[This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Write your post here.]

Elise L. Donovan,Joe M. McCord,Danielle J. Reuland,Benjamin F. Miller,and Karyn L. Hamilton

 

PROTANDIM

 

Oxidative stress has been implicated in many chronic diseases including Alzheimer's, diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) [

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Destroy user interface control4]. Increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative damage in the vascular endothelium contribute to CAD initiation and progression. Specifically, increased vascular superoxide causes oxidation of lipids, decreased nitric oxide availability, increased expression of adhesion molecules and inflammatory mediators, and recruitment of monocytes to the endothelium [

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Destroy user interface control8]. Endothelium-bound superoxide dismutase is also decreased in CAD patients compared to healthy controls, impairing the cellular response to excessive ROS production [

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Destroy user interface control9]. Atherosclerotic coronary arteries isolated from humans display increased superoxide production compared to nonatherosclerotic human coronary arteries, and in a mouse model of atherosclerosis, attenuation of superoxide production by decreased expression of NADPH oxidase (NOX) results in a decrease in atherosclerotic lesion size [

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Initial studies examining the effects of decreasing oxidative stress in several diseases, including cardiovascular disease, have used exogenous antioxidant supplements such as vitamins C and E. However, the protective effect of exogenous antioxidants has been disappointing and in some cases supplementation increased mortality [

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Destroy user interface control14]. A novel approach to decreasing disease-associated oxidative stress involves augmenting endogenous antioxidant defense systems rather than relying on exogenous antioxidant supplementation. Protandim is a commercially available dietary supplement consisting of phytochemicals derived from five widely studied medicinal plants including silymarin from milk thistle, curcumin from turmeric, bacopa extract, ashwagandha, and green tea extract. The five phytochemical components of Protandim have a synergistic effect to induce phase II antioxidant enzymes and protect cells from oxidative stress through activation of the transcription factor NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) [

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Nrf2 is constitutively expressed but is marked for ubiquitination by association with Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1) in the cytosol. Activation of Nrf2 occurs when it is released from Keap1 and translocates to the nucleus. In the nucleus, Nrf2 heterodimerizes with small Maf or Jun proteins and binds to the antioxidant response element (ARE) in the promoter region of several hundred genes including many phase II antioxidant enzymes subsequently initiating transcription [

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Destroy user interface control18]. Protandim likely activates Nrf2 through activation of various kinases with subsequent Nrf2 phosphorylation [

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Although acute activation of Nrf2 occurs in vivo in response to oxidized phospholipid signaling, increased ROS production, hyperglycemia, and shear stress [

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Destroy user interface control22], in chronic disease states the antioxidant response is often insufficient to maintain redox balance and prevent disease progression [

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Destroy user interface control24]. For example, Landmesser et al. report increased SOD activity in young hypercholesterolemic subjects compared to age-matched controls [

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Destroy user interface control9]. In contrast, decreased SOD activity was observed in coronary arteries from CAD patients compared to age-matched controls [

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Destroy user interface control9]. Data show that upregulation of phase II antioxidant enzymes can protect against oxidative stress in vitro and in humans [

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Destroy user interface control26]. It was also recently reported that Protandim protected a human saphenous vein ex vivo culture from oxidative stress-induced hyperplasia and vessel wall thickening [

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Destroy user interface control27]. Thus, phytochemical-induced Nrf2 activation is a potential therapeutic intervention against endothelial cell oxidative stress and associated vascular disease initiation and progression. Limited research (8 publications) exists examining whether Protandim treatment can minimize the pathologies associated with chronic diseases. The effects of Protandim on Nrf2 and oxidative stress in human coronary vascular cells have not been investigated.

 

The purpose of this study was to determine (1) if treatment with Protandim-induces Nrf2 nuclear translocation and phase II antioxidant enzyme protein expression in human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC), (2) if treatment with Protandim protects HCAEC from apoptosis induced by an oxidant challenge, and (3) if Nrf2 mediates Protandim induced protection from an oxidative challenge. We hypothesized that Protandim treatment would induce Nrf2 nuclear localization and phase II antioxidant enzyme protein expression, and Protandim treatment prior to an oxidant challenge would afford cells protection in a Nrf2 dependent manner.

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3.1. Antioxidant Enzyme Protein Expression Is Elevated in Response to Protandim TreatmentHCAEC were treated with Protandim concentrations of 0 to 50μg/mL in 5μg/mL increments to determine a profile of Nrf2 activation as measured by HO-1 protein content. HO-1 protein went from barely detectable in control conditions to 8–10-fold greater in cells treated with 20–30μg/mL (Figure 1(a)). Concentrations higher than 30μg/mL induced morphological changes. In all subsequent treatments 20μg/mL Protandim was used. HO-1 protein was visible after 1hr of Protandim treatment and became significant and sustained from 4hrs through the longest treatment period of 12hrs (data not shown). To confirm treatment concentration and duration on multiple antioxidant enzymes we determined that 20μg/mL Protandim for 12hrs induced HO-1 (778% of control + 82.25 P < 0.01), SOD1 (125.9% of control + 6.05 P < 0.01), NQO1 (126% of control + 6.5 P < 0.01), and GR (119.5% of control + 7.00 P < 0.05) (Figure 1(b)). All subsequent treatments used Protandim at a concentration of 20μg/mL for 12hrs unless otherwise noted. Figure 1Protandim treatment induces phase II antioxidant enzyme protein expression in HCAEC. (a) HCAECs were treated with 1–50μg/mL of Protandim for 12hrs prior to measuring HO-1 protein expression. The HO-1 signal was verified ...

3.2. Protandim Stimulates Nrf2 Nuclear LocalizationHCAECs were treated with Protandim for up to 12hrs and subsequently visualized using immunocytochemistry to determine Nrf2 nuclear localization. Nrf2 content and nuclear localization were elevated as soon as 1hr after Protandim treatment initiation. Induction remained with treatments of 2, 4, 8, and 12hrs (12hrs was the longest treatment duration examined) (Figure 2). Figure 2Protandim induced Nrf2 expression and nuclear localization. HCAECs were treated with Protandim for 1hr, following which immunofluorescence was used to visualize changes in Nrf2 expression and localization. Following Protandim treatment Nrf2 signal ...

3.3. Protandim Protects HCAEC from Oxidative Challenge Induced ApoptosisHCAECs were treated for 12hrs with Protandim or vehicle control followed by a 4hr exposure to 1.25μM HO and induction of apoptosis was measured by TUNEL assay. Protandim was removed prior to HO, exposure. In vehicle controls apoptosis was induced in 34% of cells (Figures 3(a) and 3(b)) while only 6% of cells treated with Protandim prior to HO were apoptotic (P < 0.01 compared to vehicle control) (Figures 3(a) and 3(b)). Figure 3Protandim treatment protects HCAEC against an oxidative stress. HCAEC were treated with Protandim for 12hrs, followed by HO 4hrs. (a) Treatment of HCAEC with Protandim prior to an oxidative challenge resulted in significantly fewer ...

3.4. Nrf2 Silencing Diminishes Protandim-Induced Increases in HO-1 and Protection from an Oxidative ChallengeNrf2 was silenced using siRNA prior to Protandim treatment to determine if Protandim induced increases in antioxidant enzyme expression and protection occur through Nrf2 activation. Nrf2 silencing prior to Protandim treatment significantly inhibited (P < 0.01) Protandim-induced HO-1 protein expression compared to both the no RNA condition, and control RNA condition. (Figures 4(a) and 4(b)). There were no differences between no RNA and control RNA conditions with or without Protandim. Figure 4Silencing of Nrf2 abrogated Protandim-induced increases in HO-1 expression. (a) Cells were treated with no RNA, control RNA, or Nrf2 siRNA prior to 12hrs Protandim, then HO-1 expression determined by Western blotting. (b) HO-1 expression in response ...Nrf2 was then silenced prior to Protandim treatment and an oxidative challenge. In cells receiving no RNA and cells that received control RNA, 30–40% of cells underwent apoptosis (Figures 5(a) and 5(b). Nrf2 siRNA treatment prior to HO resulted in apoptosis in 80% of cells (P < 0.0001) compared to no RNA conditions and control RNA (Figures 5(a) and 5(b)). In both no RNA and control RNA conditions, Protandim treatment prior to HO resulted in significantly fewer apoptotic cells (P < 0.0001) (Figure 5(b)). The number of apoptotic cells in the no RNA condition compared to the control RNA condition was not significantly different with or without Protandim (P = 0.413 no Protandim, P = 0.093 with Protandim). Protandim prior to Nrf2 siRNA also significantly protected cells from apoptosis (P = 0.023); however the amount of protection afforded by the Protandim in this condition was significantly less than in no RNA and control RNA conditions (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, resp.) (Figure 5(c)). Figure 5Protandim treatment following Nrf2 silencing protected HCAEC against an oxidative challenge; however, protection following Nrf2 silencing was significantly diminished compared to controls. (a) Silencing of Nrf2 resulted in a significant increase in the ...

Reprinted from: Virginia Mason

Steer clear of corned beef and beer on St. Patrick’s Day to avoid a gout flare up.

Even though it was 15 years ago, I still remember the pain. I stepped out of my mom’s car and collapsed on the ground in agony. The pain was so intense I thought I had stepped on a scorpion and actually looked around for the poor creature. (This was in Hawaii, WI, where people often wear sandals and where those critters can roam the pavement.)

I wasn’t stung, yet my left big toe grew flaming red and hot, to the point where a slight breeze brushing against it could cause me agony. I made an appointment with my doctor, and he suspected I had gout, a form of arthritis that is caused by a buildup of uric acid in the body. It usually zeros in on a joint of the big toe. Gout is a disease that affects more than 3 million Americans each year.

Now I was a slim, pretty healthy young guy, so I thought this couldn’t be happening to me. I discovered that gout can sometimes affect healthy younger men or women, although it is rare in children. It can be prevented or treated by following a diet low in purine (which breaks down into uric acid) and an overall healthy lifestyle.

I spoke with VM rheumatologist Stanford Peng, MD, PhD, who provides some tips below to prevent gout and treat a flare up if you’ve been diagnosed.

Dr. Peng: Stick to something else if you’re at risk for gout or have been diagnosed. Beef and beer are some of the foods that have the highest purine content and can be very bad for gout. Beef and other red meats are especially high in purine [a byproduct of protein], and beer contains more purines than spirits and wines.

Dr. Peng: Avoid shellfish, as it contains very high purine content – there’s a reason gout is referred to as “the rich man’s disease.” Some veggies are moderately high in purine. This list includes some green vegetables, such as spinach and asparagus, beans, broccoli and artichokes. However, clinical research suggests they are not major factors in causing gout and that the benefits of eating vegetables outweigh the risks.

Dr. Peng: Some medications are highly effective in lowering the amount of uric acid in your body, and your doctor can help determine if that is an appropriate option for you. Also, anti-inflammatory medications, like ibuprofen, can reduce pain. If you have concerns, you can also lower your uric acid levels by changing your diet. Research suggests adding dairy to your diet may reduce gout.

Dr. Peng: In addition to diet changes, maintain a healthy body weight. If you need to lose weight, lose it gradually. There’s evidence that losing weight too quickly can actually cause a gout attack and increase the level of uric acid in your system in the short term. As an added benefit, you’re more likely to stay on a weight loss routine if you lose weight at a moderate pace. Research suggests that gout is a cardiovascular risk factor, so losing weight has many added benefits in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

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Arm Yourself with Information So You Can Take Control of Your Health.....Maintaining your health daily is key. Join many others in using new genetic-based products that go beyond the cellular level to reduce aging, repair muscles and joints, reduce stress, anxiety and tension by eating a whole food regime.http://www.hutchteam.com/healingtouch/

  Blog at-a-glance

TURMERIC AN ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HERB

 

Recently, I started reading about a very interesting herbal product that I’m sure you are familiar with as a culinary spice used in exotic dishes rather than an important herb used in alternative medicine. This product is called Turmeric, and while commonly known as the spice that turns curry yellow, it really does have an interesting history and many, many beneficial properties!

We always have to keep in mind, though, that this is not a cure for any sort of disease, and while there have been findings to suggest that Turmeric may help with a vast number of ailments, there, unfortunately, is no “miracle cure.” We can all take suggestions as helpful advice and hope that how we choose to live our lives every day, and the changes we make to better our lives, will protect us as we grow. I know that I modify my lifestyle all the time and all I can do is hope that what I am doing is the right thing. I honestly wish that you will find some information in this newsletter that is of help to you and that the decisions you make for your own personal health, and the modifications you make to your own lifestyle, will keep you in the best of health for many years to come!

As for Turmeric, it is a plant that is native to Southern Asia. The genus name Curcuma is from an Arabic word 'kurkum', meaning 'saffron', in reference to the color of Turmeric. The actual word 'Turmeric' is from the Medieval Latin 'terra merita', meaning, 'deserving earth'.  In India, women with lovely, velvety skin often attribute it to consuming Turmeric. The parts of this plant used medicinally are the rhizome and the root. Turmeric is a close relative to ginger root, and is used as a dye and a cooking spice in India & other Asian countries.

It has been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of jaundice and other liver ailments, ulcers, parasitic infections, various skin diseases, sprains, strains, bruises, inflammation of the joints, cold and flu symptoms, preserving food, and promoting digestion. Native peoples of the Pacific sprinkled the dust on their shoulders during ceremonial dances, and used it for numerous medical problems ranging from constipation to skin diseases. The inhalation of smoke from burning Turmeric is said to relieve 'hysterical fits'.

Modern interest in Turmeric began in 1971 when Indian researchers found evidence suggesting that the herb may possess anti-inflammatory properties. Curcumin was later found to possess antioxidant properties. Evidence also suggests that Turmeric is an herb that stimulates the gallbladder. Turmeric helps to stabilize the body's microflora, thus inhibiting yeast overgrowth. It also sensitizes the body's cortisol receptor sites, and its anti-inflammatory properties are considered at least equal to those of cortisones. Turmeric prevents blood platelet aggregation that can lead to dangerous blood clots. Turmeric Root also helps to protect the liver, and is excellent for those exposed to toxic chemicals. Turmeric is also anti-mutagenic, and helps protect the body from mutagens such as smoke and other pollutants.

Turmeric is also known to help protect you against cancer. Click on the following link to read an article on foods that help fight cancer:

http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/news/fountainheadgreen/news10000402/r32

Amongst its many benefits, Turmeric has the ability to lower cholesterol levels, reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack, and treat psoriasis and athlete’s foot. The medicinal uses for Turmeric span a broad range of other ailments including:

* Digestion / Indigestion

* Rheumatoid Arthritis - Click on the following link to read an article on the effects of Turmeric on rheumatoid arthritis:

http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/news/fountainheadgreen/news10004230/r32

* Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)

* Bursitis

* Genital Herpes

* Inflammation - Click on the following link to read an article on the effects of Turmeric on inflammation:

http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/news/fountainheadgreen/news10009265/r32

* Lower Back Pain

* Osteoarthritis

* Pre- and Post-Surgery Health

* Bloating

* Chills

* Common Cold

* Diarrhea

* Headaches

The active constituent in Turmeric is known as curcumin. It has been shown to have a wide range of therapeutic actions:

1. It protects against free radical damage because it is a strong antioxidant;

2. It reduces inflammation by lowering histamine levels and possibly by increasing production of natural cortisone by the adrenal glands;

3. It protects the liver from a number of toxic compounds;

4. It has been shown to reduce platelets from clumping together, which in turn improves circulation and may help protect against atherosclerosis.

There are also test-tube and animal studies showing the  cancer-preventing action of curcumin. In one of these studies, curcumin effectively inhibited metastasis (uncontrolled spread) of melanoma (skin cancer) cells. This may be due to its antioxidant activity in the body. Curcumin inhibits HIV in test tubes, though human trials are needed to determine if it has any usefulness for treating humans with this condition.

A preliminary trial in people with rheumatoid arthritis found curcumin to be useful for reducing inflammation and symptoms such as pain and stiffness. A separate double-blind trial found that curcumin was superior to placebo or phenylbutazone (an NSAID) for alleviating post-surgical inflammation.

TerraVita is a line of truly unique and exceptional products and I can’t say enough good things about their company and their strict attention to quality control. I’ve used several of their herbal products and have had a pleasant experience with each of them. TerraVita manufacturers a wide range of herbal remedies in various forms, including capsules, powders, teas, liquid extracts, creams and ointments. They manufacture two different types of Turmeric, one being a regular strength and the other being an extract. Both are made from high-quality ingredients, are not tested on animals, and contain no fillers.

You can view and read more about regular strength Turmeric by TerraVita by following this link:

http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/GreenCanyon/questp511524/r32

Turmeric extract by TerraVita can be found at:

http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/GreenCanyon/questp517042/r32

And finally, you can view the entire line-up of Turmeric products available at ZooScape.com by visiting:

http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/GreenCanyon/questc100168/r32

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BETTER MEMORY AT 75 THAN AT 35

Dear health-conscious friend,

Tell me if this sounds familiar…

You’re out with friends and you meet someone new. Introductions are made, and you chat for a while. As it turns out, you have a lot in common, and you start to think, here’s someone who could be a good friend.

Then when it’s time to say goodbye, you can’t remember his name.

It’s a little embarrassing, to be sure, and it happens to all of us, right?

But what about this?

You’re at the grocery store, and you hear someone call your name. You turn and see a man waving at you from the other end of the aisle.

You don’t remember that he’s the man you met when you were out with your friends. You have no idea who he is.

As he makes his way toward you, you wrack your brain to figure out where you’ve seen him before, but you draw a complete blank.

Then, for the next 15 minutes, you fake a conversation, smiling and nodding, hoping he won’t realize you don’t know who he is.

These are the moments we all dread.

Like the times you know you’ve asked a question but can’t remember if you ever got the answer. You ask again, but the grandkids start to giggle because, according to them, you’ve asked several times already.

Or the times you walk into the kitchen to get something, but you can’t remember what. You end up getting a snack just so you don’t feel so silly.

Are these normal memory lapses? Or do they signify something more?

“Senior moments” may be laughable to the young, but as we age, they can be a real concern…

… They create doubt and fear. Will we soon forget where we live or who our children are?

… They make us look older than we are. The last thing we want is for people to think we can’t take care of ourselves.

… Worst of all, they make us feel helpless and out of control. Are we losing our mind? Could this be the beginning of the end?

The trouble is, we know too many stories about friends and family who started out forgetting the lines to their favorite song and ended up in a daycare for Alzheimer’s patients. None of us wants to end up like that!

But memory loss is a normal part of aging, isn't it? We can only expect it to get worse, right?

If these fears ever cross your mind… if you or a loved one ever experiences senior moments… and even if you don’t… I have good news for you!

The old ideas about aging are wrong

At last, it’s been scientifically proven.

For years, people believed that a failing memory was a natural part of aging. Not anymore!

Scientific evidence is mounting as study after study proves that old age and a bad memory do NOT go hand in hand. Even better, it’s possible to reverse an ailing memory and regain your clear, sharp thinking from this point on.

The truth is, you can and should have a quick mind at every age. All it takes are a few simple changes that will help you protect, nourish, and exercise your brain.

Hard? Not at all. I’ve laid it all out in my newly updated booklet, 7 All-Natural, Powerful Ways to Make Your Mind Razor Sharp.

Your memory: the key to a fulfilling life

I’m Dr. Victor Marchione, and I’m thrilled about these new medical breakthroughs in brain health and memory.

You see, I’ve been practicing medicine in New York and New Jersey for more than 20 years. I’ve been featured on ABC News and World Report, CBS Evening News and the NBC Today Show, and I’m the editor of the popular The Food Doctor newsletter.

I’m a believer in the body’s ability to heal itself — if it’s taken care of properly. But one of the biggest challenges I face is getting people to understand this simple principle…

Natural remedies can be far more powerful than a quick prescription.

Not just for your general health, but for your memory as well.

A healthy mind and body are your most precious possessions. Take care of them, and you can enjoy the best that life has to offer. Ignore them, and they’ll fail you just when you need them most.

That’s why memory is such a big issue as we age. Memory loss is one of the major causes of disability and a primary cause of dependence for senior adults.

None of us likes to think about it, but it’s true. Once you lose your clear, razor-sharp memory, you lose the ability to do simple things such as…

    Taking your medication.

    Turning off the iron or oven.

    Remembering important appointments.

    Paying bills on time.

If it involved nothing more than losing your house keys or cell phone, that would be bad enough. But memory loss can rob you of your confidence and independence. Worst, it can whisk away the most important things in life: your memories, friends, family, and ultimately, your future.

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Scientists are now discovering that you can drastically reduce the likelihood of suffering these “symptoms” of old age. You can protect and even repair your memory — and potentially have a sharper mind at 75 than you did at 35.

Have doubts? Take a look at these findings from the World Health Organization:

    Memory loss isn’t a normal part of aging. That includes the memory loss we associate with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. In most cases, forgetfulness is the result of other factors that affect your brain’s ability to work properly.

    More than 7 million cases of memory-related diseases are diagnosed per year. That’s one new case every four seconds! What’s more, these are indiscriminant diseases, affecting people from all races and income levels. So unless we do something about it, we are all at risk.

    Now for the good news: Since memory loss is NOT a natural result of old age, you don’t have to be one of these statistics!

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Products for better memory at 75 than 35

Believe it or not, it’s possible!

The key is to protect your brain from the inside out, to strengthen your “memory muscle” so it won’t lose its agility and strength.

Think about it… Throughout our lives we wear helmets and hardhats to protect us at work and play. Yet we completely ignore the damage that can happen inside our heads.

Poor lifestyle choices, bad nutrition, and other factors can harm our brains — and memory — from the inside out.

Every year, new scientific studies are proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can not only protect your memory, but improve it. And you can do it without medications that cause side effects or interfere with prescription medications.

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Products for better memory at 75 than 35

==================== Full Story Below:-

According to Dr. Buhler:-

The chiropractic profession contains some of the most profoundly innovative physicians that I am aware of, and Dr. Craig Buhler is one of them. His work focuses on the interrelationships between muscle function, range of motion, and restriction that contributes to pain. In 2002, he established the Advanced Muscle Integration Technique (AMIT) in a clinic in Utah, where I've seen him as a patient.

One of the reasons that motivated me to see him is his phenomenal success in treating world-class professional and Olympic athletes, and helping them improve their performance.

I first became aware of Dr. Buhler's work through Jeff Hays, the producer of the film Doctored, which was recently released. Dr. Buhler and I are both featured in the film but he was actually one of the major inspirations for the film.

Dr. Buhler was the chiropractic physician for the professional basketball team Utah Jazz for 26 years. And as a result of his techniques, the team had the lowest player missed games due to injury (PMGI) rate in the NBA — 61 player-missed games due to injury within a 20-year long span, compared to the league average of 171 in the same timeframe.

"'Then, between 2001 and 2006 when I stopped having access to the players, we had the most rapid increase in PMGI rates in the league in the 25-year period,' he says. 'It validates what happens when you use the technique that I've developed and integrate it with good quality medical and training care.'"

As someone who is passionate about exercise, I'm particularly excited about Dr. Buhler's methods, because, invariably, when you participate in an aggressive exercise program you're bound to become injured at some point. Injuries and resulting chronic pain is also what typically ends a professional athlete's career, and it can certainly put a damper on anyone's quality of life.

History of the AMI Technique

How the AMIT therapy was developed is an interesting story in and of itself. It began with Dr. George Goodheart, a chiropractic physician from Detroit, Michigan, who developed a technique called applied kinesiology, and Dr. Allan Beardall, also a chiropractor.

"Dr. Goodheart discovered the relationships between organs and glands, muscles, and the vertebral levels in the spine," Dr. Buhler explains. "Dr. Allan Beardall studied with Goodheart. Allan was nationally ranked distance runner, so he treated a lot of elite distance runners. Dr. Beardall found that elite athletes would come in with various types of injuries, and he would apply the chiropractic techniques he learned and the applied kinesiology techniques that he learned.A lot of the conditions got better, but others didn't. Or they'd get better until the athlete stressed themselves working out, and then they'd breakdown again. He said, 'You know, there's got to be a reason why they breakdown.'"

Dr. Beardall launched into an in-depth clinical research project, in which he studied the available chiropractic techniques to determine where, when and why they worked, or did not work. Then, he added acupuncture into the mix, which brought it to a whole new level.

"He defined eight reflex systems for 310 muscles in the body. At that time, Goodheart had discovered four reflexes for about 85 muscles," Dr. Buhler says. "Allan took Dr. Goodheart's work and expanded it dramatically. He redefined anatomy.

We defined divisions to muscle. Like the quadriceps: they are considered four muscles, but in reality there are 12 divisions to those complex muscle systems. He had developed ways of isolating and testing those muscles, so we could go through [a person] and isolate every single muscle in their body to determine whether they're neurologically and proprioceptively intact or not. We can find areas of instability, which show us where a person's vulnerabilities to injuries are, and that allows us to predict where injuries will occur."

Getting to the Root of the Problem is the Hallmark of any Successful Therapy

One of the reasons why Dr. Buhler's AMIT therapy is so profound is because it integrates so many effective techniques. Essentially, it incorporates the most effective techniques from chiropractic or acupuncture and other modalities for any given problem or area of your body.

One of the key discoveries was that if your muscle is overloaded beyond its ability to handle the stress placed upon it, either due to lack of conditioning or trauma, a couple of different things occur: Either you may tear the tissue, and/or your nervous system will deactivate the muscle through a series of reflexes called proprioceptors.

Your muscle system and nervous system relate to each other from within tiny muscle fibers called spindle cells, which monitor stretch. If your muscle is overloaded too rapidly, the spindle cells will temporarily inhibit the muscle. The next time you contract the muscle, it will fire again. Similarly, cells within your tendons called Golgi tendon organs also measure and monitor stretch. If your tendon is stretched too rapidly or exceeds its integrity, the Golgi tendon organs will temporarily inhibit the muscle. But the next time the muscle fires, it will again fire appropriately.

"But there's a fail-safe system," Dr. Buhler explains. "It's where the tendon attaches into the periosteum of the bone and the little fibers there are called Sharpey's fibers. Those fibers are loaded with little receptors that monitor tension. And if the integrity of those fibers are exceeded, they inhibit the muscle, just like a circuit breaker would inhibit an electrical circuit.

Once that happens, the muscle will still fire under passive range of motion. But if you load the muscle, it gives way. If you continue to load the muscle, your body creates pain at the attachment points to protect you. What the central nervous system does at that point is compute an adaptive strategy by throwing stress into the muscle next to it. Other tissues begin to take on more of the load for the muscle that's been injured."

When other tissues and muscles take over to protect the injured site, this adaptation "locks" into your neurology, which leads to altered or adapted movement patterns. Essentially, it alters how you move and use your body. While this takes stress off the injured muscle, allowing it to heal, the adapted muscle is at a mechanical disadvantage, making it more prone to injury. So that muscle then becomes the next site of injury. This can set into motion a vicious cycle of progressive injuries, cascading out from the original source.

Dr. Buhler echoes my own sentiments when he says that getting to the core problem is essential, as treating the adaptation, the symptom, will never allow for recovery. When you focus on the root of the problem, you can achieve dramatic change and healing Now, when a muscle has become neurologically and/or proprioceptively inhibited due to injury, it loses its ability to inhibit its antagonist, so the antagonist muscle remains tight through all planes of motion and never completely releases. A typical example of this is chronic hamstring problems, which is the result of the quadriceps becoming inhibited.

"When people come in with hamstring problems, invariably, I find a group of the quadriceps shut down," Dr. Buhler says. "Once I reactivate [the quadriceps muscle], they get off the table, the hamstrings are clear, and they no longer have problems with tight hamstrings."

Description of a Typical AMIT Session

A typical AMIT session begins with taking an in-depth case history — when and how the injury occurred, along with your health and medical history. This provides insight into the potential "layering" or cascade effect caused by your original injury, and the potential sources of your problem. At this point the patient's central nervous system is assessed by evaluating the atlas/axis/occiput complex, which is the upper part of your spine that affects the brain stem of your central nervous system directly. Next, a full assessment of basic muscle function is done, which also helps establish the functionality of your central nervous system. As explained by Dr. Buhler, starting from your head, each muscle is isolated to determine its neurological integrity. This is done using a form of muscle testing.

"I'm not testing for strength, which would be seen in break testing and which a lot of physical therapists and chiropractors do. What I'm looking for is the tonal quality of that muscle," Dr. Buhler explains.

Next comes the actual therapy process, which he refers to as an "innate guided systems approach." What this means is that your body creates symptoms, such as pain, as a way of communicating that there's a problem.

"We've learned through our conditioning that we just ignore the pain, or we take a medication to suppress the pain, which is no more than saying to the body, 'Shut up. I don't want to hear about it,' which allows the problem to become more advanced," he says. "When you take anti-inflammatories and pain pills for a condition that you're dealing with athletically, all that you do is set the body up for more damage, because you override the protective mechanism of your body. This approach honors your body, listens to your body, and uses symptoms as a communication system."

The therapy is designed to reactivate the muscle and re-establish pain free motion. Once function and range of motion has been reestablished, yoga or some other form of training program designed to strengthen the previously inhibited muscle can bring you to a whole new level of performance. Naturally, this is particularly valuable for professional athletes.

"We've dropped the time of a 5,000-meter speed skater by a minute and a half, simply by clearing the calf muscles and the quadriceps. That was accomplished in 24 hours," Dr. Buhler says. "And we've increased vertical jump on a basketball player by seven inches in 24 hours, simply by reactivating the quads and the calf muscles. That's staggering. That's unheard of. But it's an example of what happens when you reactivate and reinitialize those muscles back into the nervous system. It's pretty dramatic."

An Example of How AMIT Can Work "Like Magic"

A good example of how Dr. Buhler's method can achieve results akin to "miracle," is the technique he uses for sprained ankles, an injury caused by a sudden sideways or twisting movement of your foot. Typically, a severely sprained ankle can take you out of commission for several weeks. Dr. Buhler's manipulation technique can often get you back on your feet in a matter of minutes.

There are three grades of severe ankle sprain.

Grade 1: Overstretched ligament

Grade 2: Slight partial ligament tear

Grade 3: Complete ligament tear

According to Dr. Buhler, grade 1and 2 sprained ankles are "an easy fix." Unfortunately, the standard medical approach is to keep weight off the ankle for at least a week, using crutches. The second week, standard treatment typically includes some passive range of motion therapy. After that, you slowly start rehabilitating with more aggressive therapy. Recovery can take four to six weeks.

Dr. Buhler's model looks at this type of injury in a wholly different light. An inversion sprain, which is the most common, occurs when the talus bone — the top bone in your ankle — rotates and the heel bone counter-rotates. This causes the long bone on the outside of your ankle called the fibula to drop inferior and shift backwards at the attachment in your knee. That changes the dynamic of your joint mechanoreceptors, causing severe pain when you put any weight on the joints.

"The lateral stabilizers to the ankle muscle become inhibited because of the trauma. They no longer fire to support the joint. Every time you take a step, you're stepping and weight-bearing on a joint that's distorted and unstable, and your body automatically creates pain to protect you," Dr. Buhler explains. "You get the swelling, because the capillary hemorrhages. Your body again is having to deal with the inflammatory process and needs to begin the healing process."

To address this, the technique calls for adjusting the ankle mortise back into alignment, so the joint tracks properly. He then resets the lateral stabilizer muscles with a specific reflex method. In the beginning, when the muscles are challenged, they will be weak and painful. But, once they've been activated, upon retesting they are once again solid and pain free, and can withstand weight bearing.

"Now, when the athlete or the patient gets off the table and begins to walk, the first step is painful, the second step is less painful, and each subsequent step they take is less and less painful, to where they can run back and forth in the clinic without any pain. That way, walking and running actually becomes therapeutic, because you're stimulating the lymphatic drainage system," he says.

Summary of the Advanced Muscle Integration Technique (AMIT)

As explained by Dr. Buhler, each muscle in your body has the following points or reflexes that relate to it. All of these points or reflexes must be stimulated. When a muscle is inhibited, the corresponding reflexes will become painful.

One acupuncture point

Vascular point

Lymphatic point

Two organ or gland reflex points

Origin and insertion of the muscle

Spindle cells

In addition there are three vertebra in the spine, two of which are reactive that need to be adjusted. Dr. Buhler explains the process of testing and treating the muscle using these reflex points:

"'A person will wake up one morning with pain in their elbow, and it really hurts. They don't remember hitting themselves, but it's painful. They go to the doctor. They're diagnosed with epicondylitis or tennis elbow, and prescribed an anti-inflammatory. Well, that point may be an acupuncture point related to a muscle in the opposite knee,' Dr. Buhler says. "As we go through the therapy and we stimulate those reflex points, they are quite painful. People are kind of shocked at the fact that I can precisely isolate those painful spots. 'How did you know I hurt there? I've been hurting there for six weeks, and you nailed it,' they'll say. You go through that process of reactivating all those reflexes, and then you go back and retest the muscle for function. It's not a comfortable procedure, but it's effective."

Other Techniques Integrated into Dr. Buhler's Therapy

Dr. Buhler also integrates other techniques and modalities into his work, such as:

The Nasal Specific Technique: Developed by the late Dr. Stober, a dual-licensed naturopathic physician and chiropractic physician who practiced in Portland, Oregon. The technique is based on manipulation of your skull sutures. They claim the bones of your skull fuse, but this is incorrect. Your cranium actually expands and rotates with each breath, and this movement is tied into your cerebral spinal fluid.

Dr. Stober used the technique in the treatment of children with Down syndrome, muscular dystrophy, sinus problems, migraine headaches, concussions, and Meniere's disease. The technique involves inserting a small balloon, the size of your little finger, into the nasal passage, where it is inflated and released a number of times on each side. This tends to expand your cranium from the inside out, unlocking those suture lines, and reestablishing the cranial mechanism.

Network Spinal Analysis: Developed by Donny Epstein, this technique involves toggling and adjusting your atlas with very light-contact adjustment.

Epstein's position is that when you experience emotional stress and trauma, your central nervous system goes into a state of contraction. Surrounding your brain and spinal cord is the meningeal system. This tissue is attached via tiny ligaments called dentate ligaments to the base of your spine and upper cervical spine. In response to emotional stress and trauma, the meningeal system contracts, pulling those dentate ligaments, which can distort the vertebra from inside your spinal canal.

Regular meningeal adjustments aren't as effective to address this kind of distortion. But what Epstein discovered was that by lightly holding specific points on the sacrum and different parts of the spine, the central nervous system begins to release that meningeal tension.

 

 

BLOG at-a-glance

****Two primary forms of mercury are ethylmercury (inorganic mercury) which is primarily from dental amalgams, and methylmercury (organic mercury), which is they type found in fish.. In terms of toxicity, ethylmercury rates the highest. Methylmercury penetrates your body very well, but is slightly less toxic than the inorganic form, which is what you absorb from your dental amalgams.

****The two primary sources of mercury exposure are dental amalgam, and fish consumption, followed by thimerosal-containing vaccines, and mercury pollution from coal-burning power plants.

****Traditional mercury testing includes hair-, blood-, and urine testing. Challenge tests using a chelating chemical such as intravenous DMPS or DMSA are also commonly used. However, all of these tests have drawbacks and shortfalls. A newer testing method called mercury speciation far surpasses all of these earlier tests. While these older tests primarily measured total mercury load (and inaccurately at that), this newer technology is able to separate and measure the different forms of mercury in your system, which allows you to determine both kidney function, and your primary source of exposure—either fish-based methylmercury, or the dental-based inorganic ethylmercury.

****Your body is designed to detoxify naturally, and will do so quite efficiently as long as your entire detoxification system is working properly. Your glutathione system is an important part of your detox system, and foods high in glutathione precursors, such as whey protein, and sulfur-rich foods like garlic, are important for maintaining optimal functioning of your glutathione system.
====================Full Story below:-

Dr. Christopher Shade, a former organic farmer, received his PhD from the University of Illinois. His education included the study of metal-ligand interaction in the environment, and for a long time, he specialized in environmental- and analytical chemistry of mercury.

About six years ago, he developed and commercialized technology for mercury speciation analysis—a process that separates and measures different forms of mercury. Shortly after starting this company, Quicksilver Scientific, he turned his focus to the clinical side, and the human body’s ability to detoxify mercury.

“The heart of mercury’s toxicity is what I call inappropriate binding,” Dr. Shade says. “Mercury is never a free ion... [M]ercury is always bound in these covalent relationships with what’s called the ligand. Mercury’s favorite ligand is sulfur; specifically a reduced form of sulfur called a thiol.

This is what you have on cysteine, like N-acetyl cysteine or in glutathione [editor’s note: which is why they’re so important for mercury elimination]. But these thiols are all throughout your body. [M]etals... like zinc, copper, or iron... are held in place by thiol groups. Mercury has higher affinity for those thiol groups than the [other] metals do.

How much higher? For zinc—a billion times higher – 10 to the ninth. When the mercury comes by... and it sees an enzyme that’s holding zinc in it, those cysteines are going to reach over and grab on to the mercury.

... Other places that mercury will bind to thiols are on cell membranes... [and] different forms of mercury will cross your blood-brain barrier.”

Mercury can also displace other elements such as zinc and copper, by attaching to the receptors that would otherwise hold these essential minerals. Overall, mercury has a very strong ability to dysregulate your entire system, which is part of the reason why mercury toxicity symptoms are so difficult to pin down.

“Neurologically, it can take you into depression, or it can take you into anxiety,” Dr. Shade explains. “Similarly, it can make you hyperactive, or it can give you chronic fatigue.”

From a more mechanical perspective, mercury destroys the enzyme tubulin, which builds microtubules that play an important role in intracellular communication. According to Dr. Shade, you can clearly see how mercury stops the assembly of tubulin in neurological cells, causing them to fall apart instead.

The Most Common Sources of Mercury Exposure

There are two primary forms of mercury:

Ethylmercury (inorganic mercury)
Methylmercury (organic mercury)

Phenylmercury was used in early paints, which is why you need to be careful with peeling paint layers in older homes. In terms of toxicity, ethylmercury rates the highest. While methylmercury penetrates your body very well, it’s slightly less toxic than the inorganic form, which is what gets released from your dental amalgams. According to Dr. Shade’s research, the two primary sources of mercury exposure are:

Inorganic mercury from dental amalgam, and vaccines
Organic mercury from fish consumption

“Vaccines would come underneath that, though they’re slowly removing the mercury from the vaccines. So, it depends if you get a lot of vaccines or not. Now if you’re going in for flu shots routinely, you might be exposed to a fair amount of mercury,” he says. “Research on spreading out doses versus punctuated doses show that punctuated or periodic high doses have more ability to penetrate the brain than distributed doses do. That’s one of the worst things about getting it from vaccines.”

Another source of mercury exposure comes from coal-burning power plants. This mercury pollution is distributed in the air, and is deposited in the ocean, where of course it bioaccumulates in fish. So indirectly, it’s still a major source of exposure.

“The one paper that has shed some light on coal-burning was the Palmer paper coming out of Texas, where they found higher rates of autism with proximity to coal-burning power plants. But that’s the only [study] that’s done that,” Dr. Shade says. “From all the data that I have looked at, from all the people that we have measured... fish and amalgam dominated everything. People who don’t have any fish consumption and don’t have any amalgam exposure, we very rarely see any significant amounts of mercury in.”

Why Most Mercury Tests are Ineffective and/or Inaccurate

While I no longer see patients, when I did, one of the standard mercury tests used was a challenge test, using a chelating chemical such as intravenous DMPS or DMSA. Then you’d measure the urine for 24 hours. You can also measure the mercury content in hair and blood. However, all of these tests have drawbacks and shortfalls, and Dr. Shade has developed a testing method that far surpasses all of these earlier tests.

While most of these older tests primarily measured total mercury load (and inaccurately at that), his technology, called mercury speciation, is able to separate and measure the different forms of mercury in your system. This allows you to determine your primary source of exposure—either fish-based methylmercury, or the dental-based inorganic ethylmercury. It can also help you evaluate how well your kidneys are processing such toxins.

Dr. Shade explains:

“When we move to speciation testing, then we’re able to take something like your blood and say, “This much of it is methylmercury from fish, and this much of it is inorganic mercury from amalgam, though some of it is from the breakdown of the fish-based mercury.”

People used to do everything as total mercury... Sometimes they couldn’t really correlate that with how many dental amalgams they had. That was because blood was primarily a measure of methylmercury exposure of fish-based exposure. In the blood, you got a high representation of your fish burden, and a lower representation of your dental burden, and thus the need to separate those two. Blood was used, but blood didn’t make sense for certain types of exposures. If you’re exposed to elemental mercury vapor, it didn’t really show correctly in the blood.”

Urine analysis has similar shortcomings.

“If your kidneys are working well and you’re excreting well, the amount that comes out in the urine will be linearly correlated with the amount or inorganic mercury in your blood. So as the inorganic mercury goes up from your loading, the urinary level will go up linearly. But if your kidneys are not excreting well, then the urinary output will be low, and you’ll get a damming up and building up of the reservoir of inorganic mercury in your blood. You’ll see high inorganic mercury in the blood, low in the urine.”

So, if you’re only looking for mercury in your urine, low levels of (total) mercury can be either good or bad, but you won’t easily know which. A low measurement could mean you have very little mercury in your system, or it could mean your kidneys are failing to process it and the mercury is actually accumulating in your tissues, OR it could mean your primary source of exposure is from organic mercury sources, so they’re not being expelled through your urine...

“Urine alone is very myopic, whereas urine normalized by the amount of inorganic mercury in the blood is a very good indicator then of how well you’re detoxifying or excreting that form of mercury,” Dr. Shade explains.

As for hair testing, while hair is a good marker of fish-based methylmercury in your blood, it will tell you absolutely nothing about the amount of ethylmercury you’re getting from dental amalgams or vaccines...

The Problem with Challenge Testing

“In a challenge test, you orally take the chelators like DMSA or DMPS. They go into your blood. They solubilize a lot of the mercury that’s in your blood, and they make it able to go very easily through your kidneys. This would round up a bunch of mercury in your blood and pass it through your kidneys. Now you would get both organic and inorganic forms coming out through your kidneys.

The problem here is the same one with all urinary measurements. If you’ve got problems in the kidney – and this happens commonly when people are exposed for long periods of time – you might not pass that mobilized mercury out through your urine.

The other problem with the challenge test is that you don’t know what the distribution is. How much of this is organic? How much of this is inorganic?

Then you got two chelators. You got DMPS and DMSA, and they’re different. They bias towards one of the other form of mercury. DMPS biases towards inorganic mercury. If you have a lot of inorganic mercury exposure, you use DMPS... Then there’s a mythology that the challenge test is showing you the body burden, like it’s reaching into every single cell taking out a representative amount of mercury in there and taking it out of the body. That’s really not true,” Dr. Shade says.

So as a summary, all of the earlier testing methods offer an incomplete picture of your actual mercury load.

Hair testing only shows organic (methyl) mercury load
Urine testing only shows inorganic (ethyl) mercury load
Blood testing for total mercury load really only gives you a measure of your mercury from fish consumption, while mercury from dental amalgams and vaccines remains ‘hidden’
Challenge testing can give false low readings if your kidneys are not functioning well, and each of the chelators are biased toward one form or mercury or the other, which can give you a misleading measurement of your mercury load

Mercury Speciation—the Next Generation of Mercury Testing

Dr. Shade’s mercury speciation technology overcomes all these problems by being able to separate and measure each of the different forms of mercury.

“You have got a lump sum of mercury in the sample. We want to pull them apart, so we know how much is the organic form and how much is the inorganic form,” he explains. “In the environment, which is what I originally developed it for, it is very important to know this because the bulk of the environmental mercury is inorganic mercury.

Inorganic mercury – even though it’s more toxic to the cell –does not accumulate well and it does not get into organisms very well, whereas methylmercury is the bioaccumulative form. That’s the one that a fish swimming in the water will have a million to 10 million times more [of]... than is in the water. It’s very important to be able to see the methylmercury separate from the inorganic mercury.

I developed this system where we could take a sample and relatively quickly – at least compared to the old methods – separate these two different forms... When I came to the clinical world, I started applying that... to blood and urine. What we found is that if you want to get a good measure of blood, you need to separate the methyl- and the inorganic mercury.”

The ethyl- and methylmercury have different reference ranges. Methylmercury is almost always higher than the ethylmercury if you’re exposed to both types. After measuring over 2,000 patients, Dr. Shade discovered that methylmercury levels in those with the highest loads is almost 15 times higher than the ethylmercury, on average.

“If you’re exposed to both, the methylmercury is always going to swamp out the inorganic mercury,” he says. “But once you separate those two, you can see very clearly how the two are tracking in the body. They have different targets in the body, and they have different sources coming in.”

... Urine can be nicely correlated to blood inorganic mercury, as long as the kidneys are working okay. That means that as blood inorganic mercury goes up, urinary inorganic mercury should go up with it. It’ll be a linear increase between the two. We can now plot out how well the kidneys are working.”

Being able to chart how well your kidneys are working is a significant benefit, as this will give you a better idea of how well your natural detox system is working. If you have high levels of inorganic (ethyl) mercury in your blood, but low mercury in your urine, it’s a sign that your body is retaining toxicity.

“These tend to be the sickest people and have the hardest time detoxifying,” Dr. Shade says. “Then we know that we have to work more on their kidneys before we go into really moving the mercury out of the body.”

The same technique is being used on hair, which, again, is an inorganic (ethyl) mercury marker. As your blood methylmercury goes up, the methylmercury in your hair should rise in a linear fashion. If they do not track together (meaning you have high levels in your blood but low levels in your hair), then it’s an indication that your biochemistry has been disrupted and cannot effectively mobilize methylmercury.

On Detoxing Mercury

According to Dr. Shade, effective detoxification is highly dependent on your glutathione and sulfur metabolism. For example, when your glutathione and sulfur levels increase, you’ll typically see higher levels of mercury coming out of your hair.

It’s important to realize, however, that detoxing cannot be achieved overnight. Or even in a few weeks. According to Dr. Shade, most people will typically need an entire year to detox, depending on how sick you are. The sicker you are, the longer it will take, simply because you have to go slower when you’re ill.

“But then you have to keep in mind one of the aspects of detoxification. You got to be mindful of that, and incorporate a lot of this into your life. I mean a lot of it is lifestyle changes that are going to keep you effectively detoxifying. Then, once or twice a year go back in for whatever period of time it takes you. Go back and do another detoxification, because even if you get all the mercury out, you’re continuously exposed to all kinds of things. I mean, you’ve got the airborne mercury coming in. You’ve got little bits through the food. Then you have cadmium, arsenic, and lead coming in... you’ve got all the different organic toxins... pesticides and herbicides... chlorinated organics... mold-based toxins... toxins from organisms that live in your GI tract, if you don’t have a perfect biotic flora...

 

... Probably, the biggest myth that’s got to be destroyed immediately is that mercury will stay in your body until you go in there with a chemical chelator and pull it out—that mercury is never removed from the body and it just builds up forever. That is completely a myth. We’d all be dead if that were the case.

You have a system for moving mercury and other heavy metals out of your body. They may work in different efficiencies for different people, or may be totally disrupted in some, but you have a [detoxification] system.”

How Your Body Detoxifies Naturally, PRODUCTS

One of the central problems in modern toxicology is the failure to fully understand the vast disparity amongst the population in their ability to deal with certain toxins, and their ability to detoxify them. We’re all highly individual, and exposure levels that will cripple one person may leave another seemingly unharmed. A major part of this individual difference in tolerance is the functioning of your body’s detoxification system. If your detoxification channels are working well, you will be able to withstand higher levels of toxins without experiencing obvious symptoms of toxicity.

“The core of the detoxification system is the glutathione system,” Dr. Shade says. “Notice that I don’t say, “it’s glutathione.” No, it’s the glutathione system.

Glutathione binds to metals and can move them out of your body, but it doesn’t do that alone. If we look at what the requirements for resistance to metals and effective detoxification (meaning not only the resistance but shuttling them out), you need healthy levels of glutathione in your cells. You [also] need activity of... a phase II detoxification enzyme called glutathione S-transferase. This is an enzyme that’s responsible for prying the mercury off the cellular proteins and linking it together with the glutathione. [Lets say] those two parts work: You have the glutathione; you have the glutathione S-transferase—now you have a mercury-glutathione conjugate in the cell. Now you’ve got to get it out of your body.

At the cell membrane, you’ve got active transport proteins, called multidrug resistance proteins, which pushes that mercury-glutathione complex out of the cell and into your blood. From there, you got another one at the liver... [which] pulls it from your blood into your liver; and another one that dumps it from your liver into your bile tract, to go into your small intestine. You have also got some of these transport proteins in your intestinal walls, pulling [toxins] from your blood into the intestines. And you have got them in your kidneys as well.

You have to have all parts of this going.”

If any one of these mechanisms is knocked out, your cells will lose their resistance to the metal, and bioaccumulation sets in. So in order to strengthen your detoxification system, you need to optimize the ENTIRE system from top to bottom within the transport chain, so that your body can pull the mercury away from the proteins it is bound to, and transport it out of your body.

Strategies for Optimizing Your Glutathione System

There are a number of different options for doing this. Taking oral or intravenous glutathione can be both expensive and ineffective. A more efficient way to optimize your glutathione levels is to provide your body with the precursor to glutathione, cysteine, in the form of foods that are naturally high in it. Whey protein, especially organic, grass-fed whey protein contains some of the highest levels of cysteine.

“Taking oral glutathione in a capsule is very inefficient, because your peptidases will break down the glutathione into its amino acids,” Dr. Shade explains. “... You’re left with precursors, or whey protein, which I think is probably the best precursor. Though, at the same time, you need to upregulate the activity of the synthesis enzymes that are making it from the precursors... [T]he other thing that we use a lot, which is a little bit more specialized, is liposomal delivery of glutathione.... At the same time, you’re also bringing in phosphatidylcholine, which has its own therapeutic benefits by helping to repair the cell membranes. The cell membranes are very highly damaged by metals and the free radical cascades that are catalyzed by them.

We use a lot of this liposomal glutathione. We have recently taken on the manufacturing of that that’s making a very small, high integrity liposome. But aside from liposomes, whey protein is my favorite way to get those precursors into the body.”

According to Dr. Shade, if your body is making glutathione well, then just taking whey protein should be sufficient. But if your detoxification system is severely compromised, the liposomal glutathione can serve an important function as it can offer immediate relief against the oxidative stress caused by the mercury. He typically recommends using both for people who are ill.

“Once you have repaired the system and you’re getting it working again, then the whey protein can sustain you,” he says.

But it’s important to remember that there’s more to your glutathione system than just glutathione. You also need the proper enzymes and proteins that work together with the glutathione to eliminate the mercury. These include:

Glutathione S-transferase
Glutathione synthetase
Gamma-glutamylcysteine ligase

Phylogenomics—Gene Activation through Superfoods

“This is a beautiful part of the science called phylogenomics, “phylo” meaning plants, and “genomics” meaning genes,” he says. “What we’re finding is that genes are not always [expressed]…

What are triggers to start expressing these genes?

We’re finding that whole families of genes that can be upregulated together. There’s protein out in the cytoplasm called the Nrf2 protein. It’s held in place there by another protein called the KIP1. When certain chemical triggers hit it, it translocates into the nucleus. When it does so, a whole family of genes that have what I call the promoter region (it’s a way to turn on families of genes and it’s called the antioxidant response element) turns on at once. These are genes that code for production of intracellular antioxidants, as well as production of these phase II enzymes like glutathione S-transferase, and production of these phase III proteins for transport. You’re helping turn up the whole system at once.

What are the things that trigger this?

Well, a lot of these things that we consider “superfoods.” The main family of food chemicals that do this or plant chemicals are polyphenolic antioxidants like you would find in green tea extract or pine bark extract. The one we use the most is called Haritaki. We have a blend called Clear Way Cofactors, where we bring together what we think are the best polyphenolics for doing this. The other side of it is the sulfur-based chemicals.”

The Importance of Sulfur Compounds for Your Detoxification System

One sulfur-based food is garlic, which has gained a reputation for being good for mercury detoxification. As explained by Dr. Shade, garlic contains sulfur molecules that trigger the translocation of the Nrf2 proteins into your cells. Thus they trigger an upregulation of your glutathione system. So it’s really your glutathione system as a whole that is responsible for the chelating effect, but the sulfur compounds in the garlic upregulate that system, allowing it to do its job.

“You would want to use the whey protein in conjunction with some of these polyphenolic antioxidants, with the crucifer family, or garlic. Then you would get the enzyme up, as well as bringing in the precursors,” Dr. Shade says.

As a side note, allicin is NOT the chemical responsible for upregulating the enzyme system. Allicin is part of what gives garlic its antimicrobial effect. According to Dr. Shade, taking garlic oil capsules is just as good as eating raw garlic, maybe even better, for upregulating your glutathione system. Another important sulfur compound is lipoic acid, which helps regenerate vitamin C and E.

“Vitamin C—this whole defense system that we’re talking about is part of the antioxidant system,” Dr. Shade says. “You need a lot of electron donors in there, feeding into the system. You’re going to transfer those electrons into the glutathione. As you’re using the glutathione up as an antioxidant, it’s getting oxidized and needs to be reintroduced... That’s the use of vitamin C: constantly bringing electrons into the system, as well as its immune effects building up the immune system. Vitamin C is an integral part of that. But you’re not going to do vitamin C alone. That’s a very myopic scene. But it is a strong player. It’s always there. It should be one of your main pawns in this game.

Then you look at lipoic acid. Lipoic acid is a very potent upregulator of the glutathione system and specifically R-lipoate. So, without the lipoic acid, you have got two forms: You have S-lipoic acid and R-lipoic acid. These are like amino acids where you’ve got D amino acids and L amino acids.

L amino acid is the only one that fits into the biochemistry, and D does not. S-lipoic does not fit into the biochemistry. I mean, it can act as an antioxidant in the body. It can do some functions. But it can’t upregulate the glutathione system. Only the R-lipoate fits into this Nrf2 mechanism to upregulate the glutathione system. That’s why we have a liposome that’s a mixture of vitamin C and R-lipoic acid. You can take high doses of this without running into bowel intolerance and very effective delivery of that lipoic acid. That’s the common sulfur chemical that we use the most.”

Other Helpful Players

Astaxanthin, which I’ve previously written about at great length, is one of the best performers when it comes to protecting your ENTIRE cell from damage, and as such, it can be an important ingredient to help optimize your detoxification system as a whole. Dr. Shade agrees, stating:

“You got the cytosol, or cytoplasm, that’s water-soluble. Then you got the membranes that are fat-soluble. You need to take care of both the water side and the fat side. I think astaxanthin would be a great thing to incorporate into the systems.”

Another commonly used detoxification tool is chlorella, which will help detoxify your system via your gut. Chlorella is a binder, meaning that it binds to the heavy metals present in your gut, which serves two important functions as it:

Prevents absorption and/or re-absorption (many metals can be excreted into your bile and then be re-absorbed), and Prevents the metals from irritating your intestines by holding them away from the epithelia of your intestinal wall. This helps prevent inflammation through detoxing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings!!!