U.S. sets 2025 as target for Alzheimer’s solution

Goals include effective treatment, ways to delay disease
by Lauran Neergaard – Jan. 17, 2012 11:54 PM
Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Effective treatments for Alzheimer’s by 2025? That’s the target the government is eyeing as it develops a national strategy to tackle what could become the defining disease of a rapidly aging population. Already families approach the advisory committee “reminding us of the enormity of our task,” said Dr. Ron Petersen, an Alzheimer’s specialist at the Mayo Clinic who chairs the panel. The plan still is being written, with the advisory panel’s input. But a draft of its goals sets 2025 as a target date to have effective treatments and ways to delay the illness.

An estimated 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s or similar dementias.

And the disease is growing steadily as the population ages. By 2050, 13 million to 16 million Americans are projected to have Alzheimer’s, costing $1 trillion in medical expenditures.

Today’s treatments only temporarily ease some dementia symptoms, and work to find better treatments has been frustratingly slow. Scientists now know that Alzheimer’s is brewing for years before symptoms appear, and they’re hunting for ways to stall the disease.

Fishing for answers to Alzheimer’s

By Kathleen Fackelmann, USA TODAY

Experts predict Alzheimer’s will quadruple by mid century rising from 4.5 million cases to 16 million cases by 2050

Shannon Adkins eats fish — lots of fish — for the most powerful of reasons: She’s determined to avoid her mother’s fate.

Adkins is only 32. But her mother, Suzie Smith, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at age 52. Five years later, Smith can’t feed or dress herself.

Could something as simple as eating fish save Adkins from a disease that is progressively destroying her mother’s mind? Well, there’s fresh evidence that fish — often dubbed “brain food” — also may be something far more potent: brain-saving food. People who frequently eat fish may protect themselves from Alzheimer’s, according to separate scientific studies by top researchers at Tufts University in Boston, Rush University in Chicago and the University of California-Los Angeles.

Fish is fast becoming to Alzheimer’s candidates what an aspirin-a-day regimen is to many heart patients. This movement toward fish already has started to change the way some Americans live their daily lives. It’s changing the way many Americans shop and eat. (The purported health benefits of fish have helped push seafood consumption to record levels, going from 15.6 pounds consumed per person in 2002 to more than 16.3 pounds consumed in 2003.) And it has empowered people such as Adkins to help themselves not by visiting the clinic or hospital, but the fish aisle of the local grocery store.

Increasingly, the experts now also say that a healthful diet, one that includes fish, might help delay or even prevent the dreaded disease that killed such American icons as former president Ronald Reagan, boxer Sugar Ray Robinson and actress Rita Hayworth. This disease also unhinges the lives of everyday Americans, like those of Adkins and her mother.

Adkins first realized that something was seriously wrong with her mom in 1997, when Smith, who was driving on a multilane highway, suddenly took her hands off the wheel. Adkins, who was sitting in the passenger seat, had to steer the car to safety.

From Dr. Stefan Kraan, PhD, Marine Botany. FarmaSea’s Scientific Advisor and Partner.

Neurite outgrowth promoting activity of marine algae from Japan against rat adrenal medulla pheochromocytoma cell line, PC12D

Yuto Kamei

Marine and Highland Bioscience Center, Saga University, 152-1 Shonan-cho, Karatsu, Saga, Japan (Author for correspondence)

Atsuko Sagara

Marine and Highland Bioscience Center, Saga University, 152-1 Shonan-cho, Karatsu, Saga, Japan

We screened for biological activity which induces neurite outgrowth in vitro from 300 species of marine algae for possible use as a treatment for the lack of neurotrophic factor which is considered to be a cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

In this study, we evaluated the neurite outgrowth promoting activity in a rat adrenal medulla pheochromocytoma cell line, PC12D, using a low level of NGF (nerve growth factor). Although most of the samples had no activity, a brown alga, Sargassum macrocarpum and a red alga, Jania adharens, exhibited neurite outgrowth promoting activity and induced neuron specific dendrites and axons from the surfaces of PC12D cells.

The active substance present in S. macrocarpum seemed to be lipid and heat stable with molecular weight of around 500 to 1000. These results suggest that marine algae may constitute a good source for development of promising novel agents with neurotrophic activity in brain nerve systems for future use in treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Keywords

Alzheimer’s disease, nerve growth factor, neurite outgrowth, promoting activity, PC12D cells, marine algae, Sargassum macrocarpum

Report: 35 million-plus worldwide have dementia

September 21st, 2009 By LAURAN NEERGAARD , AP Medical Writer

(AP) — More than 35 million people around the world are living with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia, says the most in-depth attempt yet to assess the brain-destroying illness – and it’s an ominous forecast as the population grays.

The new count is about 10 percent higher than what scientists had predicted just a few years ago, because earlier research underestimated Alzheimer’s growing impact in developing countries.

Barring a medical breakthrough, the World Alzheimer Report projects dementia will nearly double every 20 years. By 2050, it will affect a staggering 115.4 million people, the report concludes.

“We are facing an emergency,” said Dr. Daisy Acosta, who heads Alzheimer’s Disease International, which released the report Monday.

The U.S. and other developed countries long have been bracing for Alzheimer’s to skyrocket. But the report aims to raise awareness of the threat in poorer countries, where finally people are living long enough to face what is mostly a disease of the 65-and-older population.

While age is the biggest driver of Alzheimer’s, some of the same factors that trigger heart disease – obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes – seem to increase the risk of dementia, too. Those are problems also on the rise in many developing countries.

In poorer countries, “dementia is a hidden issue,” Acosta said, and that’s complicating efforts to improve earlier diagnosis. “You’re not supposed to talk about it.”

For example, the report notes that in India, such terms such as “tired brain” or “weak brain” are used for Alzheimer’s symptoms amid widespread belief that dementia is a normal part of aging – when it’s not.

That mistake isn’t confined to the developing world. Even in Britain, the report found, just over half of the families caring for someone with dementia believed the same thing.

The new study updates global figures last reported in 2005, when British researchers estimated that more than 24 million people were living with dementia. Using that forecast, scientists had expected about 31 million people would be struggling with dementia by 2010.

Mitochondria and brain function/aging

By Benjamin V. Treadwell, Ph.D.

Where did I place the car keys? Deterioration in mental function with age occurs throughout the animal kingdom, but the degree of deterioration varies. There are some smart old mice as well as some smart old people. Why do some have a sharper decline in mental function than others?

A recent study suggests some potential answers. Post-mortem examination of the brains of elderly persons with a neurodegenerative condition, as compared to the brains of elderly persons with no such condition, demonstrated a significant increase in mutations in mitochondrial genes. Mutations in the region involved in switching the gene on and off were two-thirds more common in diseased brains than their normal counterparts.

Alzheimer’s brains harbor somatic mtDNA control-region mutations that suppress mitochondrial transcription and replication

Pinar E. Coskun ^*, M. Flint Beal  and Douglas C. Wallace ^*, 

^*Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3940; andDepartment of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10021

Contributed by Douglas C. Wallace, May 24, 2004

Defects in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation have frequentlybeen associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and both inheritedand somatic mtDNA mutations have been reported in certain ADcases. To determine whether mtDNA mutations contribute moregenerally to the etiology of AD, we have investigated the sequenceof the mtDNA control region (CR) from AD brains for possibledisease-causing mutations. Sixty-five percent of the AD brainsharbored the T414G mutation, whereas this mutation was absentfrom all controls. Moreover, cloning and sequencing of the mtDNACR from patient and control brains revealed that all AD brainshad an average 63% increase in heteroplasmic mtDNA CR mutationsand that AD brains from patients 80 years and older had a 130%increase in heteroplasmic CR mutations. In addition, these mutationspreferentially altered known mtDNA regulatory elements. CertainAD brains harbored the disease-specific CR mutations T414C andT477C, and several AD brains between 74 and 83 years of ageharbored the CR mutations T477C, T146C, and T195C, at levelsup to 70–80% heteroplasmy. AD patient brains also hadan average 50% reduction in the mtDNA L-strand ND6 transcriptand in the mtDNA/nuclear DNA ratio. Because reduced ND6 mRNAand mtDNA copy numbers would reduce brain oxidative phosphorylation,these CR mutations could account for some of the mitochondrialdefects observed in AD.

Abbreviations: AD, Alzheimer’s disease; APP, A precursor protein;CR, control region; CSB, conserved sequence block; mtPTP, mitochondrialpermeability transition pore; mtTFA, mitochondrial transcriptionfactor A; np, nucleotide pair; OXPHOS, oxidative phosphorylation;P_L and P_H, L- and H-strand promoters; PNA, protein nucleic acid;ROS, reactive oxygen species.

Iodine, Iodate, iodide and the FarmaSea® Blend

The most damaging effect of iodine deficiency is on the developing brain, and to a lesser degree, any brain. Thyroid hormone is particularly important for myelination of the central nervous system, which is most active in the prenatal period and during fetal and early postnatal development. Numerous population studies have correlated an iodine-deficient diet with increased incidence of mental retardation. A meta-analysis of 18 studies concluded that iodine deficiency alone lowered mean IQ scores by 13.5 points (Bleichrodt and Born, 1994). Iodized salt is a special case. With only a few isolated exceptions, edible salt (sodium chloride) does not naturally contain iodine. Either potassium iodide or potassium iodate is laced into salt in 98% of U.S. Households (only found in 3% of English Households). 50-70 percent of the iodide Americans ingest each day, is hidden in their food supply, not the salt shaker.

These compounds are pharmaceutically manufactured by drug companies, in order to provide “stability” but with potential side effect such as HYPO and HYPER thyroidism, which has grown to now epidemic proportions since the 1930’s when they were instituted in the name of iodine by the WHO and the NIH in America. Women of all ages are seeing MD’s for “low thyroid”, and are usually placed onto powerful synthetic drugs “for the rest of their lives” as per the AMA Protocol used to treat the growing number of Americans suffering from imbalanced thyroid conditions. Once the TRUE iodine is ingested daily, the thyroid sloughs off the pharmaceutical iodide and iodate, and our metabolism can be allowed to normalize. Many informed experts believe that the rising rate of obesity in this country, can be traced back to this false iodine in the food supply.

In addition to these effects on the individual, iodine deficiency has adverse consequences for the community. A well known experts states: ”a drop of IODINE each day can be the difference between an idiot and an Einstein.” Mental retardation can cover a wide range, from mild blunting of intellect to full blown cretinism (see “Zombieland”), and a large part of the population may have some intellectual impairment. The mean IQ of the deficient community is decreased by at least 13.5 IQ points, according to one review.Individuals in these communities have lower educability and lower economic productivity, and the output of the whole community suffers. Dramatic improvement typically occurs after appropriate addition of vegetable iodine, as found in the FarmaSea® Blend of Sea Plants (FBSP).

Other consequences of iodine deficiency are impaired reproductive outcome, increased childhood mortality, decreased educability, andeconomic stagnation.

NOTE by Scott Kennedy: There are 177 Mcg’s of iodine in one capsule of Super Sea Veg. So in 3 capsules, there is 531 Mcg’s of VEGETABLE iodine. The Government states that the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of (iodide/iodate in the salt) for adults is 1.1 mg/day (3 capsules has ½ of this), hence the 3-6 capsules/day suggested serving size.

The Japanese ingest over 7.7 mgs of organic vegetable iodine EVERY DAY! Their IQ is 15 pts higher than Americans across their population. They also enjoy the longest and healthiest life spans. They ingest 7-10 grams of whole sea plants each and every day.

They are what they eat. Can you say electronics? They concentrate and focus for long periods of time and pay attention to, and recognize, lots of parts, lots of details, lots of transistors, engine and car parts and have many new ideas. These are all signs of a high IQ.

The secret is found in their DAILY diet, and also found in the FarmaSea® Blend of Sea Plants, contained in Super Sea Veg®, by FarmaSea® Health, LLC. 800-893-vegg (8344).

The Metabolic Detective: A Look at Nutrition for Your Thyroid

Edward Bauman, Ph.D. is founder and director of the Institute for Educational Therapy in Cotati, California. The Institute trains nutritionists and culinary arts professionals in how to identify and correctly use foods for their healing properties. With his emphasis on the healing and health-promoting qualities of whole foods, Dr. Bauman and the Institute are offering an entirely new focus on food, and creating a new profession — Personal Therapeutic Chef — in the process. Dr. Bauman is also a nutrition member of the California Institute of Integrative Medicine in Santa Rosa, California and Associate Dean of Nutrition at the University of Natural Medicine in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Dr. Bauman’s philosophy focuses on the belief that a healthy lifestyle is a major key to both maintaining health and responding effectively to illness that occurs from the buildup of stress, toxins, trauma and malnutrition.

According to Dr. Bauman, thyroid disease is not caused by one toxin, nutritional deficiency, or pathogen. Rather, he feels that thyroid problems more likely result from a number of different factors, including environmental exposures, pesticides, chemicals, and a number of deficiencies in nutrients that result from improper diet or toxic overload.

At the same time, Dr. Bauman does not believe that any one food, supplement, or detoxification process is the easy solution to a thyroid problems. It’s a function of finding the right balance among a number of approaches, and that’s something that’s difficult to do on your own. Dr. Bauman believes that most patients will need to find and work with a practitioner – whether it’s a nutritionist, or holistic M.D., naturopath, or other insightful practitioner – who understands thyroid problems.

In looking at the issues behind thyroid problems, Dr. Bauman identifies three different stages of hypothyroidism:

1. When the gland can’t make good hormone.
2. When the gland makes hormone but the gland and peripheral organs don’t convert the hormone – an impaired T4 to T3 conversion ability.
3. When the gland can produce the hormone, and the body can convert the hormone, but the immune system can’t handle it, and hormones can’t get to the receptor site. Dr. Bauman refers to this as a “receptor site problem.” According to Dr. Bauman, “Just like there is a situation known as insulin resistance, there’s also a similar situation, thyroid resistance.”

Nutritionally, Dr. Bauman focuses then on helping the gland make good hormone, helping the conversion from T4 to T3, and helping reduce or eliminate any receptor site resistance.

According to Dr. Bauman, “I’m a nutritionist, but I’m also a metabolic detective. I’m looking for substances that alter thyroid function by either damaging the gland, or altering enzyme conversion.”  Seaweeds and sea vegetables are also a good addition. Dr. Bauman recommends bladderwrack as a soothing and normalizing supplement. But patients need to be careful, and if they see signs that a product- particularly those that contain iodine — is stimulating (tenderness in the neck, enlargement of a goiter, swelling in the thyroid area), keep in mind that you might need to cut back, and not take a product daily, but rather, even weekly.

Dr. Bauman has worked extensively with patients studying food’s effects on the endocrine system, and had some guidelines for thyroid patients on how the toxins we are exposed to, the food we eat, and the nutrients we lack can affect our thyroid conditions, general health, and ability to lose weight.

Avoid Iodized Salt

According to Dr. Bauman, use of commercial iodized salt is not recommended for thyroid patients. Iodized salt contains aluminum and sugar as stabilizing elements, and those are irritants to the thyroid and can create imbalances. Dr. Bauman believes that “the body can have difficulty dealing with metabolizing refined salt, because the salt is heated at high temperatures, and the body tends to retain the salt and it can become a stimulant.”

Dr. Bauman recommends a switch to an unrefined salt, including Celtic salt, Japanese salt, or a good quality sea salt. These salts also have additional benefit, in that they offer some trace elements. Many of these salts are available at natural and health food stores, or online.

Avoid Aspartame

A product that is of particular concern to Dr. Bauman is the artificial sweetener aspartame, which goes by the brand name Nutrasweet. He feels that Nutrasweet is a particular problem for thyroid health, and that it can specifically can contribute to hyperthyroidism.

In 1981, aspartame came on the U.S. market, and became the first new low-calorie sweetener approved by the Food and Drug Administration in more than 25 years. Aspartame (L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanyl-methyl-ester) is about 200 times sweeter than sugar, and has almost no calorie count. Aspartame breaks down in the body into several components, including: phenylalanine, which can be a neurotoxin, and may trigger seizures in some susceptible people; aspartic acid, which has the ability to cause brain damage in a developing brain; and methanol, which in the body converts into formaldehyde, a toxin.

The concerns over aspartame are definitely controversial. While the FDA and manufacturer maintain that the product is safe, there are accusations that accurate data has not been made available to the public regarding testing and side effects.

Noted alternative practitioner Andrew Weil, M.D. summed it up well when he said at his site: “Because I have seen a number of patients – mostly women – who report headaches from using it, I don’t view it as nontoxic or biologically inert. Some women also find that aspartame aggravates PMS. There are no proven long-term side effects, but there’s a lot of suspicion. ”

Add Seaweeds, and Algaes to Your Diet

Rather than taking iodine in it’s straight form, Dr. Bauman suggests thyroid patients consider adding seaweeds to their diet. In particular, Dr. Bauman recommends dulse, a type of northern Atlantic seaweed, which he finds beneficial for hypothyroidism, rather than kelp. Dulse has a far better flavor than kelp, and different mineral composition that seems nutritionally better suited for thyroid patients. Some natural and health food stores have dulse.

Sodium alginate is a thickener that contains kelp. A good mercury chelating agent and source of trace minerals, it can be used to make a healthy dessert. According to Dr. Bauman, adding two tablespoons of agar/sodium alginate to 1 quart of fruit juice (Dr. Bauman recommends half coconut, half pineapple), makes a nice fruity gelatin.

In an interview with Mary Shomon, Dr. Mercola also recommended the use of seaweeds. Says Dr. Mercola: ”The best source of organically bound iodine that I know of is seaweeds. The dose is about 5 grams a day or about one ounce per week.  They are the absolute best forms of minerals that I am aware of.

Dr. Bauman also suggests that if you can’t or don’t want to drink cow or soy milk, you can use coconut milk. To make coconut milk, take desiccated coconut and cashews, soak ¼ cup of each with 1 quart of water, blend, then strain, for a creamy, smooth, nutritive blend.

According to noted author and alternative medicine expert, Dr. Ray Peat, “Coconut oil has several thyroid-promoting effects. It contains butyric acid which helps thyroid hormone move into the brain [liothyronine (T3 ) uptake into glial cells]. It opposes anti-thyroid unsaturated oils. It contains short and medium chain fatty acids which help modulate blood sugar, is anti-allergic, and protects mitochondria against stress injuries.”

In her book, “The Body Ecology Diet,” Donna Gates’ also writes that coconut helps to balance out the thyroid, and recommends it as part of a healthy diet.

Eat More Fish and Flax Seeds

Dr. Bauman believes fatty acids are vital for the uptake of the thyroid. Ocean fish are one good source of fatty acids. While you’d still be better off replacing some meat in your diet with something like canned tuna, some tunas have methyl mercury, so you are better off going with ocean fish. Keep in mind that most salmon sold in the U.S. is farm raised. In order to have the needed Omega-3 fatty acids, fish need to eat algae, so farm-raised fish do not have fatty acid value.

Another good source is whole flax seeds. According to Dr. Bauman, flax seeds look like sesame seeds, and have a good taste. They offer high fiber and lignans, vitamin E and zinc, from a nutritional perspective. He recommends grinding fresh flax seeds in a coffee grinder, and sprinkling the powder on hot cereal, or over a salad, or in a soup, eating 1 – 2 tablespoons, a few times a day. (Keep in mind to add the ground flax seeds to foods after cooking.)

Detoxify Mercury and Metals

Dr. Bauman feels that mercury toxicity is really quite important. According to Dr. Bauman, dental mercury is in close proximity to the thyroid, and the nerves that enervate the thyroid run along the same plexus. When mercury toxicity is present, Dr. Bauman feels that the straight remediation approach to treating thyroid disease isn’t always enough.

According to Dr. Bauman, “I’ve seen people who’ve had some sort of oral chelation therapy – nutrients and herbs – to try to clear out the toxins, and their thyroid normalized. This was after having tried thyroid medications, herbs, natural thyroid, etc.”

Holistic physician Joseph Mercola, D.O., offers one protocol for mercury detoxification at his site, focusing on proper nutrition, use of flora or probiotic supplements, use of chlorella or ProChitosan, and other elements.

According to a statement released by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, “Research has shown that mercury even in extremely small amounts has toxic effects, for example, low dose mercury exposure has been shown to produce neurological pathology, cytotoxicity to nerve tissue.”

Some alternative practitioners do not believe that there’s clearcut evidence that mercury fillings have any noticeable impact on health. Dr. Weil, for example, has said: “I don’t think any study has been large enough or designed well enough to determine for sure whether there is a long-term effect from mercury fillings. One problem is that any harm may be subtle and hard to detect.”

The issue of mercury toxicity is a controversial one, because conventional dentists maintain that it’s entirely safe. Dental amalgam containing mercury are used extensively in tooth fillings and according to the American Dental Association, in a 1995 survey, up to 76 percent of dentists say they use it as their primary restoration material. According to a statement from the American Dental Association’s Gary C. Armitage, chairperson of ADA’s Council on Scientific Affairs., “The World Health Organization, FDI World Dental Federation and the American Dental Association (ADA) all support the continued use of dental amalgam as a safe, durable and cost-effective material to restore teeth.”

Stabilizing the adrenal function is really helpful for the thyroid. In particular, according to Dr. Bauman, for people dealing with allergies and stress, the adrenals can be forced into overdrive. And, when there are hormonal changes such as puberty, perimenopause, and menopause, the adrenals and fat tissue are forced to pick up where the ovaries leave off. If adrenals aren’t up to the task, there can be various hypothyroid and hyperthyroid reactions.

Some practitioners, such as the United Kingdom’s Dr Barry J Durrant-Peatfield, believe that adrenal insufficiencies must be addressed and balanced before thyroid problems can truly be resolved. In some cases, Dr. Durrant-Peatfield used low-dose cortisone with patients.

Adrenal crisis may explain in part the theory behind the highly controversial “Wilson’s Syndrome,” which theorizes that stress causes the body to fail at converting T4 to T3, and instead convert to an inactive form of T3 known as Reverse T3. Wilson’s proponents advocate treatment with the controversial use of all-T3 therapy, which is not an accepted treatment by most practitioners, conventional or alternative.

When T4 to T3 conversion is suspected to be impaired, Dr. Bauman feels that nutritional supplements can help, and selenium, zinc, vitamin E and B6 supplementation may be needed in order to help enhance the conversion process.

Use Hormone-Free Meats

Hormones that come in via the food chain, can be used by the thyroid for its own constituent tissue. Certain steroids and hormones are fed to animals in the U.S. for example, and when this meat is eaten, according to Dr. Bauman, the body will absorb these “xeno-hormonal” materials. Exposure to those hormones can offset the body’s own natural production of hormones.

Organic meats can usually be found at chains such as Fresh Fields or Whole Foods, or local co-operative markets. The most widely distributed brands include Laura’s Lean Beef, Peterson’s Pork, or Buddy’s Chicken

Consider Food’s Effects on Antibody Levels

In the case of autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Dr. Bauman believes that foods themselves may be creating problems. According to Dr. Bauman, “food sensitivities, such as to dairy, gluten/wheat, and hormones added to meats, for example, can disrupt the overall endocrine system.”

When you have elevated antibodies, such as found in Hashimoto’s disease or Graves’ disease, your body has found something antigenic — something it perceives to be a “foreign body” – and the body feels it needs to be vigilant. According to Dr. Bauman, the things that can cause a high antigen load, and thus elevate antibody levels, include:

• Food antigens
• Environmental antigens
• Body tissue that has been impacted with a foreign substance

Some patients and practitioners report that thyroid symptoms increase when the diet is higher in processed sugars, or when they are exposed to seasonal allergens, or when they’ve had a virus. Dr. Bauman explains that exposure to antigens or allergens are the reason behind this activity. He believes that a malfunctioning thyroid may already be exhibiting evidence that it’s infected with a virus, yeast, or toxic metals, which as already weakened the “terrain” – the gland itself. Then, when the immune system sees a foreign material, the thyroid being weak is likely to be susceptible to that “invader,” and the immune system, in an effort to clear out the foreign substance, essentially says, ‘let’s clear out the thyroid.’”

So, for example, if you have bacteria or yeast that has compromised your thyroid, when you eat refined sugars, you feed the bacteria or yeast, which can aggravate the inflammatory and antigenic response, and antibody levels will go up.

In the case of autoimmunity, Dr. Bauman feels that detoxification can be particularly helpful, including antioxidants and some form of chelation.

Consider Thyroid and Lympathic Massage

Dr. Bauman indicated that the thyroid has problems with deposition, so very gentle, massage of the thyroid and lymphatic system may be of benefit to help eliminate what he refers to as the “bottleneck around the gland. ” You can find out more about Lymph Drainage Massage in an article by Sean Riehl, author of Lymphatic Drainage, and founder of Real Bodywork.

For a while now, seaweed nutrition and seaweed health benefits have been a part of the diet of most nations in the Orient. With numerous benefits and healthy recipes highlighting the goodness of seaweed, more people are turning to this well-known natural vegetarian source of minerals, vitamins, and anti-carcinogenic compounds. This marvelous leafy vegetable, often shunned for its appearance, has important natural and medicinal properties that enhance the body’s ability to combat infections.

The Important Medicinal Properties of Seaweed Nutrition

Several proven seaweed health benefits are common to other leafy green vegetables. These include a high iron and L-ascorbic acid content. Iron is the building block of a healthy immune and circulatory system while L-ascorbic acid, commonly known as Vitamin C, has significant antioxidant properties. Some varieties of seaweed, especially Alaria, are rich in Vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 has several important functions including formation of blood and maintenance of a healthy nervous system.

One of the richest sources of minerals in the plant kingdom, seaweed has over 50 minerals or elemental compounds. Calcium, Iodine Magnesium and Potassium are the most important minerals that a seaweed diet can provide. Other minerals such as Vanadium and Zinc are found in quantities sufficient for human consumption.

Apart from mineral content, seaweed is also a source of antioxidant alkaloid compounds that slow down oxidizing processes in the body, keeping the body healthier and younger. One of the most interesting and researched compounds found in algae is Fucoidan. This polysaccharide is said to have analgesic and anti-carcinogenic properties, and is said to be important in inhibiting the growth and spread of lymph cells that are the primary carriers in the spread of cancer. Seaweed combats harmful cholesterol and is therefore indirectly responsible for lowering the risk of breast cancer by boosting production of the hormone estrogen. There is significant research that suggests that seaweed nutrition has benefits for the cardiovascular system in men and women.

Types of Seaweed and Benefits

The most common varieties of seaweed for human consumption are grown off the coast of Japan and in the North Atlantic. Japanese seaweed varieties include Wakame, Kombu Hijiki, and Arame. North Atlantic seaweed includes Alaria and Dulce. Hijiki and Arame have moderate sodium content.

Seaweed in small to moderate quantities is considered sufficient to meet most dietary needs. Medical professionals advise against the daily consumption of large quantities of seaweed due to its high iodine content. With a little caution to the quantity of seaweed consumed, seaweed nutrition can significantly improve an individual’s quality of life.

Previous studies have shown that a fiber-rich diet makes it simpler to maintain weight, and today a new PhD undertaking shows that dietary fibers from sea vegetables, the alginates, are fantastic at creating an artificial feeling of fullness in the stomach.   Over a three-year period, researchers studied the effect of consuming varying alginate doses. They are able to show that the healthy people who injested alginates and were also permitted eat as much as they wanted felt far less hungry and ate less than the people not drinking fiber drinks with alginates.  Gel fills up the stomach. The 12-week study of 96 males and females, 48 subjects drank a specially designed beverage with alginates three times daily just before each major course as a complement to an calorie reduced diet. The alternative 48 subjects consumed a placebo beverage containing no alginates.  Of the 80 subjects who finished the study those attained a far greater weight loss with alginate treatment than those drinking a similar drink with no alginates. On average, the participants in the sea vegetable fiber drink group lost 1.7 kg more than those in the placebo group.

According to the researchers, this weight loss is principally due to a reduction in body fat percentage.  A conceivable rationalization of the is that the alginates form a gel in the stomach which strengthens the gastrointestinal satiety signals to the brain because the gel takes up space in the stomach. The overweight subjects for that reason ate less than normal. The growing obesity epidemic requires research and the development of new dietary measures to offset the easy 24/7 access to massive quantities of calorie dense food.  Eating more than you burn results in a body energy imbalance, which might result in weight gain in the long term. For this reason it is imperative that new dietary actions improve appetite control and limit our food consumption.  The researchers hope that the investigation findings may pave the way for new treatment options for the overweight.  Researchers have developed the special sea vegetable fibre drink with alginates which the subjects drank. No such fiber drink is as yet available on the market.

A group at Newcastle University are putting seaweed fiber in bread to discover if they can create food products that help you lose weight while you eat them.  A group of researchers have found that dietary fiber in one of the world’s most popular commercially-used seaweed could decrease the amount of fat absorbed by the body by about 75 per cent.  The Newcastle University team discovered that Alginate, a natural fiber present in sea kelp, prevents the body from absorbing fat better than most anti-obesity therapies currently accessible over the counter. “The aim of this research was to put these items to the test and our preliminary findings are that alginates significantly cut down fat digestion,” explains Dr Brownlee. “This implies that if we can add the natural fiber to goods normally consumed daily,  such as bread and yoghurts, up to seventy five percent of the fat in that meal could simply pass through the body. “We’ve already added the alginate to bread and preliminary taste tests have been extremely favorable.
Alginates are already commonly used at a very low level in lots of foods as thickeners and stabilisers.  “Obesity is an ever-growing dilemma and quite a few people find it to follow diet and exercise plans as a way to lose weight, ” explained Dr Brownlee.

Alginates not only have great potential for weight management, including them in food also has the added benefit of increasing overall fiber .   Fiber consists of a wide range of various molecules called polysaccharides even though it is not digested by the human gut, it both directly and indirectly impacts a number of bodily processes.

Synthetic vitamins versus whole food supplements like sea vegetables may do more damage than good, based on a new study that adds to a rising body of evidence suggesting some synthetic supplements may have health risks.Researchers from the University of Minnesota examined data from greater than 38,000 women taking part in the Iowa Women’s Health Study, a continuing study with women who were around age 62 at its start in 1986.

The researchers collected data on the women’s supplement use in 1986, 1997 and 2004.Women who took supplements had, on average, a 2.4 percent increased risk of dying during the 19-year study, in comparison to women who didn’t take supplements, after the investigators adjusted for factors including the women’s age and calorie intake.The new study linked a number of individual vitamins and minerals to the slight mortality risk, including multivitamins, vitamin B6, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc and copper.  For instance, of the 12,769 women in the study who took a daily multivitamin, 40.8 percent had died by the end of 2008, whereas 39.8 percent of the 10,161 women who hadn’t taken a daily multivitamin had died.

The elevated chance of dying may perhaps be related to generally high concentration of substances that these supplements contain. Most synthetic supplements contain higher amounts of nutrients than would be obtained from food, and it is known that a number of compounds can be toxic in higher amounts, most importantly when consumed for a long time, as some of these accumulate in the body. Consuming calcium supplements, on the other hand, actually seemed to lower the women’s death risk slightly, by 3.8 percent, although the researchers noted that there was not a relationship between consuming increasingly higher amounts of calcium and a continuing decrease in mortality rate.

This study is significant because seaweed nutrition or seaveg contain high amounts isoflavons. of The study by Chinese researchers, published in the May-June issue of Menopause, shows that postmenopausal women taking 80 mg of isoflavones daily basis saw positive advantages on bone mineral content, particularly if they were in excess of four years into menopause, had lower body weight or had a reduced calcium consumption.“Many studies have proven that soy isoflavones have a cause in preventing oestrogen related bone loss, but no data reported such an outcome could be influenced by other significant factors impacting bone loss,” noted the scientists. However the current investigation, shows that particular factors may be so important to bone health that they overpower any potential benefit seen from isoflavones.The team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong enrolled 203 women, aged 48 to 62 years old, to be given either placebo with 500 mg calcium and 125 IU of vitamin D, a mid-dose (40 mg isoflavones, 500 mg calcium, 125 IU of vitamin D), or a high-dose (80 mg isoflavones, 500 mg calcium, 125 IU of vitamin D) supplement daily for one year.

The researchers discovered considerable benefit of high dose isoflavone supplementation on bone mineral content at the total hip and trochanter when compared with those women taking a low-dose or placebo. There was not any significant improvement in bone mineral density.In addition, there was a major benefit to women who had been postmenopausal for more than four years, as well as those that had lesser body weight.Females with a lower level of calcium consumption, less than 1095 mg on average per day, also noticed such an effect although in those who had high calcium consumption, soy isoflavones appeared to make no difference to their bone health.The researchers report that the outcome was not surprising, as “the body weight is a much stronger predictor of bone mass in comparison with many other factors, including menopause status”. They also note that “soy isoflavones at current doses may not have any additional benefits to bone mass within women that have high body weight.”