470 Nutritional Support for the Elderly [7 May 2018]

In a recent webinar Dr. Philip Rouchotas ND of the Bolton Naturopathic Clinic in Ontario, shared his nutritional protocol for his elderly patients, especially those with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, MS, and Parkinson’s, and those with mild cognitive impairment or traumatic brain injury. He believes most people over 60, and everyone over 70, will experience rapid and significant benefits from this program.

The base of the program is the Mediterranean Diet (more on this another week) along with physical exercise (aerobic and resistance) and mental exercise (chess, bridge, video games).

Step 1 deals with nutritional deficiencies which are “epidemic” among North American seniors for three main reasons: loss of appetite (they eat less); change in appetite (they prefer saltier, fattier, less nutrient-dense foods); and digestive impairment (they absorb fewer nutrients). Step 1 supplements:
• A good multivitamin with trace minerals and activated B’s
• Whey protein (30g) – prevents muscle loss; halves number of viral infections (colds)
• Creatine (2.5g) – prevents muscle loss (even while in a cast); with Parkinson’s slows requirement for increasing dopamine dose
• Fish Oil (1000-2000mg total EPA + DHA) – a 2:1 ratio works best

After a few months on Step 1 the elderly should have regained some strength and be ready to add a few more products from Step 2 to further improve their health:
• CoQ10 (100mg x2) – improves mitochondrial function, increases energy for muscle and brain function
• Acetyl-L-Carnitine (2g) – cofactor in mitochondria, necessary for burning fat for energy; doubles survival time in ALS patients
• Melatonin (as needed up to 20mg) – nerve cell antioxidant, benefits elderly even if sleep is not an issue
• Ginkgo biloba (120-240mg) – use if meds allow (blood thinners are a contraindication); improves cerebrovascular function (blood flow to the brain)
• Lion’s Mane (1g x2) – prevents cognitive impairment due to amyloid beta plaque; improves brain function in Mild Cognitive Impairment

I appreciate that Dr. Rouchotas’ protocols are backed with multiple human (not just animal) placebo-controlled studies so we can be confident in their safety and effectiveness. I plan to write more about some of these products in future articles.

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner. Find this article on my website for links to sources and further reading.

335 The Shaklee Story [8 Sept 2015]

Forrest C. Shaklee was a pioneer in the natural health product industry. At his birth, in November 1894, Forrest was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The family moved from a coal mining community to rural Iowa to allow him to convalesce in clean fresh air. As a young boy Forrest spent much time outdoors observing nature. Here he began to develop his philosophy in the healing power of nature and the importance of exercise and good nutrition.

After graduation from Palmer Chiropractic College Shaklee began to incorporate nutrition in his practice. To help his patients Shaklee developed a supplement he called “Vitalized Minerals”, released in 1915 (100 years ago this July). It was one of the first, if not the first, food supplement manufactured in America.

In 1917 he opened a multi-disciplinary facility which included the new technology of X-rays. Due to radiation exposure Shaklee developed cancer in his shoulder and hip. He rejected his doctors’ advice for amputation, sold his clinic, and went about healing himself with nutrition and positive thinking.

After regaining his health Shaklee opened another clinic, more determined than ever to share his nutritional ideas with people. He focused his research on building good health rather than treating disease. He retired from active practice in 1943 to concentrate on writing, developing his philosophy on the influence of the mind on health and well-being.

In 1956, at the age of 63, he created Shaklee Corporation to manufacture and sell his health supplements to America. To market the products he chose multi-level-marketing, the first of many health product companies to adopt that model. That was a time when America was enthralled with modern food processing and didn’t believe supplements were necessary, so education was an essential part of marketing (still is!).

A few of the firsts for the Shaklee Corporation include: instant protein powder (1961), Basic-H organic cleaner (1960), and Basic L organic laundry detergent. Shaklee died in 1985 at age 91 but the company is still going strong and is still dedicated to researching cutting edge nutritional products. This year (1915) the Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee Innovation Center was opened, housing all their research and development team under one roof “for the next 100 years of scientific breakthroughs”.

Sources:
A Fascinating History - Dr Forrest C. Shaklee www.whyiridehorses.com
The Roots of Shaklee www.healthisalifestylechoice.com
A History of Innovation www.shaklee.tv

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.

302 Mitochondria Nutrients [19 Jan 2015]

Last week I wrote about a book by Lee Know, ND, called “Life – the Epic Story of our Mitochondria”. In it I was impressed by the interrelationship among the many nutrients required for mitochondria to function properly and produce the energy our bodies need for health.

The TCA Cycle which converts glucose and fatty acids to acetyl-coA requires vitamins B1, B2, B3 & B5, minerals iron, sulfur, magnesium & manganese, the amino acid cysteine and alpha lipoic acid (ALA). The Electron Transfer Chain (ETC) which converts the acetyl-coA to ATP energy has CoQ10 (#159 Apr 2012) as one of its essential steps. The ETC also requires vitamins B2 & B12 and minerals iron, sulfur, copper & zinc.

The amino acid L-carnitine (#168 June 2012) is essential for moving long chain fatty acids into the mitochondria where they can be burned for energy. Oxygen is essential for efficient production of ATP by oxidative phosphorylation and requires iron in the form of hemoglobin for transport to the cells. Without adequate oxygen ATP is produced anaerobically resulting in the buildup of lactic acid (causing muscle pain including angina) which requires carnitine to clear it.

In addition to its role in the TCA cycle, ALA is necessary for the production of the antioxidant glutathione. Glutathione is the most important antioxidant in the mitochondria (more on this next week). ALA is also essential for regenerating NADH back to NAD+ so the first step in the ETC can be repeated. As I explained in an earlier article on ALA (#89 Nov 2010), only the R(+) isomer of ALA is bioactive.

Creatine holds and donates the phosphorus ion to convert ADP to ATP; when used as a supplement creatine increases endurance in athletes and improves brain and heart function.

A deficiency of any of these nutrients slows the production of ATP energy in the mitochondria causing fatigue and the reduced function of the organ(s) involved. That’s why there is no simple answer to the question “Why do I feel so tired all the time?”

Next week – free radicals and the mitochondrial theory of aging.

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.

300 Medicate or Nutrate? [5 Jan 2015)

For my 300th article (and the first for 2015) I’m going to follow up on #297 from Dec 8 on mental health.

Dr. Julia Rucklidge in her TEDx talk suggested we reconsider our current treatment approach to mental illness – psychiatric medication first, followed by psychological therapies, with nutrition as an afterthought (if considered at all). Instead she proposes the first priority be lifestyle factors (healthy eating, exercise, supplements) and when necessary psychological treatment, and save medications for when these approaches prove insufficient.

Anthony Stephan, founder of TrueHope, argues that it’s better to nutrate our brains than to medicate them. He prefers to call mental illness “nutritional deficiency mood disorders” and believes that given sufficient nutrients the body can heal itself.

Putting nutrition first makes sense to me. The brain makes up 2% of body mass but consumes 20% of our energy and uses a disproportionately high amount of our daily intake of nutrients. How can we expect it to function properly if our diets are depleted in essential nutrients? Kaplan & Rucklidge in their December 9, 2014 madinamerica.com article “Nutrient Boosting of Medications” put it more technically:

...psychiatric symptoms may be the result of inborn metabolic dysfunction associated with slowed metabolic activity caused by insufficient vitamin and mineral cofactors.

Note that nutrient dosages much higher than the RDA are usually required to compensate for these metabolic dysfunctions.

Research on micro-nutrition and mental illness (25 published studies to date) shows positive often dramatic improvements with a broad spectrum high dose nutrient supplementation on a variety of conditions: depression, bi-polar disorder, autism, ADHD, OCD, PTSD, stress, anxiety, mood & behavior, and addiction. Over the last 16 years TrueHope and its micronutrient supplement has helped tens of thousands of people with mental illness return to a normal life and either reduce or eliminate their psychiatric medications. Shouldn’t this be our primary treatment for mental illness: nutrate rather than medicate?

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.

272 The Case for Multi Vitamins [16 June 2014]

The need for multi vitamins has never been greater. Despite the December 2013 Annals of Internal Medicine editorial admonishing us to “stop wasting money on vitamin and mineral supplements”, there are plenty of studies showing a multitude of benefits. And there are many reasons why we can’t depend on our diet to get all our nutrient requirements.

First I need to emphasize that food supplements are meant to supplement a good diet, not replace it (that’s why they aren’t called food replacements). Having said that, despite our best intentions we often fall short of an ideal diet. Health Canada recommends 7 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables daily but Statistics Canada found in 2006 less than half of Canadians ate even five servings.

A Harvard study (JAMA 2002) concluded: “most people do not consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone. Pending strong evidence of effectiveness from randomized trials, it appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements.” While the evidence isn’t as strong as we’d like (due to reasons discussed in #250 & #251) there are many studies showing that supplementation protects against heart disease, mental decline, immune imbalances, diabetes and osteoporosis. See #252 for a short list of such studies.

Finally, here are some reasons why we may need more nutrients than we can obtain from our food:
• vegetables and grains grown on nutrient-depleted soil
• animals raised in confinement and fed nutrient-deficient food
• varieties bred for shelf life at the expense of nutrient content (#201)
• processing of food that removes or destroys nutrients
• greater environmental toxic exposure requiring greater need for antioxidant vitamins
• prescription drugs causing nutritional deficiencies (#29)

Source: lecture by Nelson Narciso (May 30, 2014) and his website keepwell.ca

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.

249 Multivitamins – a Waste of Money? [6 Jan 2014]

Did you see any of the news headlines a few weeks ago like “Multivitamins a waste of money” or “Vitamin, mineral supplements offer no benefits”? These were newspaper reports of an editorial in the December 17 Annals of Internal Medicine which was commenting on three studies published in the same issue. The first was a review of 27 trials of single or paired vitamins which found no clear evidence of benefits on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease or cancer. The second was a large 12 year controlled study of elderly physicians which found no difference in cognitive decline between multivitamins and placebo. The third found no significant difference in recurring cardiovascular events (heart attack) with the use of a “high dose 28-component multivitamin”.

Based on these three studies, with vague reference to previous research with similar results, the editors concluded that effects – either beneficial or harmful – of multivitamins are too small to be detected with such small trials and, while conceding that there may be small benefits or harms in a small subgroup of the population, conclude that the “case is closed” and “…vitamins should not be used for chronic disease prevention.” The editors go beyond that, warning about certain harmful vitamins and even describing vitamin D studies (which have shown clear strong benefits in many different health areas) as equivocal and contradictory. What surprised me most though was their call to halt research: “…large prevention trials are no longer justified…” which scientists almost never do. Journalists (and their editors) with little science and no nutritional expertise then take these opinions (which is what an editorial really is) and run with them, concocting the misleading headlines, with accompanying articles, mentioned above.

This editorial raises so many important issues that it will require several columns for an adequate response. Next week I will discuss the nutrient paradox – how it can be that nutrients, by definition essential for life, frequently show little benefit in supplement studies. In later columns we’ll examine the three above-mentioned studies in more detail. Stay tuned! By the way I am still taking my vitamins.

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.