Archive for the ‘Supplements’ Category

Peptide Therapy With Dr. Kent Holtorf, MD

 Approx. 1 hour 18 Min.

Peptide Therapy With Dr. Kent Holtorf, MD

In this episode, you will learn about the use of peptide therapy in Lyme disease and related complex, chronic illnesses.

About My Guest: My guest for this episode is Dr. Kent Holtorf. Kent Holtorf, MD is the medical director of the Holtorf Medical Group. He is founder and director of the non-profit National Academy of Hypothyroidism (NAH), which is dedicated to dissemination of new information to doctors and patients on the diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism. He has personally trained numerous physicians across the country in the use of bioidentical hormones, hypothyroidism, complex endocrine dysfunction, and innovative treatments of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and chronic infectious diseases, including Lyme disease. He is a fellowship lecturer for the American Board of Anti-aging Medicine, the Endocrinology Expert for AOL Health, and is a guest editor and peer-reviewer for a number of medical journals. Dr. Holtorf has published a number of peer-reviewed endocrine reviews, including on the safety and efficacy of bioidentical hormones, inaccuracies of standard thyroid testing, testosterone replacement for men and women, the diagnosis and treatment of growth hormone deficiency, and on the diagnosis and treatment of adrenal dysfunction in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. He has helped to demonstrate that much of the long-held dogma in endocrinology is inaccurate. He is a contributing author to Denis Wilson’s Evidenced-Based Approach to Restoring Thyroid Health. He has been a featured guest on CNBC, ABC News, CNN, EXTRA TV, Discovery Health, The Learning Channel, The Today Show, Dr. Dean Edell, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Sean Hannity, and more and quoted in numerous print media including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, US New and World Report, San Francisco Chronicle, WebMD, Elle, Better Homes and Garden, US Weekly, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, and Self magazine among many others.

Key Takeaways: 

  • What are peptides?
  • How are peptides created? 
  • What conditions might peptides be helpful for? 
  • What are the key contributors to aging? 
  • How are thymosins used to modulate the immune system? 
  • How is Th1/Th2 dominance measured? 
  • What is the role of LL37 in treating chronic infections?
  • What is the connection between hypercoagulation and mast cell activation?
  • How might BPC-157 be helpful in chronic illness?
  • What is the role of Epithalon in anti-aging and regenerative strategies?
  • How might peptides be helpful in conditions such as autism, Parkinson’s, and ALS?
  • How well-tolerated are peptides by sensitive patient populations?

Connect With My Guest: http://holtorfmed.com

_______________

For more:  https://examine.com/supplements/bpc-157/  (Go here for entire article)

Summary of BPC-157

Primary Information, Benefits, Effects, and Important Facts

BPC-157 is a peptide chain consisting of 15 amino acids. It is considered synthetic because this particular sequence does not exist in nature. It is derived from a protective protein found in the stomach.

Researchers have conducted numerous rodent studies on BPC-157 that show it has protective effects extending beyond the stomach and intestinal tract. BPC-157 has been shown to benefit ulcers in the stomach, intestinal damage such as fistulas and inflammatory disorders, bone and joint healing and growth rates, and organ damage. It also has some influences on the brain. Researchers have observed marked protective effects when BPC-157 is administered to rats alongside a research toxin or damaging surgical procedure.

More research is needed to clarify whether BPC-157 has multiple mechanisms of action, but current research suggests BPC-157 influences several growth factors usually involved in angiogenesis (the production of blood vessels) and other factors involved in regeneration following damage.

BPC-157 shows promise, but human studies are needed to demonstrate that these benefits extend beyond research animals.

The majority of studies on BPC-157 are done on rats given injections of the supplement. While BPC-157 is a stable peptide, peptides are a group of compounds that are normally poorly absorbed after oral supplementation, so researchers use injections in rodent studies instead. Furthermore, there is no human evidence for BPC-157 and the majority of the research has been conducted by a single research group. Due to its synthetic nature, there may be legal issues associated with the sale of this supplement in certain regions and it may be banned by some sport organizations.

4.3. Neuroprotection

BPC-157 appears to have protective effects on brain tissue when administered to rats (either in drinking water or injections) alongside the toxin cuprizone by reducing the amount of damaged cells in numerous brain regions, including the hippocampus.[15] Cuprizone[15] is a toxin used to mimic the damages seen in multiple sclerosis[16] and potentially schizophrenia.[17]

5.1. Collagen and Joints

Researchers have observed benefits when putting BPC-157 on a sponge during surgery, where it appeared to improve the rate of collagen reformation, initially outperforming platelet-growth factor after four days but eventually being equipotent after eight days[4]. Benefits have been seen in rats given intraperitoneal injections after an Achilles heel injury, where the rate of injury healing was visually confirmed with smaller cut size and depth.[22]

6.2. Intestines

Most BPC-157 studies on intestinal damage use rats that undergo surgical-induced damage for experimental purposes. BPC-157 appears to have very potent protective effects in rats by mitigating damage to the tissue and structural abnormalities caused by the damage.

It is possible, based on limited evidence, that BPC-157 may be orally active in the alimentary canal (the pathway between the mouth and anus).

7.1. Parkinson’s

One study in rats using the toxin MPTP (which induces damage similar to what is seen in Parkinson’s Disease in rodents), administration of BPC-157 intraperitoneally appeared to mitigate some of the damage caused by MPTP.[36]

7.2. Multiple Sclerosis

In rodents given cuprizone (to induce damage similar to what is seen in multiple sclerosis[16]) those given BPC-157 alongside the cuprizone (0.16 ng/mL or 0.16 μg/mL in drinking water over four days or 10 ng/kg or 10 μg/kg intragastrically on the final day) seemed to exhibit significantly less brain damage and clinical abnormalities from the cuprizone than did control rats not given BPC-157.[15]

Source:

“BPC-157,” Examine.com, published on 14 April 2017, last updated on 14 June 2018,https://examine.com/supplements/BPC-157/

 

 

Category:

Lyme, Supplements, Treatment

Germs in Your Gut Are Talking to Your Brain. Scientists Want to Know What They’re Saying.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/health/microbiome-brain-behavior-dementia.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

The body’s microbial community may influence the brain and behavior, perhaps even playing a role in dementia, autism and other disorders.

Carl Zimmer

By Carl Zimmer

Credit Sean McSorley

In 2014 John Cryan, a professor at University College Cork in Ireland, attended a meeting in California about Alzheimer’s disease. He wasn’t an expert on dementia. Instead, he studied the microbiome, the trillions of microbes inside the healthy human body.

Dr. Cryan and other scientists were beginning to find hints that these microbes could influence the brain and behavior. Perhaps, he told the scientific gathering, the microbiome has a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

The idea was not well received.

“I’ve never given a talk to so many people who didn’t believe what I was saying,” Dr. Cryan recalled.

A lot has changed since then: Research continues to turn up remarkable links between the microbiome and the brain. Scientists are finding evidence that microbiome may play a role not just in Alzheimer’s disease, but Parkinson’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, autism and other conditions.

For some neuroscientists, new studies have changed the way they think about the brain.

One of the skeptics at that Alzheimer’s meeting was Sangram Sisodia, a neurobiologist at the University of Chicago. He wasn’t swayed by Dr. Cryan’s talk, but later he decided to put the idea to a simple test.

“It was just on a lark,” said Dr. Sisodia. “We had no idea how it would turn out.”

He and his colleagues gave antibiotics to mice prone to develop a version of Alzheimer’s disease, in order to kill off much of the gut bacteria in the mice. Later, when the scientists inspected the animals’ brains, they found far fewer of the protein clumps linked to dementia.

Just a little disruption of the microbiome was enough to produce this effect. Young mice given antibiotics for a week had fewer clumps in their brains when they grew old, too.

“I never imagined it would be such a striking result,” Dr. Sisodia said. “For someone with a background in molecular biology and neuroscience, this is like going into outer space.”

Following a string of similar experiments, he now suspects that just a few species in the gut — perhaps even one — influence the course of Alzheimer’s disease, perhaps by releasing chemical that alters how immune cells work in the brain.

He hasn’t found those microbes, let alone that chemical. But “there’s something’s in there,” he said. “And we have to figure out what it is.”

Scientists have long known that microbes live inside us. In 1683, the Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek put plaque from his teeth under a microscope and discovered tiny creatures swimming about.

But the microbiome has stubbornly resisted scientific discovery. For generations, microbiologists only studied the species that they could grow in the lab. Most of our interior occupants can’t survive in petri dishes.

In the early 2000s, however, the science of the microbiome took a sudden leap forward when researchers figured out how to sequence DNA from these microbes. Researchers initially used this new technology to examine how the microbiome influences parts of our bodies rife with bacteria, such as the gut and the skin.

Few of them gave much thought to the brain — there didn’t seem to be much point. The brain is shielded from microbial invasion by the so-called blood-brain barrier. Normally, only small molecules pass through.

“As recently as 2011, it was considered crazy to look for associations between the microbiome and behavior,” said Rob Knight, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Diego.

He and his colleagues discovered some of the earliest hints of these links. Investigators took stool from mice with a genetic mutation that caused them to eat a lot and put on weight. They transferred the stool to mice that had been raised germ-free — that is, entirely without gut microbiomes — since birth.

After receiving this so-called fecal transplant, the germ-free mice got hungry, too, and put on weight.

Altering appetite isn’t the only thing that the microbiome can do to the brain, it turns out. Dr. Cryan and his colleagues, for example, have found that mice without microbiomes become loners, preferring to stay away from fellow rodents.

The scientists eventually discovered changes in the brains of these antisocial mice. One region, called the amygdala, is important for processing social emotions. In germ-free mice, the neurons in the amygdala make unusual sets of proteins, changing the connections they make with other cells.

Studies of humans revealed some surprising patterns, too. Children with autism have unusual patterns of microbial species in their stool. Differences in the gut bacteria of people with a host of other brain-based conditions also have been reported.

But none of these associations proves cause and effect. Finding an unusual microbiome in people with Alzheimer’s doesn’t mean that the bacteria drive the disease. It could be the reverse: People with Alzheimer’s disease often change their eating habits, for example, and that switch might favor different species of gut microbes.

Fecal transplants can help pin down these links. In his research on Alzheimer’s, Dr. Sisodia and his colleagues transferred stool from ordinary mice into the mice they had treated with antibiotics. Once their microbiomes were restored, the antibiotic-treated mice started developing protein clumps again.

“We’re extremely confident that it’s the bacteria that’s driving this,” he said.

Other researchers have taken these experiments a step further by using human fecal transplants.

If you hold a mouse by its tail, it normally wriggles in an effort to escape. If you give it a fecal transplant from humans with major depression, you get a completely different result: The mice give up sooner, simply hanging motionless.

As intriguing as this sort of research can be, it has a major limitation. Because researchers are transferring hundreds of bacterial species at once, the experiments can’t reveal which in particular are responsible for changing the brain.

Now researchers are pinpointing individual strains that seem to have an effect.

To study autism, Dr. Mauro Costa-Mattioli and his colleagues at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston investigated different kinds of mice, each of which display some symptoms of autism. A mutation in a gene called SHANK3 can cause mice to groom themselves repetitively and avoid contact with other mice, for example.

In another mouse strain, Dr. Costa-Mattioli found that feeding mothers a high-fat diet makes it more likely their pups will behave this way.

When the researchers investigated the microbiomes of these mice, they found the animals lacked a common species called Lactobacillus reuteri. When they added a strain of that bacteria to the diet, the animals became social again.

Dr. Costa-Mattioli found evidence that L. reuteri releases compounds that send a signal to nerve endings in the intestines. The vagus nerve sends these signals from the gut to the brain, where they alter production of a hormone called oxytocin that promotes social bonds.

Other microbial species also send signals along the vagus nerve, it turns out. Still others communicate with the brain via the bloodstream.

It’s likely that this influence begins before birth, as a pregnant mother’s microbiome releases molecules that make their way into the fetal brain.

Mothers seed their babies with microbes during childbirth and breast feeding. During the first few years of life, both the brain and the microbiome rapidly mature.

To understand the microbiome’s influence on the developing brain, Rebecca Knickmeyer, a neuroscientist at Michigan State University, is studying fMRI scans of infants.

In her first study, published in January, she focused on the amygdala, the emotion-processing region of the brain that Dr. Cryan and others have found to be altered in germ-free mice.

Dr. Knickmeyer and her colleagues measured the strength of the connections between the amygdala and other regions of the brain. Babies with a lower diversity of species in their guts have stronger connections, the researchers found.

Does that mean a low-diversity microbiome makes babies more fearful of others? It’s not possible to say yet — but Dr. Knickmeyer hopes to find out by running more studies on babies.

Credit Sean McSorley

As researchers better understand how the microbiome influences the brain, they hope doctors will be able to use it to treat psychiatric and neurological conditions.

It’s possible they’ve been doing it for a long time — without knowing.

In the early 1900s, neurologists found that putting people with epilepsy on a diet low in carbohydrates and high in protein and fat sometimes reduced their seizures.

Epileptic mice experience the same protection from a so-called ketogenic diet. But no one could say why. Elaine Hsiao, a microbiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, suspected that the microbiome was the reason.

To test the microbiome’s importance, Dr. Hsiao and her colleagues raised mice free of microbes. When they put the germ-free epileptic mice on a ketogenic diet, they found that the animals got no protection from seizures.

But if they gave the germ-free animals stool from mice on a ketogenic diet, seizures were reduced.

Dr. Hsiao found that two types of gut bacteria in particular thrive in mice on a ketogenic diet. They may provide their hosts with building blocks for neurotransmitters that put a brake on electrical activity in the brain.

It’s conceivable that people with epilepsy wouldn’t need to go on a ketogenic diet to get its benefits — one day, they may just take a pill containing the bacteria that do well on the diet.

Sarkis Mazmanian, a microbiologist at Caltech, and his colleagues have identified a single strain of bacteria that triggers symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in mice. He has started a company that is testing a compound that may block signals that the microbe sends to the vagus nerve.

Dr. Mazmanian and other researchers now must manage a tricky balancing act. On one hand, their experiments have proven remarkably encouraging; on the other, scientists don’t want to encourage the notion that microbiome-based cures for diseases like Parkinson’s are around the corner.

That’s not easy when people can buy probiotics without a prescription, and when some companies are willing to use preliminary research to peddle microbes to treat conditions like depression.

“The science can get mixed up with what the pseudoscientists are doing,” said Dr. Hsiao.

Dr. Costa-Mattioli hopes that L. reuteri some day will help some people with autism, but he warns parents against treating their children with store-bought probiotics. Some strains of L. reuteri alter the behavior of mice, he’s found, and others don’t.

Dr. Costa-Mattioli and his colleagues are still searching for the most effective strain and figuring out the right dose to try on people.

“You want to go into a clinical trial with the best weapon, and I’m not sure we have it,” he said.

Katarzyna B. Hooks, a computational biologist at the University of Bordeaux in France, warned that studies like Dr. Costa-Mattioli’s are still unusual. Most of these findings come from research with fecal transplants or germ-free mice — experiments in which it’s especially hard to pinpoint the causes of changes in behavior.

“We have the edges of the puzzle, and we’re now trying to figure out what’s in the picture itself,” she said.

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Autism, diet and nutrition, Gut Health, research, Supplements, Testing, Treatment

I Just Got Diagnosed With Lyme Disease. What Should I Do?

https://globallymealliance.org/diagnosed-with-lyme-disease/

diagnosed-w-lyme-disease

WELCOME TO THE SCHOOL OF LYME. 6 TIPS FOR THOSE NEWLY DIAGNOSED WITH LYME DISEASE.

by Jennifer Crystal

Every day, I receive emails from people who have recently been diagnosed with Lyme disease. As most of us do when we hear a new medical term or leave a doctor’s office, these people frantically search the web looking for information. Sometimes they come across one of my blog posts. Then they write with questions about treatment, with requests for finding a good doctor and with prayers that I will be able to offer them some hope. Most of all, they want to know: “What do I do to get better?”

Because I find myself offering the same responses to many such patients, I thought I would create a “School of Lyme For the Newly Diagnosed.” Consider this a brief survey course on tick-borne illness, open to anyone who wants to learn the basics of what to do when you get (or suspect) a Lyme diagnosis.

Lesson 1: It’s Lyme, not Lyme’s!

It’s important to know the correct name of your disease! Many people mistakenly call it Lyme’s disease, assuming it was discovered by a Dr. Lyme. In fact, Lyme is named for the town in which it was first detected: Lyme, Connecticut. As for the names of co-infections, those are not as simple, but should still be part of your working vocabulary; we’ll get to those in Lesson 5.

Lesson 2: All cases are different

Everyone’s looking for a one-size-fits-all treatment protocol. Unfortunately, that doesn’t exist, and here’s why: Lyme bacteria, called spirochetes, impact every victim differently. It depends how quickly the infection was caught and diagnosed; how far it’s spread, and to where. The bacteria can affect different organs, muscles, bones and cells in different patients. It can cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the central nervous system. Moreover, there may be co-infections present—the list goes on and on. A Lyme doctor can see a thousand patients and use a thousand different protocols. Telling you what antibiotics I took won’t help you; you need to work with your doctor to figure out the best combination for you.

Lesson 3: Find an LLMD

An LLMD is a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor. This is a physician who has trained with ILADS (The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society). Some practitioners claiming to be Lyme literate may not be versed in all tick-borne disease. The best way to know you are getting good treatment is to make sure your doctor is ILADS-trained. You can find an ILADS-trained physician in your area through Global Lyme Alliance, by clicking on GLA.org/find.

Lesson 4: Get tested for co-infections

Unfortunately, ticks don’t only carry Lyme disease. Many of them harbor what are known as co-infections: other tick-borne diseases besides Lyme. The most common are babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, and bartonella, but there are many others. It’s critical that you get tested for co-infections along with Lyme disease. If you are receiving treatment for Lyme and haven’t been tested for other tick-borne infections, you may be fighting only half the battle.

Lesson 5: Take probiotics

Antibiotics kill spirochetes, but they also kill the good bacteria in your gut, which can cause a yeast infection. To combat this, take probiotics (available at any pharmacy or health food store). Important: make sure you take the probiotics at least two hours before or after you take the antibiotics; if you take them too close together, the antibiotics will kill the probiotics.

Lesson 6: Don’t panic

The information available at our fingertips in this internet age is a double-edged sword. You may read stories that terrify you. Remember, every case of Lyme disease is different. If you catch tick-borne illnesses and treat them immediately, chances are you will not suffer as long those who have been sick for many years. Don’t let my story or those of other chronically ill patients frighten you. Do let these stories offer you hope, however, especially if you have been sick for a long time. I am living proof that even the worst cases of tick-borne illness can eventually be wrestled into remission. I am living proof that long-term treatment works. I am living proof that it’s a long road between being bedridden and skiing, but it can be traveled.

Most importantly, know that you are not alone in this fight. There are many of us battling tick-borne diseases right alongside you. We feel your pain. We validate your suffering. And we know that it can get better. There is hope!

jennifer crystal

Opinions expressed by contributors are their own.

Jennifer Crystal is a writer and educator in Boston. She has written a memoir, One Tick Stopped the Clock for which she is seeking representation. Contact her at: 

lymewarriorjennifercrystal@gmail.com. 

____________________

**Comment**

  1. Lyme has been around since the beginning of time:  https://www.utoronto.ca/news/u-t-researchers-find-ancient-iceman-s-infection-helps-lyme-disease-bone-loss-discovery, and https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/12/the-persistent-spiral-the-ancient-history-of-lyme-disease-and-tick-borne-infections/.  Wisconsin has the first published case from Taylor County in 1969:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5497158.  https://www.publichealthalert.org/how-lyme-got-a-bad-rap—lyme-connecticut-that-is.html  This article discusses how dermatologist Dr. Rudolf J. Scrimenti diagnosed the Borrelia infection and described both neurologic and arthritic symptoms exhibited by the patient. He took his knowledge & experience, and attempted to educate Dr. Steere, the person called to the scene of the Lyme, Connecticut “outbreak.”  Excerpt:  Scrimenti even corresponded with Steere and visited Yale to inform him of the long European history and strong possibility that the Lyme clusters were likely a form of Borreliosis. However, Steere, the rheumatologist-to-be had been summoned to investigate outbreaks of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. After extensive study and consideration, guess what he concluded? He believed that he was observing a previously unrecognized form of JRA.  And, we’ve been paying for it ever since.
  2. Doctor lists constantly change.  The best way for you to find credible doctors is through your local support group. While organizations like Global Lyme Alliance are a place to start, they aren’t aware of changes that can occur quite rapidly.  You can also ask people their experiences with various doctors, keeping in mind that people are going to have differing opinions.
  3. Testing for coinfections is abysmal.  Most LLMD’s will diagnose and treat people clinically, which means, individually based on symptoms.  Seronegativity is common with Lyme/MSIDS which just means you can test negative over and over and over yet be infected.  I’ve found that getting a negative on a test can lead to a false sense of security.  Also, treating this for many people is like peeling an onion.  You start out with certain symptoms and then as you treat, other symptoms can rear their ugly little heads.  For instance, we started treating for Lyme only to discover further down the road Babesia symptoms which needed addressing.
  4. Taking probiotics is a great place to start; however, as Dr. Burrascano states, “Now is the time for pristine health habits.”  Eat a whole-food based diet and avoid junk food, soda, alcohol, and anything that could lower your immune system & cause inflammation:  https://articles.mercola.com/lyme-disease/diet.aspx and https://www.tiredoflyme.com/diet.html.  Many patients also find they are sensitive to many things and omitting dairy or gluten, for instance, can really help some patients.  Being willing to try things is important as sometimes the only way we learn is by trying.  Support groups are also good for this type of information.  You will find people who are making their own bone broth, kefir/yogurt, kombucha, and have ideas for recipes that are healthy yet don’t taste like cardboard.
  5. Treating this is unlike anything else you’ve ever treated.  Treatment is hard and costly.  You feel far worse for a long time before you start feeling better.  This is one of the hardest things to accept as a patient, but accept it you must.  People are so relieved to finally be diagnosed that starting treatment is like a slap in the face.  They expect to feel better but in fact, they feel worse.  This is due to the herxheimer reaction:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/08/15/herxheimer-die-off-reaction-explained/.  Also, once patients hit a plateau, LLMD’s switch the meds around typically bringing back the dreaded herx.  You go up and down like the waves of the sea.  You have many bad days and a few good.  You have to learn to adjust your life around Lyme/MSIDS.  It will sift you like wheat and you will find in the end you are made of much sterner stuff than you ever realized.  For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/12/06/tips-for-newbies/
  6. The silver lining.  After this you never take life for granted (or a day without pain!) and you become much more aware of and sympathetic of others.  All in all, it makes you a better human and God knows, we need more of them!

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Supplements, Testing, Treatment

What the FDA’s Actions Mean for Dietary Supplements

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/02/11/health/ap-us-med-dietary-supplements-qa.html?partner=IFTTT

What the FDA’s Actions Mean for Dietary Supplements

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK — The Food and Drug Administration announced plans Monday to step up its policing of dietary supplements, which it said has mushroomed into a $40 billion industry with more than 50,000 products. The agency warned 17 companies for illegally making claims about their products’ ability to treat diseases.

Here’s a look at what the FDA’s announcement means:

Q: How are dietary supplements regulated?

A: Dietary supplements, including vitamins, are regulated more like foods than drugs. They can make claims similar to what’s found on cereals or snack bars such as “calcium builds strong bones.” But they can’t contain drug ingredients or make claims about treating diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer or diabetes.

Q: Does the FDA plan to change that rule?

A: No. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency isn’t questioning what’s permitted under the dietary supplements law of 1994. He said dietary supplements are regulated like foods because they pose less of a risk than drugs.

“Nothing in what we’re doing would try to attempt to re-contemplate” the existing standard, he said.

Instead, the agency is addressing criticism that it hasn’t enforced rules prohibiting supplements from containing drugs or being marketed like them. Gottlieb said the risk posed by such illegal products has grown with the industry.

The FDA’s dietary supplements review group has 23 employees, he said, and is planning more oversight on products that make illegal health claims.

Q: What about supplements that don’t make disease claims?

A: Qualified health claims on dietary supplements may lead people to think they’re more effective than they are, said Peter Lurie, a former FDA official who now heads the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Lurie noted the FDA doesn’t review such claims before they’re marketed.

“It’s very hard to take on this industry comprehensively when the law shackles the agency to the extent that it does,” he said.

Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, said dietary supplements are unnecessary for most people unless a doctor recommends them for a specific reason. He noted there are exceptions, such as women who may be planning to become pregnant.

Q: Is the FDA considering any changes to the rules for supplements?

A: The FDA is still figuring out exactly how it might tighten oversight, but one possibility is a mandatory database for dietary supplements to improve transparency and make enforcement easier. It also said it’s developing a way to more quickly and consistently alert people about supplements that might have illegal ingredients.

The dietary supplements industry group, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, said it looked forward to working with the FDA, and praised Gottlieb for “rooting out bad actors.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

__________________

**Comment**

I take issue with Dr. Cohen’s unsubstantiated statement that dietary supplements are unnecessary for most people.  How do you even prove that?  Patients with Lyme/MSIDS find through blood tests they are often low in magnesium, hormones, and other crucial things.  These important substances control thousands of chemical reactions in the human body.  Without them we suffer.  With them we improve.

The proof is in the pudding.

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/21/supplements-you-get-what-you-pay-for/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/04/22/systemic-enzymes/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/02/dmso-msm-for-lyme-msids/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/10/the-endocannabinoid-system-and-the-important-role-it-plays-in-human-health/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/18/ldn/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/12/the-importance-of-vitamin-d-k-and-magnesium-for-lyme-msids-patients/

Patients on this journey learn quickly they spend as much if not more on supplements than they do on drugs!

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Supplements

The Endocannabinoid System and the Important Role It Plays in Human Health

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/10/endocannabinoid-system-role-in-human-health.aspx?

Published on Feb 5, 2019

Natural health expert and Mercola.com founder Dr. Joseph Mercola interviews Carl Germano, a board-certified nutritionist and phytocannabiniods expert, on how the endocannabinoid system influences human health.
February 10, 2019
By Dr. Mercola

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

  • Cannabinoid receptors in the human body were discovered in the 1990s, which in turn led to the realization that we make compounds in our body — endogenous cannabinoids — that influence these receptors
  • Endocannabinoid deficiency has been identified in people who have migraines, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory and neurological conditions and a variety of treatment-resistant conditions
  • While CBD has gained the most attention, CBD alone cannot fully support your body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS). You need the other phytocannabinoids and terpenes as well
  • Hemp has been outlawed in the U.S. since 1938. The latest Farm Bill, signed into law at the end of 2018, makes it legal again; hemp oil with full-spectrum phytocannabinoids may benefit a wide range of health problems
  • There’s an intimate relationship between your ECS and your omega-3 status. Omega-3 fats make your cannabinoid receptors more active, and are used as backbone structures to produce cannabinoids in your body

Hemp has been outlawed in the U.S. since 1938. Thankfully, the latest Farm Bill signed into law at the end of 2018 makes it legal. In this interview, board-certified clinical nutritionist and expert on phytocannabinoids, Carl Germano, discusses the exciting implications of this change.

Now, there’s a difference between cannabidiol (CBD) products made from hemp and those made from marijuana. While many mistakenly believe hemp and marijuana are interchangeable, they’re actually two different plants.

“Both are considered Cannabis sativa by genus and species, but that’s where the similarity ends,” Germano explains. “Hemp has been cultivated for many reasons for the past few thousand years — food, clothing, fiber and fuel. The plant itself contains naturally occurring active compounds called phytocannabinoids, of which CBD is just one of them.

Marijuana, on the other hand, has been cultivated for its primary phytocannabinoid, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). While it has recreational value at small levels, it does have medicinal value.

Nevertheless, many decades ago, hemp got dumped into the definition of marijuana. Hemp was unjustly placed into the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which kind of hampered its access, its ability to have U.S. farmers grow it, or to have even medical or academic institutions study it.

We’ve been in the Dark Ages for decades. Thanks to Israel and Europe, who’ve championed all the research, we’ve [discovered] the cannabinoid system in the body called the Endocannabinoid System (ECS).

Trump did sign a Farm Bill that finally deregulates hemp. It takes it out of the CSA … It gives the rights of farmers to grow it. It will open up the doors for academic and medical institutions to study it. It will give consumers access to [what is] probably the most important botanical we have on this planet.”

Why Whole Hemp May Be Better Than Isolated CBD

The hemp plant contains over 100 different phytocannabinoids, of which CBD is one. And while hemp has now been taken off the CSA, CBD is still under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for the labeling of supplements and enforcing the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).

“With the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), you have several things against CBD. First, CBD was not in commerce prior to 1994, so it could not be grandfathered as a dietary supplement, yet hemp oil has been in commerce prior to 1994, so we’re OK there.

Secondly, DSHEA states that if you want to submit a new dietary ingredient application, you can do so and petition the FDA for an ingredient to be classified as a dietary supplement.

Well, if you were to do that today, you would get rejected immediately because the other part of DSHEA states that if Big Pharma takes a natural ingredient and makes a drug that gets approved, it’s hands-off to the dietary supplement industry.

GW Pharmaceuticals has two drugs using isolated purified CBD in it. Therefore, we’ve got several strikes against putting CBD on the front panel, calling it a dietary supplement, and I say, why bother? Because the story is much bigger than CBD, both clinically, scientifically and legally.”

Hemp oil is a food that happens to have CBD in it. But while CBD may not be legally advertised on the label, CBD-containing hemp products can be labeled as having phytocannabinoids — the class of compounds to which CBD belongs. While CBD has gained the most attention, CBD alone cannot fully support your body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS). You need the other phytocannabinoids and terpenes, which are very complementary to the phytocannabinoids, as well.

“Those of us in botanical medicine understand that the sum of all the parts of the plant is greater than any one single ingredient,”Germano says. “Let’s face it. There’s more than one ginsenoside in ginseng. There’s more than one curcuminoid in curcumin. There’s more than one isobutylamide in Echinacea. There’s more than one ginkgolide in ginkgo.

Well, there’s more than just one phytocannabinoid in hemp. Back in 2011, Dr. Ethan Russo in the British Journal of Pharmacology1 … wrote about the entourage effect of all the phytocannabinoids and terpenes needing to be present to give rise to full clinical, meaningful benefit …

While CBD may be the most dominant phytocannabinoid in hemp, the others are there in minor in number, but they are not minor in the body as they all participate in nourishing, supporting the ECS, which is the bigger story.”

Understanding Your ECS

While the discovery of the ECS is fairly recent, genetically it dates back over 600 million years.2Cannabinoid receptors in the human body were discovered in the 1990s, which in turn led to the realization that we make compounds in our body — endogenous cannabinoids — that influence these receptors.

It was also discovered that the ECS orchestrates communication between other bodily systems, such as your respiratory, digestive, immune and cardiovascular systems. The ECS does this via receptors found in every organ, including your skin.

“Your ECS is like the conductor of the orchestra. The orchestra are our organ systems. We cannot be healthy, we cannot be well if our ECS does not function well,” Germano says.

“Your body produces cannabinoids similar structurally to the cannabinoids found in cannabis. Your body feeds off of them. If you don’t produce enough to feed every single receptor, various conditions and various illnesses will ensue.”

Two Types of Endocannabinoid Receptors Have Been Identified

There are two primary ECS receptors: cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) and cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2). While CB1 is typically thought of as being primarily in the brain and CB2 primarily in the immune system, both types of receptors are in fact found throughout your body.

One of the two cannabinoids your body produces is called anandamide — a nod to the word “ananda,” the Sanskrit word for “bliss,” as it attaches to the same CB1 receptors that THC attaches to. The other, 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), is found throughout your body.

“The ECS has been the subject of many scholarly textbooks … Quite frankly, this is something that should be taught from high school to college to medical school. Unfortunately, because of the stigma attached to cannabinoids … less than 13 percent [of medical schools in the U.S.] are teaching the ECS.

I say, ‘Are you insane? This is like saying that for the next 70 years we will not teach the cardiovascular system, as if it never existed.’ We now have to dismantle this medical travesty … The whole thing is about education. This is critical and crucial to our health and well-being.

We have to dismantle the stigma, and we have to start educating ourselves to understand that the ECS is probably one of the most important medical discoveries in quite some time. Understanding the enormity of this system and what it does and what it influences throughout the entire human body.”

Low Endocannabinoid Levels Result in Ill Health

With age, our bodies tend to become less efficient in creating the compounds needed for optimal health, and this holds true for anandamide and 2-AG as well. According to Germano, these two cannabinoids can actually be used as biological markers for certain illnesses and conditions.

Endocannabinoid deficiency has been identified in people who have migraines, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory and neurological conditions and a variety of treatment-resistant conditions. Germano also cites a paper3 in Translational Psychiatry, which found low anandamide levels are a statistically positive indicator for stress-induced anxiety.

They’ve also discovered there’s an intimate relationship between your ECS and your omega-3 status.4As it turns out, omega-3 fats make your cannabinoid receptors more active, and are used as backbone structures to produce cannabinoids in your body.

“What do we see in people who have low omega-3 status? We see the same things we see in people who are endocannabinoid deficient: pain, inflammation, stress, anxiety, depression and so on. It is a perfect marriage between omega-3s and phytocannabinoids, which act like a multivitamin for the ECS.

But it doesn’t stop there. Look at bones … the reason we give post-menopausal women estrogen is because it influences the cells that build up bone, osteoblasts, and the cells that break down bone, osteoclasts. What does this have to do with the ECS?

We now know that if you stimulate the CB1 receptors, you start to stimulate the brain-to-bone communication by slowing down the brain from releasing bone-breaking compounds, like norepinephrine. Then when you stimulate the CB2 receptors, it increases osteoblasts, the bone makers, and decreases osteoclasts, the bone breakers.”

Top conditions associated with low cannabinoid levels include:
  • Pain, inflammation and inflammatory conditions
  • Stress, anxiety and insomnia
  • Ocular health
  • Bone health
  • Neurological conditions

“These are all conditions that can be suitably treated with phytocannabinoids,” Germano says. “These are conditions that we see in people who are endocannabinoid-deficient.”

Running Dramatically Boosts Anandamide Level

While runner’s high is typically attributed to the release of endorphins, running also dramatically increases anandamide in the body, and anandamide not only targets the CB1 receptor, but it also influences opioid and endorphin receptors. Not surprisingly then, the higher an individual’s anandamide level, the better they report feeling.

“That makes sense, because anandamide hits the receptors in the brain that are involved in reward and mood,” Germano says. “We also understand that the cannabinoids we produce are quite promiscuous.

They certainly touch the CB1 and CB2 receptors, but they [affect] other receptors as well, [such as] the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT3) receptors, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors, and receptors that control inflammation, pain, reward, anxiety and things of that nature.”

A paper5 published in PLOS ONE also details how various nutrients (such as omega-3 fats), drugs, exercise, chiropractic care, massage and acupuncture influence the function of your ECS.

Your Endocannabinoid System — A Key Player in Inflammation

Curcumin, boswellia, fish oil and quercetin are all well-recognized anti-inflammatory nutrients, but none can compare to what cannabinoids can do, Germano says, especially when the full spectrum is used.

As noted in a 2014 paper6 in Current Opinions in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, the ECS is an emerging key player in inflammation, because it’s intertwined with all of the inflammatory pathways, including the eicosanoid ones that omega-3 fish oils influence.

Germano also cites other research showing that targeting the ECS can ease both inflammatory and neuropathic pain, and describe how cannabinoids act as analgesics. According to Germano:

“You cannot contend with any inflammatory condition unless you’re supporting the ECS. They can be used interchangeably; phytocannabinoids along with curcumin and boswellia and fish oils would be remarkable, as they are complementary to each other by doing different things.

Again, we must address the ECS in any inflammatory condition, whether it be irritable bowel syndrome or injuries — even inflammation in the brain, which is one of the hallmarks of all neurological diseases. In 2003, the United States government got issued a patent on the neuroprotective effects of cannabinoids.

At that time, while the government has been telling us that phytocannabinoids are like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and heroin — [meaning they] have no medical value — they go out and get a patent on the medical value.

But that was followed up, and there are many papers that talk all about the anti-inflammatory effects in the brain and in the nervous system, of these cannabinoids … There is nothing else like supporting the ECS with phytocannabinoids.”

Your Endocannabinoid System Also Plays a Key Role in Your Gut Health

You’re probably familiar with the fact that there’s a strong connection between not only your brain and your gut, but also your immune system. The importance of this triad in health and disease prevention cannot be overstated. Your gut not only is your largest immune organ, it’s also your second brain, containing hundreds of millions of neurons.

“We now understand how the gut is involved with communicating with the brain and the immune system, because it has brain cells and immune cells in it,” Germano says. In the middle of this trio is your ECS. It is actually the orchestrator of this tri-directional communication. According to Germano, researchers have also discovered the ECS controls:

  • Motility in the gut
  • Intestinal inflammation
  • Abdominal pain
  • Gut permeability
  • Tolerance to antigens

The ECS also reduces the activity of the stress pathways, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) pathways. Anandamide, specifically, participates in the immunological response in the gut. What’s more, there’s also communication occurring between your endocannabinoid system and your gut microbiome (the bacteria in your gut).

Clinical Applications for Hemp Products

Again, a full-spectrum oil is actually far preferable to product in which CBD has been isolated. Germano cites a 2015 Israeli paper, which compared full-spectrum oil against isolated CBD, and found the full-spectrum oil was in fact clinically superior.

As for dosing, most of the literature demonstrates efficacy of CBD in the several hundred milligram range — but that is for “single magic bullet” isolated CBD. Preclinical studies and any clinicians are reporting that efficacy can be achieved with much lower doses when using a ful spectrum oil — some in the 10 to 25mg CBD range.

“Since CBD is the most dominant cannabinoid in hemp, when you extract oil from hemp, you do have much, much higher levels of CBD naturally in the oil as compared to the rest of the phytocannabinoid family. Providing 10 to 25 mg of CBD is the sweet spot for most conditions in the trade — especially when used with other synergistic ingredients …

People are responding quite remarkably, which [suggests] you don’t need a lot to jump-start the body’s ECS. Quite frankly, when we look at the bell-shaped curve with the isolates, the higher the dose, sometimes you decrease the effectiveness … When you use a full-spectrum oil and you’re getting the other important phytocannabinoid and terpene components, this is superior, and I’ll tell you why.

People have been focusing on CBD, which is the wrong message. It’s the myopic message. Think about it, CBD does not attach to the CB1 or CB2 receptors. If anything, CBD supports the CB1 receptors by preventing the breakdown of anandamide in our bodies and anandamide hits the CB1 receptor.

What about the CB2 receptor that controls inflammatory cycling, pain signaling, insulin sensitivity and bone building? CBD does nothing for that, so we need something of a CB2 agonist. A perfect partner to CBD would be another phytocannabinoid called beta caryophyllene. Luckily, the family of other phytocannabinoids in a full-spectrum oil contains other phytocannabinoids that complement to what CBD is not doing as well.

We must get off this single magic bullet bandwagon. We must appreciate the full gamut of all these phytocannabinoids as a whole, and that they complement each other, because CBD is not the answer to support the ECS as a whole.”

As with most things, too much can backfire. While CBD cannot kill you, using CBD isolate in too high amounts can reduce its effectiveness. Such problems are far less likely when using a full-spectrum oil.

“I don’t foresee anybody really overdosing on the standard dosages that we’re recommending,” Germano says. “Nor when we look at the data that’s been published, up to 1,500 mg of CBD chronically administered over time show that it was well-tolerated, minimal to no adverse reactions on physiological function, psychological functioning and other parameters in the body, including blood pressure. So, CBD is quite well-tolerated in humans.”

Hemp Oil for Sleep

Aside from inflammation and pain, another area where a full-spectrum hemp oil can be beneficial is to improve sleep and treat insomnia. Germano recommends using a full-spectrum oil in a dose that provides 25 mg of CBD.

“CBD at that range does a number of things. No. 1, it reduces excitability in the brain. It can reduce glutamate toxicity and any excitatory conditioning. Secondly, CBD is involved in various neurotransmitters that are involved with a normal sleep cycle.

While it has a calming effect and helps to establish a normal sleep cycle, it’s not necessarily a sedative. You can use it with melatonin. You can use it with lavender. You can use it with chamomile and passionflower, what have you. I would do that towards the latter part of the day, at least an hour or two before bedtime. Lower doses of CBD are more stimulating, so to speak, and more upregulating.”

How the New Law Can Improve Quality of Hemp Products

In the past, prior to the signing of the new Farm Bill, the leaf, flower and bud of the hemp plant could not be used in the production of CBD-rich hemp oil. The oil had to be pulled from the stalk and stem of the plant only — the less concentrated part. With the new law, all parts of the plant can be used, which will make processing easier and more economical, as the cannabinoids are more concentrated in the leaves, flowers and buds.

The law also makes it legal to grow hemp in in every state, so if you wanted to, you could grow it in your backyard. This is something I’m definitely considering, as you can easily juice the whole plant or add it to smoothies.

“Growing it for yourself would be wonderful,” Germano says. “It is a weed. It has a short period of harvest. It grows very rapidly — July, August and September. Yes, the whole plant can be used rather than just extracting the oils from it. All the phytocannabinoids and lipids are found in the oils, but the leaf can be juiced and put into smoothies as well …

In terms of growing and processing it, it’s a rather easy plant to grow, because it is a weed. When we talk about the raw plant, a lot of these cannabinoids are in their acidic form. CBD is in CBDA, cannabidiol acid, form. To convert it to its useable form, the acid has to be decarboxylated.

So, while you may benefit from a lot of the phytocannabinoids [in the raw plant], it’s going to be reliant on your body’s ability to process it from the acidic forms that are in there. Exposure to heat, light, moisture and air will decarboxylate a lot of them as well. The more you process it yourself, the more useable some of those phytocannabinoids will be.

[To process it], you can take the leaf, flower and bud. You can blend it and store it in the refrigerator. Over a day or two of exposure to heat, air, light and moisture, it’ll decarboxylate to some extent and you’ll benefit more from that. How much do you get? Appreciable amounts of CBD may be difficult with just juicing alone …

I don’t want to misquote myself and say the wrong thing, but probably an ounce or two [of raw plant] would do the trick as a healthy plant beverage. Again, you don’t need a lot to jump-start your body’s ECS. It’s not a numbers game. Small doses, you would definitely respond to.”

How to Identify a High-Quality Hemp Product

If you’re not growing your own, attributes to look for when shopping for a hemp product include:

Organic Kosher-certified
Non-GMO Verified pesticide and herbicide free
Full-spectrum phytocannabinoids Grown from certified seeds and not hybrids with marijuana

“I look for companies that are doing the right thing also. That is, they don’t mention CBD on the front panel or quantify it in the Supplement Fact box. Responsible companies talk about phytocannabinoids,” Germano says.

“They talk about hemp oil. They talk about nourishing the endocannabinoid system. This is a superior story to just CBD. Those are the more reputable companies that are telling the right story, [and not just talking about] isolated CBD.”

More Information About Endocannabinoid System

Germano has written a book about the endocannabinoid system called, “Road to Ananda: The Simple Guide to the Endocannabinoid System, Phytocannabinoids and Hemp,” (www.roadtoananda.com) which is due out shortly. I am very proud to have written the forward to this book as it is a great resource. Definitely pick up a copy if you want to learn more about this fascinating topic.

“I’m ecstatic to announce that the person who wrote the introduction to the book is Raphael Mechoulam, the father of cannabinoid research and who was involved in the discovery of the endocannabinoid system.

He is well-known in the scholarly circles. There are certainly plenty of scholarly work out there, but we need to get this message, this story, which is enormous, out to the layman and practitioner out there who is really unaware still,” Germano says.

“I’ve been in this industry for over 35 years. I’m a clinical nutritionist by trade. I have not seen any natural compounds this clinically relevant since the inception of this industry. I can tell you that targeting the endocannabinoid system, supporting it, will dominate medicine and nutrition of the next couple of decades.

There are also topical applications for phytocannabinoids, because, again, our skin is one of our largest organs. It also has five to 10 times more cannabinoids in it than we have in our brain. The CB1 and CB2 receptors are there as well.

There are three targeted areas for topical applications. One, obviously, is pain and inflammation, because the CB2 receptors are there that control that. That is something that will blow away any of these compounds in the marketplace today for topical pain relief.

Then we know that certain cannabinoids strangle the sebaceous gland for acne. Certain cannabinoids also influence age spot development and antiaging. [There are] some very interesting things going on in the topical application area.

When we look at the global picture of what is the subcutaneous endocannabinoid system doing, it’s helping to maintain normal cell proliferation, differentiation and immune competence. Oncologists are going to be interested in that aspect.”

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**Comment**

If you are a Lyme/MSIDS patient you should see yourself ALL over this article.  We struggle with pain, inflammation, gut issues (motility, permeability, antigen tolerance, pain/inflammation), neurological issues, & insomnia.  Many experience ocular & bone issues as well.  It will be interesting to observe the topical applications of this since so many have pain.

It’s quite amazing that our government has gotten away with pigeon-holing this wonderful plant into the same category as heroin and marijuana for decades.  Hopefully, we will see pricing begin to fall as currently, cost is high.

The article, and indeed everything I’ve read, stresses that full-spectrum CBD is crucial.

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/09/webinar-cbd-craze-health-or-hype/

My entire family has found CBD oil to help with both sleep and pain.  I give the brand we’ve had success with here:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/16/ldn-cbd/  (I am not affiliated with ANY companies).  It is potent.  The company has other strengths as well.

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Activism, Eye Issues, Gut Health, Hemp Oil, Herbs, Inflammation, Pain Management, research, Sleep, Supplements, Treatment