution that the U.K.

Biobank cohort is healthier and less socioeconomically deprived than the general population, which limits how broadly the risk estimates translate to real life application.

• Daytime light outperformed several familiar dementia predictors — Using a single machine-learning model (XGBoost), researchers compared four daytime light measurements with 15 established dementia risk factors using the SHapley Additive exPlanations method.

Spending less than 0.70 hours each day above 5,000 lux ranked 10th of the 19 factors examined — a stronger predictor than alcohol consumption, obesity, air pollution, vitamin D supplement use, hearing loss, and traumatic brain injury. That doesn’t mean those factors are unimportant.

Instead, it highlights that daytime light has received far less attention than its predictive value deserves. Unlike many health markers that require laboratory testing, light exposure is also easy to measure with wearable devices, making it a practical way to identify people whose future dementia risk warrants closer attention.

• Healthier daily body rhythms explained part of the association — Researchers investigated whether brighter daytime light supported the body’s internal 24-hour timing system, known as circadian rest-activity rhythms. This system controls your sleep-wake cycle, hormone release, alertness, and many other biological functions.

Their analyses suggested these rhythms explained roughly 6% to 33% of the relationship between brighter daytime light and lower dementia risk, although these rest-activity mediation effects were no longer statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons, so the authors classify them as exploratory. These results suggest that a stronger daily rhythm may be one pathway through which brighter daylight relates to long-term brain health.

•The benefits extended beyond vitamin D alone — Brain imaging showed that brighter daytime light was associated with healthier characteristics in several brain regions. The clearest of these findings involved the fusiform cortex — an area that helps recognize faces and process complex visual information — which mediated about 9% of the association. It was also the only brain-structure mediator to survive correction for multiple comparisons.

Researchers also examined whether vitamin D explained the relationship between daylight and dementia but found no significant mediation effect. That finding suggests bright daytime light may influence brain health through pathways beyond raising vitamin D levels, though the study did not identify which ones.

If vitamin D alone doesn’t account for what the researchers observed, the question becomes which biological pathways do, and decades of research point to a set of responses that begin the moment sunlight reaches your body.

Sunlight Starts Powerful Biological Processes Beyond Vitamin D

Daylight is more than a vitamin D delivery system. It acts as an environmental signal that research links to circulation, hormone release, immune activity, sleep quality, and cellular energy production. An analysis by A Midwestern Doctor argues that modern indoor living has separated many people from the level of natural light the human body evolved to receive, making sunlight an often-overlooked part of overall health.²

• Your body creates compounds that supplements don’t provide — Ultraviolet light does much more than start vitamin D production. As sunlight reaches your skin, it also produces photoproducts such as lumisterol and tachysterol, which researchers continue to investigate for their biological roles.³

Research by Dr. Michael Holick suggests that sunlight stimulates the production of compounds that may support immune function, cardiovascular health, and mental well-being. He has also reported that vitamin D produced in your skin remains in your bloodstream two to three times longer than vitamin D taken by mouth because nearly all of it binds to transport proteins, whereas only about 60% of supplemental vitamin D does.⁴

• Sunlight includes its own built-in safety system — According to Holick, your body naturally limits vitamin D production during sun exposure. Once enough vitamin D precursor forms in your skin, continued ultraviolet exposure converts additional precursor into other photoproducts instead of endlessly producing vitamin D.

As he explains, “Mother Nature designed us” with a self-regulating system that prevents excessive vitamin D production through ordinary sun exposure. This differs from supplements, where excessively high doses can raise vitamin D levels beyond the body’s normal regulatory process.⁵

• Natural daylight is linked to better circulation throughout your body — One of the fastest responses described in the article involves nitric oxide, a signaling molecule released from your skin almost immediately after sun exposure. Nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels, allowing blood to move more freely throughout your body. Holick explains that sunlight “immediately release[s] nitric oxide” while also stimulating additional nitric oxide production, extending that effect.

Research also suggests sunlight supports cholesterol sulfate production and healthy fluid movement through tissues.⁶ For example, In a 20-year study of 29,518 Swedish women, those who avoided the sun had roughly 1.6 times the all-cause mortality of women with the highest sun exposure, and nonsmoking sun-avoiders had a life expectancy similar to smokers who got the most sun. The study was observational, so it cannot establish cause.⁷*

• Morning daylight helps set your body clock, mood, and sleep — Sunlight influences “clock genes” and “period genes,” which synchronize your body’s internal timing system.⁸ A well-aligned daily rhythm supports daytime alertness and deeper sleep at night.

Ultraviolet light also appears to stimulate beta-endorphins, your body’s natural mood-supporting chemicals, which researchers have proposed as one reason many people feel calmer and happier after spending time outdoors.⁹ Artificial indoor lighting doesn’t provide the full range of wavelengths found in natural sunlight, leaving your body without many of the biological signals that evolved alongside daylight exposure.

• Scientists continue to investigate how light communicates with your cells — Historical work by Alexander Gurwitsch proposed that living cells emit extremely faint ultraviolet light, sometimes called mitogenic radiation or biophotons, as part of cellular communication during growth and repair.¹⁰

Observations by A Midwestern Doctor also suggest blood and other tissues conduct light energy throughout the body, offering one explanation for why light exposure sometimes produces widespread effects instead of remaining limited to the skin. These concepts extend beyond established mainstream scientific consensus and remain areas of ongoing investigation, but together they reinforce the notion that sunlight influences far more than vitamin D production alone.

*These findings are from research conducted in clinical settings. Results may not apply to all individuals.

Increase Your Daily Bright Light Exposure for Optimal Health

One of the practical takeaways from the featured research is that your daily light environment may matter more than it seems. Bright daytime light isn’t a luxury. It’s a biological signal involved in many of the systems that research associates with long-term brain health. The good news is that this is one area where small, consistent habits add up. Instead of waiting until memory problems appear, you have the opportunity to build a daily routine that supports your brain now.

1. Make bright natural light part of your morning routine — If you spend most of your day indoors, start by stepping outside shortly after you wake up. Eat breakfast on a patio, walk the dog, take a short walk, or simply sit outside while you drink your coffee. If your schedule allows, build additional outdoor time into the middle of your day. The goal is to spend meaningful time in bright natural daylight instead of relying on dim indoor lighting from morning until evening.

2. Spend less of your day under dim indoor lighting — Many homes and offices provide only a fraction of the brightness found outdoors. If you work inside, move closer to windows whenever possible and take brief outdoor breaks throughout the day. Even a few scheduled daylight breaks are easier to maintain than trying to spend several uninterrupted hours outside. Each break adds to your daily bright-light total.

3. Protect your body’s natural daily rhythm — Your body clock appears to work best when it receives a strong contrast between bright days and dark nights. Flood your mornings with bright light, then dial down artificial light after sunset, especially overhead light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and screens, which are heavy in the blue wavelengths that delay sleep.

If you’re an evening person or work indoors most of the day, staying consistent with daytime light becomes even more important because the research found some of the strongest associations in higher-risk groups.

4. Support sunlight instead of trying to replace it — Whole-body sun exposure appears to offer benefits that extend beyond vitamin D alone. According to the research discussed earlier, sunlight also stimulates nitric oxide and other biologically active compounds that may influence circulation, mood, and your internal body clock.

Aim for regular, sensible sun exposure whenever conditions allow. If you still consume significant amounts of seed oils, such as corn, soybean, safflower, or canola oils, and other sources of linoleic acid (LA), avoid intense midday sun exposure (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) until you have reduced those foods for four to six months, then begin building up your exposure around solar noon.

This is because LA is a polyunsaturated fat that oxidizes easily, accumulates in your skin, and may increase your susceptibility to sunburn and skin damage. During that transition, build your sun exposure gradually. If your vitamin D level is low, I recommend working toward a blood level between 60 and 80 nanograms per milliliter (150 to 200 nanomoles per liter), with sunlight as your primary source whenever practical.

Talk to your health care provider about whether this testing is appropriate for you.

5. Support cellular energy every day — Bright light is most useful as part of a lifestyle that supports mitochondrial function. Eat enough carbohydrates to maintain healthy energy production instead of relying on very-low-carbohydrate eating patterns. For most adults, that means roughly 250 grams of targeted carbohydrates daily, adjusted upward if you’re very active.

Choose whole fruit and white rice first, followed by root vegetables and other minimally processed carbohydrate sources that fit your digestive tolerance.

Keep protein at about 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound (1.32 to 1.76 grams per kilogram) of your ideal body weight, with roughly one-third coming from collagen-rich foods. Eliminate seed oils whenever possible and prepare food with tallow, ghee, or grass fed butter instead.

Pair those nutrition habits with regular movement to support the circadian and cellular-energy systems discussed above. To be clear, the dementia study measured light exposure only — it did not test diet or exercise as interventions.

FAQs About Daytime Light Exposure and Dementia

Q: What did the study find about daytime light and dementia risk?

A: The study found that people who received more bright light during the day had a lower risk of developing dementia over the next eight years. Those whose average daytime light exposure exceeded 1,000 lux had a 16% lower dementia risk than those exposed to dimmer light.

Q: Why does bright daylight benefit my brain beyond vitamin D?

A: Bright daylight does much more than help your body produce vitamin D. The featured research indicates that sunlight also stimulates nitric oxide and other biologically active compounds involved in circulation, mood, sleep, immune function, and your body’s internal clock. In the dementia study, vitamin D did not explain the association between daytime light and dementia risk, which suggests other pathways are involved. However, the study did not identify which ones.

Q: How much bright light should I aim for each day?

A: The research suggests aiming for regular exposure to bright natural daylight throughout the day rather than remaining indoors under dim artificial lighting. Practical targets included more than 1.4 hours above 3,000 lux, more than 0.7 hours above 5,000 lux, or more than 0.45 hours above 7,000 lux. Those light levels are often reached outdoors, though the researchers caution that the specific thresholds may not transfer directly to other populations.

Q: Who appeared to benefit the most from brighter daytime light?

A: The strongest associations were seen in people already considered at higher risk for dementia, including those with an evening chronotype, individuals exposed to higher nighttime light levels, and people who carry the APOE4 gene variant. Depending on the group, brighter daytime light was associated with a 19% to 41% lower dementia risk.

Q: What are the simplest ways to increase my daytime light exposure?

A: Build bright daylight into your daily routine. Step outside shortly after waking, eat breakfast outdoors when possible, take walks during the day, work near windows, and schedule short outdoor breaks instead of spending the entire day under indoor lighting. Pair regular sunlight with healthy eating, movement, and good sleep habits to support long-term brain health.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health regimen.

– Sources and References

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Posted by: admin | Posted on: December 8, 2025

Calcium Supplements and Dementia — Major Study Busts Long-Held Myth

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2025/12/03/calcium-supplements-and-dementia-risk.aspx
Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola December 03, 2025

Story at-a-glance

Calcium supplements were long feared to increase dementia risk, but new long-term research found no connection between calcium use and cognitive decline, even among women with heart disease or prior strokes
The 14.5-year study published in The Lancet Regional Health showed that calcium carbonate supplements did not raise dementia-related hospitalizations or deaths, dispelling decades of concern about vascular calcification or brain damage
Your brain and bones rely on nutrient synergy — calcium works best when paired with magnesium, vitamin D3, and vitamin K2, which ensure calcium strengthens bones instead of depositing in arteries or soft tissue
Keeping your calcium-to-phosphorus ratio near 1:1 is key for both skeletal and cognitive health, since excessive phosphorus from processed foods, soda and meat-heavy diets forces calcium out of bones and contributes to arterial calcification
The safest way to protect your brain and bones is through whole-food calcium sources such as raw grass fed cheese, yogurt, and eggshell powder, paired with balanced sun exposure and nutrient cofactors that keep calcium working where it should

For decades, older adults have been warned that taking calcium supplements could harm their brains. Those warnings stemmed from small observational studies suggesting calcium might increase dementia risk by promoting vascular calcification or white matter lesions in the brain. Dementia, meaning a progressive decline in memory, reasoning, and behavior that interferes with daily life, affects 57 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.¹

It’s a devastating condition that robs independence, identity, and connection — so it’s no surprise that any hint of increased risk sparks concern. Calcium, however, is not a nutrient you can simply eliminate. It’s the most abundant mineral in your body and foundational for bone density, heart rhythm, muscle contraction, and nerve signaling. You need enough of it every day, especially as you age.

Yet the debate over how to get it — through diet or supplements — has persisted for years. Some experts argued that supplementing calcium floods your bloodstream and triggers calcium deposits in blood vessels, leading to stroke or cognitive decline. Others maintained that the risk was overstated and lacked solid evidence.

That’s why researchers from the University of Western Australia and colleagues conducted one of the most comprehensive long-term studies to date to determine whether calcium carbonate supplements truly raised dementia risk.² What they found directly challenges years of fear-driven headlines and changes how you might think about calcium and brain health.

Long-Term Calcium Supplement Use Found Safe for Brain Health

The post-hoc analysis published in The Lancet Regional Health investigated whether taking calcium carbonate supplements increased dementia risk in older women.³ Researchers followed 1,460 women aged 70 and older who were dementia-free at the start of the study.

Half took 1,200 milligrams (mg) of calcium carbonate daily for five years, while the other half received a placebo. After an additional 9.5 years of follow-up, the researchers found no difference in dementia-related hospitalizations or deaths between the two groups.

• Older women were the focus because they face the highest risk of both osteoporosis and dementia — Calcium supplementation has long been prescribed to help offset accelerated bone loss in aging women.

However, past observational studies raised fears that supplements could promote calcium buildup in arteries and the brain. To address these concerns, researchers used hospital and death records to track dementia outcomes, providing a rigorous evaluation of calcium’s long-term neurological safety.

• The results showed no increased risk of dementia, hospitalizations, or deaths — Over the study period, 18.4% of participants experienced dementia events — 16.6% were hospitalized for dementia, and 7.8% died from dementia-related causes.

However, the difference between calcium and placebo groups was statistically insignificant. Calcium users had slightly lower — but not significantly different — rates of dementia compared to the placebo group. This finding held true even after adjusting for genetic, cardiovascular, and lifestyle risk factors.

• The researchers also found no effect from how well participants followed their supplement plan — Even among those who took 80% or more of their assigned tablets, known as the per-protocol group, calcium had no adverse effects on cognitive outcomes.

Compliance was similar between groups — about 57% overall — and those who adhered more closely to the treatment had a 27% lower relative risk of dementia, regardless of whether they were in the calcium or placebo group. This suggests healthier behavior patterns, not calcium intake itself, could explain differences in dementia outcomes.

Calcium’s Suspected Link to Dementia Was Largely Theoretical — and This Study Disproved It

Critics had speculated that calcium supplements could cause “intracellular calcium overload,” leading to cell death or calcified deposits in brain tissue. Others feared sudden spikes in blood calcium could damage blood vessel linings. However, no such effects were observed in this long-term controlled study. Researchers found no increase in carotid artery plaque or arterial wall thickening — two markers of vascular calcification — among supplement users.

• The study also addressed previous contradictory research — Two earlier observational studies claimed calcium users had up to six times higher dementia risk, particularly among women with a history of stroke or brain lesions.^4,5

However, those studies were small and relied on self-reported supplement use rather than controlled dosages. By contrast, this randomized controlled trial provided calcium directly to participants and tracked adherence, eliminating much of the recall bias and confounding that weaken observational data.

• Even women with heart disease showed no increased dementia risk — Some researchers theorized that calcium supplements could worsen vascular problems or lead to calcification in the arteries, which could reduce blood flow to the brain.

Yet, when researchers separated women with existing atherosclerotic vascular disease from those without, results were the same — no association between calcium supplementation and dementia. The same held true for those with prior strokes or other cardiovascular issues.

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Synergistic Nutrients Strengthen Both Brain and Bone Health

Calcium’s behavior inside your body depends on a precise balance with other nutrients that determine where it goes and how it’s used. When that balance is right, calcium strengthens your bones and supports clear thinking. When it’s off, the same mineral can contribute to stiffness, fatigue, or vascular buildup. Understanding this synergy is the key to unlocking calcium’s full benefits for both brain and body health.

• Cognitive and skeletal health depend on nutrient teamwork, not single nutrients — Your brain and bones rely on a delicate balance of minerals and vitamins that work together — especially calcium, magnesium, vitamin D3, and vitamin K2.

Each plays a distinct role, but it’s their combined action that determines how effectively your body absorbs, uses, and stores calcium for long-term health. When these nutrients fall out of balance, calcium could end up in soft tissues like arteries instead of bones, where it’s needed most.

• Vitamin D3 directs calcium to where it belongs — Often called the “sunshine vitamin,” vitamin D3 helps your intestines absorb calcium efficiently and ensures it’s delivered into your bloodstream for proper use. Without adequate vitamin D3, your body struggles to maintain calcium balance.

This imbalance triggers a rise in parathyroid hormone (PTH), which pulls calcium from your bones to maintain blood levels, weakening skeletal strength and disrupting normal cellular processes that influence cognition. Sunlight exposure plays a central role in calcium regulation and brain health. Your skin produces vitamin D3 when exposed to sunlight, setting off a chain reaction that impacts both bone and brain function.

Proper vitamin D levels help regulate neurotransmitters, support mitochondrial activity, and protect against cognitive decline as you age. A lack of sunlight, on the other hand, makes even a calcium-rich diet less effective because your body can’t absorb or use the mineral properly without D3’s guidance.

• Magnesium keeps calcium in check and prevents harmful buildup — Acting as nature’s regulator, magnesium ensures calcium moves into bones and teeth instead of soft tissues. When magnesium levels are low, calcium often deposits in arteries, contributing to vascular calcification — a process associated with memory problems and cardiovascular disease. Balanced magnesium intake stabilizes this system, improving both vascular function and the nutrient delivery that fuels brain cells.

• Vitamin K2 activates proteins that lock calcium into your bone matrix — Found in fermented foods such as natto, sauerkraut, and aged cheeses like Gouda, Brie, and Edam, vitamin K2 turns on osteocalcin and matrix Gla-protein — two key compounds that guide calcium into bones and away from arteries. This mechanism reduces arterial stiffness, strengthens bone density, and supports the nutrient flow your brain depends on for healthy circulation and oxygen delivery.

• The four nutrients operate as a unified network that protects cognition — Calcium builds structural integrity; magnesium controls distribution; vitamin D3 governs absorption; and vitamin K2 ensures proper deposition. When one piece of this puzzle is missing, the system falters.

For example, supplementing calcium without magnesium or D3 could cause imbalances that increase calcification risk, while taking D3 without K2 could direct calcium into soft tissue rather than bone. The goal is harmony, not excess.

The Calcium-Magnesium Balance — Why Both Minerals Matter

Optimal bone health depends on maintaining balance between calcium and magnesium, a mineral that quietly governs calcium’s every move. While conventional advice has long prioritized calcium supplementation, the ratio between these two minerals is just as important as their total amounts.

• Both nutrients are widely underconsumed — Roughly 3.5 billion people worldwide risk inadequate calcium intake, mostly in low- and middle-income countries.⁶ At the same time, an estimated 45% to 60% of adults in developed nations fail to meet magnesium requirements through diet alone.⁷ Because only about 1% of magnesium is found in blood, routine lab tests often appear normal even when tissue levels are deficient, masking early imbalance.⁸

• The ratio matters as much as the amount — Studies suggest a calcium-to-magnesium ratio of about 2-to-1 (ranging from 1.7-to-1 to 2.6-to-1) may be ideal for metabolic and cardiovascular health, but the appropriate amount depends on magnesium form, diet quality, kidney function, and individual needs.⁹

Modern diets often reach calcium-to-magnesium ratios of 3-to-1 or higher, which limits magnesium absorption and promotes calcium buildup in soft tissue. Ratios exceeding 2.8-to-1 have been linked with inflammation, arterial stiffness, and metabolic stress.¹⁰

Keep in mind that these ratios refer to elemental magnesium, not the weight of the magnesium compound itself. Different forms of magnesium supply different amounts of elemental magnesium, and each type has specific characteristics. For example, systemic balance typically relies on forms like glycinate, citrate, or malate, while magnesium L-threonate supports brain magnesium levels at much lower elemental doses.

For this reason, magnesium needs cannot always be compared by compound weight alone, and intake should be assessed based on total elemental magnesium from both food and supplements, and supplemental forms are best chosen based on your personal health goals and tolerance.

• A balanced approach works best — Aim for whole-food calcium sources such as raw grass-fed dairy, leafy greens, powdered eggshell, small fish with edible bones, and algae-derived calcium. For magnesium, lean on legumes, dark leafy greens and, if needed, well-tolerated supplemental forms.

Both minerals act in concert — magnesium activates vitamin D, drives calcium into bone, supports hundreds of enzymatic reactions, and prevents inappropriate calcification, while calcium provides the structural framework for bones and muscles.

If supplementing, limit calcium to 500 mg per dose and select a formula that pairs both minerals in a 2-to-1 ratio. Think of calcium and magnesium as partners, not competitors — each depends on the other for optimal brain, bone, and cardiovascular health.

Keeping Calcium and Phosphorus in Balance Protects Your Brain and Bones

Your calcium-to-phosphorus ratio is another key player in how well your body maintains strong bones and clear thinking. Most people think of calcium as the key mineral for bone health, but phosphorus is equally important — and too much of it disrupts the entire system.

Calcium and phosphorus work in tandem to maintain bone density and nerve signaling, yet when phosphorus intake far exceeds calcium, your body compensates by pulling calcium out of bones to restore balance in your blood. This imbalance doesn’t just weaken your skeleton — it also stresses your cardiovascular and nervous systems, both of which influence brain health.

• Modern diets have tilted this ratio in the wrong direction — The ideal calcium-to-phosphorus ratio is between 1:1 and 1.3:1, meaning you should consume roughly equal amounts of each mineral. However, many people today are closer to 0.3:1 — three times more phosphorus than calcium.

This imbalance is fueled by excessive consumption of animal protein, processed foods, and grain-based products, all rich in phosphorus but low in calcium. When this ratio stays low for years, it accelerates bone loss, increases vascular calcification, and contributes to obesity and premature aging.

• Excess phosphorus forces calcium to leave your bones, triggering a cascade of problems — When phosphorus levels rise too high, your PTH increases to restore equilibrium. PTH does this by pulling calcium from bones into your bloodstream, keeping blood calcium stable but at the cost of bone strength.

Over time, this process erodes bone density, increases fracture risk, and contributes to osteoporosis — a condition marked by brittle bones and slow healing. The same process also promotes arterial stiffness and calcium buildup in soft tissues, increasing cardiovascular strain and reducing brain oxygenation.

• Phosphorus overload often comes from hidden sources — Processed meats, soda, energy drinks, and packaged snacks frequently contain phosphate additives that sharply elevate intake without providing the balancing minerals your body needs.

Even diets high in red meat skew the ratio toward excess phosphorus if calcium sources aren’t prioritized. Reading ingredient labels and minimizing processed foods are simple steps that protect both your bones and cognitive function.

• Managing your calcium-phosphorus ratio is straightforward once you know what to focus on.

◦Prioritize calcium-rich foods such as raw grass fed cheese and yogurt.

◦Limit processed meats, colas, and fast foods that contain phosphate preservatives.

◦Consider using natural food-based calcium sources such as raw grass fed dairy, small fish with bones, algae-derived calcium, or powdered eggshell. Each provides calcium in a form your body can use, and the right choice depends on your diet, preferences and tolerance.

◦Add a magnesium supplement to help regulate calcium transport and reduce vascular stress.

◦Get sunlight exposure to optimize your vitamin D levels and help your body use calcium efficiently and stabilize hormone balance.

The Best Calcium Sources Come from Food, Not Pills

When you understand how your body uses calcium, you start to see why whole foods work better than isolated supplements. Calcium doesn’t act alone — it relies on a network of nutrients, including magnesium, vitamin D3, and vitamin K2, to reach your bones instead of your arteries or brain.

It’s also balanced by phosphorus, another mineral that’s often too high in modern diets due to processed foods and excessive animal protein. Restoring that mineral harmony keeps your bones strong, your arteries clear, and your mind sharp as you age.

1. Start with food-based calcium every day — You’ll absorb calcium best from whole foods that naturally contain the right mineral balance. Include raw grass fed cheese, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and cooked collard greens — if your gut tolerates them — regularly.

These foods provide bioavailable calcium that your body recognizes and puts to work immediately. They also deliver trace minerals and natural fats that support hormone balance and nutrient absorption — two key elements of long-term bone and brain health.

2. Powdered eggshell provides a pure, natural calcium boost — Powdered eggshell is made mostly of calcium carbonate — the same compound found in your bones — and contains 27 other trace minerals that improve calcium uptake. Take about 1/2 teaspoon of eggshell powder three times a day with meals to provide roughly 1,300 mg of calcium.

I recommend mixing it into smoothies, yogurt, or soups. It’s inexpensive, effective, and free of contaminants that often plague bone meal products. If you notice any constipation, consider taking magnesium alongside the eggshell calcium for better results.

3. Pair calcium with magnesium, vitamin D3, and vitamin K2 — Calcium and magnesium work like teammates — one tightens muscles and nerves, the other relaxes them. Without enough magnesium, calcium builds up in soft tissues instead of strengthening bones.

Vitamin D3 and vitamin K2 complete the team: D3 helps you absorb calcium efficiently, while K2 activates proteins that guide it into your bone matrix and keep it out of arteries. This trio — magnesium, D3, and K2 — ensures calcium goes exactly where it should, supporting steady energy, vascular health, and sharper cognition.

While leafy greens provide excellent dietary magnesium, due to depleted soils many healthy foods have lower levels of nutrients than they used to. As a result, many people still need supplementation to reach optimal magnesium levels. Generally, your magnesium intake should be about half of your calcium intake — so if you’re consuming 1,000 mg of calcium, your ideal magnesium intake is about 500 mg.

When taking magnesium, start with magnesium citrate, which is absorbed well but will cause loose stools if you take too much. Gradually increase your dose until that happens, then back off slightly. That’s your personal threshold. Once you know it, switch to forms like magnesium glycinate, malate, or threonate, which deliver the benefits without upsetting your digestion.

To optimize your vitamin D levels, aim for sun exposure on bare skin daily, without sunscreen, but avoid exposure during peak hours (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) until you’ve eliminated seed oils for at least six months to reduce sun sensitivity. Test your vitamin D levels regularly and aim for 60 to 80 ng/mL (150 to 200 nmol/L).

4. Balance your calcium-to-phosphorus ratio for bone and brain protection — Most people consume far more phosphorus than calcium, which forces your body to pull calcium from your bones to restore balance in your blood. Over time, this weakens bones and promotes calcium deposits in arteries.

To correct this, reduce processed foods, colas, and grain-heavy meals, and increase calcium-rich options such as raw grass fed dairy, eggshell powder, and cooked greens. Aim for a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio close to 1:1 by combining calcium-rich foods with moderate protein intake. This keeps both your skeleton and your cardiovascular system in harmony.

5. Use calcium strategically — not excessively — More isn’t always better. Most adults need around 1,000 to 1,300 milligrams of calcium per day from all sources combined, balanced with magnesium, vitamin D and K2. Avoid overdoing protein or processed foods that drive up phosphorus, and remember that consistent, balanced intake — not high doses — creates the real results.

Most adults need about 0.8 grams of protein per pound of ideal body weight (the weight you would ideally be, not necessarily the weight you are now), or for Europeans, approximately 1.76 grams of protein per kilogram. Ideally, get roughly one-third of your protein from collagen sources like bone broth or grass fed ground beef, which contains connective tissue, or glycine to support connective tissue health.

Balanced nutrition supports strong bones, clear arteries, steady energy, and cognitive resilience throughout your life. By shifting toward whole food sources and respecting your body’s mineral rhythms, you give yourself the best chance to maintain both skeletal and cognitive health for decades to come.

FAQs About Calcium, Brain Health, and Cognitive Resilience

Q: Does taking calcium supplements increase your risk of dementia?

A: No. According to research published in The Lancet Regional Health, calcium carbonate supplements did not increase the risk of dementia, hospitalizations, or dementia-related deaths in older women who took them for five years and were followed for 9.5 years afterward.¹¹ The findings showed no link between calcium supplementation and vascular calcification or cognitive decline.

Q: How do vitamin D3, magnesium, and vitamin K2 work with calcium to protect your brain?

A: These nutrients act as a coordinated team. Vitamin D3 helps your intestines absorb calcium and directs it into your bloodstream; magnesium regulates calcium’s movement so it enters your bones instead of your arteries; and vitamin K2 activates proteins that “lock” calcium into bone tissue. Together, they ensure calcium supports bone strength and brain health without causing harmful deposits in soft tissues.

Q: Why is the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio important for cognitive and bone health?

A: An ideal calcium-to-phosphorus ratio of about 1:1 maintains balance between bone-building and cellular energy processes. Most modern diets deliver three times more phosphorus than calcium due to high intake of animal protein, processed foods, and soda. This imbalance causes calcium to leach from bones, weakens skeletal structure, and promotes calcium buildup in arteries — raising the risk of cardiovascular and cognitive problems.

Q: What are the best food sources of calcium and its supporting nutrients?

A: Whole, minimally processed foods are your best option. Raw grass fed cheese, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and cooked leafy greens provide highly absorbable calcium. For magnesium, focus on cooked greens, potatoes, and bananas, but most people need supplementation to support their levels. Vitamin D3 is produced naturally from sunlight exposure, and vitamin K2 is found in fermented foods like natto, sauerkraut, and aged cheeses such as Gouda or Brie.

Q: How can you safely optimize your calcium intake for brain and bone health?

A: Rely primarily on food-based calcium. Raw grass-fed dairy, small fish with bones, algae-derived calcium, and powdered eggshell all supply the mineral in natural forms that work well with your biology. Choose the source that best supports your digestion and overall nutrient intake.

Pair calcium with magnesium, vitamin D3, and vitamin K2 to ensure proper absorption and placement in your body. Avoid overconsuming phosphorus-rich or processed foods, and aim for daily sunlight to maintain ideal vitamin D3 levels. Consistency — not high doses — is what sustains strong bones, clear arteries, and lasting cognitive vitality.

– Sources and References

Posted in Bones, Brain, Calcium, Cardiovascular, Dementia, Heart | No Comments »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: July 30, 2024

Estrogen and Dementia: Challenging Conventional Wisdom

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/07/29/estrogen-and-dementia.aspx

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola July 29, 2024

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

A new study in JAMA Neurology challenges the long-held belief that estrogen protects against dementia in women. The research found that pure estrogen receptor antagonists and aromatase inhibitors were associated with a lower risk of dementia across women’s lifespans
This study contradicts previous research suggesting estrogen’s protective effects on the brain, particularly in post-menopausal women
The findings imply that other substances with anti-estrogenic effects, such as progesterone and certain vitamins, might also protect against dementia
The medical establishment’s response to this study has been mixed, with some attempts to misrepresent or downplay its implications
Natural anti-estrogenic approaches, including diet, exercise, and progesterone supplementation, may offer potential strategies for reducing dementia risk

For decades, mainstream medicine has promoted the idea that estrogen is protective for the brain, particularly in post-menopausal women. The conventional wisdom has been that the increased risk of dementia in older women is due to the “deficiency” of estrogen that occurs during menopause. However, a groundbreaking new study published in JAMA Neurology challenges this long-held belief, providing compelling evidence that blocking estrogen may lower the risk of dementia.¹

Research Causing a Paradigm Shift

This recent study is perhaps the most damaging piece of evidence I’ve encountered in the last five years that contradicts the claim that estrogen protects the brain. The research, published in one of the most prestigious medical journals, found that using pure estrogen receptor antagonists or aromatase inhibitors was associated with a lower risk of developing dementia across the entire expected female lifespan.

What makes this study particularly significant is its use of “pure” anti-estrogen drugs. Previous studies showing protective effects against dementia often used selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) like clomiphene, tamoxifen, or raloxifene. These drugs have anti-estrogenic effects in some tissues but are potent estrogens in others.

This dual nature allowed the medical establishment to explain away the protective effects as actually confirming the “benefit” of estrogen for the brain, since SERMs can be estrogenic in brain tissue.

However, the current study leaves no room for such interpretations. It examined the effects of pure estrogen receptor antagonists like Faslodex (fulvestrant) and its nonsteroidal analog Elacestrant, as well as aromatase inhibitors like letrozole. These drugs are highly selective blockers of estrogen receptors with no other known major effects.

The fact that aromatase inhibitors, which reduce the body’s production of estrogen, also showed protective effects against dementia further solidifies the case against estrogen as a protective factor for brain health.

Rethinking Estrogen’s Role

These findings suggest that other substances with anti-estrogenic effects might also have protective effects against dementia. This includes:

Progesterone
Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K)
Aspirin
DHT (dihydrotestosterone)
Flavones and flavanones (apigenin, naringenin, chrysin, quercetin, luteolin)

The study’s results were particularly pronounced in patients under 75 years of age, indicating that anti-estrogenic interventions might be most effective when started earlier in life.

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The Medical Establishment’s Response

It will be interesting to see how the medical establishment responds to this study. Given its publication in JAMA, a highly respected journal, it will be difficult to dismiss outright. However, we’re already seeing some concerning trends in how the information is being presented and interpreted.

Nefarious Tactics in Reporting

1. Progesterone misrepresentation — Some popular press articles reporting on this study have attempted to implicate progesterone as a co-culprit with estrogen. They mention that the anti-estrogenic drugs in the study are used to treat breast cancers caused by “estrogen and progesterone.”

This misrepresentation could lead the public to believe that progesterone increases the risk of dementia or cancer, when in fact, the opposite is true. The drugs mentioned in the study target exclusively estrogen and estrogen-positive cancers, not progesterone-positive cancers. Moreover, progesterone itself acts as both an estrogen receptor antagonist and an aromatase inhibitor, potentially offering protection against dementia based on the study’s findings.

2. Misleading terminology — The study itself uses the term “hormone modulating therapy” (HMT) to describe the anti-estrogenic treatments. This vague terminology avoids stating that the therapy is purely estrogen-blocking in nature, unlike SERM drugs which have mixed effects. It also fails to clarify that the therapy targets solely estrogen, not progesterone.

These tactics appear to be attempts to twist the science to serve pharmaceutical interests and avoid stating the obvious conclusion based on the study’s findings: that estrogen may be a cause of dementia and Alzheimer’s, while anti-estrogenic therapy (including natural options like progesterone) may be protective and possibly even therapeutic for existing dementias.

A Critical Examination of the Estrogen Hypothesis

For years, the medical community has operated under the assumption that estrogen is beneficial for brain health, particularly in post-menopausal women. This belief has led to widespread use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and other estrogen-boosting interventions. However, this new study forces us to critically examine this hypothesis.

The idea that estrogen deficiency causes cognitive decline in older women has been based largely on observational studies and the timing of when women typically experience increased rates of dementia (post-menopause). However, correlation does not imply causation, and there are many other factors that change as women age that could contribute to cognitive decline.

Moreover, previous clinical trials of hormone replacement therapy have yielded mixed results regarding cognitive function and dementia risk. The Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study,² for instance, found that combined estrogen-progestin therapy actually increased the risk of dementia in postmenopausal women.

The current study provides strong evidence that blocking estrogen or reducing its production may be protective against dementia. This suggests that estrogen might actually be harmful to brain health, rather than protective. If this is the case, it would explain why rates of dementia increase after menopause — not because of estrogen deficiency, but because of the cumulative effects of lifelong estrogen exposure.

Natural Anti-Estrogenic Approaches

If blocking estrogen indeed proves protective against dementia, it opens up a range of potential preventive strategies beyond pharmaceutical interventions. Many natural compounds and lifestyle factors can have anti-estrogenic effects:

1. Cruciferous vegetables — Compounds in broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts can help metabolize estrogen.

2. Green tea — Contains compounds that may inhibit aromatase, the enzyme that produces estrogen.

3. Exercise — Regular physical activity can help balance hormones and may have anti-estrogenic effects.

4. Sleep — Proper sleep hygiene is crucial for hormonal balance, including estrogen regulation.

5. Stress management — Chronic stress can disrupt hormone balance. Techniques like meditation, yoga, or deep breathing can help.

6. Vitamin D — This fat-soluble vitamin has been shown to have anti-estrogenic effects.

7. Progesterone — As mentioned earlier, natural progesterone can act as an estrogen antagonist.

The Role of Progesterone

It’s worth delving deeper into the role of progesterone, given its potential importance in light of this study’s findings. Progesterone is often overlooked in discussions about hormones and brain health, with most of the focus being on estrogen. However, progesterone has several properties that make it potentially neuroprotective:

1. Estrogen receptor antagonist — Progesterone can block the effects of estrogen in certain tissues.

2. Aromatase inhibitor — It can reduce the production of estrogen in the body.

3. Neuroprotective effects — Independent of its effects on estrogen, progesterone has been shown to have direct neuroprotective properties in animal studies.

4. Anti-inflammatory — Progesterone can reduce inflammation in the brain, which is thought to play a role in the development of dementia.

Given these properties, and the findings of the current study, it’s possible that progesterone supplementation could be a natural way to potentially reduce dementia risk. However, more research is needed to confirm this hypothesis.

How to Use Progesterone

Before you consider using progesterone it is important to understand that it is not a magic bullet, and that you get the most benefit by implementing a Bioenergetic diet approach that allows you to effectively burn glucose as your primary fuel without backing up electrons in your mitochondria that reduces your energy production. My new book, “Cellular Health: The Unified Theory of All Disease for Ultimate Longevity and Joy” comes out very soon and covers this process in great detail.

Once you have dialed in your diet, an effective strategy that can help counteract estrogen excess is to take transmucosal progesterone (i.e., applied to your gums, not oral or transdermal), which is a natural estrogen antagonist. Progesterone is one of only four hormones I believe many adults can benefit from. (The other three are thyroid hormone T3, DHEA and pregnenolone.)

I do not recommend transdermal progesterone, as your skin expresses high levels of 5-alpha reductase enzyme, which causes a significant portion of the progesterone you’re taking to be irreversibly converted primarily into allopregnanolone and cannot be converted back into progesterone.

Ideal Way to Administer Progesterone

Please note that when progesterone is used transmucosally on your gums as I advise, the FDA believes that somehow converts it into a drug and prohibits any company from advising that on its label. This is why companies like Health Natura promote their progesterone products as topical only.

However, please understand that it is perfectly legal for any physician to recommend an off-label indication for a drug to their patient. In this case progesterone is a natural hormone and not a drug and is very safe even in high doses. This is unlike synthetic progesterone called progestins that are used by drug companies, but frequently, and incorrectly, referred.

Dr. Ray Peat has done the seminal work in progesterone and probably was the world’s greatest expert on progesterone. He wrote his Ph.D. on estrogen in 1982 and spent most of his professional career documenting the need to counteract the dangers of excess estrogen with low LA diets and transmucosal progesterone supplementation.

He determined that most solvents do not dissolve progesterone well and discovered that vitamin E is the best solvent to optimally provide progesterone in your tissue. Vitamin E also protects you against damage from LA. You just need to be very careful about which vitamin E you use as most supplemental vitamin E on the market is worse than worthless and will cause you harm not benefit.

It is imperative to avoid using any synthetic vitamin E (alpha tocopherol acetate — the acetate indicates that it’s synthetic). Natural vitamin E will be labeled “d alpha tocopherol.” This is the pure D isomer, which is what your body can use. There are also other vitamin E isomers, and you want the complete spectrum of tocopherols and tocotrienols, specifically the beta, gamma, and delta types, in the effective D isomer.

There are also other vitamin E isomers, and you want the complete spectrum of tocopherols and tocotrienols, specifically the beta, gamma, and delta types, in the effective D isomer. As an example of an ideal vitamin E you can look at the label on our vitamin E in our store. You can use any brand that has a similar label.

You can purchase pharmaceutical grade bioidentical progesterone as Progesterone Powder, Bioidentical Micronized Powder, 10 Grams for about $40 on many online stores like Amazon. That is nearly a year’s supply, depending on the dose you choose.

However, you will need to purchase some small stainless steel measuring spoons as you will need a 1/64 tsp which is 25 mg and a 1/32 tsp which is 50 mg. A normal dose is typically 25 to 50 mg and is taken 30 minutes before bed, as it has an anti-cortisol function and will increase GABA levels for a good night’s sleep.

Unfortunately, this vendor frequently runs out of product, and if that’s the case, then you can use Simply Progesterone by Health Natura. It’s premixed with vitamin E and MCT oil. Again, while Health Natura states that its product is for “topical use only,” I recommend applying it transmucosally, by rubbing it on your gums.

If you are a menstruating woman, you should take the progesterone during the luteal phase or the last half of your cycle, which can be determined by starting 10 days after the first day of your period and stopping the progesterone when your period starts.

If you are a male or non-menstruating woman you can take the progesterone every day for four to six months and then cycle off for one week. The best time of day to take progesterone is 30 minutes before bed as it has an anti-cortisol function and will increase GABA levels for a good night’s sleep.

This is what I have personally doing for over a year with very good results. I am a physician so do not have any problems doing this. If you aren’t a physician you should consult one before using this therapy, as transmucosal progesterone therapy requires a doctor’s prescription.

Implications for Current Medical Practices

If the findings of this study are corroborated by further research, it could have significant implications for current medical practices:

1. Hormone replacement therapy — The use of estrogen-based HRT for menopausal symptoms and osteoporosis prevention may need to be reconsidered, especially in women with a family history of dementia.

2. Breast cancer treatment — The potential cognitive benefits of anti-estrogen therapies used in breast cancer treatment could be an additional factor to consider when weighing treatment options.

3. Preventive strategies — Healthcare providers may need to start considering anti-estrogenic approaches as part of dementia prevention strategies, particularly in high-risk individuals.

4. Research focus — This study may shift the focus of dementia research towards investigating the potential harmful effects of estrogen on the brain, rather than its presumed protective effects.

Challenges and Controversies

Despite the strength of this study’s findings, it’s likely to face significant pushback from certain sectors of the medical community. The estrogen hypothesis has been deeply ingrained in medical thinking for decades, and paradigm shifts often face resistance.

Moreover, there are powerful financial interests at stake. The hormone replacement therapy industry is worth billions of dollars globally. A shift away from estrogen-based therapies could have significant economic implications.

There’s also the challenge of reconciling these findings with other known effects of estrogen. For instance, estrogen is known to have protective effects against osteoporosis. How do we balance the potential cognitive risks with other health considerations? These challenges underscore the need for more research in this area.

So, while this study provides compelling evidence, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. We need large-scale, long-term studies to fully understand the relationship between estrogen, anti-estrogen therapies, and cognitive health.

A Call for Open-Minded Inquiry

The findings of this study challenge long-held beliefs about estrogen and brain health. They suggest that our understanding of hormones and cognitive function may be more complex than previously thought.

As a medical professional and health advocate, I believe it’s crucial that we approach these findings with an open mind. We must be willing to question our assumptions and follow the evidence where it leads, even if it contradicts established beliefs.

For individuals concerned about cognitive health, these findings offer new avenues to explore. While it’s too early to make definitive recommendations based on this single study, it may be worth discussing anti-estrogenic strategies with your healthcare provider, especially if you have a family history of dementia.

Remember, hormonal balance is complex and individualized. What works for one person may not work for another. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making significant changes to your health regimen.

As we move forward, it’s my hope that this study will stimulate further research into the relationship between hormones and brain health. By continuing to ask questions and challenge our assumptions, we can work towards a better understanding of how to prevent and treat devastating conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

In the meantime, focusing on overall brain health through a balanced diet, regular exercise, stress management, and cognitive stimulation remains a prudent approach for everyone. As we await further developments in this exciting area of research, these lifestyle factors continue to be our best defense against cognitive decline.

– Sources and References

Posted in Alzheimer's, Dementia, Estrogen, Hormones, Supplements, Vitamins | One Comment »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: April 30, 2024

Doctors Predict Epidemic of Prion Brain Diseases

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/04/29/prion-brain-diseases.aspx

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola April 29, 2024

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Mounting research suggests a serious side effect of the COVID mRNA jabs could be dementia, and the prions that cause it may be contagious
Frameshifting, as we now know occurs in the COVID shots, can induce prion production and lead to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
Sid Belzberg’s prions.rip website, which collected data on neurological side effects post-jab, found a notably high incidence of diagnosed CJD cases, suggesting an alarming trend
A series of articles highlight biases in clinical trials and observational studies, suggesting COVID-19 vaccines’ safety and effectiveness have been massively overstated
The Global COVID Vaccine Safety Project study — funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — reveals significant side effects, including myocarditis, pericarditis, and blood clots, underscoring the need for reevaluation of COVID vaccine risks and benefits

According to mounting data, one of the more serious side effects of the COVID mRNA jabs appears to be dementia, and worse yet, this previously untransmissible disease may now be “contagious,” transmissible by way of prions.

In my 2021 interview with Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., she explained why she suspected the COVID shots may eventually result in an avalanche of neurological prion-based diseases such as Alzheimer’s. She also published a paper detailing those mechanisms in the May 10, 2021, issue of the International Journal of Vaccine Theory. As she explained in that paper:¹

“A paper published by J. Bart Classen (2021) proposed that the spike protein in the mRNA vaccines could cause prion-like diseases, in part through its ability to bind to many known proteins and induce their misfolding into potential prions.

Idrees and Kumar (2021) have proposed that the spike protein’s S1 component is prone to act as a functional amyloid and form toxic aggregates … and can ultimately lead to neurodegeneration.”

In summary, the take-home from Seneff’s paper is that the COVID shots, offered to hundreds of millions of people, are instruction sets for your body to make a toxic protein that will eventually wind up concentrated in your spleen, from where prion-like protein instructions will be sent out, leading to neurodegenerative diseases.

What Are Prions?

The term “prion” derives from “proteinaceous infectious particle.” Prions are known to cause a variety of neurodegenerative diseases in animals and humans, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or “mad cow disease”) in cattle, and chronic wasting disease in deer and elk.

These diseases are collectively referred to as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). They’re characterized by long incubation periods, brain damage, the formation of holes in the brain giving it a sponge-like appearance, and failure to induce an inflammatory response.

In short, prions are infectious agents composed entirely of a protein material that can fold in multiple, structurally distinct ways, at least one of which is transmissible to other prion proteins, leading to a disease that is similar to viral infections but without nucleic acids.

Unlike bacteria, viruses, and fungi, which contain nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) that instruct their replication, prions propagate by transmitting their misfolded protein state to normal variants of the same protein.

According to the prion disease model, the infectious properties of prions are due to the ability of the abnormal protein to convert the normal version of the protein into the misfolded form, thereby setting off a chain reaction that progressively damages the nervous system.

Prions are remarkably resistant to conventional methods of sterilization and can survive extreme conditions that would normally destroy nucleic acids or other pathogens, which is part of why prion diseases are so difficult to treat.

More Evidence mRNA Shots Can Trigger Dementia

Today, there’s even more evidence to support Seneff’s theory. In August 2022, tech entrepreneur Sid Belzberg wrote² about prions.rip, a website he’d set up to collect data on the neurological side effects of the jabs. (This site is no longer live.)

Within a few months, the site had received about 15,000 hits and gathered 60 reports from people who got the jab and suffered neurological deficits shortly thereafter, including six cases of diagnosed CJD.

“Normally this disease affects 1 in a 1,000,000 people,” Belzberg wrote.³ “To get 6 cases you would need 6,000,000 hits to the site assuming everyone reports. The chances of getting 1 case in 15,000 hits is 1 in 66. To see 6 cases in 1 group of 15,000 is 1/66^6 or 1 in 82,000,000,000, or 20 times more likely to win a Powerball lottery! …

To reiterate, CJD is an exceptionally rare disease that is now a known and established severe adverse reaction (SAE) from the DEATHVAX™. Injecting this slow kill bioweapon can cause ailments that are about as likely to develop in the real word as getting struck by lightning twice. The proof is now irrefutable.”

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Frameshifting Can Result in Prion Production

In mid-December 2023, researchers reported^4,^5,⁶ that the replacing of uracil with synthetic methylpseudouridine in the COVID shots — a process known as codon optimization — can cause frameshifting, a glitch in the decoding, thereby triggering the production of off-target aberrant proteins.

The antibodies that develop as a result may, in turn, trigger off-target immune reactions. According to the authors, off-target cellular immune responses occur in 25% to 30% of people who have received the COVID shot. But that’s not all.

According to British neuroscientist Dr. Kevin McCairn, this frameshifting phenomenon has also been linked to harmful prion production — and that frame shifted prions, specifically, are infectious and can be transmitted from one person to another. As reported in the Journal of Theoretical Biology in 2013:⁷

“A quantitatively consistent explanation for the titres of infectivity found in a variety of prion-containing preparations is provided on the basis that the etiological agents of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy comprise a very small population fraction of prion protein (PrP) variants, which contain frameshifted elements in their N-terminal octapeptide-repeat regions …

Frameshifting accounts quantitatively for the etiology of prion disease. One per million frameshifted prions may be enough to cause disease. The HIV TAR-like element in the PRNP mRNA is likely an effector of frameshifting.”

McCairn explained this mechanism in a February 19, 2023, interview with Health Alliance Australia (video above). In it, he noted:

“Mis-folded proteins caused by prions can impact every level organ and tissue system in the body … [They] bioaccumulate and are resistant to degradation, thereby building up …”

Prions may in fact be the primary molecule that is being “shed” by COVID jab recipients, and if those prions are due to frameshifting, that could be very bad news indeed, considering their implication in dementia.

Another doctor who believes we’ll be facing an “epidemic of prion disease” is Dr. David Cartland. In late February 2024, he posted⁸ 13 scientific papers linking the COVID jabs, prion diseases and CJD, noting that was just a “small selection” of what’s available in the medical literature.

Prions Implicated in Long COVID as Well

According to genomics expert Kevin McKernan, Ph.D., prions are also involved in long COVID (or as McKernan calls it, “long vax”).⁹ In one 2024 study,¹⁰ 96.7% of long COVID sufferers had received the jab. In an interview with the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), McKernan stated:¹¹

“If you frameshift over the stop codons, you’re going to be making proteins that are spike-mito proteins. When I talk to a lot of the long vax patients I hear of all these things that remind me of my time in the mitochondrial disease sequencing space …”

McKernan claims he tried to publish a paper on this in 2021 with Dr. Peter McCullough, but the editor of the journal “stepped in and torpedoed the paper.”¹²

World’s Largest Side Effect Analysis Has Been Published

In related news, the largest study¹³ to date on the side effects of the COVID jabs was published in the journal Vaccine in February 12, 2024, and it confirms what I and many other alternative news sources have been saying all along, namely that the mRNA jabs are the most dangerous medical products to ever hit the market.

The study — performed by the Global COVID Vaccine Safety (GCoVS) Project and funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Ontario and the Canadian Health Research Institute — evaluated the risk of “adverse events of special interest” (AESI) following COVID-19 “vaccination.”

Data from 10 sites in eight countries (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand and Scotland) were included, encompassing more than 99 million jabbed individuals.

Of the thousands of side effects Pfizer listed in its confidential report of post-authorization adverse events submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,¹⁴ the GCoVS focused on 13 AESIs that fall into three primary categories: Neurological, hematologic (blood-related) and cardiovascular conditions.

They calculated the AESI risk for each of the 13 AESIs based on the number of observed versus expected (OE) incidents occurring up to 42 days after injection. The “expected” number of side effects were based on vaccine adverse event data from 2015 to 2019. These rates were then compared to the adverse event rates observed in those who got one or more of the COVID jabs, either Pfizer’s BNT162b2, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, or AstraZeneca’s ChAdOx1.

Largest Study to Date Confirms COVID Jab Dangers

The analysis¹⁵ revealed several concerning side effects, including increased risks of myocarditis, pericarditis, blood clots in the brain, and various neurological conditions. Here’s a quick summary of the findings:

• Myocarditis and pericarditis:

◦ Pfizer vaccine — OE ratios for myocarditis were 2.78 and 2.86 after the first and second shots, with the risk remaining doubled after the third and fourth shots.

◦ Moderna vaccine — OE ratios for myocarditis were 3.48 and 6.10 after the first and second shots. Doses 1 and 4 also showed OE ratios of 1.74 and 2.64 for pericarditis.

◦ AstraZeneca vaccine — OE ratio for pericarditis was 6.91 after the third shot.

• Blood clots in the brain (cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, CVST):

◦ An OE of 3.23 for CVST was observed after the first AstraZeneca shot.

◦ A significant increase in CVST risk was also noted after the second Pfizer dose.

• Neurological conditions:

◦ Guillain-Barré syndrome — An OE ratio of 2.49 was observed following the AstraZeneca jab.

◦ Transverse myelitis — Risk nearly doubled with the AstraZeneca shot.

◦ Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis — OE ratios of 3.78 (Moderna) and 2.23 (AstraZeneca) were noted.

These findings really underscore the potential for serious side effects from the COVID shots, including conditions that may lead to other consequences in the longer term, such as stroke, heart attack, paralysis and death.

Effectiveness and Safety Was Wildly Exaggerated in Trials

Considering those findings, it’s no surprise to find that effectiveness and safety were exaggerated in clinical trials and observational studies. In a guest post on Dr. Robert Malone’s Substack, Raphael Lataster, Ph.D., writes:¹⁶

“An unofficial series of four crucially important medical journal articles, two by me, appearing in major academic publisher Wiley’s Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice reveals that claims made about COVID-19 vaccines’ effectiveness and safety were exaggerated in the clinical trials and observational studies, which significantly impacts risk-benefit analyses.

Also discussed are the concerning topics of myocarditis, with evidence indicating that this one adverse effect alone means that the risks outweigh the benefits in the young and healthy; and perceived negative effectiveness, which indicates that the vaccines increase the chance of COVID-19 infection/hospitalization/death, to say nothing about other adverse effects.”

Summary of Papers

The four papers in question include:

1. “Sources of Bias in Observational Studies of COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness” published in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice in March 2023, co-authored by BMJ editor Peter Doshi, Ph.D., statistician Kaiser Fung and biostatistician Mark Jones, which concluded that “case-counting window bias” had a significant effect on effectiveness estimates.¹⁷

As explained by Lataster, this “concerns the 7 days, 14 days, or even 21 days after the jab where we are meant to overlook jab-related issues, such as COVID infections, for some odd reason as ‘the vaccine has not had sufficient time to stimulate the immune system.’

This may strike you as quite bizarre since all of the ‘fully vaccinated’ must go through the process of being ‘partially vaccinated,’ sometimes even more than once. To make matters worse, the unvaccinated do not get such a ‘grace period,’ meaning that there is also a clear bias at play.

In an example using data from Pfizer’s clinical trial, the authors show that thanks to this bias, a vaccine with effectiveness of 0%, which is confirmed in the hypothetical clinical trial, could be seen in observational studies as having effectiveness of 48%.”

2. “Reply to Fung et. al. on COVID-19 Vaccine Case-Counting Window Biases Overstating Vaccine Effectiveness,” authored by Lataster, which discussed how the counting window bias not only affected effectiveness estimates in observational studies but also safety estimates, suggesting a need for reassessment of vaccine safety.¹⁸ The article also addresses “the mysterious rise in non-COVID excess deaths post-pandemic.”¹⁹

3. “How the Case Counting Window Affected Vaccine Efficacy Calculations in Randomized Trials of COVID-19 Vaccines,” again co-authored by Doshi and Fung, which detailed how case-counting window issues also overestimated effectiveness in Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials.²⁰

4. A second article by Lataster, in which he highlighted and summarized the evidence showing that clinical trials were affected by adverse effect counting window issues that led to exaggerated safety estimates.²¹

“Together, these four articles make clear that claims made about COVID-19 vaccines; effectiveness and safety were exaggerated in the clinical trials and observational studies, whilst also finding time to discuss myocarditis and perceived negative effectiveness, meaning that new analyses are very much needed,” Lataster writes.²²

Resources for Those Injured by the COVID Jab

Based on data from across the world, it’s beyond clear that the COVID shots are the most dangerous drugs ever deployed. If you already got one or more COVID jabs and are now reconsidering, you’d be wise to avoid all vaccines from here on, as you need to end the assault on your body. Even if you haven’t experienced any obvious side effects, your health may still be impacted long-term, so don’t take any more shots.

If you’re suffering from side effects, your first order of business is to eliminate the spike protein — and/or any aberrant off-target protein — that your body is producing. Two remedies shown to bind to and facilitate the removal of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein are hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. I don’t know if these drugs will work on off-target proteins and nanolipid accumulation as well, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to try.

The Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) has developed a post-vaccine treatment protocol called I-RECOVER. Since the protocol is continuously updated as more data become available, your best bet is to download the latest version straight from the FLCCC website at covid19criticalcare.com.²³

For additional suggestions, check out the World Council for Health’s spike protein detox guide,²⁴ which focuses on natural substances like herbs, supplements and teas. Sauna therapy can also help eliminate toxic and misfolded proteins by stimulating autophagy.

– Sources and References

Posted in Alzheimer's, Dementia, mRNA, Prion | No Comments »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: April 7, 2024

Alzheimer’s Is Now a Leading Cause of Death

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/04/06/alzheimers-death-rate.aspx

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola April 06, 2024

Story at-a-glance

Alzheimer’s disease, a severe form of dementia, affected an estimated 6.7 million Americans in 2023, and deaths from Alzheimer’s more than doubled between 2000 and 2019
Previous U.S. data placed the number dying from Alzheimer’s disease around 83,000 in 2010. By 2014, research suggested the true number was well over half a million per year — more than six times higher than previously thought. Today, 1 in 3 seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or some other dementia, and the death toll exceeds that of breast- and prostate cancer combined
Since there’s no conventional cure, prevention is crucial if you want to avoid becoming a statistic. Two key strategies are lowering your linoleic acid (LA) intake and avoiding estrogen and estrogenic compounds
Advances in diagnosis are being made. For example, researchers have created a blood test that predicts Alzheimer’s with great accuracy. There’s also a peanut butter smell test, and a free 15-minute at-home test called Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE) that can facilitate early diagnosis

Alzheimer’s disease, a severe form of dementia, affected an estimated 6.7 million Americans in 2023.¹ It is not pretty to lose your mind, as many of you know from firsthand experience with relatives or friends. This devastating degenerative brain disease develops slowly over time and tends to be lethal in its final stages.

As a general guideline, tell-tale symptoms of Alzheimer’s include a decline in memory along with a decline in at least one of the following cognitive abilities:

Speaking coherently or understanding spoken or written language
Recognizing or identifying objects
Ability to perform motor activities
Abstract thinking and ability to make sound judgments
Planning and carrying out complex tasks

Alzheimer’s Deaths Outpace Breast- and Prostate Cancer

Deaths from Alzheimer’s more than doubled between 2000 and 2019.² In 2014, research suggested the actual death toll may be well over half a million per year,³ which would put Alzheimer’s in the top three killer diseases in the U.S., right behind heart disease and cancer.

Officially, it’s the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States as of 2019,⁴ and with a total of 121,499 recorded deaths that year, Alzheimer’s claimed more lives than breast- and prostate cancer combined.⁵

However, it seems the 2014 study was onto something, because while Alzheimer’s was listed on 121,499 death certificates in 2019, underlying causes like AD are typically left off. As explained by Bryan James, an epidemiologist at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago and lead author of the 2014 study:⁶

“Death certificates are well known to underreport deaths from Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. The more immediate causes of death, such as pneumonia or heart attack, are usually listed, and the underlying causes of death are usually left off.”

Alzheimer Death Toll May Be Six Times Higher Than Previously Thought

The 2014 study, published in the journal Neurology,⁷ followed 2,566 seniors aged 65 and over for eight years. In that time, close to one-quarter of them developed Alzheimer’s. Four hundred of them died from the disease.

Using statistic extrapolation, the researchers came up with an estimated annual Alzheimer’s death toll in excess of 503,000 — more than six times higher than previous estimates. According to Dallas Anderson,⁸ an overseer of population studies relating to Alzheimer’s and dementia at the National Institute on Aging (NIA):

“People who I think are knowledgeable about the death registration system in the U.S. would not be surprised that the official number is low, but it is somewhat of a surprise to see that kind of a difference … It’s just another reminder that Alzheimer’s is really an important public health problem, and we need to work on it.”

Indeed, and since there’s no conventional cure, the issue of prevention is crucial if you want to avoid becoming a statistic here. There are also few if any successful medical treatments available once Alzheimer’s sets in.

For example, memantine (sold under the brand name Namenda) is approved for moderate to severe cases of Alzheimer’s, but doctors also prescribe it off-label for mild cases. Unfortunately, the drug has been found to be useless for mild to moderate Alzheimer’s.

A 2011 analysis of data⁹ from three clinical trials showed that patients with mild Alzheimer’s who took Namenda had no improvement in mental function or their ability to perform everyday tasks when compared to placebo. Even among moderate to severe Alzheimer’s patients, for which the drug is approved to treat, the researchers found only “meager” improvements.

Other go-to drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s include cholinesterase inhibitor drugs such as Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl. These too may do more harm than good as they provoke slower heart rates, significantly increasing your chances of getting a permanent pacemaker. They also raise your risk of hip fracture.

So, what can you do? The good news is that two key prevention strategies (which virtually no one is talking about) are relatively easy to implement, namely minimizing your linoleic acid (LA) consumption and estrogen exposure.

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High Serotonin Levels Linked to Dementia

In September 2023, research^10,¹¹ linked high serotonin to dementia. Disturbingly, media outlets completely misrepresented the findings by confusing serotonin with serotonin transporter (SERT). What the researchers found was that having low levels of SERT is linked to problems with memory and thinking skills, which can eventually lead to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Media, however, reported that “low serotonin” was linked to dementia, which is the converse of what they actually found. SERT is like a “clean-up crew” in the brain. It helps remove excess serotonin, which is a chemical messenger in the brain. When there’s not enough SERT around to do its job, serotonin levels outside of brain cells can rise too high. This excess serotonin floating around can cause trouble and contribute to problems with memory and thinking.

So, when the study talks about “low SERT” being associated with cognitive problems, it really means that having less of this clean-up crew leads to higher levels of serotonin outside brain cells. And higher levels of serotonin outside brain cells are linked to dementia. As noted by bioenergetic researcher Georgi Dinkov:¹²

“STUDY: high serotonin linked to dementia; MEDIA: low serotonin linked to dementia.^13,¹⁴ Once again, a level of misreporting that I am much more included to ascribe to malice than incompetence simply because most of the popular press outlets covering a specific scientific study get the study authors to proof-read the press article before publishing.

So, for patently false press articles like that to appear is most likely due to an attempt to preserve the status of serotonin as the ‘happy hormone,’ as well as to delay/prevent the avalanche of lawsuit for iatrogenic dementia from all people taking SSRI and other serotonergic drugs.

In summary, the actual study found that low levels of the serotonin transporter (SERT) — the sodium-dependent protein responsible for uptake and deactivation of serotonin — were associated with cognitive impairment (which usually develops into full-blown dementia/Alzheimer with age).

In other words, higher extracellular serotonin levels were associated with dementia. The press articles state the exact opposite — that lower levels of the ‘happiness’ hormone serotonin were associated with dementia …

[The] study also suggests the prevention of dementia/Alzheimer may be as simple as eating some extra salt (providing the required sodium co-factor of SERT), or using a serotonin antagonist.

Air ionizers, which also tend to decrease extracellular serotonin may be helpful too and can provide benefit 24×7 without any conscious effort on behalf of the person/people using them.”

How to Address Elevated Serotonin

Considering that high extracellular serotonin can contribute to dementia, you’d be wise to keep your serotonin level as low as possible. One way to do that is by increasing GABA, which is available as a supplement. GABA increases the degradation rate of serotonin, so you cannot have high levels of both.

People with high GABA/low serotonin are typically calm and gregarious, whereas GABA deficiency and elevated serotonin is associated with anxiety, fear, depression, short temper, phobias, impulsiveness and disorganization.

People who have high GABA levels usually have low serotonin, and vice-versa. People with high GABA/low serotonin are typically calm and gregarious, whereas GABA deficiency and elevated serotonin is associated with anxiety, fear, depression, short temper, phobias, impulsiveness and disorganization.

Another important strategy is to address your gut health. When complex carbs that aren’t digested in your stomach travel down to your intestine, they end up feeding gram-negative bacteria that produce endotoxin, also known as LPS (lipopolysaccharide).

Endotoxin catalyzes a series of metabolic reactions that converts tryptophan in your gut to serotonin. So, to inhibit serotonin production in your gut (which is where most of the serotonin in your body is produced), you want to prevent endotoxin production, which means you need to balance your gut microbiome. Here are a few strategies to do that:

Pre- and probiotics — Eat prebiotic foods such as onions, garlic, leeks, asparagus and bananas, and probiotic fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, kimchi and sauerkraut. Alternatively, take a probiotic supplement. Beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus, and beneficial yeast like Saccharomyces boulardii, can all help rein in the endotoxin production through competitive inhibition.

Limit sugar and refined carbohydrates — High intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates can feed harmful bacteria in the gut and promote inflammation, potentially increasing endotoxin production.

Avoid resistant starches — Other carbs to avoid would be resistant starches from legumes, beans, lentils, most grains, green bananas, sushi rice and pasta. Oatmeal can also cause trouble for many. You’ll know it’s incompatible with you if you get gas and/or constipation, or if it slows your digestion. Oatmeal is also high in linoleic acid (LA), which is why I avoid it.

If you have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), you may also need to avoid starches like rice and cooked potatoes, as you have inhibited ability to break down the starch into glucose. As a result, these kinds of starches may impede your recovery.

Eat plenty of antioxidant-rich whole foods — Foods rich in antioxidants, such as berries, leafy greens, and other colorful fruits and vegetables, can help reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in the gut, thereby supporting gut health and reducing endotoxin production.

Choose healthy fats such as those found in avocados, coconut oil, organic grass fed butter and ghee to help reduce gut inflammation.

Optimize your omega-3 level — Consuming omega-3 fats from sources like fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines) may help reduce gut inflammation and promote a healthy gut microbiome.

Prolonged Estrogen Exposure Linked to Alzheimer’s Severity

Other research,¹⁵ published in October 2021, linked prolonged estrogen exposure to Alzheimer’s severity in women. This is particularly notable considering nearly two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are women.¹⁶ Estrogen is also a known carcinogen.¹⁷ As reported by Dinkov:¹⁸

“The study is pretty straightforward in its claim that longer exposure to endogenous estrogen was associated with exacerbated/higher biomarkers of Alzheimer disease (AD), as well as lower glucose metabolism and smaller brain volume in women.

Another interesting link the study mentions, which is relevant for both sexes, is that lower testosterone levels are also associated with exacerbated/higher biomarkers of AD. The earlier puberty and earlier menopause associations also mean shorter exposure to progesterone. As such, the study can be summarized with the simple statement that estrogen is detrimental while progesterone and testosterone are protective against AD.”

There are two key ways to lower your estrogen:

1. Avoiding estrogen replacement therapy and minimizing exposure to estrogenic compounds found in hundreds of consumer products.¹⁹ Opt for natural and organic personal care products, including makeup, skin care, and hair care items, to reduce exposure to synthetic chemicals like parabens and phthalates, which have estrogenic properties.

Ditto for household cleaning products, laundry detergents and air fresheners, many of which contain chemicals with estrogenic properties. Swap them out for natural, nontoxic alternatives or make your own cleaning solutions using vinegar, baking soda and essential oils instead.

Also minimize your use of plastic containers and food packaging, which can leach estrogenic compounds into food and beverages. Instead, opt for glass or stainless steel containers for food storage and water bottles.

2. Taking natural progesterone. Most formulations are not effective as they are oral or transdermal. Ideally, pure progesterone powder should be dissolved in a high-quality vitamin E with MCT oil and rubbed on your gums. Typical doses are 25 to 50 mg once or twice a day.

In my view, what mature women really need are progesterone and pregnenolone, not estrogen. In practical terms, you’ll want to make sure your levels of progesterone and pregnenolone are within healthy limits (the levels you’d have in your 20s), which is around 30 mg a day.

Mitochondrial Dysfunction Is at the Heart of Alzheimer’s

Nearly a quarter century ago, the late Ray Peat, a biologist and “father” of bioenergetic medicine, argued that Alzheimer’s and aging are two examples of what happens when you have poor mitochondrial function, resulting in declining energy production. He presented this hypothesis in two extensive articles.^20,²¹

In the second article, he specifically addressed the role of estrogen and polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) like LA, as well as the protective influence of progesterone. He wrote, in part:²²

“Estrogen stimulates cell division, but can also increase the rate of cell death. Unsaturated fatty acids can also stimulate or kill … Besides increasing the free fatty acid concentration, estrogen possibly depresses the level of cholesterol, both of which are changes seen in the senile brain.

Estrogen causes massive alterations of extracellular matrix, and seems to promote dissolution of microtubules (Nemetschek-Gannsler), as calcium does. Unsaturated fats increase calcium uptake by at least some brain cells (H. Katsuki and S. Okuda, 1995.)

Unsaturated fats, like estrogen, increase the permeability of blood vessels. The unsaturated fat causes edema of the brain, inhibits choline uptake, blocking acetylcholine production.

Progesterone is a nerve growth factor, produced by glial cells (oligodendrocytes). It promotes the production of myelin, protects against seizures, and protects cells against free radicals. It protects before conception, during gestation, during growth and puberty, and during aging. It promotes regeneration. Its production is blocked by stress, lipid peroxidation, and an excess of estrogen and iron …

A ‘deficiency’ of polyunsaturated fatty acids leads to altered rates of cellular regeneration and differentiation, a larger brain at birth, improved function of the immune system, decreased inflammation, decreased mortality from endotoxin poisoning, lower susceptibility to lipid peroxidation, increased basal metabolic rate and respiration, increased thyroid function, later puberty and decreases other signs of estrogen dominance.

When dietary PUFA are not available, the body produces a small amount of unsaturated fatty acid (Mead acids), but these do not activate cell systems in the same way that plant-derived PUFAs do, and they are the precursors for an entirely different group of prostaglandins.”

Interestingly, a near-identical argument was laid out in an October 2020 article by Vijay Pande, Ph.D., and Kristen Fortney, titled “The Cure for Aging Might be the Cure for Alzheimer’s:”²³

“What we are only now beginning to understand is that the diseases that ultimately kill us are inseparable from the aging process itself. Aging is the root cause. This means that studying these diseases without taking aging into account could be dangerously misleading … and worst of all, impede real progress …

The biggest risk factor for Alzheimer’s isn’t your APOE status; it’s your age. People in their twenties don’t get Alzheimer’s. But after you hit the age of 65, your risk of Alzheimer’s doubles every five years, with your risk reaching nearly one out of three by the time you’re 85.

What if going after this one biggest risk factor is the best vector of attack? Maybe even the only way to truly address it? This isn’t about the vanity of staying younger, about holding on to your good looks or your ability to run an 8 minute mile. It’s about the only concrete possibility we have to cure these diseases.”

How to Optimize Your Mitochondrial Function Through Diet

To optimize your mitochondrial function, you need to address your diet, as the foods you eat are the substrate from which cellular energy is produced. LA wreaks havoc with your cellular machinery and needs to be limited to 5 grams or less per day.

To reach that goal, you need to ditch all processed foods, fast foods and most restaurant foods, as they’re all loaded with or cooked in LA-rich seed oils. Focus on whole and minimally processed foods.

Your macronutrient ratios also matter. As explained in previous articles, including “A Surprising Reason Why You May Need More Carbs in Your Diet,” ideally, you want to burn glucose in the electron transport chain of your mitochondria, and to ensure that, you need to eat enough healthy carbs, and get no more than 35% or so of your daily calories from fat.

If your fat intake is too high, you’ll prevent glucose from being burned in the mitochondria and force it into glycolysis instead, which is a highly inefficient way to produce energy.

Advances Made in Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

While there are few options available once Alzheimer’s sets in, advances in diagnosis are being made. Early diagnosis may at least give you a chance to implement strategies that might slow down its progression, or in an ideal scenario perhaps even reverse it to some degree. Diagnostic tools include:

• A blood test that measures the patterns of 10 specific lipids associated with the plaques found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. These 10 lipids are highly predictive of whether or not you will suffer cognitive impairment.²⁴

• A blood test that measures “a molecular precursor in the blood that can cause proteins to irregularly fold and clump in the brain, ultimately forming amyloid beta plaques.”²⁵

• A peanut butter smell test — In tests, patients diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s experienced a significant difference in their ability to detect the smell of peanut butter between their right and left nostrils.

The left nostril tends to be impaired in those with Alzheimer’s, whereas those with other kinds of dementia experience either no differences in odor detection between the two nostrils, or the right nostril is worse for detecting the smell compared to the left one.

• A 15-minute at-home test called SAGE, which stands for Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination, can help you assess your risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia.²⁶ If taken at intervals over time, it can also serve as an early warning, if your scores begin to decline. The test can also be used to monitor the condition in those already diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. You can download the SAGE test from the Ohio State University’s website.²⁷

Additional Alzheimer’s Prevention Guidelines

In addition to optimizing your mitochondrial function and avoiding things that raise your serotonin and estrogen, other helpful prevention strategies include:

Avoid gluten and casein (primarily wheat and pasteurized dairy, but not dairy fat, such as butter) — Research shows that your blood-brain barrier is negatively affected by gluten. Gluten also makes your gut more permeable, which allows proteins to get into your bloodstream, where they don’t belong. That then sensitizes your immune system and promotes inflammation and autoimmunity, both of which play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s.

Optimize your gut flora by regularly eating fermented foods or taking a high potency and high-quality probiotic supplement.

Make sure you’re getting enough animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease, thereby slowing down its progression and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.

Optimize your vitamin D level with safe sun exposure — Strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer’s patients and poor outcomes on cognitive tests have been revealed. In one 2023 study, vitamin D reduced dementia risk by 40%.

Keep your fasting insulin levels below 3.

Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate — Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day. Avoid supplements like folic acid, which is the inferior synthetic version of folate.

Avoid and eliminate mercury and aluminum from your body — Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50% mercury by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity. Make sure you use a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed. Sources of aluminum include antiperspirants, non-stick cookware and vaccine adjuvants.

Make sure your iron isn’t elevated and donate blood if it is — Studies show that iron accumulations in the brain tend to concentrate in areas most affected by Alzheimer’s, namely the frontal cortex and hippocampus. Magnetic resonance imaging tests have also revealed elevated iron in brains affected by Alzheimer’s.

Exercise regularly — It’s been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,²⁸ thus slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s. In one study, women with the highest cardiovascular fitness had an 88% lower risk of dementia than those with moderate fitness.

Eat blueberries and other antioxidant-rich foods — Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against neurological diseases.

Challenge your mind daily — Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s.

Avoid anticholinergics and statin drugs — Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers.

Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of CoQ10 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.

– Sources and References

^1, ^2, ^5, ¹⁶ ALZ.org AD Facts and Figures
³ Time Magazine March 5, 2014
⁴ Alzheimer’s Association March 14, 2023; 19(4): 1598-1695
^6, ⁸ CNN Health March 5, 2014
⁷ Neurology March 5, 2014 [Epub ahead of print]
⁹ CNN Health April 12, 2011 (Archived)
¹⁰ Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease September 2023; 96(1): 215-227
¹¹ IosPress.com, Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease September 2023; 96(1): 215-227
¹² Haidut.me February 20, 2024 (Archived)
¹³ UPI.com December 11, 2023
¹⁴ Neuroscience News December 7, 2023
¹⁵ Menopause October 2021; 28(10): 1099-1107
¹⁷ Science Daily December 13, 2002
¹⁸ Haidut.me March 30, 2022 (Archived)
¹⁹ Environmental Health News January 10, 2024
²⁰ Ray Peat Alzheimer’s Part 1
^21, ²² Ray Peat Alzheimer’s Part 2
²³ A16z.com October 7, 2020
²⁴ NBC News March 9, 2014
²⁵ Science Alert December 22, 2022
²⁶ Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences January 13, 2014 [Epub ahead of print]
²⁷ Ohio State University, SAGE Test
²⁸ Journal of Neuroscience, April 27, 2005: 25(17); 4217-4221

Posted in Alzheimer's, Brain, Cancer, Dementia, Hormones, Linoleic Acid, Mitochondria, Mortality | One Comment »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: April 4, 2024

Average Person Asleep by 10 but Still Wakes Up Tired

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/04/04/average-bedtime-irregular-sleep.aspx

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola April 04, 2024

Story at-a-glance

According to a poll of 2,000 adults, the average time most people go to bed is before 10 p.m. — 9:54 p.m. to be exact
Despite this reasonable bedtime, many still wake up feeling tired; this may be because your night’s rest is only restorative if you’re able to fall asleep and stay asleep
Among adults, 4 in 10 say they’re bad sleepers, while another 60% say their nighttime routine needs work
People with the most irregular sleep had the highest dementia risk and were 53% more likely to develop the condition than those with more regular sleep patterns
The glymphatic system, which your brain uses for detoxification, is particularly active during sleep, which may actually serve to kickstart the system

Getting to bed too late is often blamed for feeling groggy the next morning. But according to a poll of 2,000 adults, the average time most people go to bed is before 10 p.m. — 9:54 p.m. to be exact.¹

Despite this reasonable bedtime, many still wake up feeling tired. This may be because your night’s rest is only restorative if you’re able to fall asleep and stay asleep. It turns out, however, that regardless of bedtime, 4 in 10 say they’re bad sleepers, while another 60% say their nighttime routine needs work.

Further, only 24% said they sleep better when they go to bed earlier. A spokesperson for furniture retailer DFS, which commissioned the poll, explained, “Our study has shown how the actual time we go to bed can have a real impact on our sleeping routine as a whole. The hours of sleep we get is of course important, but the way we prepare ourselves and get ‘into the zone’ of sleep is also vital.”²

This isn’t just a matter of waking up feeling energized, either. Proper sleep is essential to your physical and mental health, and if you skimp on it enough, a number of diseases can result.

Irregular Sleep Increases Dementia Risk by 53%

Going to bed and waking up around the same times each day is a key part of healthy sleep hygiene. It may also be important for protecting your health, according to research published in Neurology.³

“Sleep health recommendations often focus on getting the recommended amount of sleep, which is seven to nine hours a night, but there is less emphasis on maintaining regular sleep schedules,” study author Matthew Paul Pase of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia said in a news release. “Our findings suggest the regularity of a person’s sleep is an important factor when considering a person’s risk of dementia.”⁴

The study involved 88,094 participants with an average age of 62 years and looked into how sleeping patterns, specifically how regular they are, might be connected to the risk of developing dementia. Researchers tracked sleep patterns using a special method that measures if they were asleep or awake at the same times across several days.

Over about 7.2 years, 480 people developed dementia. It turned out that both very irregular sleep patterns and overly consistent sleep patterns (sleeping and waking up at exactly the same times every day) were linked to a higher risk of dementia compared to those with moderately regular sleep patterns. This relationship was U-shaped, meaning both extremes were associated with increased dementia risk.

Further, in a smaller group who had brain scans, those at the extremes of sleep regularity tended to have smaller amounts of brain gray matter and hippocampal (a part of the brain important for memory) volume. That said, people with the most irregular sleep had the highest dementia risk and were 53% more likely to develop the condition than those in the middle.⁵

Those with the most regular sleep, meanwhile, did not have a reduced dementia risk compared to the middle group, suggesting even moderate improvements in sleep regularity may benefit brain health.

“Effective sleep health education combined with behavioral therapies can improve irregular sleep patterns,” Pase said. “Based on our findings, people with irregular sleep may only need to improve their sleep regularity to average levels, compared to very high levels, to prevent dementia. Future research is needed to confirm our findings.”⁶

Sleep Jump-Starts Nightly Brain Detoxification

It’s worth nothing that your brain uses sleep as its time to flush out toxins and metabolic waste — compounds that could otherwise accumulate and contribute to neurodegenerative disease. Most of your body uses the lymphatic system for this purpose. As Forbes explains:⁷

“In short, a specialized ‘sewerage’ infrastructure called the lymphatic system. This is made up of various vessels and channels that, like our circulatory system, spread across the entire body. These vessels are filled with a fluid called lymph, which flows through tissues and organs, washing up and collecting debris as it goes.

Dirty lymph is eventually drained into the blood vessels, where it is carried to the kidneys and liver for final filtration and removal.”

In your brain, however, it’s the glymphatic system that removes waste products, acting as a “brain-wide metabolite clearance system.”⁸ By pumping cerebrospinal fluid through your brain’s tissues, your glymphatic system flushes waste from your brain back into your circulatory system and liver for elimination.

It operates similarly to the lymphatic system in the rest of your body but is specialized for the unique environment of your brain and central nervous system. The term “glymphatic” combines “glial cells,” which are cells in your brain that bring nutrients to neurons, and “lymphatic,” reflecting its similarity to the body’s lymphatic system.

The glymphatic system facilitates the removal of metabolic waste products from the central nervous system via a network that involves the perivascular space — the space surrounding blood vessels — cerebrospinal fluid and glial cells.

The glymphatic system is particularly active during sleep, which may actually serve to “kickstart” the system,⁹ highlighting the importance of a good night’s sleep for brain health. Scientists with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis¹⁰ also revealed that during sleep, neurons generate electrical signals that trigger rhythmic brain waves, propelling cerebrospinal fluid through the brain

These electrical waves may boost the function of the glymphatic system, helping cerebrospinal fluid penetrate deeper into the brain and pick up waste, enhancing the cleaning process.

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Your Heart Also Needs Proper Sleep

Your heart, like your brain and overall health, needs at least seven, if not eight, hours of sleep to function optimally. In fact, getting enough sleep each night, and quality sleep at that, is associated with cardiovascular risk and research also found that sleep is connected with subclinical atherosclerosis,¹¹ the early stages of hardening and narrowing of the arteries.

Researchers with the National Center for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid, Spain used coronary ultrasound and CT scans to measure the artery health of close to 4,000 middle-aged adults and analyzed it according to their sleep duration and quality.

Those who slept for less than six hours a night (very short sleep duration) were 27% more likely to have subclinical atherosclerosis than those who slept for seven or eight hours a night.

While atherosclerosis is often associated with heart disease, it can occur in any of your body’s arteries, with symptoms depending on which arteries are affected. Atherosclerosis in your brain can lead to stroke, for instance, while the condition in your kidneys can lead to high blood pressure or kidney failure, and atherosclerosis in the arteries in your arms and legs may lead to peripheral artery disease.

This implies, then, that proper sleep could play a major role in disease prevention via its role in preventing atherosclerosis alone. The effect is so significant that an accompanying editorial noted that, with additional trials to confirm, sleep could be placed “alongside diet and exercise as a key pillar of a healthy lifestyle.”¹²

A Simple Way to Fall Asleep Faster

Anxiety and racing thoughts can make it difficult to fall asleep, even if you’re already in bed. When you become stressed, your breathing pattern and rate change naturally, but it’s important to be conscious of how triggers like this change your breathing habits — and what to do to resolve them.

The 4-7-8 breathing method, known for relaxation and promoting restful sleep,¹³ may help. Also known as “relaxing breath,” the 4-7-8 breathing method involves a specific pattern of breath control developed by Dr. Andrew Weil, based on ancient yogic techniques, including pranayama.¹⁴

Using this breathing method before sleep may trigger a relaxation response in your body, shifting you from a state of heightened stress — sympathetic nervous system activation — to a state of calm, or parasympathetic nervous system activation. This transition helps reduce stress and anxiety, which are common culprits behind sleep disturbances.

Focusing on the breathing pattern also encourages mindfulness, which involves being present in the moment and can help quiet your mind. This focus can distract you from the day’s stresses and worries that might interfere with sleep.

This specific pattern of breath control may also improve the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood. Further, slowing down your breath can lead to deeper, more restful sleep by promoting physiological changes conducive to sleep, such as reduced heart rate and muscle relaxation.

It’s important to understand, however, that most breathing exercises, or techniques, aren’t a long-term solution because they don’t address the habits contributing to dysfunctional breathing in the first place. To get to the root of the problem and learn proper breathing, breathing behavior analysis learning techniques are typically necessary. If you’d like to try the 4-7-8 breathing method, however, it’s straightforward, as follows:

1. Prepare — Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and take a moment to relax your body. Place the tip of your tongue against the tissue behind your upper front teeth and keep it there throughout the practice.

2. Inhale — Breathe in quietly through your nose for a count of 4 seconds.

3. Hold — Hold your breath for a count of 7 seconds.

4. Exhale — Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound, for a count of 8 seconds.

This breathing cycle is repeated for four full breaths, but you can work your way up to eight repetitions over time.

How to Get a Good Night’s Rest

As mentioned, maintaining a regular bedtime and wake time is useful for brain health and overall sleep hygiene. But it’s just one piece of the puzzle to getting a good night’s sleep. I’ve compiled 50 top sleep tips you can use to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer, which include sleeping in complete darkness.

Light (even that from a night light or alarm clock) can disrupt your internal clock and your production of melatonin, thereby interfering with your sleep. Also, keep the temperature in your bedroom cool, between 60 to 68 degrees F, and eliminate electromagnetic fields. Ideally, shut down the electricity to your bedroom by pulling your circuit breaker before bed and turning off your Wi-Fi at night.

Establishing a relaxing bedtime routine is also useful. This may include meditation, aromatherapy, essential oils, journaling or a massage from your partner. The key is to find something that makes you feel relaxed, then repeat it each night to help you release the tensions of the day and prepare for restful slumber.

– Sources and References

^1, ² StudyFinds July 8, 2022
³ Neurology. 2024 Jan 23;102(2):e208029. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000208029. Epub 2023 Dec 13
^4, ^5, ⁶ EurekAlert! December 13, 2023
^7, ⁹ Forbes March 8, 2024
⁸ Scientific Reports February 2, 2018
¹⁰ Nature February 28, 2024
¹¹ J Am Coll Cardiol. 2019 Jan 22;73(2):134-144
¹² Journal of the American College of Cardiology January 2019, Volume 73, Issue 2
¹³ CNN September 16, 2022
¹⁴ Pocket January 3, 2022

Posted in Brain, Breathing, Dementia, Glymphatic, Heart, Lymph, Sleep | No Comments »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: March 31, 2024

The Subtle Early Signals of Dementia in Someone You Love

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/03/26/early-dementia-sign.aspx

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola March 26, 2024

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Before memory and thinking problems become obvious, people with dementia may display changes in mood and behavior
In the early stages of the disease, irritability, anxiety or depression may occur
Apathy is another common sign, although some people may display more blatant changes like suddenly becoming sexually promiscuous or developing the habit of snatching food off other people’s plates
Alzheimer’s disease is the result of poor mitochondrial function; to optimize your mitochondrial function, you need to limit your intake linoleic acid (LA) to 5 grams a day or less
To achieve this, you’ll need to eliminate all processed foods, fast foods and the majority of restaurant meals, which are frequently loaded with or prepared using seed oils high in LA

Worldwide, more than 55 million people are living with dementia, and each year nearly 10 million new cases occur.¹ Dementia is not a disease in itself but rather a term used to describe a number of different brain illnesses that may affect your memory, thinking, behavior and ability to perform everyday activities. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for up to 70% of cases.²

Many people associate dementia with memory loss — and this is a red flag — however, not all memory problems are due to Alzheimer’s (and some causes of dementia-like symptoms, including memory loss, can be reversed, such as those related to thyroid problems and vitamin deficiencies).³

If you’ve noticed yourself or a loved one becoming increasingly forgetful or experiencing changes in thinking abilities, you should see a health care provider right away. Oftentimes, however, the first symptoms are so subtle they may be easily missed — and they may manifest as changes in behavior and mood long before memory problems become apparent.

Fortunately, there are two crucial prevention strategies that remain largely underdiscussed yet are relatively simple to implement — reducing linoleic acid (LA) intake and limiting exposure to estrogen.

Pay Attention to Personality Changes — An Early Sign of Dementia

Before memory and thinking problems become obvious, people with dementia may display changes in mood and behavior, according to a team of neuropsychiatrists and Alzheimer’s experts, who say the latter symptoms may be among the earliest signs of dementia.

The team released a 34-question checklist they believe could help diagnosis a new condition called mild behavioral impairment (MBI).⁴ Similar to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is defined by a noticeable decline in cognitive abilities that does not yet interfere with most daily functions, MBI describes changes in behavior and mood that may occur prior to MCI and the cognitive changes associated with dementia.

The checklist is intended to identify patients at risk of dementia earlier, as according study author Dr. Zahinoor Ismail, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of Calgary, among people with MCI, those with mood and behavior changes will progress to full-blown dementia faster.⁵ Some have expressed concern that the checklist may lead to overdiagnosis or false diagnosis, putting some people through increased medical testing and worry unnecessarily.

In the case of MCI, for instance, not everyone diagnosed will go on to develop Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia. In fact, The New York Times reported, up to 20% of those with MCI later turn out to be cognitively normal.⁶

Still, others say keeping an eye out for unusual behavioral or personality changes can help people get help, at least symptom relief, faster. Sadly, there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and, as it progresses, the disease is devastating not only for those diagnosed but also their friends and family. Prevention remains the best option, and I detail steps that can help below.

Behavioral and Mood Changes to Watch Out For

Dementia manifests differently in everyone, which is why the most important changes to watch out for are those that are unusual for your loved one. A person may, for instance, stop doing something they’ve always loved to do, be it cooking a certain dish for your birthday or watching the evening news.

Apathy is another common sign, although some people may display more blatant changes like suddenly becoming sexually promiscuous or developing the habit of snatching food off other people’s plates.⁷ The Alzheimer’s Association noted:⁸

“Individuals living with Alzheimer’s or other dementia may experience mood and personality changes. They can become confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful or anxious. They may be easily upset at home, with friends or when out of their comfort zone.”

In the early stages of the disease, irritability, anxiety or depression may occur. In fact, a study published in the journal Neurology not only found that people who eventually developed dementia were twice as likely to develop depression earlier on in their lives, but they also tended to display mood changes in a consistent pattern.⁹ Time reported:¹⁰

“The symptoms appeared in consistent phases: first, irritability, depression and nighttime behavior changes; followed by anxiety, appetite changes, agitation and apathy. The final phase was elation, motor disturbances, hallucinations, delusions and disinhibition.”

In order for early mood and/or behavioral changes to be considered MBI, the change in behavior must persist for at least six months.

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Signs of Mild Cognitive Impairment

In some people, MCI may follow the earliest changes in mood and behavior. MCI is a slight decline in cognitive abilities that increases your risk of developing more serious dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, although it is by no means a guarantee. It’s estimated that up to 18% of people aged 60 and older are living with MCI.¹¹

Simply misplacing your keys on occasion is not cause for alarm, however forgetting important information that you would have normally recalled, such as appointments, conversations or recent events, may be a sign. You may also have a harder time making sound decisions, figuring out the sequence of steps needed to complete a task or judging the time needed to do so.

If you’ve been diagnosed with MCI, be aware that some cases do not progress and may even improve. Regular exercise, proper diet — including reducing your intake of LA — and engaging in mentally and socially stimulating activities may help to boost your brainpower.

Dementia: When to Worry?

It can be difficult to gauge if a loved one is declining mentally. If you have suspicions but aren’t sure, try keeping a notebook to jot down instances that concern you. You may be able to identify a pattern of events that makes the picture clearer.

Agnes B. Juhasz, nurse, dementia care specialist and author of ‘The Dementia Whisperer: Scenes From the Frontline of Caring,’ suggested making note of anything out of ordinary for that particular person. She wrote in the [U.K.]’s Mirror news:¹²

“Naturally, there are a few typical signs and possible changes that are worth watching out for more closely. These include the level of forgetfulness; acute or permanent confusion about certain things; disorientation in time and place; significant changes in behavior and personality; decreased judgment; changes in speech or writing; and withdrawal from social interactions and activities.

But all these suggested signs ultimately lead us back to the essential, magical question we always have to ask before we can arrive at any further conclusions: ‘Is this abnormal for this individual, or is it part of who they have always been?’ When we notice that something is new and odd, that has never occurred in a person’s life before, as far as we have observed, that is the point when further help may be needed.”

Early Warning Signs of Alzheimer’s

While an absent-minded mistake, like putting a mug in the wrong cabinet, is not cause for alarm, feeling confused about day-to-day tasks is.

Losing interest in hobbies, repetitive behaviors (phrases, gestures or questions), mispronouncing words or stuttering can also be signs. And while occasional forgetfulness, like forgetting why you were walking into a room, is not typically reason to worry, more profound confusion, like the room itself feeling unfamiliar, may signal a problem.¹³

The Alzheimer’s Association also compiled differences between symptoms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s, and typical age-related changes:¹⁴

Signs of Alzheimer’s/dementia	Typical age-related changes
Poor judgment and decision-making	Making a bad decision once in a while
Inability to manage a budget	Missing a monthly payment
Losing track of the date or the season	Forgetting which day it is and remembering it later
Difficulty having a conversation	Sometimes forgetting which word to use
Misplacing things and being unable to retrace steps to find them	Losing things from time to time

Why Addressing Mitochondrial Dysfunction by Reducing LA Is Key

Work by the late Ray Peat, a biologist and “father” of bioenergetic medicine, suggests Alzheimer’s disease is the result of poor mitochondrial function, which results in reduced energy production.^15,¹⁶

To optimize your mitochondrial function, you need to address your diet, as the foods you eat are the substrate from which cellular energy is produced. LA wreaks havoc with your cellular machinery, which is why it should be limited to 5 grams or less per day.

To achieve this, you’ll need to eliminate all processed foods, fast foods and the majority of restaurant meals, which are frequently loaded with or prepared using seed oils high in LA. Instead, prioritize whole and minimally processed foods.

In addition to limiting LA in your diet, carnosine, a dipeptide composed of two amino acids — beta-alanine and histidine — is a crucial aid for LA detoxification, as it binds to advanced lipoxidation endproducts (ALEs) that form from oxidized seed oils in your diet.

While your body will slowly eliminate stored LA over time, provided you reduce your intake, carnosine can help reduce the oxidative damage caused by LA while your body is cleaning itself out. I take liposomal carnosine every day before meals to help detoxify LA.

LA is highly susceptible to oxidation, and as the fat oxidizes it breaks down into harmful sub-components such as ALEs and oxidized LA metabolites (OXLAMs). These ALEs and OXLAMs are what cause most of the damage.

Carnosine binds to ALEs like a magnet and acts as a sacrificial sink. It’s basically a substitute target for these profoundly damaging molecules. In this way, carnosine allows your body to excrete the ALEs from your body before they damage your mitochondria, DNA or proteins.

As an added benefit, carnosine is protective against Alzheimer’s,¹⁷ due to its ability to scavenge 4-hydroxynonenal (4HNE), a biomarker of oxidative stress that may increase the harm caused by free radicals.

Elevated Serotonin Linked to Dementia

High serotonin levels are also linked to dementia.¹⁸ While often described as the “happy hormone,” serotonin, a chemical messenger in the brain, acts as an antimetabolite, hindering energy production in your mitochondria. A September 2023 study found that having low levels of serotonin transporter (SERT) is linked to problems with memory and thinking skills, which can eventually lead to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

SERT is like a “cleanup crew” in the brain, helping to remove excess serotonin. When there’s not enough SERT around to do its job, serotonin levels outside of brain cells can rise too high. This excess serotonin floating around can cause trouble and contribute to problems with memory and thinking.

The Estrogen Connection

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is more common in women than men,¹⁹ and prolonged estrogen exposure is also linked to Alzheimer’s severity in women.²⁰ As bioenergetic researcher Georgi Dinkov explained, “The study can be summarized with the simple statement that estrogen is detrimental while progesterone and testosterone are protective against AD.”²¹

Avoiding estrogen replacement therapy and minimizing your exposure to the estrogenic compounds found in hundreds of consumer products is therefore an important step to protecting your brain health.

Taking natural progesterone is also important, but be aware that most formulations are not effective as they are oral or transdermal. Ideally, pure progesterone powder should be dissolved in a high-quality vitamin E with MCT oil and rubbed on your gums. Typical doses are 25 to 50 milligrams once or twice a day.

More Tips to Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease

In addition to optimizing your mitochondrial function, lowering your intake of LA and avoiding things that raise your serotonin and estrogen, other helpful Alzheimer’s prevention strategies include:

Optimize your gut flora by regularly eating fermented foods or taking a high potency and high-quality probiotic supplement.

Keep your fasting insulin levels below 3.

Exercise regularly — It’s been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,²² thus slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s. In one study, women with the highest cardiovascular fitness had an 88% lower risk of dementia than those with moderate fitness.

Eat blueberries and other antioxidant-rich foods — Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against neurological diseases.

Challenge your mind daily — Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as how to play an instrument or speak a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s.

– Sources and References

^1, ² World Health Organization, Dementia March 15, 2023
³ Alzheimer’s Association, What Is Dementia?
⁴ J Alzheimers Dis. 2017; 56(3): 929–938
^5, ^6, ⁷ The New York Times July 26, 2016
^8, ¹⁴ Alzheimer’s Association, 10 Early Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer’s and Dementia
⁹ Neurology February 10, 2015, 84(6) 617-622
¹⁰ Time January 14, 2015
¹¹ Alzheimer’s Association, Mild Cognitive Impairment
¹² Mirror November 9, 2016
¹³ Independent December 2015
¹⁵ Ray Peat Alzheimer’s Part 1
¹⁶ Ray Peat Alzheimer’s Part 2
¹⁷ Pharmaceuticals June 2023; 16(6): 778
¹⁸ Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease September 2023; 96(1): 215-227
¹⁹ ALZ.org AD Facts and Figures
²⁰ Menopause October 2021; 28(10): 1099-1107
²¹ Haidut.me March 30, 2022 (Archived)
²² Journal of Neuroscience, April 27, 2005: 25(17); 4217-4221

Posted in Alzheimer's, Brain, Dementia, Exercise, Linoleic Acid, Supplements | One Comment »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: March 26, 2024

Hidden Hazards: Nearly 1,000 Everyday Items Identified as Estrogenic Carcinogens

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/03/25/estrogen.aspx

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola March 25, 2024

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Estrogens are linked to serious health risks, including cancer. The National Institutes of Health added steroidal estrogens used in estrogen replacement therapy and oral contraceptives to its list of known human carcinogens in December 2002
Synthetic estrogen exposure has surged due to environmental contamination and the widespread use of estrogenic chemicals in consumer products
A January 2024 study identified 279 estrogenic compounds commonly found in consumer products that induce mammary tumors in animals; another 642 chemicals that could potentially increase the risk of breast cancer by stimulating estrogen or progesterone signaling
Estrogen dominance, characterized by high estrogen levels, is associated with obesity, particularly around the thighs, hips and buttocks
Strategies to reduce estrogen exposure include avoiding synthetic products, choosing natural alternatives and supporting liver health. Lifestyle modifications, such as maintaining a healthy weight, minimizing plastic use and managing stress can also help lower your estrogen level and reduce associated health risks

While estrogen replacement is generally regarded as beneficial, if not crucial, for women entering into menopause, a closer look reveals it can cause severe problems and you do not, in fact, want high levels of estrogen.

Originally called adipin, estrogen got its name from its association with weight gain, as in adipose (fat) tissue. In the mid-‘50s, when the drug industry started pushing synthetic estrogens, this knowledge faded from memory.

One of the most infamous early synthetic estrogens prescribed was diethylstilbestrol (DES), which caused fetal malformations and deaths, and cancers in the mothers who took it. DES was eventually withdrawn and banned for use in humans.

DES is not estrogen itself but rather a chemical that mimics estrogen’s actions by activating estrogen receptors. In fact, DES can potentially activate these receptors even more strongly than natural estrogen. This alone is a strong indication that estrogen excess is of serious concern. Studies looking at the effects of estrogen and estrogenic chemicals only add to the certainty.

Estrogen Is Carcinogenic

The National Institutes of Health added steroidal estrogens used in estrogen replacement therapy and oral contraceptives to its list of KNOWN human carcinogens all the way back in December 2002.¹ In my mind, estrogen and excess linoleic acid are the two primary reasons for most cancers.

Likewise, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) studies, which began in 1991,² showed estrogen replacement therapy in menopausal women significantly increased the risk of heart attacks, strokes, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and cancer, not just in the breast but all female reproductive organs.

In October 2023, I interviewed bioenergetic researcher Georgi Dinkov about the hazards of estrogen. I’ve included that interview above for your convenience.

As noted by Dinkov in a recent blog post,³ that interview apparently “struck a nerve” with a doctor who “went through the trouble of writing an extensive blog post trying to debunk the already established fact that estrogen is a carcinogen, by claiming that most of that data stems from the WHI studies, and that those are now considered flawed, ergo estrogen cannot be considered a carcinogen.”

In response, Dinkov sent the doctor a long, yet not exhaustive, list of academic articles and studies demonstrating that estrogen is indeed a mutagenic carcinogen — and that any chemical with estrogenic properties poses a serious threat to health.

Hundreds of Everyday Chemicals Linked to Increased Breast Cancer Risk

As just one example, a January 2024 paper⁴ in Environmental Health Perspectives identified 279 estrogenic compounds commonly found in consumer products that induce mammary tumors in animals, and another 642 chemicals that could potentially increase the risk of breast cancer by stimulating estrogen or progesterone signaling. As reported by Environmental Health News:⁵

“… More than 900 chemicals commonly found in consumer products and the environment have been linked to breast cancer risk in a new study. The study … identified 921 chemicals that could potentially increase the risk of breast cancer and found that 90% are ubiquitous in consumer products, food and drinks, pesticides, medications and workplaces.

The list includes chemicals like parabens and phthalates, which are commonly found in makeup, skin and hair care products; and numerous pesticide ingredients, including malathion, atrazine and triclopyr, which are used on food and in household pest control products in the U.S.

Breast cancer among young women has increased in recent years.⁶ Between 2010 and 2019, diagnoses among people 30 to 39 years old increased 19.4%, and among those ages 20 to 29, rates increased 5.3%. This change is too fast to be explained by genetics, so researchers have begun looking more closely at potential environmental causes for the disease.

A 2020 study⁷ found that women who used chemical hair straighteners more than six times a year had about a 30% higher risk of breast cancer than those who didn’t use chemical straighteners. Those products typically contain one or more of the chemicals identified in the new study as increasing the chances of getting breast cancer.”

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Everyday Items May Expose You to Hazardous Levels of Estrogen

In modern times, many synthetic compounds, especially plasticizing compounds, have been developed that have estrogenic properties. Other terms for such compounds are endocrine disruptors and xenoestrogens.

DES is strikingly similar in composition to bisphenol-A (BPA), which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned for use in baby bottles and sippy cups in 2012.⁸ Many pesticides, preservatives, organic pollutants, drugs and even textiles also have estrogenic activity. Polyester and spandex, for example, contain high levels of estrogen-mimicking BPA.⁹ As noted by Dinkov:¹⁰

“… it looks like we are bathing 24×7 in a toxic sea of almost 1,000 chemicals with such properties (aka xenoestrogens), and given their ubiquity in food, drugs, industry, household, hospitals, and even nature it is little surprise the population of Western countries is sicker than ever.

Considering the sheer number of chemicals involved and the near impossibility of avoiding them, keeping the metabolic rate high (helps with excretion of xenoestrogens) and usage of anti-estrogenic chemicals (eg. vitamin E, progesterone, pregnenolone, aspirin, DHT, antihistamines, etc) becomes that much more important.”

The Physiological Role of Estrogen

Estrogen’s carcinogenic properties can in part be explained by its ability to increase cells’ ability to hold water. This is why women with estrogen dominance are prone to edema (water retention). Cellular swelling is both a characteristic of the cellular stress response and a signal for cellular proliferation.

During the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, estrogen stimulates the uterine lining and follicles to swell and multiply in preparation for the fertilization of an egg. Similarly, during and after pregnancy, breast tissue swells and grows larger to facilitate milk production.

But cellular swelling and proliferation is also a hallmark of cancer. Indeed, the word oncology comes from the Greek word “oncos,” which simply means swelling.

In his 1997 book, “From PMS to Menopause: Female Hormones in Context,”¹¹ biologist Ray Peat¹² stated that estrogen had been shown to replicate the shock phase of the stress reaction in animals. According to Peat, the physiological purpose of estrogens is to stimulate cell division by triggering water uptake by the cell.

This is one of the greatest books in health I have ever read. Currently it is out of print and being sold by resellers for $350. I hope to connect with Ray’s widow later this year and get permission to republish his book with a new publishing company I am starting called Joy House and hope we can republish it later this year.

Peat believed that estrogen is a metabolic inhibitor that slows down energy production in the cell. Otto Warburg, after whom the Warburg Effect was named, stated that “the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar.”

In simpler terms, this is when your body has more than enough oxygen to burn (oxidize) glucose in your mitochondria but instead shuttles glucose outside the mitochondria into the cytoplasm to oxidize or burn in glycolysis and produce lactate. This is the classic form of energy production in cancer cells.

It is not that cancer burns sugar for fuel; it is that cancer cells are sick and unable to effectively burns glucose in their mitochondria so they must shift to inefficiently burn glucose in glycolysis in the cytoplasm, despite having enough oxygen present. This is typically due to mitochondrial metabolic dysfunction.

Essentially, this means anything that limits or prevents your cells’ ability to efficiently burn glucose in your mitochondria is capable of causing cancer, and according to Peat, this is precisely what estrogen is doing.

Obesity, Especially in Women, Is Estrogen-Driven

Estrogen can also promote the accumulation of fat around the thighs, hips and buttocks through several mechanisms. For starters, it influences where fat is stored in the body. Women tend to store fat in these areas due to having higher estrogen levels than men. This pattern is often referred to as the “pear-shaped” body type.

Estrogen also promotes the differentiation and proliferation of fat cells (adipocytes) in the subcutaneous fat layer, which is particularly prevalent in the thighs, hips and buttocks and therefore leads to increased fat storage in these areas.

As mentioned, estrogen also plays a role in regulating metabolism, including glucose and lipid metabolism. Higher estrogen levels can promote the uptake and storage of fatty acids in adipose tissue, contributing to fat accumulation in the lower body.

Hormonal interactions and cellular signaling also play a role. Estrogen interacts with other hormones involved in fat metabolism, such as insulin and cortisol, and these interactions can influence fat deposition and distribution in the body, favoring storage in the lower body regions.

Bioidentical estrogens are every bit as dangerous as synthetic ones and are dangerous, in any amounts, unless they are balanced by an abundance of the natural forms of thyroid, progesterone, and DHEA. Estrogen is a cumulative toxin, because it causes changes in every system of your body, even when present in normal amounts. These cumulative changes appear to accelerate aging in all tissues.

Estrogens are one of the primary factors contributing to increasing your cancer risk, along with the plastic burden contributing their xenoestrogens, as both decrease mitochondrial function. Progesterone is the antidote because it is not only anti-estrogen but is a potent cortisol blocker and will improve mitochondria production of cellular energy by blocking estrogen and cortisol.

Progesterone is the main female hormone, and is a protective hormone during pregnancy, but it is also important in men since it is a general brain-regulating and protective hormone. Lastly, adipose tissue contains estrogen receptors, and estrogen signaling can directly affect the function and activity of fat cells. It promotes the expression of genes involved in fat storage and inhibits genes associated with fat breakdown.

Fasting Isn’t the Answer

Contrary to popular belief, extended fasting isn’t the answer if you’re trying to reshape a pear-shaped body type.¹³ The reason for this is because chronic fasting often ends up burning more muscle than fat. As reported in the Times of India seven years ago:¹⁴

“Dr. Purwa Duggal says stubborn fat in areas such as abdomen, thighs, hips, butt, etc are linked to high estrogen. Prolonged starvation does not necessarily mean burning fat. It may initially cause muscle wasting or utilization of glycogen stores.

Catecholamines, which are fight or flight hormones produced in the body in response to stress, are required to burn fat. ‘Blood flow to stubborn fat areas is usually very poor, as a result, the catecholamines are unable to reach the area to mobilize the fat. Even if the fat is mobilized, while it continues to be in the blood stream, it may get re-deposited in the original areas,’ she adds.”

How to Lower Your Estrogen Load

One of the most important strategies aside from avoiding estrogen and xenoestrogens is to take natural progesterone. Most formulations are not effective as they are oral or transdermal. Ideally it should be dissolved in a high-quality vitamin E with MCT oil and rubbed on mucous membranes like your cheeks or gums. Typical doses are 25 to 50 mg once or twice a day.

Considering the health risks associated with estrogen excess, here are some commonsense strategies that can help you limit your exposure and lower your estrogen load:

Avoid synthetic estrogens — Minimize exposure to synthetic estrogens, such as those found in hormone replacement therapy and oral contraceptives. Consult with a qualified health care professional about alternative treatments and/or contraceptive methods with lower estrogen content.

Choose natural products — Opt for natural and organic personal care products, including makeup, skin care, and hair care items, to reduce exposure to synthetic chemicals like parabens and phthalates, which have estrogenic properties.

Limit pesticide exposure — Choose organic produce whenever possible to reduce exposure to pesticides, many of which have estrogenic effects. Washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly can also help remove pesticide residues.

Rethink your household products — Many household cleaning products, laundry detergents and air fresheners contain chemicals with estrogenic properties. Swap them out for natural, nontoxic alternatives or make your own cleaning solutions using vinegar, baking soda and essential oils instead.

Avoid plastic containers — Minimize the use of plastic containers and food packaging, which can leach estrogenic compounds into food and beverages. Instead, opt for glass or stainless steel containers for food storage and water bottles.

Maintain a healthy weight — Aim for a healthy weight and body composition through a balanced diet and regular exercise. Excess body fat, particularly around the thighs, hips, and buttocks, can contribute to higher estrogen levels.

Support liver health — Support liver function, as the liver plays a crucial role in metabolizing and eliminating excess estrogen from the body. Eat a nutrient-rich diet, limit alcohol consumption, and consider incorporating liver-supporting herbs and supplements, such as milk thistle or dandelion root.

Promote hormonal balance — Explore natural approaches to promote hormonal balance, such as consuming foods rich in cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, cauliflower and kale) and flaxseeds, which contain compounds that help support estrogen metabolism and detoxification.

Reduce stress — Manage stress through relaxation techniques like meditation, deep breathing exercises, yoga or spending time in nature. Chronic stress can disrupt hormone balance, including estrogen levels, so prioritizing stress reduction is essential.

– Sources and References

¹ Science Daily December 13, 2002
² Women’s Health Initiative
^3, ¹⁰ Haidut.me February 20, 2024 (Archived)
⁴ Environmental Health Perspectives January 10, 2024; 132(1)
⁵ Environmental Health News January 10, 2024
⁶ JAMA Network Open 2023; 6(8):e2328171
⁷ Cancer Epidemiology December 3, 2019
⁸ Legislative Bans of BPA
⁹ CEH.org September 1, 2021
¹¹ From PMS to Menopause: Female Hormones in Context (PDF)
¹² Ray Peat Articles
¹³ Haidut.me December 17, 2023 (Archived)
¹⁴ Times of India April 25, 2017

Posted in Cancer, Dementia, Estrogen, Fasting, Heart, Hormones, Liver, Obesity, Parkinson's, Progesterone, Stroke, Toxins | One Comment »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: October 12, 2023

How Proper Sleep Lowers Infection

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/10/09/how-proper-sleep-lowers-infection.aspx
The original Mercola article may not remain on the original site, but I will endeavor to keep it on this site as long as I deem it to be appropriate.

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked October 09, 2023

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Research shows sleep enhances the efficiency of T cell responses, allowing your immune system to kill foreign invaders such as viruses with greater ease
Ga(s)-coupled receptor agonists such as adrenaline and prostaglandin — which decrease during sleep — prevent immune cells from activating a sticky protein called integrin that allows the T cell to attach to the viral target
Higher levels of molecules that inhibit integrin activation are also found in malaria and cancer, for example, which suggests this pathway may contribute to the immune suppression associated with these pathologies as well
People who awaken during the first sleep cycle also tend to have lower levels of natural killer cells, and deep sleep has been shown to strengthen immunological memories of previously encountered pathogens
Previous research has found the circadian clocks of mice control an essential immune system gene that helps their bodies sense and ward off bacteria and viruses

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published February 28, 2019.

Previous research¹ has shown that sleep deprivation has the same effect on your immune system as physical stress. When volunteers stayed awake for 29 hours straight, their white blood cell counts were found to increase during the sleep deprivation phase.

This is the same type of response you typically see when you’re sick or stressed. In a nutshell, whether you’re physically stressed, sick or sleep-deprived, your immune system becomes hyperactive and starts producing white blood cells — your body’s first line of defense against foreign invaders like infectious agents.

Elevated levels of white blood cells are typically a sign of disease. In other words, your body reacts to sleep deprivation in much the same way it reacts to illness. Your immune system, in turn, plays a key role in controlling inflammation in your body, and if it’s not working optimally, your ability to fight off the infection will be impaired. As reported by Science Daily:²

“Sleep improves the potential ability of some of the body’s immune cells to attach to their targets … The study,^3,⁴ led by Stoyan Dimitrov and Luciana Besedovsky at the University of Tübingen, helps explain how sleep can fight off an infection, whereas other conditions, such as chronic stress, can make the body more susceptible to illness.”

Ga(s)-Coupled Receptor Agonists Affect T Cell Activation

When your immune system senses a foreign invader, such as a virus, white blood cells known as T cells (among others) are dispatched. Sticky proteins called integrins allow the T cell to attach to the infected target and kill it.

Dimitrov and his team decided to investigate⁵ the effects of signaling molecules called Ga(s)-coupled receptor agonists. While these signaling molecules are known to have immunosuppressive effects, it was not known whether they might inhibit the activation of integrins in T cells specifically, which is what they sought to determine here.

What they discovered was that certain Ga(s)-coupled receptor agonists did indeed prevent T cells from activating integrins once the target was identified. Ga(s)-coupled receptor agonists exhibiting this effect included:

Adrenaline and noradrenaline (hormones)
Prostaglandin E2 and D2 (proinflammatory molecules)
Adenosine (a neuromodulator)

Sleep Helps Your Body Fight Infection

Levels of adrenaline and prostaglandin are known to decrease during sleep, and both have been shown to suppress integrin activation, so the team continued their investigation by comparing T cells obtained from volunteers during sleep and during sleep deprivation (when the volunteers were kept awake throughout the night).

All of the volunteers were infected with cytomegalovirus, a mostly benign virus, as they tend to have higher amounts of antigen-specific T cells. As suspected, the T cells were found to have significantly higher integrin activation during sleep than during wakefulness.

Ultimately, the findings reveal that when you sleep, Ga(s)-coupled receptor activation is inhibited, and this is one important way by which sleep helps your body combat inflammation. According to Besedovsky:⁶

“Our findings show that sleep has the potential to enhance the efficiency of T cell responses, which is especially relevant in light of the high prevalence of sleep disorders and conditions characterized by impaired sleep, such as depression, chronic stress, aging and shift work.”

Dr. Louis DePalo, a professor of medicine, pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, who was not involved in the study, told Reuters:⁷

“Multiple clinical studies have demonstrated that people who do not get quality or sufficient sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to viruses. This study demonstrates yet another molecular pathway where good quality and quantity sleep may lead to immune supportive effects via immune cells, called T cells.”

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Sleep Also Plays an Important Role in Cancer

Dimitrov also points out that many pathological conditions, including malaria infection and cancer, have higher levels of molecules that inhibit integrin activation, which suggests that “This pathway may therefore contribute to the immune suppression associated with these pathologies.”⁸

Certainly, we know that tumor growth speeds up when you’re sleep deprived. This has previously been attributed to suppression of melatonin, a powerful antioxidant known to combat cancer. As noted in the clinical review⁹ “Melatonin, Sleep Disturbance and Cancer Risk,” published in 2009:

“The pineal hormone melatonin is involved in the circadian regulation and facilitation of sleep, the inhibition of cancer development and growth, and the enhancement of immune function. Individuals, such as night shift workers, who are exposed to light at night on a regular basis experience biological rhythm (i.e., circadian) disruption including circadian phase shifts, nocturnal melatonin suppression and sleep disturbances.

Additionally, these individuals are not only immune suppressed, but they are also at an increased risk of developing a number of different types of cancer. There is a reciprocal interaction and regulation between sleep and the immune system quite independent of melatonin.

Sleep disturbances can lead to immune suppression and a shift to the predominance in cancer-stimulatory cytokines. Some studies suggest that a shortened duration of nocturnal sleep is associated with a higher risk of breast cancer development …

The mutual reinforcement of interacting circadian rhythms of melatonin production, the sleep/wake cycle and immune function may indicate a new role for undisturbed, high quality sleep and perhaps even more importantly, uninterrupted darkness, as a previously unappreciated endogenous mechanism of cancer prevention.”

The Sleep-Stress-Immune Response Link

Other research has also demonstrated just how intimate and direct the connection between sleep and immune function is. For example, a 1998 study¹⁰ discovered that people who were more likely to awaken during the first sleep cycle also tended to have lower levels of natural killer cells (NKC).

Overall, the age of the patient was the greatest determinant of NKC level, but sleep disturbances were responsible for about 12% of the variance in NKC level.

Stress is known to interfere with immune system function and has been found to increase susceptibility to the common cold and slow wound healing. Lack of sleep is a stressor, causing the release of stress hormones, and this was thought to be one of the first studies to provide direct evidence linking sleep with the human stress-immune relationship.

Other research¹¹ suggests deep sleep strengthens immunological memories of previously encountered pathogens. In this way, your immune system is able to mount a much faster and more effective response when an antigen is encountered a second time.

Your Circadian Clock Is Tied to Your Immune Function

Another study,¹² published in 2012, found that the circadian clocks of mice control an essential immune system gene that helps their bodies sense and ward off bacteria and viruses. When levels of that particular gene, called toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), were at their highest, the mice were better able to withstand infections.

Interestingly, when the researchers induced sepsis, the severity of the disease was dependent on the timing of the induction. Severity directly correlated with cyclical changes in TLR9.

According to the authors, this may help explain why septic patients are known to be at higher risk of dying between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. According to study author Dr. Erol Fikrig, professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine:¹³

“These findings not only unveil a novel, direct molecular link between circadian rhythms and the immune system, but also open a new paradigm in the biology of the overall immune response with important implications for the prevention and treatment of disease.

Furthermore, patients in the ICU often have disturbed sleep patterns, due to noise, nocturnal light exposure and medications; it will be important to investigate how these factors influence TLR9 expression levels and immune responses.”

Other Consequences of Insufficient Sleep

Considering the key role sleep plays in your immune function, it’s easy to see how poor sleep can cascade outward, affecting a wide variety of health conditions. But that’s not all. Sleep also affects gene expression, hormone regulation and brain detoxification, just to mention a few, which further strengthens its importance.

Aside from lowering your immune function, making you more susceptible to infections and cancer, other health problems linked to insufficient sleep include but are not limited to:

Increased risk of neurological problems, ranging from depression to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease¹⁴ — Your blood-brain barrier becomes more permeable with age, allowing more toxins to enter.¹⁵ This, in conjunction with reduced efficiency of the glymphatic system due to lack of sleep, allows for more rapid damage to occur in your brain and this deterioration is thought to play a significant role in the development of Alzheimer’s.

Increased risk of Type 2 diabetes — In one study,¹⁶ “excessive daytime sleepiness” increased the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 56%.

Increased risk of obesity.

Increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and cardiovascular disease — Research has demonstrated that women who get less than four hours of shut-eye per night double their risk of dying from heart disease.¹⁷ In another study,¹⁸ adults who slept less than five hours a night had 50% more coronary calcium, a sign of oncoming heart disease, than those who regularly got seven hours.

Increased risk of osteoporosis.

Increased risk of pain and pain-related conditions such as fibromyalgia — In one study, poor or insufficient sleep was the strongest predictor for pain in adults over 50.¹⁹

Increased susceptibility to stomach ulcers.

Impaired sexual function.²⁰

Increased risk of depression and anxiety (including post-traumatic stress disorder), schizophrenia and suicide — In fact, researchers have been unable to find a single psychiatric condition in which the subject’s sleep is normal.

Premature aging by interfering with growth hormone production, normally released by your pituitary gland during deep sleep.

Increased risk of dying from any cause²¹ — Compared to people without insomnia, the adjusted hazard ratio for all-cause mortality among those with chronic insomnia was 300% higher.

Optimizing Your Sleep Can Help Stave Off Chronic Problems

There’s simply no doubt that sleep needs to be a priority if you intend to live a long and healthy life. Anyone struggling with chronic disease — which is at least half of the American adult population — would be wise to take sleep seriously, as it can have a significant impact, not only contributing to the problem but also counteracting any other healthy lifestyle strategies you’re using to address it.

As a general guideline, seek to get right around eight hours of sleep every night. Anything below seven hours really starts to impact your health (if you’re an adult). For many, this means forgoing night-owl tendencies and getting to bed at a reasonable time. If you need to be up at 6 a.m., you have to have a lights-out deadline of 9:30 or 10 p.m., depending on how quickly you tend to fall asleep.

The good news is there are many ways to improve your odds of sleeping well, even if you’re currently struggling. I’ve listed my top suggestions gleaned from research and various sleep experts in “Top 33 Tips to Optimize Your Sleep Routine” and “Sleep — Why You Need It and 50 Ways to Improve It.”

– Sources and References

¹ Sleep 2012 Jul 1; 35(7): 933–940
^2, ^6, ⁸ Science Daily February 12, 2019
^3, ⁵ Journal of Experimental Medicine February 12, 2019
^4, ⁷ Reuters February 12, 2019
⁹ Sleep Medicine Reviews 2009; 13: 257-264
¹⁰ Psychosomatic Medicine January 1, 1998; 60(1): 48-51
¹¹ Medical News Today September 30, 2015
¹² Immunity February 24, 2012; 36(2): 159-161
¹³ EurekAlert! February 16, 2012
¹⁴ Neurobiology of Aging 18 February 2014 [Epub ahead of print]
¹⁵ The Conversation March 17, 2015
¹⁶ Endocrinology Advisor. September 22, 2015
¹⁷ Harvard Health. How Sleep Loss Threatens Your Health. March 9, 2010
¹⁸ NPR September 14, 2015
¹⁹ Pain. 2019 Mar; 160(3): 529–534
²⁰ Sleep Foundation. The Relationship Between Sex and Sleep
²¹ Science Daily June 15, 2010

Posted in Blood Pressure, Cancer, Cardiovascular, Dementia, Diabetes, Heart, Hormones, Immunity, Infection, Obesity, Sleep, Stress | No Comments »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: July 16, 2023

How to Boost Brain Health and Reverse Neurological Disease

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/07/15/boost-brain-health-reverse-neurological-disease.aspx
The original Mercola article may not remain on the original site, but I will endeavor to keep it on this site as long as I deem it to be appropriate.

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked July 15, 2023

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

The less inflammatory your diet is, the faster you’re going to get well, because inflammation is nearly always a contributor to neurological dysfunction. Sugar, damaged omega-6 oils, trans fats and processed vegetable oils need to be avoided
A simple stress reduction technique done before meals can improve your digestion and absorption of nutrients, boost your immune function, and relax your body
Melatonin provides the best protection for your neurons against free radical damage, and you need a healthy release of melatonin through the night to calm and heal your brain
As you get older, the enzymatic activity required to produce melatonin becomes impaired. To boost your body’s production, take 5-HTP before bedtime. 5-HTP is converted to serotonin, which is further converted to melatonin
Natural alternatives to diuretics, commonly prescribed for hypertension, are discussed, as are the many health benefits of proteolytic enzymes

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published June 10, 2018.

Your brain is a really important part of your body. I’m sure no one would disagree with that. In this interview, Dr. Lee Cowden, co-founder of the Academy of Comprehensive Integrative Medicine (ACIM), discusses some really simple and inexpensive strategies that boost brain health and support neuroregeneration. This is also the topic of this year’s ACIM conference, which will be held in Orlando, Florida, in November.

The Academy of Comprehensive Integrative Medicine was founded in 2008 with the vision of educating integrative practitioners around the globe, for the most part online. “Many practitioners are so busy that they can never take the time to go to all of the meetings they need to go to, to learn what they need to learn,” Cowden says, “so we decided to start putting educational courses online.”

ACIM Offers Training Programs

In 2014, ACIM began offering a 300-hour online integrative medicine fellowship training program. Workshops are held in Dallas every few months to allow practitioners to get hands-on training. In 2018, there were hands-on conferences in July and September 20. Those were all preludes to the main conference in Orlando in November.

“Everything we’re doing this year is focused on the brain [and] neuroregeneration,” Cowden says. “With integrative medicine, we look at the causation, and see if we can resolve the causation of the illness. Once the cause goes away, usually the illness goes away.”

You don’t have to be a health care professional to benefit from ACIM. Even laypeople can study with ACIM.

The academy offers a core wellness coach program that includes 70 hours of training. “I think every integrative practitioner needs to have half a dozen or more wellness coaches working with them to hold the hands of the patients until they get well,” Cowden says.

ACIM Conference 2018: Neuroregeneration

The November conference focused on strategies that can help regenerate all types of neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s, autism, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and other less severe conditions such as the neurological effects of fibromyalgia, and less common conditions such as reflex sympathetic dystrophy and peripheral neuropathy.

“The tendency of the American public is to look for a magic bullet. But, really, for neurological diseases, I haven’t found a magic bullet. There’s a lot of very important pieces.

I call those the foundational pieces: Diet, removing electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from the patient’s surroundings, physical activity, as well as brain games. There are a lot of other emotional issues that impact chronic neurological conditions that we need to address as well.”

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Quenching Inflammation Is a Key Foundational Step

In regard to diet, the less inflammatory it is, the faster you’re going to get well, because inflammation is nearly always a contributor to neurological dysfunction. The most inflammatory of all foods is probably sugar, followed by damaged, oxidized omega-6 oils, trans fats and processed vegetable oils. These all need to be strictly avoided. In addition to an anti-inflammatory diet, nutritional and herbal supplements can offer targeted support.

“Eating a ketogenic diet with clean fats and oils, doing some [intermittent] fasting throughout the week and getting rid of the inflammation-creating things — sugars, omega-6 oils, peanut products that have high arachidonic acid and so on … can make a great start in getting a patient’s neurological condition improved,” Cowden says.

“In 1988, I had a colleague who had a father in a nursing home in Louisiana who had advanced Alzheimer’s. He was a full-care case. In the morning, the nurses would have to get him out of bed, dress him and feed him. He was always pooping and peeing in his pants. He couldn’t remember the names of the nurses, the family members or anybody. My colleague said, ‘Can you give me some ideas of things that will help my father?’

I said, the problem is that it’s going to take a lot of intervention, and getting that at a nursing home is not likely to happen. He said, ‘I’m pretty sure it will happen, because the head nurse of the nursing home has a mother, just like my dad, with severe dementia. She wants to see if what I try on my dad works, so that she can try it on her mom.’

I recommended a regimen: Dietary changes, supplemental nutrients and proteolytic enzymes 30 minutes before food, magnesium, vitamin D3, tocotrienols, tocopherols, bacopa monieri, other herbs, homeopathics and some things to get the metals out … chlorella … dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) and so on.

I said, ‘You need to get your dad out of bed and walk him every day. Get the nurses to do this. Get them to play brain games with him.’

He called me back about four months later. He said, ‘I’ve got to give you an update on this … My dad now gets out of bed, dresses himself, feeds himself, does not poop or pee in his pants anymore. He walks around with the nurses and helps them take care of the other patients in the nursing home.

Then he sits down and plays cards with the nurses, and sometimes wins.’ That’s a big shift in just four months’ time, [and] we’ve had lots of other cases like that with dementia.”

Can You Reverse Autism?

Cowden has also seen near-magical improvements in children with autism. A remarkable case is that of a young man named Bryan. Cowden first met Bryan’s dad when Bryan was just 7 years old. He had neither speech nor socialization skills.

His dad was a restaurant owner who went back to school to become a naturopathic doctor in a desperate attempt to help his son after all of his allopathic doctors told him there was no hope for Bryan — he’d never graduate high school, go to college, hold a job, get married or have children of his own.

Cowden worked with Bryan’s father, and not only did Bryan start speaking within a year or two, he graduated high school at 18, played football in college on a scholarship and got B’s in school. After college, he became a massage therapist; fell in love, married and had two children.

He is now helping autistic children and adult patients with neurological disease to recover. I’ve met Bryan, and this story is all the more remarkable by the fact that he’s one of the healthiest people I have ever met.

There is a very objective heart rate variability test that measures the fitness of your autonomic nervous system and a variety of other variables called HeartQuest. Bryan scored virtually a perfect score on this test. From being an autistic child at age 7 to someone who’s one of the healthiest people around is a rather dramatic example showing that if you apply these principles, they really can work.

“After his dad helped him get to the point where he was able to do a lot of things for himself, Bryan became highly motivated to eat a clean diet, to do a physical activity, to drink enough water, to get enough sleep and so on,” Cowden notes. “He lives right.”

A Simple Stress Reduction Technique That Pays Dividends

The beauty of integrative medicine is that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of tools available, and sometimes the simplest, least expensive ones are among the most effective. One foundational aspect of good health is stress reduction. A stress reduction technique I learned from Cowden that has helped me decrease my sleep latency, allowing me to fall asleep really quickly when done before bed, is performed as follows:

Place your left index finger and thumb together, then grasp a hold of these two fingers with your right hand (see video demonstration starting around 29:55). It’s important to use your left fingers, as the left side of your body entrains the right side of your body rather quickly, whereas the right side entrains the left very slowly.
Place your hands on your lap and breathe deeply in through your nose. Hold your breath for one second before breathing out through your mouth. Keep breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth while visualizing yourself in the most relaxing place you have ever been. Be sure to include sound, taste, touch and smell in your visualization and not just the visual component. Really remember that place with all of your senses.

Doing this for four to five minutes before each meal will help improve your digestion and absorption of nutrients, boost your immune function, and relax your body. Done before bedtime, it’ll improve how fast you fall asleep, how deeply you fall asleep and the amount of healing your body can get while asleep as it boosts your immune function. For very little time, energy and effort, at no cost, you can get a lot of improvement. Cowden explains the rationale for these specific finger holds:

“On the index finger, on the middle-finger finger side, the dorsal surface, is the energy pathway for your nervous system. On the palm-side surface of the index finger is the energy pathway for your neurotransmitter system. On the thumb, on the outer aspect, is the pathway for your lymphatic system. Everybody who is chronically stressed has a stressed-out nervous system, stressed-out neurotransmitters and a clogged lymphatic system.

When you hold [your left index finger and thumb] with your right hand, you’re taking the excess energy that’s usually in these other pathways and dissipating that into the pathways that run on the palm surface of your right hand. If there are areas or pathways that are deficient in energy, then energy comes out of the pathways in your right hand and goes into the pathways in your left hand.

The principle is balancing the energy pathways. The Chinese have said for 3,000 years that disease develops whenever energy stagnates. If you stagnate energy, then you’re going to have all kinds of problems, including maldigestion and insomnia … This helps, probably more than anything I’ve found, to balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.

The sympathetic is what causes the fight-or-flight. The parasympathetic, which is to balance out the sympathetic, is responsible for digestion, relaxation, sleep and the calming parts of our nervous system. So many people have almost exclusively, sympathetic and almost no parasympathetic function.”

5-HTP Boosts Melatonin and Helps Optimize Sleep

Another gem I learned from Cowden during a visit to my home was the use of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). My deep sleep measured at zero minutes, despite spending time at the beach daily to expose myself to bright sunshine and using blackout drapes to sleep in the dark. I also turned off the electricity to my bedroom. I thought that’s all you needed to optimize melatonin. It turns out that’s not the case when you get older. Cowden explains:

“Tryptophan, which you find in turkey and pumpkin seeds, gets converted to 5-HTP. 5-HTP is converted to 5-hydroxytryptamine, also called serotonin. 5-hydroxytryptamine finally gets converted into melatonin. However, as we age, toxins pile up in the enzymes [responsible for these conversions] and prevent those enzymes from performing the work they need to do.

You have, over time, lower and lower levels of 5-HTP, serotonin and melatonin, even though you’re doing everything else right. So, yes, we have to continually detoxify, and also, sometimes, support those enzyme systems by what we call excessive precursor supply. You boost the building blocks to make the final product.

Melatonin is not very well absorbed out the gut. Some people take melatonin, but some people have kind of a paradoxical response from that. But if they take 5-HTP, they can actually make as much 5-hydroxytryptamine as they need to fairly easily, and then they have the serotonin and melatonin.”

Low Serotonin Will Impede Melatonin Production

Once I began taking 100 milligrams of 5-HTP about 20 minutes before bed, my deep sleep rapidly increased to about 30 minutes a night. Since then I’ve also painted my bedroom with grounded shielding paint that provides an ultra-low EMF environment. Turning off the electricity wasn’t enough, as assessed by measuring the electric field’s influence on my body voltage. Hopefully that’ll improve my deep sleep further.

Many are aware that serotonin is important for mood, but if you don’t have enough of it, you can’t make melatonin either, and melatonin is the most important antioxidant nutrient in the brain. As noted by Cowden, melatonin is far more important than the oral antioxidants you may take. It’s even more important than glutathione and superoxide dismutase, because it’s fat-soluble.

Melatonin provides the best protection for your neurons against free radical damage, and you need a healthy release of melatonin through the night to calm and heal your brain.

The enzyme that converts 5-HTP to serotonin requires vitamin B6 as a cofactor, so if you’re taking 5-HTP and not seeing results, that means you probably need to take some coenzymated B6 (pyridoxal 5′-phosphate) sublingually to get enough of the active form of B6 to enable the conversion of 5-HTP to serotonin.

The Many Benefits of Magnesium

Another supplement that is helpful for sleep is magnesium. Cowden prefers magnesium malate, but you can also use magnesium threonate. There are literally dozens of different types of magnesium supplements.

Magnesium threonate has the added benefit of providing some antiretroviral activity, and retroviruses tend to be a challenge inherent with many neurodegenerative diseases. Threonate is also a neurotransmitter, in addition to being an amino acid.

To avoid creating an imbalance, it’s wise to alternate between different forms of magnesium. Cowden prefers magnesium malate because malic acid is a Krebs citric acid cycle intermediate and actually helps generate more ATP energy. If you’re deficient in malic acid inside the cell and you take a magnesium malate, the malic acid is drawn into the interior of the mitochondria and will drag the magnesium in with it.

Without a doubt, magnesium is essential for mitochondrial ATP production. About 50% of the metabolic enzymes in your body require magnesium as a cofactor, so it’s a really important nutrient. It’s also required for conduction of nerve impulses and the contraction-relaxation cycle of muscles, including your heart muscle.

There’s also compelling evidence suggesting magnesium may reduce the impacts and side effects of EMF exposure. Importantly, if you don’t have enough magnesium, your body also cannot absorb potassium. Cowden explains:

“If a person is deficient in magnesium and potassium both, you can give them potassium in large amounts on an ongoing basis, and their potassium levels never come up. But if you give them magnesium and get it repleted, and then give them potassium, then their potassium levels come up.

That’s because the kidney tubules selectively hold on to magnesium and waste potassium into the toilet in order to retain the magnesium. Because, apparently, the body sees the magnesium as being a more vital nutrient than potassium.

One more thing. A lot of people in the United States are on some form of diuretic medication, either for blood pressure, swelling of their legs or for some other reason. When you take a diuretic, it has a magnesium- and potassium-wasting effect on the kidneys. They’re wasting both magnesium and potassium into the toilet. But most doctors only give potassium. They don’t give the magnesium.”

Alternatives to Diuretics

Diuretics are frequently prescribed for high blood pressure and/or swelling in the extremities. As in most cases, drugs are not necessary for treating these conditions. Swelling of the legs is often due to congestion in your lymphatic system, or kidney toxicity preventing your kidneys from properly processing water. Hence the water is retained in your tissues. Sometimes, it’s just severe toxicity in the tissues.

“One of the ways the body protects itself from toxic overload is to allow water to go out into the tissues where the toxins are, to dilute the toxins. If you have enough toxicity in your legs, then you’re going to have fluid accumulation there to try to dilute those toxins,” Cowden explains. “The lymphatic system can get clogged up for lots of different reasons.

The lymphatic system is commonly clogged up in people in the United States, because they have a love affair with dairy products and wheat products, both of which produce thick sticky mucoid material in the lymphatic system, which clogs it up. If they’ll get rid of the dairy and wheat products, then the lymphatic system becomes more fluid and able to clear toxins from the tissues through the lymphatic system.”

If you have an extremely weak heart, you may not be able to pump blood properly. This is also known as right-sided congestive heart failure. A very common cause of that is coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) deficiency. According to Cowden, taking CoQ10, addressing any emotional issues and eliminating heavy metals will help the swelling to go away even in these more serious cases.

Why Diuretics Are Not Ideal for Treatment of Hypertension

Hypertension is a more complex issue. The first line of treatment and the No. 1 recommended drug for treating hypertension are thiazide diuretics. However, thiazide diuretics cause chromium wasting, which then creates insulin resistance, which in turn raises your blood pressure. As noted by Cowden:

“That seems to be a pretty oxymoronic way to do that. We really need to try to find a better solution. Most people who have hypertension emotionally feel under pressure to do something or not do something. If they can recognize what that is and resolve that emotional conflict, their blood pressure usually goes down quite a bit …

If you get the plaque reversed in the arteries, then the [arteries] are no longer stiff, so then you don’t have a systolic hypertension. You don’t need the drug, because your blood pressure comes down just by getting rid of the plaque in the arteries.

How do you do that? In the early ’90s, I was giving patients with advanced atherosclerotic disease proteolytic enzymes 30 minutes before food, a clean diet, supplements, nutrients, magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin E, etc., and reversing 80% to 90% plaque in the arteries down to 20% and 30% plaque in just three or four months.

We proved that with the ultrasound Doppler duplex imaging. If we can do that, then why are we doing open heart surgeries, carotid endarterectomies and all that other stuff? It’s because people are not educated about what’s possible.

If they haven’t been told that this could be done by their medical doctor, then they don’t believe that it’s possible. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things the medical doctor doesn’t know, because they weren’t taught it in medical school.”

The Benefits of Proteolytic Enzymes

Proteolytic enzymes are an effective strategy not only for decreasing atherosclerotic plaque but also for thinning your blood, lowering your risk of a blood clot. Cowden’s father was placed on Coumadin by his doctor, which caused him to bleed profusely whenever he hurt himself working outside. Cowden suggested proteolytic enzymes instead, which his father was eager to try.

“He started that when he was about 60. He lived to be 80. He was on proteolytic enzymes 30 minutes before food twice a day for 20 years, without any more clots, without any more of the symptoms for which he was being treated with the sodium warfarin or the Coumadin.

Since then, I’ve treated several dozen other patients with the same strategy. As far as I know, there’s no peer-reviewed literature proving that this is so, but we have lots of anecdotal evidence … As far as I know, everybody has remained plaque-free.”

The enzymes Cowden uses for this purpose, in order of effectiveness are:

Lumbrokinase, made from bacteria that live in the gut of the earthworm
Nattokinase, a fermented soy product
Serrapeptase, made from bacteria that grow in the gut of the silkworm
Bromelain, obtained from pineapple stems
Papaya leaf enzyme

“A person can be energetically tested for several of these enzymes to see which pair is the best pair and just rotate back and forth. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, one; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday the other.

If they do enough of those, then usually they’ll have no clot formation,” he says. Proteolytic enzymes also combat tiny clots, frequently caused by chronic infections. The infection, wherever it is located, causes your body to produce excessive amounts of fibrin, a clot-producing agent.

This fibrin can plaster itself up against the capillary walls, restricting the delivery of oxygen from red blood cells through the capillary wall into the tissues.

The above-mentioned enzymes will strip away fibrin, allowing oxygen delivery through the capillary walls into tissues. Once the tissues are no longer starved of oxygen, they can go into aerobic metabolism instead of anaerobic metabolism, and when you’re in anaerobic metabolism, you don’t stimulate cancer growth and microbial growth. So, there are many related health benefits.

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