David Wolfe's Top 10 Immunity Superheroes

Your immune system is vast and complex. It is designed to detoxify your body as well as protect it from illness and foreign invaders.

Harmful bacteria, viruses, calcium-forming micro-organisms and candida are part of our world. Unfortunately, so are toxic chemicals, including everything from pesticides to car pollution to nuclear radiation to most municipal tap waters. In our world these harmful micro-organisms and the endless list of toxic chemicals assault our immune system consistently. Coupled with these assaults are the daily stresses of life and their deleterious effects upon us.

All of these add up to a weakened immune system: colds and flus, coughs, fevers, chronic health problems, skin disorders, digestive distress, nervous conditions, chronic fatigue and even cancer. When the body has too much to deal with, it stops being able to get rid of its waste efficiently and requires more support to help it fight off what is attacking it.

Fortunately, our immune system can be improved and empowered to such a point that not only can the harmful microbes be halted and the chemicals detoxified, but also a “stress defense shield” may be built up that can even drive off the effects of daily stress.

We all can learn more about how to empower our own immunity. I believe the best way to activate genius within the immune system is by ingesting certain superherbs and superfoods, taking probiotics and cultured foods, minimizing toxic food exposure by eating pure, organic, raw-living foods and making appropriate healthy lifestyle improvements.

In 400 BC Hippocrates said, “Let food be your medicine and let medicine be your food.” Both aspects of this phrase must be considered - not just food as medicine, but also medicine as food - that means superfoods (the most nutrient-rich plant foods in the world) and tonic superherbs (herbs that can be taken regularly like food). Out of 40,000 herbs used worldwide, perhaps only 50-60 of them are tonic superherbs. These superherbs should be taken for long periods, because, like all tonics, they are more like food and they build health treasures within and nourish our “stress defense shield.”

Whenever possible, try to include the following superfoods, superherbs and super products in your daily regime:

1. Reishi Mushroom

Reishi is Queen of the Medicinal Mushrooms. Reishi is the most well-studied herb in the history of the world. She has been the most revered herbal mushroom in Asia for over 2,000 years. The Daoists consider Reishi an “elixir of immortality” that is celebrated for its ability to significantly improve the functioning of the immune system by protecting us from the onslaught of viruses, bacteria, unwanted guests, pollution, chemicals, molds, and the toxicity that we are often subjected to in our world. Reishi helps build up our “stress defense shield” creating feelings of well-being within in spite of outer stresses.

2. Chaga Mushroom

Chaga is the King of the Medicinal Mushrooms. It contains the highest amounts of anti-tumor compounds of any herb. These compounds are in the form of betulin, betulinic acid and lupeol, which are powerful anti-mutagenic compounds naturally present in the white part of the birch tree’s bark (in which the chaga typically grows). Chaga is also extremely high in nourishing phytochemicals, nutrients, and free-radical scavenging antioxidants, especially melanin. Chaga is second only to cacao in antioxidant content. Chaga is the most powerful cancer-fighting herb known.

3. Gynostemma

According to the scientific herbal research being conducted in the People’s Republic of China, gynostemma has been identified as the most medicinal of all the Chinese herbs. It contains 120 saponins (immune modulating molecules that are fat soluble on one side of the molecule and water soluble on the other side) - all of which possess unique and specific health-giving properties. Gynostemma is a true tonic - you can take it or make tea out of it nearly every day with benefits that accrue the more you consume it. Gypenoside 49 (49^th of the 120 saponins) has been identified as a telomerase activator that youthens us genetically.

4. Ginseng

Known throughout the world for its amazing energy-restoring and strength-building properties, ginseng is an adaptogen that helps our bodies “adapt” to stressful environmental conditions. Ginseng root can boost energy, induce mental alertness and increase endurance. Ginseng also helps fight pain and alleviate radiation damage to healthy tissues.

5. Chlorella

Chlorella is a natural green micro-algae, and a superfood detoxifier. It contains high levels of complete protein with properties that bond with heavy metals and chemical toxins, helping to eliminate them from the brain and nervous system. Chlorella is the highest chlorophyll-containing plant in the world with 40 times the chlorophyll content of the best wheatgrass juice known.

6. Zeolites

Zeolites are a form of unique, volcanic mineral compounds with crystalline structures that form a sort of “cage.” This “cage” works like a magnet to attract heavy metals, chemicals and other pollutants (e.g. radioactive isotopes), capturing them and allowing their easy removal (without being re-absorbed) from the body. Zeolites have been shown to have anti-viral and cancer-fighting effects.

7. Shilajit

Contains 80+ minerals and fulvic acid which assists in the removal of toxins, improves nutrition to cells and helps restore electricity to the blood. Shilajit promotes the movement of minerals into muscle, tissue and bone. It is an Ayurvedic mineral-herb which translates as the “conqueror of mountains and destroyer of weakness.”

8. Astragalus Root

One of the most potent immune tonics used to improve the lungs, strengthen muscles, increase metabolism, reduce stress and strengthen the genetics. The first telomerase activator product to make it into the market is TA-65, an extract of astragalus.

9. Camu Camu Berry

This plant-derived Vitamin C source will super-boost your immune system and help repair connective tissue. Camu Camu is one of the most concentrated supplies of Vitamin C in the world, and a powerful antioxidant.

10. Probiotics

Consuming a combination of good quality probiotics (these include friendly bacteria such as: Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidus infantis, B. longum, L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, L. plantarum, L. salivarius, Enterococcus faecium, etc.) and cultured and fermented foods like coconut kefir will lead to enhanced immunity as the beneficial probiotic bacteria are symbiotic allies to your body that help: fight viruses, candida and other infections; produce B vitamins; and assist in detoxification. Probiotics help build up that “stress defense shield.”

We live in a time of unprecedented abundance. Through the Internet and the advancing health freedoms we are all enjoying, we have easy access to these superfoods, superherbs and super health products.

When you start investigating and utilizing these substances consistently and regularly, you will notice that your immunity will step-by-step be enhanced. Your thoughts will have more clarity. Your overall energy will increase. You will also likely sleep better and perform better in athletic activities. Your overall productivity will improve. Digestive distress decreases. Feelings of well-being begin to dominate your life.

Superfoods and tonic superherbs can be added into anyone’s diet. Simply begin with the first one or few that you’re drawn to and go from there. Get out a blender and have fun. Make different teas with the superherbs or smoothies with the superfoods. Better yet, take your superherb tea and blend it with your superfoods to make the best elixirs ever. Getting healthier and healthier is fun!

Source: www.life.gaiam.com

The Vague Nerve

- a single nerve that connects all of your vital organs - and it might just be the future of medicine

When Maria Vrind, a former gymnast from Volendam in the Netherlands, found that the only way she could put her socks on in the morning was to lie on her back with her feet in the air, she had to accept that things had reached a crisis point.

“I had become so stiff I couldn’t stand up,” she says. “It was a great shock because I’m such an active person.”

It was 1993. Vrind was in her late 40s and working two jobs, athletics coach and a carer for disabled people, but her condition now began taking over her life. “I had to stop my jobs and look for another one as I became increasingly disabled myself.” By the time she was diagnosed, seven years later, she was in severe pain and couldn’t walk any more. Her knees, ankles, wrists, elbows and shoulder joints were hot and inflamed. It was rheumatoid arthritis, a common but incurable autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks its own cells, in this case the lining of the joints, producing chronic inflammation and bone deformity.

Waiting rooms outside rheumatoid arthritis clinics used to be full of people in wheelchairs. That doesn’t happen as much now because of a new wave of drugs called biopharmaceuticals – such as highly targeted, genetically engineered proteins – which can really help. Not everyone feels better, however: even in countries with the best healthcare, at least 50 per cent of patients continue to suffer symptoms.

Like many patients, Vrind was given several different medications, including painkillers, a cancer drug called methotrexate to dampen her entire immune system, and biopharmaceuticals to block the production of specific inflammatory proteins. The drugs did their job well enough – at least, they did until one day in 2011, when they stopped working.

“I was on holiday with my family and my arthritis suddenly became terrible and I couldn’t walk – my daughter-in-law had to wash me.” Vrind was rushed to hospital, where she was hooked up to an intravenous drip and given another cancer drug, one that targeted her white blood cells. “It helped,” she admits, but she was nervous about relying on such a drug long-term.

Luckily, she would not have to. As she was resigning herself to a life of disability and monthly chemotherapy, a new treatment was being developed that would profoundly challenge our understanding of how the brain and body interact to control the immune system. It would open up a whole new approach to treating rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, using the nervous system to modify inflammation. It would even lead to research into how we might use our minds to stave off disease.

"A new treatment was being developed that would lead to research into how we might use our minds to stave off disease."

And, like many good ideas, it came from an unexpected source.

The nerve hunter

Kevin Tracey, a neurosurgeon based in New York, is a man haunted by personal events – a man with a mission. “My mother died from a brain tumour when I was five years old. It was very sudden and unexpected,” he says. “And I learned from that experience that the brain – nerves – are responsible for health.”

This drove his decision to become a brain surgeon. Then, during his hospital training, he was looking after a patient with serious burns who suddenly suffered severe inflammation. “She was an 11-month-old baby girl called Janice who died in my arms.” 

These traumatic moments made him a neurosurgeon who thinks a lot about inflammation. He believes it was this perspective that enabled him to interpret the results of an accidental experiment in a new way.

In the late 1990s, Tracey was experimenting with a rat’s brain. “We’d injected an anti-inflammatory drug into the brain because we were studying the beneficial effect of blocking inflammation during a stroke,” he recalls. “We were surprised to find that when the drug was present in the brain, it also blocked inflammation in the spleen and in other organs in the rest of the body. Yet the amount of drug we’d injected was far too small to have got into the bloodstream and travelled to the rest of the body.”

After months puzzling over this, he finally hit upon the idea that the brain might be using the nervous system – specifically the vagus nerve – to tell the spleen to switch off inflammation everywhere.

It was an extraordinary idea – if Tracey was right, inflammation in body tissues was being directly regulated by the brain.

"If Tracey was right, inflammation in body tissues was being directly regulated by the brain."

Communication between the immune system’s specialist cells in our organs and bloodstream and the electrical connections of the nervous system had been considered impossible. Now Tracey was apparently discovering that the two systems were intricately linked.

The first critical test of this exciting hypothesis was to cut the vagus nerve.

When Tracey and his team did, injecting the anti-inflammatory drug into the brain no longer had an effect on the rest of the body. The second test was to stimulate the nerve without any drug in the system.

“Because the vagus nerve, like all nerves, communicates information through electrical signals, it meant that we should be able to replicate the experiment by putting a nerve stimulator on the vagus nerve in the brainstem to block inflammation in the spleen,” he explains. “That’s what we did and that was the breakthrough experiment.”

The wandering nerve

The vagus nerve starts in the brainstem, just behind the ears.

It travels down each side of the neck, across the chest and down through the abdomen. ‘Vagus’ is Latin for ‘wandering’ and indeed this bundle of nerve fibres roves through the body, networking the brain with the stomach and digestive tract, the lungs, heart, spleen, intestines, liver and kidneys, not to mention a range of other nerves that are involved in speech, eye contact, facial expressions and even your ability to tune in to other people’s voices. 

It is made of thousands and thousands of fibres and 80 per cent of them are sensory, meaning that the vagus nerve reports back to your brain what is going on in your organs.

Operating far below the level of our conscious minds, the vagus nerve is vital for keeping our bodies healthy. It is an essential part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for calming organs after the stressed ‘fight-or-flight’ adrenaline response to danger. Not all vagus nerves are the same, however: some people have stronger vagus activity, which means their bodies can relax faster after a stress.

The strength of your vagus response is known as your vagal tone and it can be determined by using an electrocardiogram to measure heart rate. Every time you breathe in, your heart beats faster in order to speed the flow of oxygenated blood around your body. Breathe out and your heart rate slows. This variability is one of many things regulated by the vagus nerve, which is active when you breathe out but suppressed when you breathe in, so the bigger your difference in heart rate when breathing in and out, the higher your vagal tone.

Research shows that a high vagal tone makes your body better at regulating blood glucose levels, reducing the likelihood of diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease. Low vagal tone, however, has been associated with chronic inflammation.

As part of the immune system, inflammation has a useful role helping the body to heal after an injury, for example, but it can damage organs and blood vessels if it persists when it is not needed. One of the vagus nerve’s jobs is to reset the immune system and switch off production of proteins that fuel inflammation. Low vagal tone means this regulation is less effective and inflammation can become excessive, such as in Maria Vrind’s rheumatoid arthritis or in toxic shock syndrome, which Kevin Tracey believes killed little Janice.

Having found evidence of a role for the vagus in a range of chronic inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, Tracey and his colleagues wanted to see if it could become a possible route for treatment. The vagus nerve works as a two-way messenger, passing electrochemical signals between the organs and the brain.

The vagus nerve works as a two-way messenger, passing electrochemical signals between the organs and the brain.

In chronic inflammatory disease, Tracey figured, messages from the brain telling the spleen to switch off production of a particular inflammatory protein, tumour necrosis factor (TNF), weren’t being sent. Perhaps the signals could be boosted?

He spent the next decade meticulously mapping all the neural pathways involved in regulating TNF, from the brainstem to the mitochondria inside all our cells.

Eventually, with a robust understanding of how the vagus nerve controlled inflammation, Tracey was ready to test whether it was possible to intervene in human disease.

Stimulating trial

In the summer of 2011, Maria Vrind saw a newspaper advertisement calling for people with severe rheumatoid arthritis to volunteer for a clinical trial. Taking part would involve being fitted with an electrical implant directly connected to the vagus nerve. “I called them immediately,” she says. “I didn’t want to be on anticancer drugs my whole life; it’s bad for your organs and not good long-term.”

Tracey had designed the trial with his collaborator, Paul-Peter Tak, professor of rheumatology at the University of Amsterdam. Tak had long been searching for an alternative to strong drugs that suppress the immune system to treat rheumatoid arthritis. “The body’s immune response only becomes a problem when it attacks your own body rather than alien cells, or when it is chronic,” he reasoned. “So the question becomes: how can we enhance the body’s switch-off mechanism? How can we drive resolution?”

When Tracey called him to suggest stimulating the vagus nerve might be the answer by switching off production of TNF, Tak quickly saw the potential and was enthusiastic to see if it would work. Vagal nerve stimulation had already been approved in humans for epilepsy, so getting approval for an arthritis trial would be relatively straightforward. A more serious potential hurdle was whether people used to taking drugs for their condition would be willing to undergo an operation to implant a device inside their body: “There was a big question mark about whether patients would accept a neuroelectric device like a pacemaker,” Tak says.

He needn’t have worried. More than a thousand people expressed interest in the procedure, far more than were needed for the trial. In November 2011, Vrind was the first of 20 Dutch patients to be operated on.

“They put the pacemaker on the left-hand side of my chest, with wires that go up and attach to the vagus nerve in my throat,” she says. “I waited two weeks while the area healed, and then the doctors switched it on and adjusted the settings for me.”

She was given a magnet to swipe across her throat six times a day, activating the implant and stimulating her vagus nerve for 30 seconds at a time. The hope was that this would reduce the inflammatory response in her spleen. As Vrind and the other trial participants were sent home, it became a waiting game for Tracey, Tak and the team to see if the theory, lab studies and animal trials would bear fruit in real patients. “We hoped that for some, there would be an easing of their symptoms – perhaps their joints would become a little less painful,” Tak says.

At first, Vrind was a bit too eager for a miracle cure. She immediately stopped taking her pills, but her symptoms came back so badly that she was bedridden and in terrible pain. She went back on the drugs and they were gradually reduced over a week instead.

And then the extraordinary happened: Vrind experienced a recovery more remarkable than she or the scientists had dared hope for.

The extraordinary happened: Vrind experienced a recovery more remarkable than she or the scientists had dared hope for.

“Within a few weeks, I was in a great condition,” she says. “I could walk again and cycle, I started ice-skating again and got back to my gymnastics. I feel so much better.”

She is still taking methotrexate, which she will need at a low dose for the rest of her life, but at 68, semi-retired Vrind now plays and teaches seniors’ volleyball a couple of hours a week, cycles for at least an hour every day, does gymnastics, and plays with her eight grandchildren.

Other patients on the trial had similar transformative experiences. The results are still being prepared for publication but Tak says more than half of the patients showed significant improvement and around one-third are in remission – in effect cured of their rheumatoid arthritis. Sixteen of the 20 patients on the trial not only felt better, but measures of inflammation in their blood also went down. Some are now entirely drug-free. Even those who have not experienced clinically significant improvements with the implant insist it helps them; nobody wants it removed.

“We have shown very clear trends with stimulation of three minutes a day,” Tak says. “When we discontinued stimulation, you could see disease came back again and levels of TNF in the blood went up. We restarted stimulation, and it normalised again.”

Tak suspects that patients will continue to need vagal nerve stimulation for life. But unlike the drugs, which work by preventing production of immune cells and proteins such as TNF, vagal nerve stimulation seems to restore the body’s natural balance. It reduces the over-production of TNF that causes chronic inflammation but does not affect healthy immune function, so the body can respond normally to infection.

“I’m really glad I got into the trial,” says Vrind. “It’s been more than three years now since the implant and my symptoms haven’t returned. At first I felt a pain in my head and throat when I used it, but within a couple of days, it stopped. Now I don’t feel anything except a tightness in my throat and my voice trembles while it’s working.

“I have occasional stiffness or a little pain in my knee sometimes but it’s gone in a couple of hours. I don’t have any side-effects from the implant, like I had with the drugs, and the effect is not wearing off, like it did with the drugs.”

Raising the tone

Having an electrical device surgically implanted into your neck for the rest of your life is a serious procedure. But the technique has proved so successful – and so appealing to patients – that other researchers are now looking into using vagal nerve stimulation for a range of other chronic debilitating conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome and obesity.

But what about people who just have low vagal tone, whose physical and mental health could benefit from giving it a boost? Low vagal tone is associated with a range of health risks, whereas people with high vagal tone are not just healthier, they’re also socially and psychologically stronger – better able to concentrate and remember things, happier and less likely to be depressed, more empathetic and more likely to have close friendships.

Twin studies show that to a certain extent, vagal tone is genetically predetermined – some people are born luckier than others. But low vagal tone is more prevalent in those with certain lifestyles – people who do little exercise, for example. This led psychologists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to wonder if the relationship between vagal tone and wellbeing could be harnessed without the need for implants.

In 2010, Barbara Fredrickson and Bethany Kok recruited around 70 university staff members for an experiment. Each volunteer was asked to record the strength of emotions they felt every day. Vagal tone was measured at the beginning of the experiment and at the end, nine weeks later. As part of the experiment, half of the participants were taught a meditation technique to promote feelings of goodwill towards themselves and others. 

Those who meditated showed a significant rise in vagal tone, which was associated with reported increases in positive emotions. “That was the first experimental evidence that if you increased positive emotions and that led to increased social closeness, then vagal tone changed,” Kok says.

Now at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, Kok is conducting a much larger trial to see if the results they found can be replicated. If so, vagal tone could one day be used as a diagnostic tool. In a way, it already is. “Hospitals already track heart-rate variability – vagal tone – in patients that have had a heart attack,” she says, “because it is known that having low variability is a risk factor.”

The implications of being able to simply and cheaply improve vagal tone, and so relieve major public health burdens such as cardiovascular conditions and diabetes, are enormous. It has the potential to completely change how we view disease.

It has the potential to completely change how we view disease.

If visiting your GP involved a check on your vagal tone as easily as we test blood pressure, for example, you could be prescribed therapies to improve it. But this is still a long way off: “We don’t even know yet what a healthy vagal tone looks like,” cautions Kok. “We’re just looking at ranges, we don’t have precise measurements like we do for blood pressure.” 

What seems more likely in the shorter term is that devices will be implanted for many diseases that today are treated by drugs: “As the technology improves and these devices get smaller and more precise,” says Kevin Tracey, “I envisage a time where devices to control neural circuits for bioelectronic medicine will be injected – they will be placed either under local anaesthesia or under mild sedation.”

However the technology develops, our understanding of how the body manages disease has changed for ever. “It’s become increasingly clear that we can’t see organ systems in isolation, like we did in the past,” says Paul-Peter Tak. “We just looked at the immune system and therefore we have medicines that target the immune system.

“But it’s very clear that the human is one entity: mind and body are one. It sounds logical but it’s not how we looked at it before. We didn’t have the science to agree with what may seem intuitive. Now we have new data and new insights.”

And Maria Vrind, who despite severe rheumatoid arthritis can now cycle pain-free around Volendam, has a new lease of life: “It’s not a miracle – they told me how it works through electrical impulses – but it feels magical. I don’t want them to remove it ever. I have my life back!”

Source: www.businessinsider.com

10 Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance

More than 55 diseases have been linked to gluten, the protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. It’s estimated that 99% of the people who have either gluten intolerance or celiac disease are never diagnosed. It is also estimated that as much as 15% of the US population is gluten intolerant. Could you be one of them? 

If you have any of the following symptoms it could be a sign that you have gluten intolerance: 

1. Digestive issues such as gas, bloating, diarrhea and even constipation. I see the constipation particularly in children after eating gluten. 

2. Keratosis Pilaris, (also known as ‘chicken skin’ on the back of your arms). This tends be as a result of a fatty acid deficiency and vitamin A deficiency secondary to fat-malabsorption caused by gluten damaging the gut. 

3. Fatigue, brain fog or feeling tired after eating a meal that contains gluten. 

4. Diagnosis of an autoimmune disease such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Ulcerative colitis, Lupus, Psoriasis, Scleroderma or Multiple sclerosis. 

5. Neurologic symptoms such as dizziness or feeling of being off balance. 

6. Hormone imbalances such as PMS, PCOS or unexplained infertility. 

7. Migraine headaches. 

8. Diagnosis of chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia. These diagnoses simply indicate your conventional doctor cannot pin point the cause of your fatigue or pain. 

9. Inflammation, swelling or pain in your joints such as fingers, knees or hips. 

10. Mood issues such as anxiety, depression, mood swings and ADD. 

How to test for gluten intolerance? 

I have found the single best ways to determine if you have an issue with gluten is to do an elimination diet and take it out of your diet for at least 2 to 3 weeks and then reintroduce it. Please note that gluten is a very large protein and it can take months and even years to clear from your system so the longer you can eliminate it from your diet before reintroducing it, the better. The best advice that I share with my patients is that if they feel significantly better off of gluten or feel worse when they reintroduce it, then gluten is likely a problem for them. In order to get accurate results from this testing method you must elimination 100% of the gluten from your diet. 

How to treat gluten intolerance? 

Eliminating gluten 100% from your diet means 100%. Even trace amounts of gluten from cross contamination or medications or supplements can be enough to cause an immune reaction in your body. The 80/20 rule or “we don’t eat it in our house, just when we eat out” is a complete misconception. An article published in 2001 states that for those with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity eating gluten just once a month increased the relative risk of death by 600%.

Source: www.cdn.eatlocalgrown.com

Glutathione and Methylation

In the simplest terms, maintaining life can be viewed as the ability to resist oxidation. Oxygen is essential to life, but oxygen is like fire. It can do severe damage unless controlled by antioxidants, known as “reducing” molecules. We must balance reduction and oxidation: better known as redox: the fundamental challenge of life. What’s great about that word redox, is that it shows that they are profoundly linked and that we need both. Once you understand this relationship, it leads to all kinds of new insights.

The first is that, from the very moment of conception, life can be sparked by the unique redox environment created when a sperm fertilizes an egg. The sperm is extremely rich in proteins containing the mineral selenium, which is a potent reducing agent for glutathione, the master antioxidant molecule in cells. The egg, on the other hand, is very rich in glutathione. Bring these two potent antioxidant strategies together, and you create an exceptionally reduced cell that can initiate life and promote development using the power of redox. That reducing power provides a metabolic spark as new life begins its journey, allowing the rapidly dividing cells to safely maintain a high rate of oxidation. The same metabolic challenge continues as the embryo develops. The entire nervous system and the shaping of gene activity are profoundly influenced by this redox balance as well. Aging is essentially a process of gradual oxidation, and our health as we age depends on successfully quenching that oxidation.

Finally, innumerable diseases are linked to high levels of oxidation and low levels of glutathione, such as: schizophrenia to major depression, autism, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and most chronic autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. So let’s start with glutathione.

How do we make this critical antioxidant, glutathione?

The answer is a single word: cysteine. You can get cysteine from the diet, in meat, eggs, garlic, onions, red pepper, broccoli and other foods. Cells in the gut lining, aided by transporter molecules, will bring it into the body. However, and this is a very important point, both gluten (found in grains such as wheat) and casein (milk protein) can inhibit the uptake of cysteine. Why is it that so many children with autism, or adults with autoimmune disorders, do better when they eliminate wheat and milk from their diet? I personally think it’s due to a redox mechanism.

How do two of our most popular foods inhibit uptake of such an important protein?

Both casein and gluten are broken down into certain peptides that are relatively stable. The protein casein is broken into casomorphins. The “morphins” are so named because, like morphine, they act on the opiate receptors. The most famous one, beta casomorphin 7 (BCM7), has seven amino acids. Our recent research shows that BCM7 first stimulates the uptake of cysteine, but then inhibits it. However, the human BCM7 is markedly different than bovine BCM7 from the cow. It turns out that the BCM7 from a cow inhibits cysteine at least twice as much as the BCM7 from a human mother. The implications for health are profound if you start thinking about formula feeding and all the dairy products from cows in our diet. Breastfeeding is clearly regulating the redox system of newborns. A diet high in dairy from cows can promote a decrease in our antioxidant capacity, our ability to make enough glutathione.

Similarly, the protein in gluten is known as gliadin, and it also creates a seven amino acid peptide, like BCM7. We already know that gliadin can trigger celiac disease, and can also lead to gluten intolerance and sensitivity. This suggests that these problems reflect the ability of gluten peptides to inhibit cysteine uptake, perhaps contributing to chronic inflammation, although we have more to learn about that. Of course, not everybody who eats diary or wheat has poor antioxidant capacity. There are probably genetic vulnerabilities that bring some people closer to a critical point for oxidative stress, while for others it is a non-issue. Overall, though, this is an issue to consider in any chronic inflammatory disease or neuro-immune disease.

There is another way to make glutathione besides cysteine from the diet.

Your body can take homocysteine and convert it back to cysteine. Homocysteine is a metabolite of the essential amino acid methionine, and elevated levels have been associated with vascular disease. Homocysteine is created when methionine donates its methyl group to another molecule in a process known as methylation.

Methylation is a fundamental process of life which is intimately linked to redox status. In chemistry, a methyl group is a hydrocarbon molecule, or CH3. When a substance is methylated, it means that a CH3 molecule has been added to it.

Methylation can regulate gene expression, protein function, even RNA metabolism. It can suppress viruses, even latent viruses or cancer viruses we are born with and can help us handle heavy metals. In the liver in particular, methylating a toxin helps change it to a form of the compound that can be more easily processed and excreted.

Methylation is an extremely broad and fundamental action that nature uses to regulate all kinds of processes. I find it fascinating by the way it regulates epigenetic changes (changes to gene expression that occur because of environmental factors) by affecting how DNA unravels during development. Some changes can be permanent for the whole lifespan and can even be passed down as many as three generations. That shows that the environment, through the process of methylation, can be quite a profound influence. There are 150-200 methyl transferase enzymes, and each enzyme can methylate multiple targets. So you can imagine methylation as a spider’s web within each cell, and that web branches out in many directions.

Methylation and glutathione are very tightly intertwined. There is a critical metabolic intersection where cells must decide to either make more glutathione, or support more methylation. The overall balance between these two options is crucial to health, and this occurs with homocysteine. When methionine gives away its methyl group, we’re left with homocysteine. And the body has to decide, should homocysteine be methylated, and go back into methionine, or should it be converted into cysteine, so that the body can make more of the antioxidant glutathione? This fundamental decision is made again and again by the body, and the overall balance is crucial to health. Too little glutathione and we will end up with free radical, oxidative damage. Not enough methylation, and many genes and viruses will not be properly regulated. Excess homocysteine, and the risk of vascular disease goes up.

It’s important to understand that multiple factors impinge on the same system. What’s so important here is that the glutathione antioxidant system is a common target for so many different environmental toxins and infections. Every single one of them impinges on the glutathione system. It’s not that each molecule of mercury or lead picks off one glutathione molecule. No. It’s that in general, environmental assaults inhibit the enzymes that are responsible for keeping the glutathione in its reduced antioxidant state, where it can do its job. The potent ability of mercury to inhibit selenium containing enzymes is a good example.

Obviously, some people sail through these stressors and remain healthy, while others stumble and fall. There are nutrients that more vulnerable people might find useful to supplement to help shore up the methylation/glutathione process.

Though many molecules and nutrients are important, the active forms of vitamin B12 (adenosyl B12 and methyl B12) and the active form of folate (methylfolate) are essential to this process. Once you have the raw material to make glutathione or to methylate, you need cofactors like methylfolate and methyl B12 to complete the process. If we don’t make enough of these active forms, we will not be able to smoothly and fluidly shift between methylation and glutathione.

Nature allows, and even encourages, genetic variation, and the bottom line is that some people have genetic variations that render this process less functional. Even with a less functional genetic legacy, you might be fine if you are not stressed by the environment—in particular by chronic infections or toxic assaults. Stress brings out limitations in genes that otherwise are latent and not problematic. That’s a general truth. So yes, with proper testing by a doctor to see if there is a functional deficiency, supplementation with active forms can help.

What do the active forms of B12 do for methylation and glutathione synthesis?

First, I should point out that we ourselves cannot make B12, also known as cobalamin. Bacteria make it for us, and since vegetables don’t carry those bacteria, vegans can be deficient in B12. There are several natural forms of B12 which need to be converted into the active forms, adenosylB12 and methylB12. CyanoB12, the form in most vitamin supplements, is not active and is less useful than the active forms for treating deficiency states. Glutathione itself is needed for converting other forms of B12 to the active forms. Indeed, there is a type of cobalamin called glutathionylcobalamin that is an intermediate for making the active forms.

There are two enzymes in the human body that require active B12 as a cofactor. One is called methylmalonyl CoA mutase, and it needs adenosyl B12. It is an enzyme that is necessary for the mitochondria—the energy powerhouse of your cell—to function. The other enzyme that requires active B12 is the enzyme methionine synthase, which requires methyl B12.
Methyl B12 is constantly recycled. It donates its methyl group to homocysteine, which then turns into methionine. Once B12 is missing its methyl group, it needs to get a fresh one. And that’s where methylfolate comes in. Methylfolate is in essence a methyl donor for methionine synthase. That’s its job in life. It is the only molecule than can donate a methyl group to B12. Once it does that, the rest of the folate is available to go out and support all kinds of other reactions in the body that need plain folate.

So what happens when we don’t have enough methyl B12?

When your level of methylB12 is low, homocysteine builds up and this can have adverse health effects. High homocysteine levels in the blood reflect low activity of the enzyme methionine synthase, and this has been linked to an increased risk of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. It is also well known that homocysteine levels are increased in Alzheimer’s disease, which suggests a role for impaired methylation in this neurodegenerative disorder. Of course low B12 levels are classically associated with pernicious anemia and with peripheral neuropathy.

What happens when you don’t have enough methylfolate?

Low levels of folate are also classically associated with anemia, heart disease, fetal abnormalities such as spina bifida, as well as neuropathies and these have been specifically linked to a deficiency in methylfolate. In addition, recognition of the important role of methylfolate and vitamin B12 in supporting D4 dopamine receptor methylation links their deficiency to impaired attention such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). People with genetic polymorphisms in the enzyme that makes methylfolate are particularly vulnerable to a deficiency.

In addition to vitamin B12 and methylfolate, there are several other nutritional supplements whose actions are critical for redox and methylation pathways. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) provides a supplementary source of cysteine. NAC can cross into the cell cytoplasm where the cysteine is released and allowed to promote glutathione synthesis. SAMe is an active, methyl-donating derivative of the essential amino acid methionine, and during oxidative conditions its levels may be low, due to low methionine synthase activity. SAMe has also shown particular benefit in treating depression. The glutathione antioxidant system is a common target for so many different environmental toxins.  Every single one of them impinges on the glutathione system, and their effects are additive.

Source: www.drelenamorreale.com

Gluten-free / Casein-free dietary intervention:

Parents, support groups and several clinical studies report improvement in behavioral symptoms when autistic children are treated with a gluten-free/casein-free dietary intervention. Opiod derivatives of these food products, namely β-casomorphin (β-CM) and gliadinomorphin (GM) are absorbed from a “leaky gut” and may activate opiate receptors in brain. Morphine has been linked with oxidative imbalances during the development of addiction, and oxidative stress is believed to be a significant etiological factor for autism. We therefore hypothesized that opiates and food-derived opiate peptides might promote oxidative stress in neurons, leading to exacerbated behavioral symptoms. 

Objectives: 

1. To observe the acute and chronic effects of morphine and food-derived opiate peptides, as well as the opiate antagonist naltrexone, on cysteine uptake in cultured human neuronal cells.
2. To measure the effect of these drugs on cellular levels of sulfur-containing metabolites, including glutathione (GSH), a major antioxidant.

Methods:

Cellular [³⁵S]-Cysteine Uptake:

SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were grown to confluence in six-well plates in α-MEM media containing 10% FBS and 1% penicillin-streptomycin. Cells were pre-treated with drugs for the specified time and [³⁵S]-cysteine uptake was measured. Non-transported [³⁵S]-cysteine was subtracted from total CPM for each sample and values were normalized to protein content.

HPLC Determination of Intracellular Thiols:

SH-SY5Y cells were pre-treated with drugs prior to addition of ice-cold perchloric acid. After sonication, centrifugation and filtration, the protein-free cell extract was analyzed via HPLC with electrochemical detection to measure thiol levels. Results were normalised to protein content.

Results:

Acute treatment with morphine decreased [³⁵S]-cysteine uptake by 70% (p<0.001), while β-CM and GM decreased uptake by 40% (p<0.05). Naltrexone blocked both of these effects, indicating involvement of opiate receptors. Long-term treatment with each of the opiates caused a complex pattern of inhibition and recovery of [³⁵S]-cysteine uptake activity, ultimately resulting in a sustained inhibition at 24 and 48 hrs.

β-CM and GM acutely lowered the cellular glutathione level (52% and 62%, respectively), while the level of homocysteine was acutely increased (50% and 44%, respectively). Glutathione levels recovered during the ensuing 8 hrs, although homocysteine levels decreased. Both glutathione and homocysteine levels were reduced at 24 and 48 hrs.

Together these results indicate that opiates acutely inhibit cysteine uptake in neuronal cells, resulting in an increase of homocysteine transsulfuration to cysteine and glutathione. However, this pathway is gradually exhausted, leading to decreased levels of intracellular levels of thiol metabolites, including glutathione. The long-term decrease in glutathione can contribute to oxidative stress.

Conclusions:

This is the first study to demonstrate inhibitory effects of food-derived opiod peptides on redox status and provides mechanistic support for the “Gut-Brain Hypothesis”. It reveals a rationale for the beneficial effect of a GF/CF dietary intervention in the treatment of autistic children, and may have general relevance for inflammatory bowel disorders in which gluten and/or casein intolerance plays a role.

Source: www.imfar.confex.com