New way to prevent Alzheimer’s disease....

Today's Post: Monday, 9-27-2010

Last week, I saw a story saying that mice bred to develop Alzheimer’s disease did not do so when give the sirtuin protein or enzyme, SIRT1.

Apparently, that was already known; but this new study was able to show that SIRT1 blocked the formation of or sharply reduced the amount of tau protein that is now beginning to be looked at as the initiating cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

Just now, I was not able to find the story I saw; but I did find an article from last Thursday, 9-23-2010 with this:

“SIRT1 Enzyme can Reduce the Formation of Toxic Protein Tau”

On Wednesday (9-22-2010), the researchers from the United States mentioned that a nerve-protecting enzyme could help in developing new treatment method for Alzheimer's disease.

According to researchers, SIRT1 enzyme can help in the prevention of developing a toxic protein that damages the brain cells.
Li Gan of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease in San Francisco said that people suffering from Alzheimer's disease often have low levels of the protective enzyme.”

“For the study, Li Gan and her team tried to find out the connection between SIRT1 enzyme and p-tau protein that is strongly linked with Alzheimer's disease.

They tested a chemical that restores the levels of SIRT1 enzyme and found that it restricted the formation of toxic p-tau. The study report has been published in the journal Neuron.”

The articles tended to focus on developing drugs to increase SIRT1.

It’s also been found that high levels of SIRT1 slow aging.

But the real news is that there are two ways to increase your levels of SIRT1 now. Both of these methods have other health benefits.

Neither method requires you to wait years or decades for a drug or worry about drug side effects either!

1. One of these methods is easy to do but may be less effective. The other is effective but is quite challenging to do well.

The supplement resveratrol was shown to cause SIRT1 release in a study. Subsequent testing found that in practice taking the supplement resveratrol was more effective at protecting the heart and blood vessels of people taking it than it was in triggering SIRT1 release.

Part of that difference may have been that some of the people taking resveratrol were taking cis-resveratrol while the effective form is trans-resveratrol.

It also may be that taking less than 100 mg is not as effective at SIRT1 release or that it works better taken on an empty stomach.

The bottom line though is that taking 100 mg or more a day of trans-resveratrol is worth taking for its heart protective effects; and it may also boost the sirtuin, SIRT1. So, it may also slow aging and help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

2. The other way to increase SIRT1 is to restrict calories. There are ways to do that and sustain doing it. But, most people who try it trigger their body’s famine response which many generations of people before us had strongly enough to allow them to survive many generations of famine conditions.

There are several ways to restrict net calories without triggering your famine response. The list is long but each part has a way to cause net calorie restriction that is sustainable. Doing each thing on the list reduces calorie intake without triggering excess hunger or your famine response.

Eat a large variety and abundance of nonstarchy vegetables. Eat a moderate amount of protein foods that support your health. Get regular moderate exercise and vigorous exercise almost every day. Eat a low moderate amount of health supporting oils, notably from nuts, avocados, extra virgin olive oil, and fish oil from wild caught fish or purified fish oil supplements. Eat a low moderate amount of fresh fruit. Drink water, tea, coffee black mostly.

(You may be able to drink a low moderate amount of red wine if you get plenty of exercise.)

Eat or drink virtually nothing else on 90 % of the days in a month. And consume very little sugar even then.

(Virtually eliminate packaged snacks, fast food, packaged desserts, refined grain foods, omega 6 oils, hydrogenated oils, and all kinds of soft drinks.)

It may also help to be somewhat extra strict every other day. You get the extra calorie restriction that way. But research has shown this does NOT trigger the famine response, particularly if you eat enough protein and nonstarchy vegetables.

This lifestyle has already been shown to help people lose excess fat or to avoid gaining it. It’s preventive for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.

That way of eating has already been found separately to directly lower the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease.

In addition, the slowing in the aging process caused by regular moderate exercise and vigorous exercise almost every day, suggests that it too may directly boost
SIRT1. The improvement in lower blood sugar, better blood flow, and periodic boosts to blood flow all help to prevent both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

3. There are many other supplements that help to prevent both Alzheimer’s disease and other kinds of senility.

Two that do so well enough they may also boost SIRT1 as part of their effects are taking 2,000 iu a day or more of vitamin D3 and either eating curried food or taking curcumin or turmeric supplements or both each day. (Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric which is what gives curried food its yellow color.)

And, as we posted a few posts ago, taking B complex vitamins and doing other things to lower homocysteine levels apparently is also protective for your brain.