LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

vitamin E

Protecting Your Brain from Dementia One Supplement at a Time

by

While teasing one another that we’ve lost our mind may be funny, the literal experience of losing your mind to dementia is not likely as entertaining.

However, the rates continue to increase at a startling rate and no hope is in sight for a cure. Some pharmaceutical companies have even given up the fight to find a cure because the failures have been too expensive.

The ability to prevent dementia with lifestyle, however, is very solidly proven in the medical research. This may include higher education (or, in lieu of a degree, continual challenging your brain by reading this blog several times through on a daily basis), exercise, a plant based diet and maintaining an anti-diabetic lifestyle.

Personally, I do not feel that we will ever find a cure for Alzheimer’s dementia or Parkinson’s disease (the other neurodegenerative disorder that shares many of the same underlying damage to the brain). By the time a diagnosis is made, the brain has lost a very large chuck (upwards of 70%) of the cells in the affected region. In other words, it’s a freight train moving at a high rate of speed.

I do, however, believe that we can slow the freight train down, even if it’s just a little bit. Antioxidants like CoQ10, magnesium threonate and n-acetyl cysteine (NAC) may play a role here. Another very powerful antioxidant for the brain is vitamin E.

I have an entire eBook dedicated to vitamin E (that can be found by clicking here) and the benefits it has been shown to have on the heart and brain. This particular study supports vitamin E’s ability to protect the brain yet again and compares it to the effects of memantine (aka Namenda—one of the newest classes of drugs used to treat Alzheimer’s dementia). Here are the details:

  1. Researchers looked at 613 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s dementia who were already taking drugs for Alzheimer’s dementia (acetylcholinesterase inhibitor).
  2. Participants took either 2000 IU/day of alpha tocopherol, 20 mg/d of memantine, both of these or a placebo for an average of 2.27 years.
  3. ADCS-ADL (Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study/Activities of Daily Living) scores declined by 3.15 units less in the alpha tocopherol group compared with the placebo group, who showed greater declines in the scores over the time of the study). This corresponded to 19% slower decline, or about 6.2 months delay in cognitive decline.
  4. Caregiver time increased the least in the alpha tocopherol group (about 2 hours less).

While these changes aren’t life altering, this is still a very powerful advantage from something as simple, safe and inexpensive as vitamin E. I must, however, interject that the form used here, alpha-tocopherol, is definitely not the most potent of the vitamin E family to be using to protect your brain. This honor goes to gamma-tocopherol, the form of vitamin E found more often in nature (such as in nuts and seeds).

It makes me wonder just how much stronger the results of the study would have been had the researchers used a mixed tocopherol product high in gamma tocopherol…

Six-Year Effect of Vit C, E on Atherosclerotic Progression – (03-04-03)

by

Six-Year Effect of Vit C, E on Atherosclerotic Progression.

Whenever a study comes out showing no benefit of antioxidants on progression/prevention of CVD, one has to look at the totality of the evidence. The evidence (not to mention that it makes sense from a physiology/pathology standpoint) is quite plentiful that antioxidants protect against CVD.

Circulation — Abstracts: Salonen et al. 107 (7): 947

Click here for more information.

Seniors Choose vitamins Over Healthy Diet for Cancer Prevention – (10-09-00)

by

Seniors Choose vitamins Over Healthy Diet for Cancer Prevention

Never forget that man will never rival nature. Whole foods are always the best route to go to protect our health. With a healthy diet, a minimum of a good quality multivitamin, extra vitamin C and E, calcium and an essential fatty acid is all that should be needed.

Results of a new survey suggest that older Americans prefer to take vitamin supplements rather than make dietary changes to reduce their risk of cancer. The findings are disturbing, according to researchers, since nutrients and vitamins in fruits, vegetables and whole grains are believed to significantly reduce cancer risk. In contrast, the effects of vitamin supplements on cancer risk are largely untested, according to the American Institute for Cancer research (AICR), the Washington, DC-based group that conducted the survey. “We’ve known for some time that usage of dietary supplements is on the rise, but we still don’t know a great deal about how, or if, these substances affect cancer risk,” Melanie Polk, director of nutrition education at AICR, commented in a statement. “The fact that so many Americans — especially older Americans — are seeking cancer protection in pills and powders is alarming.” “The emphasis on the importance of eating a mostly plant-based diet…for lower cancer risk should be an important part of disease prevention and health promotion efforts,” Polk said.

Can You Prevent Pancreatic Cancer?

by

Clearly, one of the scariest cancers we have is pancreatic cancer.  Not only because of its dismal 5 year survival rate and how difficult it can be to detect, but also because of how common it seems.

All this in combination makes pancreatic cancer a death sentence.  I’m sure you know at least one person close to you that has been taken from pancreatic cancer.  Least likely is that you know someone who has survived longer than 2 years after diagnosis.

While pancreatic cancer is not exactly off the radar screen, it certainly does not have the notoriety that other cancers like breast, prostate or colon cancer has.  There is no “Race for the Pancreas” or “Save the Beta Cells” fundraising events or T-shirts.  Not even any of those fancy wristbands.

Nope.  Just the silent screams of those dying around us.

Luckily, much like all the other cancers, pancreatic cancer is very preventable.  Right off the bat, the strong connection between prediabetes and pancreatic cancer jumps to mind and probably explains why we are seeing so many more cases than we have in the past.  This message, however, does not seem to be making it out.  I remember being in the room when someone close to me had been given the fateful diagnosis.  The oncologist basically said that, since there was no family history and this person was not a smoker, we really don’t know how this happened.

The most disappointing part of this exchange was that the children were given no insight into the fact that their lifestyles needed to be fixed or the risk was going to be even greater for them.

This particular study is another one looking at how much lifestyle choices can lower your risk of pancreatic cancer.  Researchers compared a group of pancreatic cancer patients to matched cancer-free controls to see how much vitamins C and E, selenium and zinc played a role in their risk of developing cancer.  Intake was determined by diet as well as having vitamin C levels measured in the blood.  Here’s what they found:

  1. Those who ate foods with the most vitamins C and E and selenium had a 67% lower risk of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
  2. Individually, those who ate foods with more selenium had a 51% lower risk.
  3. Higher intakes of vitamin E led to a 43% lower risk.
  4. For those with the highest levels of vitamin C in the blood there was a 33% lower risk.

It is likely that, while the study looked at just these 4 nutrients, those with the highest intakes also had the highest overall diet quality.  Higher diet quality has been shown to lower cancer risk in almost all types of cancer.

But the bottom line is that it is NOT a crap shoot.  The choices YOU make will determine whether or not you are going to develop pancreatic cancer.  There are always other factors you may not be able to control, but identify the ones you can and make the needed changes.  Don’t be a victim.

Vitamin E protects cholesterol from damage – (05-03-01)

by

α-Tocopherol decreases CD36 expression in macrophages

I know this title seems confusing, but in general it supports previous research on Vit E preventing the damage caused by high cholesterol levels. Remember–high cholesterol can not damage the body until it itself is damaged. Antioxidant therapy should be an instrumental aspect of any therapy aimed at lowering cholesterol. A little note here—the tocopherols (in which Vit E belongs) is actually a group of numerous types. The highest quality supplements will contain mixed tocopherols to best mimic nature.

J. Lipid Res. — Abstracts: Devaraj et al. 42 (4): 521

Read entire article here

VITAMIN E PROTECT ARTERIES FROM DAMAGE IN YOUNG RATS – (04-15-02)

by

Cardiovascular Aging Is Associated With Vitamin E Increase.

This rat study finds high levels of Vitamin E in the walls of artieries of young rats, and the authors suggest that this might possibly be an attempt by the body to protect the arteries from damage. If this is so, then Vitamin E once again hits on the charts for an important element for preventing CVD. Of particular concern, then, is our intake of natural Vitamin E. Good sources would include nuts and seed oils; of which the typical Western diet rarely consumes in a whole, unprocessed form.

Circulation — Abstracts: van der Loo et al. 105 (14): 1635 –

Read entire article here

INSULIN RESISTANCE ASSOCIATED WITH DISTURBED ANTIOXIDANT DEFENSE MECHANISM – (09-01-03)

by

Evidence That Insulin Resistance Is Associated With a Disturbed Antioxidant Defense Mechanism

Just more evidence of the tangled web that is human physiology. In this study we see that deteriorating glucose disposal in muscle may be a result of disturbed antioxidant defense.

So, what if the benefits of whole grains on diabetes risk is more of a marker of tocotrienol levels (a strong cousin of vitamin E found in whole grains)? More likely, this is just one level of development of a condition called diabetes that is a multifactorial disease and needs to be treated as such–with attention to all aspects of lifestyle that can contribute to breakdown of normal physiology.

Diabetes — Abstracts: Bruce et al. 52 (9): 2338

Read entire article here

GAMMA TOCOTRIENOL IN VITAMIN E HAVE DIURETIC PROPERTIES – (08-04-03)

by

Gamma-Tocotrienol, a vitamin E homolog, is a natriuretic hormone precursor

This is just a reminder article that vitamin E actually has some potent cousins–the tocotrienols. These are compounds found in nuts and seeds.

In this study, the authors found that gamma tocotrienol may have some diuretic properties.

J. Lipid Res. — Abstracts: Saito et al. 44 (8): 1530

Read entire article here