10 November 2009

Forget Universal Health Care: Eat Your Ice Cream!


Ice cream researchers are converting the cold treat into a Trojan Horse for long life and vitality. They are learning to supplement the frozen delight with ingredients known to bolster the health of the cardiovascular, digestive, endocrine, and immune systems. And they are just getting started . . . .
Adding nutrients such as pro-biotics, which are already found in some dairy products, and fiber to ice cream can improve digestive health. Many diseases are caused by inflammation that starts in the intestines, Gruen said. Improving digestive health with functional foods might reduce that inflammation. Although functional foods have health benefits, there are many challenges to adding nutrients to ice cream.

"Our major challenges are texture, flavor and psychological acceptance," Gruen said. "The nutrients we add often have bitter tastes and affect the texture of ice cream that we have to mask. Flavors like chocolate are easier to work with because the flavor is so strong that it can overcome other flavors from the nutrients. Another challenge is determining whether people would be upset that we're 'tampering' with a comfort food. We need to know if they would be more willing to pay for ice cream with added nutritional benefits."

Gruen and his research team are looking at using the açai berry and remnants from grapes in wine-making to add nutrients to ice cream. They hope to have a prototype ready for tasting in the next six months. _SD
Al Fin nutritionists are unanimous in their support for this approach to good health. Whereas the health care bills before the US Congress threaten to destroy everything that is innovative and generative in the US biomedical system, health-promoting ice cream is merely food.

It is understandable why persons prone to premature senility and aging -- such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi -- might be obsessed with matters of health, to the point of losing all sense of reason and proportion. But that is no reason to destroy the most innovative biomedical system in the world. Don't be such a jerk, Nancy! ;-)

But seriously, folks, the concept of using ordinary foods and beverages as vectors for evolutionary and revolutionary health improvements, is an idea long overdue. Mainstream food scientists think very small. Al Fin nutritionists think very big. Stay tuned.

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26 September 2009

Works Best as a Rectal Suppository

An ingenious band of rogue scientists who go by the likely name of "Dr. Z" have invented a consumer product they call Pearly Dreams Sleep Enhancing Toothpaste. It contains melatonin, valerian, passion flower, and balm mint in a patented combination almost certain to knock you out before you have time to replace your toothbrush in its slot. After reading the testimonials at the Pearly Dreams website, you may be willing to send in your $19.95 for a 3.4 oz tube.

Al Fin engineers working at their top secret testing lab, have discovered that Pearly Dreams works best as a rectal suppository -- even better than as a toothpaste! This is not as surprising as it first sounds, since as you may know, Preparation H was a toothpaste before the FDA told them where to stick it. Something similar may happen to the Pearly Dreams product, by the time the FDA gets through with them.

H/T Keelynet.com and http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/brush_teeth_fall_asleep/

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06 August 2008

Make Every Meal Fit for Royalty

There is a reason that fortunes were made and wars were fought throughout history over spice routes and salt deposits. We in modern countries have an abundance of spices and seasonings to suit our every whim. But are we taking best advantage of them?
“Because herbs and spices have a very low calorie content and are relatively inexpensive, they’re a great way to get a lot of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory power into your diet,” said study co-author James Hargrove, associate professor of foods and nutrition in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences....

...The researchers found a strong and direct correlation between the phenol content of common herbs and spices and their ability to inhibit the formation of AGE compounds. Spices such as cloves and cinnamon had phenol levels that were 30 percent and 18 percent of dry weight, respectively, while herbs such as oregano and sage were eight and six percent phenol by dry weight, respectively. For comparison, blueberries – which are widely touted for their antioxidant capabilities – contain roughly five percent phenol by dry weight.

Study co-author Diane Hartle, associate professor in the UGA College of Pharmacy, said various phenols are absorbed differently by the body and have different mechanisms of action, so it’s likely that a variety of spices will provide maximum benefit.

“If you set up a good herb and spice cabinet and season your food liberally, you could double or even triple the medicinal value of your meal without increasing the caloric content,” she said.

She added that controlling blood sugar and the formation of AGE compounds can also decrease the risk of cardiovascular damage associated with diabetes and aging. She explained that high blood sugar accelerates heart disease partly because AGE compounds form in the blood and in the walls of blood vessels. The AGE compounds aggravate atherosclerosis, which produces cholesterol plaques. _PO
While you are adding healthy spices to your foods, you can also gain significant benefit by substituting potassium salts for sodium salt in routine food seasoning. The taste is quite similar to table salt, and persons of all ages and states of health (except kidney failure with high serum potassium) can safely take extra potassium.

Throughout most of human history, only a few lucky persons were able to enjoy most of the spices, beverages, and foods that are available to even the poorest person in the modern world. We are living in an epicurean age. Are we to blame if eating and drinking well can also be good for us?

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15 January 2008

The Poor Man's TNF Blocker: Curcumin

Enbrel (Etanercept), an anti-arthritis drug, has recently been shown to improve cognition in Alzheimer's Disease patients, via Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF) blocking. Even if Etanercept was approved for treating AD, a yearly dose of Enbrel would cost an Alzheimer's patient US $30,000 per year.

Curcumin (turmeric), a root spice used in Indian cooking, also blocks TNF. In addition, curcumin crosses the blood-brain-barrier readily. Prevalence of AD in Indian seniors is less than half the prevalence of AD in North Americans. Combining those facts suggests that Indians may be protected from Alzheimer's Disease by the contents of their diet, possibly via at least one of the same pathways that the drug Enbrel protects against AD.

In some studies in AD model mice, Beta Amyloid levels in mice given curcumin were reduced by 40% compared to levels in mice not given curcumin. Above a certain dose level of curcumin, the amyloid reduction affect of curcumin was diminished, however.

North American researchers have studied curcumin for protective effects in cancer and sepsis, and more recently have begun looking at curcumin for AD prevention. The common pathway for those diseases that is blocked by curcumin is our old friend, the NFkappaB pathway, triggered by TNF, among other things.

With the knowledge that AD is worsened by multiple TNF effects on glial cells in the brain, the importance of locating effective TNF inhibitors grows more urgent.

This article presents several other pharmacological effects of curcumin.

More information about the awakening of western medicine to Curcumin.

Nice article on curcumin by John Smart

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25 March 2007

Radical Synthesis of Natural Substances


Chemists have had a difficult time synthetically creating many important natural substances in the laboratory.

Bioactive compounds found in marine and terrestrial organisms often have anti-cancer, anti-bacterial and other desireable qualities. The cost of synthesizing the compounds can be prohibitive, though.

This is a critical concern, as identification of a reasonably economic means of production for marine and other natural products is typically one of the most challenging hurdles in a potential drug's commercial development. An overly complex and expensive synthesis can even slow or halt the development of an otherwise promising drug candidate.

....A range of drugs from aspirin to the widely used cancer treatment Taxol has been discovered in nature, but the complexity of producing natural products has made some companies reluctant to focus on them.

“There is this far-ranging and damaging perception that natural products are too complex to be used in a drug discovery setting despite their overwhelming track record in medicine,” says Baran. “I think if our work has helped in even a small way to revive the use of natural products, then we've served our purpose.”
Source
Phil Baran and colleagues at Scripps Institute have opened the door to faster and more economical synthesis of natural products by changing the rules.
A radically different approach to constructing complex molecules could help to tap the pharmaceutical potential of natural products. The concept, devised by Phil Baran and colleagues at Scripps Institute, La Jolla, California, promises to generate natural products in much larger amounts than conventional methods, making biological testing much easier for drug discovery scientists.

Most total syntheses, which assemble complicated carbon-based molecules from relatively simple building blocks, make liberal use of protecting groups. These chemical shields prevent completed parts of a molecule being altered while chemists are still tinkering with other sections that are still under construction. However, adding and removing protecting groups can add many steps to a synthesis, cutting overall yields drastically.

Baran's team have now made a collection of marine natural products without using a single protecting group. Instead, they take advantage of the intrinsic reactivity of the molecule's different functional groups.

This unconventional approach delivered several grams of compounds such as ambiguine and welwitindolinone in less than 10 steps. What's more, the reactions were enatioselective - they made only the preferred mirror-image form, or enantiomer, of the molecule, instead of a racemic mixture containing equal amounts of both enantiomers. This is a vast improvement over traditional syntheses, which make milligrams of racemic product in around 30 steps.
Source



Hat tip Biosingularity blog. Biosingularity blog specifically tracks developments on the cutting edge of biology, and is worth a regular look.

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21 April 2006

Waiting to Make SENS of Aging, Life Extension, Longevity?

Many of you are familiar with Aubrey de Grey and his SENS approach to life extension and longevity. For the intermediate term, de Grey's approach offers a lot of promise in the fight against aging.

In the short term, we need something more immediate. Ray Kurzweil has written a book on aging, discussing the several dozen supplements he takes daily. Most people do not need that much, but some might need more. A recent Barron's article took a stab at the subject, and the last Technology Review featured an interesting article about research into the anti-aging gene sirt.

This brief posting will deal with the basics of life extension now, rather than longevity in the next fifty years. Several postings in Al Fin have dealt with this topic, and there is no need to repeat them. This is just the basics. People below the age of 40 should ignore the hormone section. Each person should selectively choose agents based upon his own circumstances. Inform yourself in basic biology. Consult professionals before taking prescription medicines or extremely high doses of any agent. Middle aged males with or without family history of prostate cancer: take androgens, DHEA, etc. at your own risk, or after consulting a professional.

1. Hormones: DHEA, Pregnenolone, HGH, androgens, estrogens, thymosin, melatonin, and thyroid.
2. Antioxidants: Vitamins A,C,E, Lipoic Acid, Selenium, NAC, CoQ10, polyphenols, other phyto-antioxidants.
3. Antiglycation agents: Aminoguanidine, Carnosine, pyridoxamine, benfotiamine, ALT 711.
4. Brain Boosters: Ginkgo, PS, bacopa, DMAE, neurotransmitter precursors, hydergine, vinpocetine, Huperzine, etc.
5. Calorie restriction mimetics such as resveratrol, quercetin, etc.
6. General: TMG, Curcumin, carnitine, B complex, etc.
5. Immune Boosters: Wide variety of herbals and complex carbohydrate derivatives of plants and microorganisms, plus a lot of laughter.
6. Physical exercise and prudent eating, plus elimination of clearly bad habits and institution of good lifestyle habits.
7. Mental and emotional training. Practise sentic cycles and other forms of meditation. Read books on mind and memory training, and practise exercises.

If you are too old to wait for SENS, but rebel against the need to practise self-discipline, simply get old as you are doing. Otherwise, consult the longevity links posted on the side-bar of the Al Fin main page. Learn what you can, and start practising what you can. The important thing is to take a systematic approach. If you take supplements, but smoke like a stack, drink like a fish, exercise less than a minute a week, and sleep only two or three hours a night, you may not be taking a balanced approach to the problem.

In a later post, I will go into more detail on some of the particular agents and approaches outlined above. In the meantime, feel free to utilise the source materials that are provided under "longevity" and "singularity".

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15 March 2006

Eating Germs to Stay Well

Consider this: you come down with productive cough, fever, chills. The chest Xray indicates an infiltrate in your lung fields. Your doctor prescribes antibiotics, and the symptoms subside, you feel better. What do you do next? According to this newsrelease, you should probably eat some germs. Lactobacilli to be specific. Normal gut flora that make vitamins for you and keep the bad bacteria and yeast from setting up shop in your belly. Read on:

Once outside the womb, we are bombarded by microbes and soon we have 10 times more microbes in our body than the number of cells that make up the human body.

It is the bad microbes that cause disease. Good microbes work with the body's immune system to keep the bad microbes at bay by crowding them out. In the symbiotic relationship between good and bad microbes, recent research has uncovered the importance of these good microbes.

“The good microbes - and this is where probiotics come in - keep the bad microbes in small numbers. But they also stimulate the immune system and improve our digestive function. That's the subject of research that has been going on for years,” Huffnagle says.

Probiotics are bacteria that we eat and they're good for our health. They are found in a number of foods that are readily available in the supermarket, and they taste good. You can support probiotic growth by increasing the amount of cultured dairy products you eat, such as cheeses and yogurt, and the foods that encourage probiotics from these dairy products to multiply even further: spices, tea, red wine, berries, apples and beans.

Huffnagle says that most of these good microbes exist within our body in the digestive track, with the largest number occurring in the small and large intestines.

“It's the job of these good microbes to stimulate our immune system, and the other job they do is to stimulate good digestive health,” he says.


Not only that, but the good bacteria are capable of producing antibiotics that attack bad bacteria. Follow along from this newsreport:

Nisin, a peptide, contains 34 amino acid residues and the unusual amino acids lanthionine, methyllanthionine, dehydroalanine and dehydro-amino-butyric acid. The latter are made by post-translational modification of proteins.

Nisin works well against Gram-positive bacteria and food-borne pathogens that cause botulism and listeriosis because it punches holes into cell membranes and binds to essential molecules in the disease-causing bacteria. Hitting on at least two targets reduces the risk of resistance occurring, van der Donk said.

The researchers synthesized nisin simply in a test tube by using a single cyclase enzyme to re-create the process that normally occurs in a strain of the bacterium Lactococcus lactis found naturally in milk. They demonstrated how just one protein (NisC) makes 10 new chemical bonds in a stereochemically defined fashion. Specifically, they showed that NisC is responsible for the formation of five characteristic thioether rings required for nisin's biological activity.

"Despite all the progress in synthetic chemistry, we cannot come close to making a compound like nisin efficiently," van der Donk said. "Synthetic chemists in the past needed 67 steps to make it, while nature uses just two enzymes. One of these is the cyclase whose activity we have demonstrated in this paper."


Read more here.

When you are born, your gastrointestinal tract is sterile. As soon as you began eating, your gut was colonised by bacteria. If you were breast-fed, you were lucky enough to receive booster nutrients that promoted bifidobacteria, which prevent colonisation by pathogenic bacteria. Other food sources, although nutritious enough, lack that advantage.

Gut bacteria produce vitamins B12 and K for us, as well as keeping out the bad germs. Genetically engineered gut bacteria could do much more for us, and would be a natural way of introducing genetically engineered resveratrol, curcumin, or capsaicin or other natural substances known to counter cancer or promote longevity.

Most of us do not like to think about what goes on inside of us, until we get sick, then we definitely want a physician to think very hard about what is inside of us and how to make it better. But would it not be better to stay well, if you had the choice?

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22 February 2006

Predicting Life Extension and Human Longevity

Over at the Speculist Blog, Stephen Gordon talks about the joys and perils of predicting trends in human longevity and life extension. Stephen once predicted--boldly, he felt--that 2014 would be the date for life extension to take off. Now Stephen is in the uncomfortable position of being upstaged by a biologist from Stanford, Shripad Tuljapurkar.

In this article, Dr. Tuljapurkar makes many interesting predictions concerning the effects on the world of increasing average lifespan past the 100 year mark. Overpopulation, increased inequality, a trend toward more serial monogamy, and the raising of the retirement age are some of his predictions. Dr. T. sets the date 2010 as the beginning of the rising lifespan.

The Speculist feels that a lot of unanticipated things will happen between now and 2010, and certainly between now and 2030. The Speculist represents a fairly optimistic blog-vision of the future. But read both the above article, and the reaction by the Speculist.

Personally, I feel that the acceleration has already begun. Not only are new drugs such as statins, ACEIs, ARBs, modafinil, donezepil, memantine, and many others changing many of the underlying processes of degeneration in the body and mind, but the process of new drug discovery is exploding rapidly. In addition, many people have gone on their own into personal life extension experimentation, taking pharmaceuticals and non-pharmaceuticals alike. Vitamin stores are happy to sell resveratrol, quercetin, carnosine, lipoic acid, Curcumin, DHEA, and other promising non-pharmaceuticals to an ever more sophisticated buying public.

Besides all that, a new generation of scientists has grown up with the idea that life extension is not wrong or unnatural, but is completely natural, ethical, and a worthy goal to pursue. These scientists are finding that the people who control the purse-strings are growing more agreeable as well. The tsunami has been spawned by the underlying groundswell, and will not be stopped. ETA: any time now.

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20 February 2006

Resveratrol, Quercitin, Calorie Restriction, Longevity

Scientific American's new issue contains an article about "longevity genes" and the search to unlock them. Many articles have been written about the Sir and Sirt genes known to influence longevity in yeast and lower animals. The recent SciAm article brings us fairly up to date on the research of the authors and their associates (David Sinclair and Lenny Guarente).

Calorie restriction (CR) was cited as one of the few maneuvers known to increase lifespan of laboratory animals. Not surprisingly, CR works through the Sirt genes. What was surprising was that resveratrol, found in red grapes and wine, also affects the Sirt genes in much the same way as CR.

First of all, the researchers had to dispense with an old theory that turned out to be false:
The phenomenon (life extension through CR) was long attributed to a simple slowing down of metabolism--cells' production of energy from fuel molecules--and therefore reduction of its toxic by-products in response to less food.

But this view now appears to be incorrect. Calorie restriction does not slow metabolism in mammals, and in yeast and worms, metabolism is both sped up and altered by the diet. We believe, therefore, that calorie restriction is a biological stressor like natural food scarcity that induces a defensive response to boost the organism's chances of survival. In mammals, its effects include changes in cellular defenses, repair, energy production and activation of programmed cell death known as apoptosis.


....Yet if humans are ever to reap the health benefits of calorie restriction, radical dieting is not a reasonable option. Drugs that can modulate the activity of Sir2 and its siblings (collectively referred to as Sirtuins) in a similar manner will be needed. Just such a Sirtuin-activating compound, or STAC, called resveratrol has proven particularly interesting. Resveratrol is a small molecule present in red wine and manufactured by a variety of plants when they are stressed. At least 18 other compounds produced by plants in response to stress have also been found to modulate Sirtuins, suggest?-ing that the plants may use such mole?-cules to control their own Sir2 enzymes.

....Feeding resveratrol to yeast, worms or flies or placing them on a calorie-restricted diet extends their life spans about 30 percent, but only if they possess the SIR2 gene. Moreover, a fly that overproduces Sir2 has an increased life span that cannot be further extended by resveratrol or calorie restriction. The simplest interpretation is that calorie restriction and resveratrol each prolong the lives of fruit flies by activating Sir2.

Resveratrol-fed flies not only live longer, despite eating as much as they want, but they do not suffer from the reduced fertility often caused by calorie restriction. This is welcome news for those of us hoping to treat human diseases with molecules that target Sir2 enzymes. But first we want a better understanding of the role of Sir2 in mammals.


....Increased Sirt1 (the mammalian version of Sir2) in mice and rats, for example, allows some of the animals' cells to survive in the face of stress that would normally trigger their programmed suicide. Sirt1 does this by regulating the activity of several other key cellular proteins, such as p53, FoxO and Ku70, that are involved either in setting a threshold for apoptosis or in prompting cell repair. Sirt1 thus enhances cellular repair mechanisms while buying time for them to work.

....Both our labs are running carefully controlled mouse experiments that should soon tell us whether the SIRT1 gene controls health and life span in a mammal. We will not know definitively how Sirtuin genes affect human longevity for decades. Those who are hoping to pop a pill and live to 130 may have therefore been born a bit too early. Nevertheless, those of us already alive could live to see medications that modulate the activity of Sirtuin enzymes employed to treat specific conditions such as Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. In fact, several such drugs have begun clinical trials for treatment of diabetes, herpes and neurodegenerative diseases.

The authors were careful not to hype resveratrol, since the research is still ongoing. Other people working with CR are a bit more enthusiastic about resveratrol. Both resveratrol and quercetin have been known for a number of years now to influence Sirt genes. Vitamin and supplement makers are growing quite sophisticated in keeping up with research, and waste no time making natural phytochemicals available to the public, where legal.

It is unlikely that these phytochemicals represent a hazard to the public. Certainly I have been imbibing resveratrol in liquid form for several years now, with no untoward effects noted. Nevertheless, it is hazardous to the purse to buy every supplement that some vitamin salesman promotes. Follow the research and make up your own mind.

I recommend reading the Scientific American article in its entirety.

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11 February 2006

Alzheimer's Disease Puzzle: New Key to Prevention


For over a decade, scientists have known that apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4) is associated with susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease. Slowly, neuroscientists are accumulating more details about the actual mechanism by which apoE4 leads to neurological damage in Alzheimer's. In this ScienceDaily news release, Georgetown Neuroscientists, Rebeck and Hoe, present more details about this connection:

the research team specifically found that receptors on the outside of brain nerve cells (neurons) that bind on to APOE and glutamate are connected on the surface of neurons, separated from each other by only a small protein.

While the scientists don't know why these receptors are linked together, they say inefficient or higher-than-average levels of APOE in the brain could possibly be clogging these binding sites, preventing glutamate from activating the processes necessary to form memories.

"We have found out that two receptors previously thought to have nothing to do with each other do, in fact, interact, leading us to conclude that APOE affects the NMDA glutamate channel that is important in memory," says the study's senior author, G. William Rebeck, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience in Georgetown's Biomedical Graduate Research Organization.

...In work leading up to this study, Rebeck and the research team found that adding APOE to neurons in laboratory culture blocked NMDA receptors. In this study, they confirmed through a series of experiments that the receptors for APOE and NMDA interacted, and that the protein that linked the two was PSD95, often found in neural synaptic junctions. Together, they form a multiprotein complex that could presumably be activated by either APOE, NMDA or glutamate.

Rebeck suspects that the APOE4 variant — the one linked to Alzheimer’s disease — is less efficient at removing lipid debris in the brain than is APOE2 or APOE3, and because of this, brain cells secrete more of the faulty protein to do the job. If too much APOE ends up binding to the APOE/NMDA receptor, one of two things could possibly happen, Rebeck says. In one scenario, the receptor becomes over-stimulated due to the accumulating presence of APOE, which could trigger a process called excitotoxicity that results in death of the neruons. Or, in the presence of damage and secreted APOE, the receptor “turns down” its activity — thus, hampering memory formation — until the brain is repaired. “Having damage around tells the brain not to think too much for awhile,” Rebeck says. But if APOE4 cannot clear up accumulating damage, the ability to make new memories, and use old ones, may be increasingly lost.


Hat tip to Medicineworld.
Original newsrelease source

Other researchers are on this fertile trail. Chang, Ma, et al from UC San Francisco published this intriguing article examining the molecular mechanisms of neurotoxicity and mitochondrial dysfunction. The researchers looked at variants of apoE4, to determine the precise portion of the peptide chain that was responsible for the toxicity.

ApoE4(241-272) did not cause mitochondrial dysfunction or neurotoxicity, suggesting that the lipid-binding region alone is insufficient for neurotoxicity. Truncation of N-terminal sequences (amino acids 1-170) containing the receptor-binding region (amino acids 135-150) and triple mutations within that region (R142A, K146A, and R147A) abolished the mitochondrial interaction and neurotoxicity of apoE4(1-272). Further analysis showed that the receptor-binding region is required for escape from the secretory pathway and that the lipid-binding region mediates mitochondrial interaction. Thus, the lipid- and receptor-binding regions in apoE4 fragments act together to cause mitochondrial dysfunction and neurotoxicity, which may be important in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis.

The full text article is available here.

Ben Best has provided a useful description of the possible mechanisms of Alzheimer's Disease. In this section he discusses the apoE4 connection. A woman with one APOE4 allele has 4 times the AD risk of a woman with no APOE4 allele. A person with two APOE4 alleles has as much as 16 times the AD risk [INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PRACTICE 56(3):197-203 (2002)].

In this article, I discussed a novel treatment for Alzheimer's, which is effective for both moderate and severe Alzheimer's Disease. Since the drug Memantine blocks NMDA receptors, and is a more effective treatment for AD than the earlier cholinesterase inhibiting drugs, it is clear that a more profound understanding of the actual mechanisms for AD will lead to even better treatments, even effective prevention methods.

Please understand that prevention of Alzheimer's will have a much more profound effect on society as a whole, than an effective treatment. By the time the disease is diagnosed, much damage may already have occurred.

Now that we better understand part of the genetic susceptibility for AD, more people will opt for an early genetic diagnosis. But what good is knowing that you are susceptible to early or late onset Alzheimer's if there is nothing you can do about it? Of course, Ben Best and others talk about preventing Alzheimer's with nutrients and vitamins. Curcumin is considered a likely preventative, given the very low incidence of Alzheimer's in India, where curried foods are commonly eaten daily.

The latest research by Rebeck et al, and Chang et al, are intriguing to me for another reason. They suggest that many of the symptoms of Alzheimer's patients may very well be reversible--not yet permanent. In other words, many of the NMDA receptors necessary for learning may simply be overwhelmed by excess debris, but not yet destroyed. That would partially explain why many AD patients are better on some days than others. Take away the damaging waste products, and the brain "sobers up" temporarily.

Would I have myself tested genetically? Why not? Research is advancing quickly. Until efficient pharmaceuticals for prevention of AD are approved, there is always Curcumin.

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