Multivitamins and cognitive aging.

 According to the COSMOS-Mind study <https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03035201> results presented at the 14th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease (CTAD) conference, November 10, 2021…

Taking a daily multivitamin for 3 years is associated with a 60% slowing of cognitive aging, with the effects especially pronounced in patients with cardiovascular (CVD) disease.

In addition to testing the effect of a daily multivitamin on cognition the COSMOS-Mind study also examined the effect of cocoa flavanols, but showed no beneficial effect.

The findings "may have important public health implications, particularly for brain health, given the accessibility of multivitamins and minerals, and their low cost and safety," said study investigator Laura D. Baker, PhD, professor, Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Placebo-Controlled Study

The study is a substudy of a large parent trial that compared the effects of cocoa extract (500 mg/day cocoa flavanols) and a standard multivitamin-mineral (MVM) to placebo on cardiovascular and cancer outcomes in more than 21,000 older participants.

COSMOS-Mind included 2262 adults aged 65 and over without dementia who underwent cognitive testing at baseline and annually for 3 years. The mean age at baseline was 73 years, and 40.4% were men. Most participants (88.7%) were non-Hispanic white and almost half (49.2%) had some post-college education.

All study groups were balanced with respect to demographics, CVD history, diabetes, depression, smoking status, alcohol intake, chocolate intake and prior multivitamin use. Baseline cognitive scores were also similar between study groups. Researchers had complete data on 77% of study participants.
The primary endpoint was the effect of cocoa extract (CE) vs placebo on Global Cognitive Function composite score. The secondary outcome was the effect of MVM vs placebo on global cognitive function.

Additional outcomes included the impact of supplements on executive function and memory and the treatment effects for prespecified subgroups, including subjects with a history of CVD.

Using a graph of change over time, Baker showed there was no effect of cocoa on global cognitive function (effect: 0.03; 95% CI, -0.02 to 0.08; P = .28). "We see the to-be-expected practice effects, but there's no separation between the active and placebo groups," she said.

It was a different story for MVM. Here, there was the same practice effect, but the graph showed the lines separated for global cognitive function composite score (effect: 0.07; 95% CI, 0.02 - 0.12; P = .007).

"We see a positive effect of multivitamins for the active group relative to placebo, peaking at 2 years and then remaining stable over time," said Baker.
There were similar findings with MVM for the memory composite score, and the executive function composite score. "We have significance in all three, where the two lines do separate over and above the practice effects," said Baker.

New Evidence

Investigators found a baseline history of CVD, including transient ischemic attack, congestive heart failure, coronary artery bypass graft, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, and stent, but not myocardial infarction or stroke as these were excluded in the parent trial because they affected the response to multivitamins.

As expected, those with CVD had lower cognitive scores at baseline. "But after an initial bump due to practice effect, at year 1, the cardiovascular disease history folks continue to benefit from multivitamins, whereas those who got placebo multivitamins continue to decline over time," said Baker.

Based on information from a baseline scatter plot of cognitive function scores by age, the study's modeling estimated the multivitamin treatment effect had a positive benefit of .028 standard deviations (SD) per year.

"Daily multivitamin-mineral supplementation appears to slow cognitive aging by 60% or by 1.8 years," Baker added.

To date, the effect of MVM supplementation on cognition has been tested in only one large randomized clinical trial — the Physicians Health Study II. That study did not show an effect, but included only older male physicians — and cognitive testing began 2.5 years after randomization, said Baker.

"Our study provides new evidence that daily multivitamin supplementation may benefit cognitive function in older women and men, and the multivitamin effects may be more pronounced in participants with cardiovascular disease.”

For effects of multivitamins on Alzheimer's disease prevalence and progression, "stay tuned," Baker concluded.

Following the presentation, session co-chair Suzanne Schindler, MD, PhD, instructor, Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, said she and her colleagues "always check vitamin B12 levels" in patients with memory and cognitive difficulties and wondered if study subjects with a low level or deficiency of vitamin B12 benefited from the intervention.

"We are asking ourselves that as well," said Baker.

"Some of this is a work in progress," Baker added. "We still need to look at that more in-depth to understand whether it might be a mechanism for improvement. I think the results are still out on that topic.”

Source: 14th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease (CTAD) conference: Oral Communications (OC) #4. Presented November 10, 2021.

Immunity and metabolism

 I love this blog from BIG BOLD HEALTH by Cheryl Kos ND,

And wanted to share it will all of you. Many wonder how the metabolism and Immunity are related. Your daily choices affect your Immune health and wellbeing and if you needed more proof of that, continue reading this concise article…   

by Cheryl Kos ND:

Metabolism is all about how your body makes use of food and water, nutrients and air. It’s also about how you deal with toxins from the environment and get rid of waste products.

But while most conversations on the subject are usually limited to things like energy and macronutrients, it turns out that metabolism directly influences the immune system. The process of metabolism is actually one of the major ways our immune cells are educated by the environment, and it plays a significant role in your immune health.

 

Your Schedule Affects Your Immunity

Like most things in the body, metabolic function works in cycles. Our immune system parallels these cycles, taking advantage of energy when available, and setting up a rest-and-repair schedule for rejuvenating damaged cells during metabolic off-hours. This helps ensure optimal immune function.

The way you arrange your days and nights really affects your metabolism, influencing how your body handles carbs, fats, calories, and all that. Yet your scheduling also impacts how much time is left for optimal immune function, effective healing, running the deep cleaning programs in your cells, and correcting the overactive aging processes most of us experience.

Here is a master key to remember — it’s really hard to heal or rejuvenate when you’re busy digesting sweet, fatty, junky, or highly-processed foods. These kinds of fuel are really distracting for your body, and you can’t have your best immunity or metabolism if you’re eating them very often.

Your body is actually pretty flexible in the scheduling of its peak healing and peak immunity times. But this can only go so far. With every day’s decisions about how you eat and live, you are either helping to promote healthier metabolism and immune function or hurting it, if your choices are not in line with your body’s protective strategy.

 

How to Harmonize with Your Body’s Clock

Humans have a body clock that is generally set for night-time rejuvenation and day-time duties of protection, activity, and digestion. Keeping this in mind, here are a few ways to harmonize with your highly evolved body clock:

• Stick to certain meal times as much as possible, avoid snacks, and try to set a limited “eating window” of no more than about 10 hours from your first calorie of the day to your last calorie. (Important note — if you have issues regulating blood sugar, you should speak to your healthcare provider before making these types of changes.)

• Maintain the same sleeping schedule at least 6 days per week, and ease into restful sleep by turning off devices at least 1 hour before bedtime. Keep your sleeping area cool, quiet, and dark. 

• Emphasize simple, unprocessed foods. One suggestion is to have at least one meal focused on fresh produce (like a meal salad or veggie bowl) and have generous servings of fresh foods. 

• Having a regular mind-body practice — like martial arts, yoga, or meditation — can help you resolve stress better, which can in turn help reduce midnight fridge raids and cravings for metabolically unsound and immune-damaging foods. 

• Enjoy prebiotic and high-fiber foods every day, because they help smooth out energy and mood bumps, and help satisfy the appetite long after you eat them. And they also feed the “friendly flora” in your gut that are so central to good immunity. Examples here include beans, berries, buckwheat, root vegetables, whole grains, and fibrous fruits like apples and pears.

 

For a Deeper Dive

Here’s a neat Scientific American article that describes how body clocks are set for specific functions at certain times, and how going against your clock with improper eating habits can disturb health. It helps explain why, for better immunity and a healthier response to stress, it may make sense to restrict fatty foods to the earlier part of your day.

 

Alzheimer's: Why is the Brain Deteriorating?

Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., D.A.C.B.N., M.S.,CFMP

After considerable research it is interesting to bring you up to speed on documented evidence of things which answer the question. "Why is the human brain deteriorating faster than the rest of the body?”

There are a multitude of factors and today's article will touch on a few and also provide some solutions.

For starters I find it disturbing and somewhat criminal that a common blood pressure medication called calcium channel blockers has been proven radiologically on MRI to cause brain shrinking. Research has shown that these drugs cause deterioration of the I.Q. within 5 years' use.

Another medication used to lower cholesterol called Lipitor causes a decline in brain function. It is important to know that statin cholesterol-lowering drugs like Lipitor poison the liver's synthesis of cholesterol. This in turn will starve the brain of cholesterol needed to repair the brain, renew worn out membranes, and stave off Alzheimer's.

In fact, an excellent book, “Lipitor Thief of Memory” written by the respected medical doctor, former astronaut, aerospace medical research scientist, flight surgeon, and family doctor, Dr. Duane Graveline, shares his rapid mental decline after taking the drug Lipitor. Worth reading.

Even with all this hard evidence can you believe the pharmaceutical industry has created a potent drug which combines both the calcium channel blocker and a statin called Atorvastatin/Amlodipine (Caduet). Talk about a double punch to optimal brain function!

Moving on to another documented contributor of Alzheimer's, we can't forget the unavoidable heavy metals. We all have them in us and they poison brain repair enzymes, leading to Alzheimer's.

For example, there is no one who doesn't have aluminum in them, from eating out, aluminum cookware, aluminum flocculation agents in municipal drinking waters, aluminum in baking powders used in breads, processed and restaurant foods cooked in aluminum vats, industrial and vehicular exhausts, deodorants, antacids, and many other sources.

Aluminum causes the nerves in the brain to actually get tangled up (neurofibrillary tangles) as well as make a glue-like substance (called amyloid) to gum up the normal workings of the delicate brain electricity..

Now to provide some nutritional answers to reduce amyloid production we need to look no further than Phosphatidylserine (PS). This nutritional powerhouse has shown to perk up memory, and stave off Alzheimer's.  One interested case showed PS in 3 months return the memory back to where it was 12 years earlier.

Most recently there has been evidence how DHA is an amyloid eater.

Well here is something even easier: green tea. Real organic green tea has over 3 catechins or polyphenols. They have been found to be potent preventers of amyloid deposition in the brain. Sencha Premium Organic Green Tea is by far the best I have found.

This short article is simply a glimpse of the research you won't see promoted on CNN or Fox News. Of course this is sad. There is another side of the clinical management of many diseases that the public will rarely if ever be shown unless you are a reader of my weekly health reports or other alternative or functionally oriented heath professional reports or journals.

The take away from today's article is to “NOT” be your own doctor but seek out the assistance and help from someone trained and skilled in functional medicine who can properly evaluate you and outline a personalized program to help you get well.  

(The information on this website/(in this blog) is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Grisanti and his functional medicine community. Dr. Grisanti encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. Visit www.FunctionalMedicineUniversity.com for more information on our training in functional medicine.)