Important Brain Nutrient Info from M.D.

Today I received an email with reminding about a several important  nutrients for the brain. The email was from Dr. Al Sears M.D.. Dr Sears marches to his own beat and is often cutting edge in his advice especially in the matter of nutrition for optimum health. Brain nutrition is of course the area of his advise that most interest peolple who read this blog. I believe that it is never too late to start treating the brain optimally in a nutritional sense. Here is Dr Sears email to me and others:

Do you find yourself forgetting where you left your car keys… or just feel like your brain is in a fog sometimes?

Contrary to popular belief, forgetfulness is not just a normal part of growing older. As you age, your brain loses critical nutrients that it needs to fire on all cylinders.

If your mental spark plugs aren’t firing like they used to, don’t worry. I’ll show you how to get your brain’s engine back to running as smooth as a Rolls Royce. You just need to know what’s missing and how to get it.

Your brain uses chemicals called neurotransmitters to transmit messages in the brain. There are millions of these messages happening every second. Neurotransmitters are conductors of these messages, allowing them to fire from one part of your brain to another.

One important neurotransmitter is acetylcholine (ACh). Your body uses ACh to help regulate your heart, breathing, and sleep. Your body even uses it to control your muscles and keep you fired up for the bedroom.

Here’s the thing… your brain needs you to supply certain nutrients to make neurotransmitters.

But there’s a key nutrient it uses to make ACh that is probably missing from your diet. It’s called choline, and if you don’t get enough, you’re headed for trouble.

Choline is a necessary nutrient for overall brain health and functioning and it is important to avoid nutritional deficiencies to keep your brain sharp and healthy.

When you don’t give the body enough choline, the brain is forced to get it from other parts of your brain. It starts eating itself alive to get what it needs for vital functions like heart and lung regulation.

I’ll show you ways to get the choline your brain needs in a second, but first let me introduce you to choline’s partner – DMAE.

DMAE (Dimethylaminoethanol) works with choline to create ACh. In fact, it does such a good job, the FDA almost approved it as a drug. The only reason it didn’t happen is that the manufacturer didn’t want to pay the expenses to get it classified as one.

But it is the main ingredient in a commonly prescribed drug in Europe. Called Centrophenoxine, it has been shown to boost cognitive functions.2

Proper doses of DMAE are a safe and side-effect-free solution to support brain health and reduce age-related mental decline and mood/behavioral problems.3

To get the nutrition your brain needs to stay sharp and clear, you may need to combine food and supplementation. Here’s how to get your ACh cranking:

Choline – You need at least 425 mg a day as a woman, 550 mg if you’re a man. The richest food sources of choline are (in mg per 100 g of food):

Whole cooked eggs – 272. Make sure you get free-range eggs without antibiotics or hormones. They’ll help fuel your muscles as well as give you much-needed choline.

Raw egg yolks – 682. Go ahead and crack open a couple eggs into your protein shake. It’s only an urban legend that there’s danger in eating them raw.

Chicken liver – 290. Though some people get turned off by organ meats, they’re a potent source of high-powered nutrition. And it’s an old wives tale that they store toxins – they don’t.

Turkey liver – 220. Another great source of nutrition. Just like any liver, it also provides vitamin A, CoQ10 and iron.

Pork – 130. Just like beef, you want to eat organic, grass-fed animals only for the proper balance of fats and zero hormones and antibiotics.

If you’re older, you may need more – as much as 1500 mg a day. That may require supplementation. If you take a supplement, be sure it’s in the form of choline citrate. To try my brain-boosting formula that combines choline and DMAE, go here now.

DMAE – You need at least 35 mg of DMAE a day. Fish is a good food source, especially sardines and anchovies.

So stop starving your brain of these critical nutrients. They’re easy to replace and will help to promote a healthy mind into your golden years.

To you best health,

Dr Al Sears

This is good stuff from this thoughtful medical doctor and we thank him for his continuing work in the field of nutrition and our health especially nutrition for the brain.

Cognitive Decline In Your Future

Are symptoms of Alzheimers in your future asks today’s guest article writer:

Do you sometimes wonder if symptoms of dementia are in your future? You need to make some deposits in your brain reserve account.

In my former life as a banker one of my favorite quips was, ‘Money isn’t everything, but it’s way ahead of whatever is in second place.’

It’s nice to have money but you can’t buy health with money, as so many have discovered during their golden years. Good health has to be earned by making smart lifestyle choices. This of course is a lot easier said than done. For most of us this requires discipline and the moving of exercise nearer to the top of our To Do list.

The dividends accrued from these efforts are far greater and more lasting than the gains from financial investments, especially in the world we live in today.

They include dramatically better health and increased energy to live a vital, high quality independent life for a long, long time.

When it comes to heart health I have greater experience than most. It isn’t everyone who has enjoyed having their chest sawed open by a heart surgeon to stitch in bypasses to six of their favorite heart arteries.

I’ve known for a long time that physical and mental exercise are good for both my heart and brain, but it wasn’t until recently that I learned that my lifestyle changes have been making regular deposits into a brain reserve account.

It used to be thought that after age 20, brain cells (neurons) began to die and were never replaced. Declining function was inevitable.

Thankfully, this fallacy has since been proven wrong. Today’s researchers have proven that our brains can grow and evolve as long as we live.

Brain cells are ready and waiting to adapt to new challenges. You have the ability to keep symptoms of dementia at bay. Mental and physical exercise stimulates growth of new neurons and neuronal pathways and increases connectivity between neurons and between brain regions.

This growth and adaptation is known as cognitive reserve or brain reserve. It works somewhat like a money market account, storing up short and long-term brain functionality by increasing the efficiency of connections between neurons. And the dividends include a more powerful and quicker brain.

David Snowden eloquently described this in the 2003 landmark Nun Study. In this study, autopsies of the brains of nuns who lived well into their nineties or older were examined.

Snowden discovered that many of the nuns showed significant changes in brain structures and brain pathology usually associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

But in spite of the damage to their brain, they did not show any of the usual symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Snowden concluded that continued mental exercising encouraged the development of new pathways that bypassed the diseased portions of the brain and preserved mental functioning into old age.

This is great news. My brain needs all the help it can get.

By: Gene Millen

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Do you sometimes wonder if Alzheimer’s is in your future? Are there times when your "forgetter" outwits your memory? This site explores the latest research about brain fitness and shows you how to revitalize your memory, create new brain cells and keep Alzheimers at bay. www.BrainBeQuick.com

That Ginkgo Might Prevent Age Related Dementia, Alzheimer’s Appears Untrue

Here is a study that first came to my attention in the Healthday News last November I am finally sharing it here:

Gingko had created some high hopes in the botanical medicine area as useful in preventing and treating alzheimer’s disease and other age related dementia.

During the study period, 523 people developed dementia, and 92 percent of those cases were classified as possible or probable Alzheimer’s disease.

Healthday News 11/08

Although commonly taken to improve memory, new research suggests that the herb ginkgo biloba won’t help prevent dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

"We found that giving a standardized dose of ginkgo biloba over a period of time does not slow down the incidence rate of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease," said the study’s lead author, Dr. Steven DeKosky, who was chair of the department of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Medical Center at the time of the study.

The findings were published in the Nov. 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, currently affects about 5 million people in the United States, according to background information in the article. Dementia is a significant cause of age-related disability and the need for long-term nursing home care, the study reported.

There are currently no medications that have been approved for the primary prevention of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. However, previous small, short-term clinical trials have suggested there might be a small benefit from ginkgo for people with dementia. Sales of ginkgo biloba are almost $250 million each year in the United States, according to the study.

The current study included almost 3,100 community-dwelling adults aged 75 or older. Most had normal cognition at the start of the study, while 482 had mild cognitive impairment when the study began.

The study volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either a twice-daily dose of 120 milligrams of ginkgo biloba extract or a twice-daily placebo. The study participants were assessed for signs of dementia every six months, and the average length of study participation was just over six years.

During the study period, 523 people developed dementia, and 92 percent of those cases were classified as possible or probable Alzheimer’s disease.

Overall, the dementia rate for those taking ginkgo was 3.3 per 100 person-years of follow-up versus 2.9 per 100 person-years for the placebo group.

"If you’re in your 70s or 80s, and you’re contemplating taking ginkgo to prevent Alzheimer’s or dementia, the idea that it can prevent these is not true," said DeKosky, who is vice president and dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville.

But, said DeKosky, the good news from this study is that there appear to be "no major problems for safety" where ginkgo is concerned.

One representative of the botanicals industry took issue with the findings.

"There is an significant body of scientific and clinical evidence supporting the safety and efficacy of ginkgo extract for both cognitive function and improved circulation," said Mark Blumenthal, the founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council.

He also cited what he considered shortcomings with the Pittsburgh study, including a relatively short follow-up period, and the lack of a comparison treatment (there is currently no treatment that prevents or curbs dementia). Blumenthal also noted that 60 percent of participants stopped taking gingko by the end of the study, potentially lending uncertainty to the results.

However, the author of an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal, Dr. Lon Schneider, director of the State of California Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Clinical Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, pointed out that for people with a history of cardiovascular disease, there was an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke in the group taking ginkgo, though the difference didn’t reach statistical significance. Eight people in the placebo compared to 16 in the ginkgo group had a hemorrhagic stroke, Schneider noted.

He also pointed out that at least one smaller trial found an increased risk of the more common type of stroke, ischemic stroke, and transient ischemic attacks, in people taking ginkgo.

"In the absence of efficacy, people should be fairly careful about taking a drug anyway, and here, we’ve seen no evidence for potential gain, and there’s some reason to be concerned about its use in the long term," said Schneider.

SOURCES: Steven T. DeKosky, M.D., vice president and dean, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Va.; Lon S. Schneider, M.D., director, State of California Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Clinical Center at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; news release, Nov. 18. 2008, American Botanical Council; Nov. 19, 2008, Journal of the American Medical Association

Publish Date: November 18, 2008

 Age Related Dementia and Vitamin D

From the New York Times an article those with interest in the subject of age related dementia with find confirming to previous articles in this blog.

Aging: Vitamin D Levels Tied to Dementia Risk

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Low blood levels of vitamin D may be associated with an increased risk for age related dementia, a British study has found.

Scientists measured blood levels of the vitamin in a representative sample of 1,766 people over 65 and assessed their mental functioning with a widely used questionnaire. About 12 percent were cognitively impaired, and the lower their vitamin D level, the more likely they were to be in that group. Compared with those in the highest one-quarter for serum vitamin D, those in the lowest were 2.3 times as likely to be impaired, even after statistically adjusting for age, sex, education and ethnicity. Men showed the effect more strongly than women.

“The cause of dementia is not vitamin D deficiency,” said David Llewellyn, a research associate at Cambridge University and the study’s lead author. “It’s a very complicated disease. But while further research is needed, vitamin D supplementation is cheap, safe and convenient, and may therefore play an important role in prevention.”(of age related dementia)

According to background information in the study, which appears online in The Journal of Geriatric Psychology and Neurology, vitamin D receptors are present in a variety of cells, including neurons and the glial cells associated with them. That suggests that the vitamin may play a role in brain development and the protection of neurons.

Don’t Wait for Bad News to Change Bad Habits.

Guest article writer today reprots on a part of human nature that often defies our giving ourselves the best chance for the best health:

 (HealthDay News) — Being diagnosed with a serious condition such as heart disease or diabetes can prompt middle-aged and older adults to make health behavior changes, such as quitting smoking or losing weight, a Yale University study shows.

The researchers analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study, which included middle-aged and older adults who were surveyed at least twice between 1992 and 2000. The surveys included 20,221 overweight or obese people younger than 75, and 7,764 smokers.

During the survey period, 18 percent of the smokers quit, and the average body-mass index (BMI) of overweight and obese respondents increased by 0.04 units. About 13 percent of the smokers were diagnosed with stroke, cancer, lung disease, heart disease or diabetes. About 8 percent of the overweight/obese people were diagnosed with lung disease, heart disease or diabetes.

The Yale researchers found that people newly diagnosed with health problems were more likely to change their health habits than those without a new diagnosis. Smokers newly diagnosed with at least one condition were 3.2 times more likely to quit than those without a new diagnosis. Overweight or obese people diagnosed with at least one condition lost an average of 2 to 3 pounds more than those without a new diagnosis.

Multiple diagnoses increased the likelihood of health behavior changes. Smokers with multiple diagnoses were 6.1 times more likely to quit than those with no new diagnoses. Overweight/obese people with one diagnosis lost an average of 0.34 BMI units, while those with more than one diagnosis lost an average of 0.64 BMI units.

The findings were published in the Feb. 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Targeting individuals with recent new diagnoses may be particularly effective in middle-aged and older individuals, who are increasingly likely to receive a major diagnosis or to be hospitalized as they age," wrote study author Patricia S. Keenan, of Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Public Health.

"Individuals with new adverse health events are accessible through contact with the health-care system or through the Internet or other written information about their disease, and this study suggests that they are more motivated to change health habits."

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about healthy habits.
— Robert Preidt

SOURCE: JAMA/Archives journals, news release, Feb. 9, 2009

Phosphatidylserine Brain Nutrient

According to several blue ribbon studies, phosphatidylserine is one of the single best nutrients for rejuvenating your mind and memory. This soy-based nutrient is the key building block for billions of cells in your brain. It acts like brain food.

Volumes of scientific literature have proven the effectiveness of this remarkable ingredient. In a multi-university study, subjects who took PS (phosphatidylserine) achieved a 30 percent improvement in cognitive function, including learning, memory, and recalling numbers, names and faces. In fact, the study found that PS can roll back up to 12 years of mental decline.

In another research study performed in Italy, phosphatidylserine was documented to give you up to 44 percent better memory. In another study at a world-famous memory clinic, PS was found to actually make you smarter. People who took PS showed a 33 percent improvement in learning and remembering written information compared to the subjects who took placebos.

Can you get this brain nutrient in your diet naturally ?  Well yes but and really no.

There are two major sources for phosphatidylserine: cow brains and soy lecithin. As a supplement, the phosphatidylserine derived from cow brains (BC-PS) is banned in the US due to fears about mad cow disease.

While phosphatidylserine occurs in soy lecithin, it does differ in molecular structure from the phosphatidylserine found in cow brains. It is important to note that the studies about human cognitive improvement were done with phosphatidylserine derive from cow brains.

Your body actually produces phosphatidylserine. However, theraputic doses for memory improvement are 100 mg two-three times a day.

 What we are left with is the necessity to go for supplementation to be able to put this brain aid to work for us.

Don’t Starve Your Brain

Brain health nutrition starts with brain food and brain nutrition vitamins. When these are sufficiently provided then and only then can we reliably expect we have give our brain function every advantage.  Our guest article writer asks the question "Are you starving your brain" in a this article of the same name.

Al Sears, MD

Do you find yourself forgetting where you left your car keys… or just feel like your brain is in a fog sometimes?

Contrary to popular belief, forgetfulness is not just a normal part of growing older. As you age, your brain loses critical nutrients that it needs to fire on all cylinders.

If your mental spark plugs aren’t firing like they used to, don’t worry. I’ll show you how to get your brain’s engine back to running as smooth as a Rolls Royce. You just need to know what’s missing and how to get it.

Your Brain is Begging for Nutrients
Your brain uses chemicals called neurotransmitters to transmit messages in the brain. There are millions of these messages happening every
second. Neurotransmitters are conductors of these messages, allowing them to fire from one part of your brain to another.

One important neurotransmitter is acetylcholine (ACh). Your body uses ACh to help regulate your heart, breathing, and sleep. Your body even uses it to control your muscles and keep you fired up for the bedroom.

Here’s the thing… your brain needs you to supply certain nutrients to make neurotransmitters.

But there’s a key nutrient it uses to make ACh that is probably missing from your diet. It’s called choline, and if you don’t get enough, you’re headed for trouble.  Choline is a necessary nutrient for overall brain health and functioning and it is important to avoid nutritional deficiencies to keep your brain sharp and healthy.¹

When you don’t give the body enough choline, the brain is forced to get it from other parts of your brain. It starts eating itself alive to get what it needs for vital functions like heart and lung regulation.

I’ll show you ways to get the choline your brain needs in a second, but first let me introduce you to choline’s partner — DMAE.

DMAE (Dimethylaminoethanol) works with choline to create ACh. In fact, it does such a good job, the FDA almost approved it as a drug. The only reason it didn’t happen is that the manufacturer didn’t want to pay the expenses to get it classified as one.

But it is the main ingredient in a commonly prescribed drug in Europe. Called Centrophenoxine, it has been shown to boost cognitive functions.²

Unlike Ritalin® and other brain-stimulating substances, proper doses of DMAE are a safe and side-effect-free solution to support brain health and reduce age-related mental decline and mood/behavioral problems.³

Get These Critical Brain Saving Nutrients Now
To get the nutrition your brain needs to stay sharp and clear, you may need to combine food and supplementation. Here’s how to get your ACh cranking:

Choline – You need at least 425 mg a day as a woman, 550 mg if you’re a man. The richest food sources of choline are (in mg per 100 g of food):

• Whole cooked eggs – 272. Make sure you get free-range eggs without antibiotics or hormones. They’ll help fuel your muscles as well as give you much-needed choline.

• Raw egg yolks – 682. Go ahead and crack open a couple eggs into your protein shake. It’s only an urban legend that there’s danger in eating them raw.

• Chicken liver – 290. Though some people get turned off by organ meats, they’re a potent source of high-powered nutrition. And it’s an old wives tale that they store toxins – they don’t.

• Turkey liver – 220. Another great source of nutrition. Just like any liver, it also provides vitamin A, CoQ10 and iron.

• Pork – 130. Just like beef, you want to eat only organic, grass-fed animals for the proper balance of fats and zero hormones and antibiotics.

If you’re older, you may need more choline — as much as 1500 mg a day. That may require supplementation. If you take a supplement, be sure it’s in the form of choline citrate.

DMAE – You need at least 35 mg of DMAE a day. Fish is a good food source, especially sardines and anchovies.

So stop starving your brain of these critical nutrients. They’re easy to replace and will help to promote a healthy mind into your golden years.

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul.  For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"

Medicine for Vascular Problems May Help Improve Memory

 We received this dispatch in an email From the people at Healthday News:

(HealthDay News) — Fasudil, a drug used for a decade to safely treat people with vascular problems in the brain, appears to improve some learning and memory abilities in middle-aged rats, a new study says.

The findings, published in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, give researchers hope of finding a way to combat the normal decrease in cognitive function experienced by humans as they age.

Rats injected with hydroxyfasudil, the active ingredient in Fasudil, performed better on a maze that tested their spatial learning and working memory than those given a placebo. The rodents given higher doses of the drug did better than those given a lower dose.

"Fasudil shows great promise as a cognitive enhancer during aging," study co-author Heather Bimonte-Nelson, of Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium and Arizona State University, said in a news release issued by the journal’s publisher. "The effects in our aging animal model were robust, showing enhancements in both learning and two measures of memory. The possibility that these findings may translate to benefits to human brain health and function is very exciting."

Fasudil is often prescribed to help stroke victims recover by treating vascular problems in the brain. The drug dilates blood vessels to help blood flow.

 Meditate for Brain Health

Those who take the time to meditate on a regular basis notice that each session is different and how they are always learning something about their brain and emotions. Constant learning is exactly what the doctor ordered for brain fitness. It is generally conceded that meditation  reduces stress which there is no doubt gets in the way of a person’s learning and brain good health.

So we believe that brain fitness can be greatly increased through the valuable tool of mediation. Some choose to think of meditation not as a relaxing thing to do but rather as a brain fitness workout. When you are meditating, you are, in effect, studying how the brain functions from the inside out. You pursue your thoughts, you hopefully learn to let them go, and in the process you will to begin to understand how thoughts and feelings emerge and learn to be very aware of how your brain works.

 Many of us are aware that there are many ways to meditate, but the ones that have you learning to make your brain  focus may be best for brain fitness. Of course, just like in a physical exercise program the absolute hands down best meditating program is the one you will do regularly. When it comes to meditation the fact is that regularly doing it makes you better at it. The better you get at it the more you will get from it.

Smiling Does not Cure Dementia

Junk science says smiling is the new dementia cure. One M.D. begs to differ and I thought I would share his Email to me and others on the subject.

A little background:

A study, published in Neurology, 506 older people who were not suffering from dementia were asked about their personality traits and life attitudes. The research came to the conclusion  that people who were not socially active, but were calm and relaxed had one half the risk of developing dementia. It was also one half lower for persons who were more social and of a relaxed demeanor compared to those who were outgoing and given to stress.

and now here is the doctor’s email.

Dear Friend,

Grasping at straws. Giving false hope. Call it what you will, mainstream medicine must really be desperate when it comes finding a cure for dementia. Now they’re subscribing to the age-old adage: When all else fails, put on a happy face.

Well, there’s nothing happy about this little bit of junk research they call science. According to a new study, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm are suggesting that people who are sociable and easygoing are less likely to develop dementia. Give me a break.

According to study author Hui-Xin Wang, "Older people who are active, outgoing, and relaxed may be less likely to develop dementia." And how did they reach this momentous discovery? Through a questionnaire, of course.

The researchers questioned more than 500 elderly test subjects about their personality, the way they react to stress, and their degree of sociability. Over the course of the six-year study, 144 of the people in the study had developed dementia of one form or another. Even if the subjects didn’t have active social lives, the easygoing people were 50 percent less like to develop dementia than the more neurotic patients. And the easygoing social butterflies? They were also half as likely to be clouded by dementia.

This study has so many flaws, I don’t even know where to start. Heck, even the lead researcher acknowledged that the study was full of holes! "The main limitation of the current study is that personality was assessed only at one occasion," he said. "Although personality traits are generally stable throughout the life course, individual differences in late adulthood have been observed."

I give Wang credit for coming clean, but it seems clear to me that the methodology of this study seems fairly absurd. For starters, how do you arrive at an empirical definition of "easygoing" for a medical study? Not to mention that the other factors that could play a role in the development of dementia were not factored into the research. How you could draw useable conclusions based on this kind of research is beyond me.

William H. Thies, the Alzheimer’s Association chief medical and scientific officer, said, "What we really need are enough resources to find modifiable risk factors that we can change so that we reduce the risk of the disease and we don’t see as much of it occurring."

I hardly think that telling patients to "cheer up" is a legitimate "modifiable risk factor."

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

More on the dementia study.