Nutrition

"Here's just a smattering of the studies performed over the past 30 years on the psychological effects of wheat consumption. Oddly, this never makes the popular press. But wheat underlies schizophrenia, bipolar illness, behavioral outbursts in autism, Huntington's disease, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The relationship is especially compelling with schizophrenia: Opioid peptides derived from food proteins: The exorphins. Zioudrou C et al 1979 "Wheat gluten has been implicated by Dohan and his colleagues in the etiology of schizophrenia and supporting evidence has been provided by others. Our experiments provide a plausible biochemical mechanism for such a role, in the demonstration of the conversion of gluten into peptides with potential central nerovus system actions." "

A new formulation of the vitamin E extract tocotrienol could play a key role in treating cancerous tumors without harming healthy tissue. Tocotrienol has anti-cancer properties, but when given intravenously it has secondary effects on healthy tissue; now researchers in the UK have found that delivering the compound encapsulated in transferrin-bearing vesicles can shrink tumors without causing visible toxic effects.

"Wednesday, December 9, 2009 By Amy Norton NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Supplements containing soy isoflavones may do little to preserve women's bone mass after menopause. In a study of more than 200 women ages 46 to 65, researchers found that the soy supplement did not appear to ward off bone-density loss over 3 years. In general, women on the supplement showed the same degree of bone loss as those given a placebo -- though there was some evidence that a higher dose helped protect bone density in the hip. The findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, add to a conflicting body of research on soy and postmenopausal bone health. Some studies have suggested that soy-based foods, isolated soy protein or isoflavone-containing supplements may be beneficial, while others have found no advantage. Isoflavones are natural chemicals found in soybeans and certain other plant foods that are structurally similar to estrogen, and may have certain estrogen-like effects in the human body. Since declining estrogen levels after menopause spur bone-density loss, isoflavone supplements could theoretically protect women's bone mass. The current findings, however, do not support that theory."

"CHICAGO (Reuters) - Post-menopausal women who have three to four alcoholic beverages a week of any sort have a significantly higher risk that their breast cancer will come back, U.S. researchers said Thursday."

Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN diets for change in weight and related risk factors among overweight premenopausal women: the A TO Z Weight Loss Study: a randomized trial. Gardner CD, Kiazand A, Alhassan S, Kim S, Stafford RS, Balise RR, Kraemer HC, King AC. JAMA. 2007 Mar 7;297(9):969-77. Erratum in: JAMA. 2007 Jul 11;298(2):178. PMID: 17341711 Conclusions In this study, premenopausal overweight and obese women assigned to follow the Atkins diet, which had the lowest carbohydrate intake, lost more weight and experienced more favorable overall metabolic effects at 12 months than women assigned to follow the Zone, Ornish, or LEARN diets. While questions remain about long-term effects and mechanisms, a low-carbohydrate, high-protein, high-fat diet may be considered a feasible alternative recommendation for weight loss.

"The Zone diet is a diet popularized in books by biochemist Barry Sears. It advocates consuming calories from carbohydrates, protein and fat in a balanced ratio."

"The Ornish diet was developed by Dean Ornish, M.D. Ornish was the first physician to demonstrate that heart disease can be reversed by natural methods, including specific dietary and lifestyle changes. Before Ornish published his clinical studies of patients whose cardiovascular problems were improved by diet and other means, doctors believed that heart disease was irreversible."

"The Atkins diet, officially called the Atkins Nutritional Approach, is a low-carbohydrate diet created by Dr Robert Atkins from a diet he read in the Journal of the American Medical Association and used to resolve his own overweight condition. He later popularized the Atkins diet in a series of books, starting with Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution in 1972. In his revised book, Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, he modified or changed some of but remained faithful to the original concepts."

"Susceptible strains of rodents fed high-fat diets overeat, gain fat and become profoundly insulin resistant. Dr. Jianping Ye's group recently published a paper showing that the harmful metabolic effects of a high-fat diet (lard and soybean oil) on mice can be prevented, and even reversed, using a short-chain saturated fatty acid called butyric acid (hereafter, butyrate). The butyrate-fed mice remained lean and avoided metabolic problems. Butyrate increased their energy expenditure by increasing body heat production and modestly increasing physical activity. It also massively increased the function of their mitochondria, the tiny power plants of the cell."

Berberine lowers blood glucose in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients through increasing insulin receptor expression. Zhang H, Wei J, Xue R, Wu JD, Zhao W, Wang ZZ, Wang SK, Zhou ZX, Song DQ, Wang YM, Pan HN, Kong WJ, Jiang JD. Metabolism. 2009 Sep 3 doi:10.1016/j.metabol.2009.07.029 Liver function was improved greatly in these patients by showing reduction of liver enzymes. Our results confirmed the activity of BBR on InsR in humans and its relationship with the glucose-lowering effect. Together with our previous report, we strongly suggest BBR as an ideal medicine for T2DM with a mechanism different from metformin and rosiglitazone.

Efficacy and safety of berberine for congestive heart failure secondary to ischemic or idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Zeng XH, Zeng XJ, Li YY. Am J Cardiol. 2003 Jul 15;92(2):173-6. PMID: 12860219 doi:10.1016/S0002-9149(03)00533-2 Thus, berberine improved quality of life and decreased VPCs and mortality in patients with CHF.

Efficacy of berberine in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Yin J, Xing H, Ye J. Metabolism. 2008 May;57(5):712-7. PMID: 18442638 doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2008.01.013. Fasting plasma insulin and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index were reduced by 28.1% and 44.7% (P<.001), respectively. Total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were decreased significantly as well. During the trial, 20 (34.5%) patients experienced transient gastrointestinal adverse effects. Functional liver or kidney damages were not observed for all patients. In conclusion, this pilot study indicates that berberine is a potent oral hypoglycemic agent with beneficial effects on lipid metabolism In summary, that berberine is a potent oral hypoglycemic agent with modest effect on lipid metabolism. It is safe and the cost of treatment by berberine is very low. It may serve as a new drug candidate in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. However, this is a pilot study. The efficacy of berberine needs to be tested in a much larger population and characterized as a function of the known duration of the diabetes. Further studies are needed to evaluate the action of berberine on type 2 diabetes in other ethnic groups.

Berberine inhibits adipogenesis in high-fat diet-induced obesity mice. Hu Y, Davies GE. Fitoterapia. 2009 Oct 25. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19861153 doi:10.1016/j.fitote.2009.10.010 Our previous studies illustrated that berberine inhibited adipogenesis in murine-derived 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and human white preadipocytes. In this study, the effects of berberine on the adipogenesis of high-fat diet-induced obesity (FD) or normal diet (ND) mice and possible transcriptional impact are investigated. The results demonstrated that in FD mice, berberine reduced mouse weight gain and food intake and serum glucose, triglyceride, and total cholesterol levels accompanied with a down-regulation of PPARgamma expression and an up-regulation of GATA-3 expression. Berberine had no adverse effects on ND mice. These encouraging findings suggest that berberine has excellent pharmacological potential to prevent obesity.

Neuroprotective effects of berberine on stroke models in vitro and in vivo. Zhou XQ, Zeng XN, Kong H, Sun XL. Neurosci Lett. 2008 Dec 5;447(1):31-6. Epub 2008 Sep 30. PMID: 18838103 doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2008.09.064 Findings of this study suggest that berberine protects against ischemic brain injury by decreasing the intracellular ROS level and subsequently inhibiting mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.

Berberine reduces the hypoxic-ischemic insult in rat pup brain. Benaissa F, Mohseni-Rad H, Rahimi-Moghaddam P, Mahmoudian M. Acta Physiol Hung. 2009 Jun;96(2):213-20. PMID: 19457765 DOI: 10.1556/APhysiol.96.2009.2.6 Pathologic review of the samples obtained from rats treated with different doses of berberine in comparison with samples from pups treated by normal saline showed that there was a significant reduction of brain injury and edema in the rats treated with berberine. Our study also demonstrates that berberine reduces brain ischemic-hypoxic injury dose-dependently. Therefore, beberine may be considered as useful anti-stroke agent.

Berberine: a plant alkaloid with therapeutic potential for central nervous system disorders. Kulkami SK et al. Phytotherapy Research, Published Online: 8 Dec 2009 This review attempts to discuss the pharmacological basis of the use of berberine in various central nervous system and related disorders. Its protective effect in Alzheimer's, cerebral ischemia, mental depression, schizophrenia and anxiety are highlighted. However, more detailed clinical trials along with a safety assessment of berberine are warranted for positioning the alkaloid in the treatment of neurological disorders.

"Women from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka with insulin resistance showed marked improvement after taking vitamin D supplements, says a study. Von Hurst, nutrition lecturer at the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health at Albany, conducted the study for her doctoral thesis. Insulin resistance is largely symptom-free and sufferers are unaware of their condition. 'Once it has fully developed into type-2 diabetes, it can be treated, but not cured,' says Von Hurst. Von Hurst says that while diet and exercise play a major part in the onset of type-2 diabetes, her findings reinforce the importance of vitamin D from the sun and supplements to prevent type-2 diabetes. She also found evidence of vitamin D increasing bone strength in older women. "