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March 26 2000
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Proteins In Brain Linked To Dementia

 

The accumulation of protein fragments in the brain begins before dementia symptoms start and increases as dementia becomes more severe. Based on the findings, which suggest that the accumulation of these fragments, called amyloid beta-peptides, is to blame for the dementia of Alzheimer's disease, drugs that remove or block the peptides might help slow down or even prevent the disease. Two types of abnormal growths in the brain -- plaques made up of amyloid beta-peptides and tangles composed of tau proteins -- are telltale signs of Alzheimer's disease. But there's been a controversy about which comes first, plaques or tangles.

The results of the study, however, appear to place the blame on plaques. The beta amyloid is very probably responsible for the dementia. The researchers speculate that the peptides cause nerve damage that lead to dementia and, in turn, the formation of plaques and tangles. And even though much of the focus has been on the collecting of the peptides into plaques, the study shows that high levels of beta amyloids are present in the brains of people with dementia even before plaques develop. Treatment with drugs that block the production of amyloid beta-peptides, which are about to be tested in human trials, might prevent the disease.

The Journal of the American Medical Association 2000;283:1571-1577, 1615-1616



Dr. Mercola Dr. Mercola's Comments:

It is interesting to note that there appears to be agreement as to some of the markers of Alzheimers. However, when one reads these studies or news reports, it is important to note that they are written from a drug company's perspective, which is to find a drug to treat the problem. I am quite confident that a drug solution for Alzheimer's will be just a worthless as Rezulin, which was pulled off the market this week. It will work poorly, and be associated with many life- threatening side effects. This will happen nearly every time one implements a drug solution for a chronic health problem as it is not addressing the foundational cause of the problem.

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Pindar
[ Joined on 08/08 ] [ Posted on August 23, 2008 ]
       
   
 
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I got involved with glyconutrition, since my colleague's brother in law who had a ruptured brain anyurism 8 years ago improved remarkably, and continues to, from short term memory loss and a balance problem (used to be a very successful architect, but became a depressed couch potato, as he had to close his practice -with 5 children still at school etc. that was quite a challenge to his wife).

In our research to see how we can further enhance and help others with brain-issues, I came across the website of the Endowment for Medical Research (www.endowmentmed.org).

I see they are conducting studies on TREHALOSE (an 'upside-down' binding of two glucose molecules) and its potential for improving brain function, for neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's.

It seems quite an economical option, and easy to do (a 'lemonade' is made as a hot or cold beverage, using Trehalose powder, with fresh lemon juice, in filtered water).

Apparently, the Trehalose has something to do with the condition of the cell membrane, onto which the protein and lipid receptors attach (for those who know, this is the attachment which forms the GlycoPROTEIN or -LIPID), and the success theyve seen, may be attributed to avoiding the cells from 'dying' before they should (e.g. motor cells in Parkinson's and memory cells in Alzheimer's) As we live in Africa, and at this stage importing it will be prohibitively expensive due to weight, we are still looking at options of shipping it in at better rates, but I thought I should at least post this for the ones fortunate enough to live in the US and Canada, where it is available from the site mentioned above.

Trehalose has only recently been extracted from corn, in a more economical process in Japan, which makes it available to the 'public' for the first time, aparently.

There's also a GREAT book (e-book for now) on improving brain-function, on their site

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