A personal blog, named in honor of the novel Petticoat Government by a favorite author, Emma Orczy. The novel is about a fictional woman, Lydie d'Aumont, who attempts to inject some fairness and good governance into the court of France's Louis XVth despite the corruption and selfishness there.
A colleague was out with a five-day migraine a week ago. Guess what I told her about? Of course. And she tried it. She was able to come back to work (that's how I saw her to give her some molybdenum) but still had the migraine lingering and threatening to descend again, so she took 1000 mcg of molybdenum glycinate. Ninety minutes later, I saw her helping push someone else's broken-down automobile and reporting that the molybdenum had helped her.
(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)
Oysters are really high in heme (a kind of iron) content. (https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional/) I ate a lot of oysters (canned, not fresh) yesterday because I wanted the zinc and glycine betaine in them. Oysters are fairly foreign to me, and I had forgotten about their high heme content. Over a year ago, I wrote (http://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2016/07/carbon-monoxide-and-restless-legs_15.html) that restless legs syndrome appears to me to be endogenous carbon monoxide excess in the leg muscles, which carbon monoxide is a metabolic product of heme, and so I suggested that people dealing with restless legs syndrome avoid overconsuming heme.
Guess what woke me at 4 am this morning? This weird feeling in my legs....
I took a hydroxocobalamin lozenge (also suggested in my year-old post as a help since it combined with Vitamin C appears to be a possible treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning) and was able to fall back asleep soon after. My legs still feel a little weird this morning, and I have a bit of a "steely" feeling in my head. So I'll take more hydroxocobalamin and some Vitamin C now, and then I'll set to figuring out why I'm so sensitive to heme intake. It was just one can of oysters! (Which I ate all by myself.)
Here is a one-page summary of some of what I consider the most valuable information I've gathered on nutritional factors that promote proper methylation, which appears to help with ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and possibly preventing cancer. Feel free to share (without alteration, please) as widely as you like.
I often have tabs on my browser that I leave open for a week or more because I've been looking into a subject but haven't collected enough interesting material to write a whole blog post. Tonight I'm going to link to my open pages so that I can finally close them on my browser. One tab is connected to hydrogen peroxide and antioxidants, which tangentially goes along with our family research project of testing all our produce for catalase action. (If you want to have fun, put some mushed banana in a glass then pour in some 3% hydrogen peroxide; the results are slow but impressive.) A couple are about iron overload and its possible connection to mental health condition exacerbation (I'm curious as to whether there's a link between fluctuating iron stores in women and symptom severity.). And the rest are my research into whether there is anything special in chicken gizzards, which topic became one of interest a couple weeks ago after I noted that chicken gizzard soup, which I'd never cooked before, made me feel unusually happy and peaceful; the research led me to MUC1, a mucin in gizzards which is upregulated by GABA and which I suspect might help people feel calm (That could contribute to the common relaxed feeling after Thanksgiving dinner, which is the only time Americans tend to eat gizzard--it's part of giblets--broth on the same day. People wouldn't have noticed as large an effect from eating fried gizzards because they usually boil then dry gizzards before coating and frying them; no broth consumed. I think MUC1 might be heat stable at 100C, given that mucin in cooked okra is what makes it so slimy, but I couldn't find any clear evidence of that, only that it's very resistant to heat denaturation at temperatures up to 85C. There are also water-soluble forms of MUC1, which could explain how MUC1 would end up in gizzard broth instead of staying in the rubbery gizzard pieces in my soup. MUC1 is overexpressed in many cancers, so I'm sure much more research on it will be forthcoming.). Kind of random, but that's what roundups are for.
**
Antioxidant
effect of red wine anthocyanins in normal and catalase-inactive human
erythrocytes. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955286301001644
“Subsequently, we demonstrate that fractions containing anthocyanins lower ROS
(reactive oxygen species) and methemoglobin production in human erythrocytes
treated with H2O2. Finally, we reported that the protective effects of
anthocyanins were also confirmed in an experimental model in which RBCs were
deprived of catalase activity by treatment with 4 mM sodium azide. The results
obtained clearly demonstrate that red wine anthocyanins protect human RBCs from
oxidative stress.”
Abstract: Seven
patients with varying psychiatric disorders were found to have iron overload as
manifested by abnormal serum ferritin, transferrin saturation index (TSI), or
excessive urinary iron. All possible sources of secondary iron overload were
ruled out. The patients were treated with the specific iron chelator,
deferoxamine, given IM for seven to 22 weeks which resulted in significant clinical
improvements. These cases indicate a need to be aware that disordered iron
metabolism is a somatic cause of psychiatric illness and that there is clinical
improvement upon lowering elevated iron levels in patients with iron overload.
Objective - A
patient presenting with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
Fourth Edition, bipolar disorder was found to be affected by high iron
hemochromatosis. This prompted us to explore the relation between bipolar
disorder and iron overload.
Method - We
report the case and review the peer-reviewed literature focusing on mood
symptoms in patients with hemochromatosis or iron overload. Animal studies of
brain effects of iron overload are summarized. High iron hemochromatosis was
confirmed by genetic testing, and treatment was instituted to address iron
overload.
Results -Patient's
bipolar symptoms completely subsided after phlebotomic reduction of iron
overload.
Conclusion -
Clinicians should explore the possibility of iron overload and seek genetic
confirmation of hemochromatosis in resistant bipolar disorder to avoid
unnecessary medication.
Histomorphological
and Histochemical Studies of the Stomach of the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) http://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=ajas.2015.280.292
“Rossi et al. (2005) observed in the gizzard’s mucosa of the partridge
(Rhynchotus rufescens) low folds lined by simple columnar to cuboidal
epithelium. The mucosa revealed the presence of tubular glands, which were
lined by low cuboidal at their bases, whereas higher at their upper portions.
In fact, the luminal surface of the gizzard was lined with secretory product of
the mucosal glands, which solidified at the surface to form a hard cuticle of
koilin. Selvan et al. (2008) recorded that the gizzard’s wall of the guinea
fowl (Numida meleagris) constructed from the usually known four tunics in
addition to an internal lining of koilin which was a secretary layer above the
mucosa. The koilin showed positive reaction with the PAS. The surface
epithelium was PAS positive too. They showed predominance of neutral mucin. The
PAS positive material was present in the lumen of the glands and in the cells
that were lined both the surface and crypts.”
The
differences between the localizations of MUC1, MUC5AC, MUC6 and osteopontin in
quail proventriculus and gizzard may be a reflection of functional differences
of stomach parts. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2010.01243.x/full
“In conclusion, the expressions of MUC1, MUC5AC, MUC6 and OPN in quail
proventriculus and gizzard were different. These differences may be a
reflection of functional differences of stomach parts. In addition, the
localization of MUC5AC in proventriculus was different from those of MUC1, MUC6
and OPN. The immunoreactivity of MUC5AC was present in the lining epithelium of
both folds and superficial proventricular glands in the proventriculus, whereas
MUC1, MUC6 and OPN reactivity was found in the oxynticopeptic cells of profound
proventricular glands. Furthermore, the immunoreactivity of MUC1 in gizzard was
different from that of MUC5AC. Although MUC5AC was expressed in the cells of
surface epithelium and profound glands of the gizzard, MUC1 was localized in the
simple tubular profound glands of the gizzard. However, MUC6 and OPN
immunoreactivity was absent in the gizzard. These differences may also be a
reflection of the functional differences between the surface epithelial cells
and glandular cells of both the proventriculus and gizzard.”
Disease-associated
epigenetic changes in monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3221539/.
The top biological function pathway in the SZ gene list was ‘psychological
disorders’, comprising nine genes directly implicated in SZ (CCND2, CHRNA2,
FXR2, FXYD6, HRH3, MUC1, PFN2, SLC31A2, SLC6A3) (P= 3.64E − 03).
GABA
selectively increases mucin-1 expression in isolated pig jejunum. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4607675/
“Porcine jejunum epithelial preparations were incubated with two different
amounts of GABA or glutamine on the mucosal side for 4 h, and changes in the
relative gene expression of seven different mucins, enzymes involved in mucin
shedding, GABA B receptor, enzymes involved in glutamine/GABA metabolism,
glutathione peroxidase 2, and interleukin 10 were examined by quantitative PCR
(TaqMan® assays). Protein expression of mucin-1 (MUC1) was analyzed by Western
blot. On the RNA level, only MUC1 was significantly up-regulated by both GABA
concentrations compared with the control. Glutamine-treated groups showed the
same trend. On the protein level, all treatment groups showed a significantly
higher MUC1 expression than the control group. We conclude that GABA selectively
increases the expression of MUC1, a cell surface mucin that prevents the
adhesion of microorganisms, because of its size and negative charge, and
therefore propose that the well-described positive effects of glutamine on
enterocytes and intestinal integrity are partly attributable to effects of its
metabolite GABA.”
Oral intake
of γ-aminobutyric acid affects mood and activities of central nervous system
during stressed condition induced by mental tasks. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22203366
“In this study, we investigated how the oral intake of GABA influences human
adults psychologically and physiologically under a condition of mental stress.
Sixty-three adults (28 males, 35 females) participated in a randomized, single
blind, placebo-controlled, crossover-designed study over two experiment days.
Capsules containing 100 mg of GABA or dextrin as a placebo were used as test
samples. The results showed that EEG activities including alpha band and beta
band brain waves decreased depending on the mental stress task loads, and the
condition of 30 min after GABA intake diminished this decrease compared with
the placebo condition. That is to say, GABA might have alleviated the stress
induced by the mental tasks. This effect also corresponded with the results of
the POMS scores.”
Relaxation
and immunity enhancement effects of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
administration in humans. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16971751
“The effect of orally administrated gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) on
relaxation and immunity during stress has been investigated in humans. Two
studies were conducted. The first evaluated the effect of GABA intake by 13
subjects on their brain waves. Electroencephalograms (EEG) were obtained after
3 tests on each volunteer as follows: intake only water, GABA, or L-theanine.
After 60 minutes of administration, GABA significantly increases alpha waves
and decreases beta waves compared to water or L-theanine. These findings denote
that GABA not only induces relaxation but also reduces anxiety. The second
study was conducted to see the role of relaxant and anxiolytic effects of GABA
intake on immunity in stressed volunteers. Eight acrophobic subjects were
divided into 2 groups (placebo and GABA). All subjects were crossing a
suspended bridge as a stressful stimulus. Immunoglobulin A (IgA) levels in
their saliva were monitored during bridge crossing. Placebo group showed marked
decrease of their IgA levels, while GABA group showed significantly higher
levels. In conclusion, GABA could work effectively as a natural relaxant and
its effects could be seen within 1 hour of its administration to induce
relaxation and diminish anxiety. Moreover, GABA administration could enhance
immunity under stress conditions.”
Around nine months ago, I told a friend about molybdenum helping some people with their migraines. She usually gets migraines two or three times in a year. Her migraine triggers seem to be worry, lack of sleep, and caffeine withdrawals. She came down with a migraine a couple of days ago and experienced relief from molybdenum as described below.
This was the first time she tried molybdenum for a migraine. The day before yesterday, she wanted to try it after coming home from work but couldn't find it (I'd given her a bottle of molybdenum months ago; it's only $7/bottle, so I give it to friends who want to try it--like I've said, I'm not getting a dime out of this molybdenum thing) and was too sick to look for it. She took a giant dose of ibuprofen instead. Then in the morning she took more ibuprofen, which dulled the migraine pain for her and made her feel weird; she said that even with the ibuprofen she could "tell the headache was still there" and "felt queasy." She remembered the molybdenum was in her bedside table and grabbed the bottle of it before leaving for work.
While at work, she asked how much she should take, and since she's not a heavy woman, I suggested based on other friends' reports, that she start with around 300 mcg and and then take a little more (up to 500 mcg) if the molybdenum seemed to be having an effect. Considering the tolerable upper limit for chronic molybdenum supplemenation is 2000 mcg/day, 500 mcg is a conservative amount; one could get the same amount of molybdenum by eating 3-5 bowls of lentils. Not that anyone in the USA would eat that many lentils in a day.... She did experience a benefit with a smaller dose and so eventually took a total of 500 mcg.
Before she took the molybdenum, she was experiencing "the aftermath of a headache -- sensitivity to light, aura-like peripheral vision, and queasy stomach." In response to the question of how taking molybdenum affected her, she said, "Gradually the symptoms went away. I had taken a large dose of ibuprofen, so my symptoms were dull and I didn't realize the exact moment that I felt better." She says in the past she usually had symptoms for a week, but this time she didn't. She said she would recommend it to someone else suffering from migraines.
So there's another molybdenum success story.
(Disclaimer: I do not prescribe the use of pharmaceutical drugs in any way. I am not a physician, and I reject out of hand any attempt to hold me liable for what boils down to a discussion of food. Any use of a molybdenum supplement should be prudent and guided by the tested tolerable upper intake levels for its usage (see http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/molybdenum for those limits). Any use of an isolated molybdenum supplement during pregnancy should be under the direction of a medical professional as such supplements have apparently not been tested during pregnancy.)
As happens when children go back to school, they share their germs. Most of the family is dealing with a cold right now. Lots of Vitamin C (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10543583) and rest.
It's almost a given that a "stomach bug" of some kind will start going around our school community within the next few months, and I know I'll feel guilty that almost no one knows molybdenum can help prevent the unpleasant nausea and vomiting that usually accompany gastrointestinal viruses. So I wrote up a short, relatively simple summary of why I think it helps. Here it is:
“Stomach bug” going around?
Molybdenum can help!
A typical part of a viral
gastroenteritis infection is damage to the mucosa (lining) of the proximal
small intestine (the part of the small intestine closest to the stomach).[1] Our
bodies use hydrogen sulfide (H2S) while working to protect the gastric[2]
and intestinal mucosa,[3] but
the hydrogen sulfide must be broken down quickly because hydrogen sulfide can
be toxic at higher levels. The final step of breaking down hydrogen sulfide is
one in which sulfite (SO3) is converted to sulfate (SO4). Ingested “sulfites”
are known to cause nausea and have other unpleasant effects on health; the FDA had
to ban putting sulfiting agents on restaurant salad bars in the 1980s
because many people were having to go to emergency rooms after
eating sulfited food from salad bars.[4]
The enzyme our bodies use to transform sulfite to sulfate is called sulfite oxidase. It is one of five known enzymes
in the human body that use the element molybdenum (element #42 on the periodic table). Molybdenum
is an essential trace mineral in the human diet and is typically found at high
levels in beans, liver, barley, and oats. Molybdenum bound to the amino acid
glycine can also be purchased as a food supplement. By not being deficient in molybdenum, we can help our bodies break down excess sulfite before it makes us nauseated.
Author: CE Taylor (I'm not a medical doctor, just someone who noticed a connection between molybdenum-containing foods and lower levels of "morning sickness" and then whose sister tried molybdenum for a stomach bug and was surprised to find that it protected her from nausea and vomiting. Molybdenum is not a medicine; it is a trace element that already is found in the human diet.)
[1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1089575
- Widerlite L, Trier JS, Blacklow NR, Schreiber DS. Structure of the gastric
mucosa in acute infectious bacterial gastroenteritis. Gastroenterology. 1975 Mar;68(3):425-30.
[2]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28346391
- Bronowicka-Adamska P, Wróbel M, Magierowski M, Magierowska K, Kwiecień S,
Brzozowski T. Hydrogen sulphide production in healthy and ulcerated gastric mucosa
of rats. Molecules. 2017 Mar
27;22(4). pii: E530. doi: 10.3390/molecules22040530.
[3]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17241876/
- Wallace JL, Caliendo G, Santagada V, Cirino G, Fiorucci S. Gastrointestinal
safety and anti-inflammatory effects of a hydrogen sulfide-releasing diclofenac
derivative in the rat. Gastroenterology.
2007 Jan;132(1):261-71
Many now are talking about a quote of Nelson Mandela's that was tweeted by Obama and has been retweeted more than any other tweet before. Here's the quote:
"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion...People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love...For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."
Two studies by researchers at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto and their collaborators from the US, UK, France and China, show that six- to nine-month-old infants demonstrate racial bias in favour of members of their own race and racial bias against those of other races.
In the first study, "Older but not younger infants associate own-race faces with happy music and other-race faces with sad music," published in Developmental Science, results showed that after six months of age, infants begin to associate own-race faces with happy music and other-race faces with sad music.
In the second study, "Infants rely more on gaze cues from own-race than other-race adults for learning under uncertainty," published in Child Development, researchers found that six- to eight-month-old infants were more inclined to learn information from an adult of his or her own race than from an adult of a different race.
(In both studies, infants less than six months of age were not found to show such biases).
***
"When we consider why someone has a racial bias, we often think of negative experiences he or she may have had with other-race individuals. But, these findings suggest that a race-based bias emerges without experience with other-race individuals," said Dr. Naiqi (Gabriel) Xiao.
Anyone who has ever observed a very small child freak out or inexplicably behave rudely to someone new who is from a different ethnicity or race knows that these findings reflect the truth. Anyone who has traveled the world has seen how racism exists in every group of people and seems to develop as naturally as greed. Does that mean we give up and just let everyone act on that racism? No, just like with greed, we need to teach people NOT to be racist and penalize and stigmatize those who let their racial bias lead them to engage in criminal and antisocial behavior. We also need to give them early exposure to caring, trustworthy people of many different ethnicities to help them develop warm feelings for all humanity from an early age.
I find Mandela's quote unfortunate because it places blame on humanity for something that grows without being taught. The focus should instead be on working to give young children positive interactions with people of all ethnicities and races to prevent racism from developing in the first place.
(I think the findings above help explain why I've never quite understood all the accusations of "racism" swirling through the air: A Mexican housekeeper crossed the border to take care of me daily when I was a toddler, and when I first started school, I had an African-American friend, violin teacher, and school teacher. People who cared for me, loved me, and taught me built my trust and affection for all people, and my parents supported that development.)
We learned about the CNMI these past two weeks. Unfortunately, there is very little available about the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Not too surprising, since its population is barely over 50,000, but still I was sad that almost all the video footage I could find was about the Second World War Battle of Saipan, which is grim viewing for children.
The CNMI is land belonging to the United States of America, but because it only has commonwealth status, it maintains a greater degree of flexibility in some of its laws. Because of its tropical location and proximity to Asia, it is a relatively popular tourist destination and is allowed to parole in (allow entry of non-US-visa holders) tourists from Russia and China for periods up to 45 days.
The food offerings there seem to be a mix of Spanish, Filipino, Chamorro, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and other Asian cuisines. The most interesting geographical thing about the CNMI is its proximity to the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the world's oceans. In 2009, President G.W. Bush issued a proclamation making 95,000 square miles of the trench and its surroundings a protected U.S. National Monument.
It's time to head back to school. I'm a homeschooling parent who sends her children to school in the afternoons. It has turned out to be a wonderful way to make sure core academics are covered in a solid, personalized way for each of our children and also give our children the experience of classrooms, fellow students, parties, and non-core-academic instruction by subject specialists. Going for a partial day helps my children feel privileged to be at school rather than "trapped," and they love their school and teachers. Funnily enough, they still sometimes tell me that their favorite thing about school is recess. Kids will be kids.
This year I've been asked to teach part-time at their school, so my schedule flexibility just evaporated. Mornings will be roughly as they were, but field trips won't be happening. Sigh. I'll miss them. And just when my youngest got out of diapers, too.
I'll also miss having as much time to do research. It has been great fun researching along medical/nutrition/cuisine rabbit trails and occasionally finding some real treasures of answers. This isn't the field I studied. My degrees are in math and law. Problem solving and efficient researching are valuable skills that carry over to many other fields, and having learned about the way people eat in different parts of the world has helped me see interesting connections between regional cuisines, nutrition, and human health.
Let me review some of my favorite discoveries and how they affect my life:
Molybdenum(!) - Element #42 appears to help stop nausea/vomiting and migraines, especially if sulfiting agent-containing food and drink are avoided. Stomach bugs no longer take a week or two away from our lives when they visit our home, for powdered molybdenum glycinate has thus far proven itself very effective at ending nausea and vomiting. Even for the toddlers, so it's not just a placebo effect.
Nutritional support of the two homocysteine-to-methionine enzymatic pathways - We keep folic acid intake low since high intake of it appears to cause a pseudo-MTHFR defect, which negatively affects the availability of MTHFR for methionine synthase. We instead consume a lot of food/drink with naturally occurring folate. We also drink glycine betaine, which is needed by betaine-homocysteine S-methyltransferase, in our milk/juices to make up for the way the western diet tends to dispose of the easily absorbed glycine betaine in cooking water. Doing these things seems to ameliorate some negative Asperger's traits in our family.
Zinc - My husband didn't like me to cook much with onions before because of the embarrassment of the smelly gas it brought on afterward, but now that I know zinc binds with hydrogen sulfide--the most smelly element of flatulence--I put zinc in onion-containing dishes and he can handle the dishes.
Catalase - Out of curiosity about which foods can best combat oxidative stress from hydrogen peroxide, we regularly test for catalase activity* in all kinds of raw fruits and vegetables now as a family. I hope my children ask me for science fair project ideas because I have a lot of hands-on research questions I would like to offload on them. :) I suspect that making sure my husband and I eat active peroxidases and catalases regularly will help delay a host of aging-related ills, including heart disease, stroke, dementia, cataracts, and diabetes. We two also started sipping some catalase mixed in water yesterday to see how it might affect us. I teased my husband as I handed him his glass that "this is the water Ponce de Leon was looking for." Will the catalase water reverse any obvious signs of aging? Who knows? We're both at the stage where we consistently get some gray hairs at our temples, and gray hair apparently is a result of oxidative stress, so it's the perfect time for us to see if we can stop our bodies from sliding down the oxidative stress slope that leads to excessive cell death. Catalase turns hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water, so I don't think we have to worry about side effects, but we'll stop our experiment if we experience any negative ones.
* That sounds fancy, but it just means putting thin slices of the produce in with 3% hydrogen peroxide from the store. Mini sweet peppers created a lovely pinkish-orange foam quite quickly, while cactus pear flesh was a rather nonreactive disappointment.
Over in Hungary, researchers have made an interesting discovery about catalase (an enyzme in our bodies that breaks hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen): people who are genetically deficient in catalase develop type 2 diabetes more frequently and earlier. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673600032384, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25726767) Hydrogen peroxide is one of the reactive oxygen species that cause oxidative stress, and oxidative stress is currently being looked at as a possible cause of people developing type 2 diabetes. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448694/) Hydrogen peroxide in excess can induce cell death, and it travels readily through the extracellular matrix because it is a small molecule with a neutral electrical charge. (http://www.cell.com/biophysj/abstract/S0006-3495(09)01228-4) What if excessive hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is inducing death of the beta cells in the pancreas and bringing on type 2 diabetes? Recently published findings show that this could be exactly what is occurring:
Title: Chemistry and
biology of reactive species with special reference to the antioxidative defence
status in pancreatic β-cells.
Diabetes
mellitus is a serious metabolic disease. Dysfunction and subsequent loss of the
β-cells in the islets of Langerhans through apoptosis ultimately cause a
life-threatening insulin deficiency. The underlying reason for the particular
vulnerability of the β-cells is an extraordinary sensitivity to the toxicity of
reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) due to its low antioxidative
defense status.
SCOPE REVIEW:
This review
considers the different aspects of the chemistry and biology of the
biologically most important reactive species and their chemico-biological
interactions in the β-cell toxicity of proinflammatory cytokines in type 1
diabetes and of lipotoxicity in type 2 diabetes development.
MAJOR CONCLUSION:
The weak
antioxidative defense equipment in the different subcellular organelles makes
the β-cells particularly vulnerable and prone to mitochondrial, peroxisomal and
ER stress. Looking upon the enzyme deficiencies which are responsible for the low
antioxidative defense status of the pancreatic β-cells it is the lack of
enzymatic capacity for H2O2 inactivation at all major subcellular sites.
GENERAL
SIGNIFICANCE:
Diabetes is the
most prevalent metabolic disorder with a steadily increasing incidence of both
type 1 and type 2 diabetes worldwide. The weak protection of the pancreatic
β-cells against oxidative stress is a major reason for their particular
vulnerability. Thus, careful protection of the β-cells is required for
prevention of the disease.
How do we protect the pancreas's beta cells from an excess of hydrogen peroxide? The pancreas is right in the middle of the abdomen, just under the stomach and flush against the duodenum. The duodenum is the first section of the small intestine and is the first location transited by food and digestive liquids after they leave the stomach.
Another thing that can be done is to supplement the body's natural ability to break down hydrogen peroxide with consumption of active catalase and peroxidases (another kind of enzyme that breaks down hydrogen peroxide).
Catalase is in many plants and animals and is found in bovine liver; in fact, bovine liver is the source from which catalase was first isolated from back in 1937. (http://science.sciencemag.org/content/85/2206/366) Guess who ate raw liver and other organ meats? Yes, the circumpolar people's traditional diet included raw and dried organ meat (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15776992), meaning they consumed active catalase regularly and possibly helped protect their pancreatic beta cells from excessive hydrogen peroxide. If this connection I've just drawn has any merit, it cries out for a real study, for catalase now can be easily purchased as an inexpensive supplement which is purported to survive the low pH of the stomach. (https://www.amazon.com/Catalase-500mg-Supplement-Antioxidant-Neutralize/dp/B01MU8OZN4) In general, I'm doubtful of claimed benefits from enzymatic and probiotic supplements because of absorption and inactivation issues, but for the narrow purpose of using catalase to protect the pancreas from hydrogen peroxide, catalase supplementation looks like a plausible prophylactic.
While writing my recently published hypothesis paper on horseradish and radish peroxidases (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987717301238), I read a lot about vegetable and fruit peroxidases. The longer peroxidase enzymes sit in an acidic environment, such as that of the stomach, the more the peroxidase enzymes become denatured and ineffective at breaking down hydrogen peroxide. The speed at which they become inactive varies amongst plants, but green beans seem to have more persistently-active peroxidases than several other plants. (http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/28/1/48.full.pdf, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa.2740360918/abstract) (Unfortunately, people usually cook green beans before eating them, although they taste fine raw.) Sometimes acid-denatured peroxidase enzymes can become regenerated to an extent after being removed from the acidic environment. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1991.tb07977.x/abstract) Happily for us, the duodenum pH is neutral or slightly alkaline, meaning that it might provide an environment in which acid-denatured peroxidases can become temporarily active again.
Therefore, the active plant peroxidases we eat have a chance of being active to some extent in the duodenum where they can help break down hydrogen peroxide before it damages pancreatic beta cells. This possibility fits with the reported link between low intake of fruit and vegetables and an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. (http://www.news-medical.net/news/20160629/Diet-rich-in-vegetables-and-fruit-may-decrease-type-2-diabetes-risk.aspx) So eat fresh--because many forms of preservation use heat and acids specifically to inactivate peroxidases--and reconstituted-after-being-dried fruits and vegetables to avoid developing type 2 diabetes.
The Navajo Nation did the right thing in in 2013 when it tried to remove sales tax on fresh produce, but unfortunately that legislative effort was vetoed. (https://www.abqjournal.com/369402/navajo-nation-should-reverse-health-act-veto.html) Last week I purchased food on the Navajo reservation, and they taxed my graham crackers and my tomatoes at the same rate. The health act veto was unfortunate and short-sighted, in my opinion, and is likely continuing to depress sales of fresh produce on the Navajo reservation; even my young children noticed how out-of-the-way the small produce section was in reservation grocery store compared to our huge, at-the-entrance produce sections of supermarkets in urban Colorado. The traditional Navajo diet included uncooked plants and dried meat--likely sometimes liver meat with high catalase content--and modern Navajos are not getting enough of these foods.
Take a lesson from Weird Al Yankovic, and love your pancreas to lessen your risk of type 2 diabetes.* Don't surround it with extra adipose tissue, and give it lots of help breaking down hydrogen peroxide by consuming catalase and peroxidases (especially ones that are resistant to denaturing by acidic environments).
"Pancreas" - Weird Al Yankovic (you'll thank me later)
* I know some who read this are going to think that I'm far too optimistic about the above suggestions making a difference in type 2 diabetes, but it's relatively uncontroversial that exercise (which leads to loss of abdominal fat--https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/abdominal-fat-and-what-to-do-about-it) and improving one's diet can "reverse" type 2 diabetes. (http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/type-2-diabetes-guide/reversing-type-2-diabetes#1) My Hispanic grandmother successfully put her type 2 diabetes in remission decades ago and ended up dying much later from dementia after decades of staying active and following the advice in Prevention magazines (of which she had a lot lying around her house). Don't be fatalistic. Diabetes mellitus is not a destiny you can do nothing about.
For the past two weeks, our family has been learning about the Navajo, AKA Diné ("the people"). We live in Colorado, so we went all-out with a multi-day family field trip to visit sites on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona.
The children saw Shiprock, Four Corners, Canyon de Chelly, and Window Rock (which has a great little zoo of animals that live on the reservation). They saw hogans, dirt roads, sheep, horses, a roadside flea market, gorgeous scenery, and cliff dwellings. They ate fry bread tacos and lots of corn and beans; blue cornmeal mush is on the menu for today, our last day before moving on from learning about the Navajo.
We listened to the beautiful, haunting music of R. Carlos Nakai. We learned about sand painting, southwest pottery, and Navajo rugs. We met Navajo dancers at a canyon overlook who were doing a photo op preparatory to a trip abroad to educate about US indigenous cultures.
We went to Mesa Verde National Park, too, although that is outside the Navajo reservation. Who knew that the Navajo are descendants of Native Americans who came from Alaska around 600 years ago? They have been influenced by the other natives who were already living in the southwest, but they weren't the people who built the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings.
Yesterday, my newly-published hypothesis on horseradish and radish peroxides being partially behind the sometimes observed association between fish consumption and delayed cognitive decline went live online.
Horseradish and radish peroxidases eaten with fish could help explain observed associations between fish consumption and protection from age-related dementia
Abstract A juxtaposition of regional cuisines and recent prospective studies of fish consumption in China and Japan points to fresh horseradish and/or radish (HRR) as possible contributors to delaying age-related dementia. The hypothesis is that the inverse association found sometimes between fish intake and cognitive decline is partially due to exposure of the oral cavity to active peroxidases from HRR served in conjunction with fish. This hypothesis can be tested by specifically looking at whether HRR is consumed with fish and whether such HRR is prepared in a way that preserves activity of HRR peroxidases. It is possible that by putting active HRR peroxidases in their mouths, elderly people supplement their age-diminished salivary antioxidant capacity and break down additional hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the oral cavity before it can migrate into the brain, thus decreasing the incidence of brain cell death induction by chronically-elevated H2O2. Intentional exposure of the oral cavity to active HRR peroxidases could be a prophylactic for delaying dementia. Because vegetable peroxidases are inactivated by gastric juices, it will be difficult to obtain benefit from HRR peroxidases’ antioxidant effect via ingestion in encapsulated dietary supplements.
I first noticed the possible involvement of horseradish back in September 2016, which I discussed in the post "Down the research rabbit hole and finding a root." Afterward I kept coming across more evidence that supported that idea: evidence of the importance of hydrogen peroxide in oxidative stress, the often nonlinear nature of oxidative stress damage, plausible anatomical pathways for hydrogen peroxide in the mouth to affect the brain (especially via the cribriform foramina) in ways connected to age-related neurodegeneration, and differences in cooking methods and diet from country to country. So I decided to put it together into a medical hypothesis and submit it for publication in hopes that researchers would test the hypothesis.
The journal Medical Hypotheses is peer-reviewed, and one of the peer reviewers clearly hated my hypothesis initially. However, I revised it to include new evidence and explanations, and the reviewer grudgingly accepted that the hypothesis was adequately supported by reported evidence and approved it for publication. That's why it took over six months from submission to publication. However, I'm glad for the criticisms in the peer review process, for they made me address and resolve key issues in the hypothesis.
The District of Columbia received insufficient attention from our family due to a family trip and a camp for one of our children, but at least we were learning about Washington DC on July 4!
For music, we listened to John Philips Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever," Duke Ellington's "Soda Fountain Rag," John Denver's "Country Roads, Take Me Home" (his breakout song was mostly composed by DC-based collaborators, who hadn't actually been to West Virginia beforehand and were describing a Maryland road near Washington DC), Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten's "Freight Train," and Sweet Honey in the Rock's "Run, Mourner, Run."
We also went to a baseball game, ate crab cakes and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, ate pork with Chesapeake Bay seasoning (that was more a political joke than a nod to actual DC cuisine), and watched fireworks. We read books about the Smithsonian museums and watched videos showing DC monuments; our children now want to visit the DC museums, and the girls loved Season 1 of "Wonder Woman" with Lynda Carter, which is mostly set in DC.
Our nation's capital definitely deserves a family trip in a few years when all the children will be old enough to remember it.
My great-grandparents were missionaries in southern China around the turn of the past century, and I was recently able to scan in some of their old photos and postcards. I'm going to post a few on this blog because I think they're interesting. I haven't done a lot with photo editing software, so please bear with the slight rotations.
Bridge in City, somewhere in China around 1910
Street, somewhere in China around 1910
Tibetan Buddhist pagoda, somewhere in China around 1910
One of the saddest moments of my young adult life was picking up a heavily pregnant friend from a bar one evening. She knew she wasn't supposed to be drinking, and she was embarrassed to be found imbibing solo and on the sly. My friend had her own mental deficiencies, and her baby ended up being taken away from her by the state child protective services after its birth. But much harm to the baby had already probably been done during the pregnancy. And if the recent findings in mice--fetal alcohol syndrome symptoms were found in the children and grandchildren of mice exposed to ethanol while in the uterus, even though those children and the grandchildren hadn't been exposed to ethanol in the uterus--hold true in humans, my friend harmed her potential grandchildren and great-grandchildren, too.
How heartbreaking and unnecessary are the results of alcohol abuse in modern times. Ethanol--the kind of alcohol that gets us drunk without immediately poisoning us--has only two non-recreational benefits that I can see: 1) killing bacteria that can cause illness, and 2) dissolving compounds, both harmful and healthful, out of plant matter. The first benefit is now unneeded because humanity has learned the importance of drinking clean water. The second benefit is still a good one, but after the compounds have been dissolved, the ethanol is no longer necessary and can be removed. Studies on the health benefits of wine usually conclude that it's the polyphenols and other antioxidant molecules, not the ethanol, that are helpful. One study has even found that de-alcoholized red wine was of more benefit than regular red wine. (http://circres.ahajournals.org/content/early/2012/09/06/CIRCRESAHA.112.275636)
I know it's not especially popular to say "greatly diminish alcohol consumption." I live in Colorado, and many people here are in denial about what they are doing to their bodies and brains with legal marijuana because they like the recreational aspect of it. But I'll say it anyway: ethanol is unnecessary, unhelpful, and best avoided.
For the past two weeks, our family has been learning about the Cherokee tribe.
We ate a lot of the "Three Sisters"--corn, squash, and beans--this week, as well as turkey jerky, nuts, dried fruit, and bacon. Because the Cherokee used to live near the ocean, before the awful forced relocation to Oklahoma in 1838 known as the the "Trail of Tears," the children also got to try oysters--cooked, not raw. I'm not that adventurous.
Current flag of the Cherokee tribe. The seven-point stars are used because of the symbolism of the number seven to the Cherokees. The black star is to memorialize the Cherokees who died on the Trail of Tears.
Last night, we invited a friend over who is 1/8 Cherokee and ate a dinner of whole baked trout, dried fruit, succotash (made of bacon, onions, lima beans, and corn), pumpkin pie, and cornbread. Her children showed mine how to shoot a bow and arrow; the younger ones used a Nerf bow, while the older ones tried out a real compound bow.
As we usually do in the summer, we are learning about other places. To be more patriotic, we chose US territories and tribes/peoples. For the first half of June, we learned about Hawaii. I've never been to Hawaii, but I know lots of people who have.
I bought the children a little ukulele, and two or three of the family (including me) have learned to play some simple chords on it. A friend whose mother was raised in Hawaii showed us the "Pearly Shells" hula actions this morning. We watched Lilo & Stitch, Moana (not specifically Hawaiian, but great at showing many aspects of traditional Polynesian life), and Blue Hawaii starring Elvis. We went swimming and tried an indoor version of ulumaika (rolling a stone disc through two stakes in the ground). I bought leis for the children, and we wore flowers in our hair. Everyone was taught to say "mahalo" and "aloha."
And the food...such tasty food. We ate shaved ice, donuts (sadly, not actual malasadas), kalua pork made with Hawaiian sea salt, Spam stir fry, Spam with ramen noodles, Spam musubi, haupia, mango, fresh pineapple, macaroni salad, Hawaiian sweet rolls, coconut, macadamia nuts, laulau fish (using spinach instead of taro leaves), and rice. I'm disappointed that I didn't make it to an Asian store to buy taro root for poi, but I'll try to buy some taro before the end of the summer, when we are scheduled to learn about the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Except for the fresh fruit and fish, Hawaiian food doesn't seem very healthy. Spam, pork, and fatty nuts? With lots of sugar, oil, and white rice? And where's the glycine betaine? (See my posts from the last two months if you're wondering why I care about that nutrient.) I found no evidence for any traditional Hawaiian plant staple being a good source of glycine betaine; it's a good thing that they ate a lot of marine animals--shrimp, mussels, oysters, clams, and scallops are glycine betaine sources--before they began receiving shipments of wheat from beyond the islands. (Update: I forgot about hibiscus, the state flower. Hibiscus plants contain glycine betaine-- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031942201002631--and are sometimes used in food and drink.)
As I research new cuisines, I often surf onto websites written in languages I don't know. My browser has started asking me if it can translate those sites into English for me. The result is surprisingly readable. No, it's not perfect, but it's much better than I thought artificial intelligence translation could be.
So when I discovered a possible diet connection to Zika-caused microcephaly, I decided to try using Google Translate to put that hypothesis out there in Spanish and Portugese for the benefit of people in Puerto Rico, Latin America, and Brazil. I know Spanish fairly well, so I fixed the few little errors from the Google-translated Spanish version myself. Because Portugese is similar to Spanish, I fixed those same few little errors in the Google-translated Portugese version and ran it by a relative who was an LDS missionary in Brazil in case I missed anything else (he said it looked fine). Are my translations perfect? I highly doubt it. But they're good enough to do the job of passing on information.
Amateur translation has gotten much cheaper and doable. Of course, I was also dealing with languages that are not especially hard to learn. I've been learning a little Arabic recently, and Google Translate isn't especially good at translating between Arabic and English. Yet.
For those relying on computer translation for important things like business negotiations and affairs of the heart, I will just post this video as a cautionary example of how it can go wrong:
Eu enviei um e-mail para os dois autores correspondentes dos resultados da pesquisa de sulfato de condroitina e Zika para chamar a sua atenção a possível conexão de feijoada com microcefalia. Espero que meu e-mail não acabe em suas pastas "spam." Talvez a conexão que eu desenhe aqui é muito simples e já foi descartada como irrelevante, mas parece ser uma possibilidade que deve ser examinada. Enquanto isso, se você conhece uma mulher grávida que viaja ou reside em áreas onde o vírus Zika é conhecido por ser, você pode querer considerar avisá-la para evitar alimentos e bebidas feitos com quantidades significativas de cartilagem animal.
Hace apenas dos meses, investigadores identificaron el sulfato de condroitina como una molécula a la que Zika se une firmemente y que "puede ser el boleto de entrada del virus Zika a la placenta."(https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170404084445.htm, http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.biochem.6b01056) Si esta identificación es correcta, sería imprudente comer extra sulfato de condroitina durante el embarazo si está en riesgo de Zika virus, debido a que el sulfato de condroitina administrado por vía oral se absorbe y aumenta la cantidad de sulfato de condroitina en el plasma sanguíneo. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27108107)
Envié un mensaje por correo electrónico a los dos autores correspondientes de los hallazgos sobre Zika y sulfato de condroitina de abril para llamar su atención a la posible conexión con feijoada. Espero que mi mensaje no termine en sus "spam" carpetas. Tal vez la conexión que hago aquí es demasiado simple y ya ha sido descartado como irrelevante, pero me parece una conexión posible que debe ser examinado.
Mientras tanto, si conoce a una mujer embarazada que viaja o reside en áreas donde se sabe que el virus Zika está, podría ser beneficioso advertirle que evite los alimentos y bebidas hechas con cantidades considerables de cartílago animal.
I emailed the two corresponding authors of the Zika-chondroitin sulfate April research findings to bring the possible feijoada connection to their attention. I hope my email doesn't end up in their "spam" folders. Maybe the connection I draw here is too simple and has already been dismissed as irrelevant, but it seems like a possibility that should be looked into. In the meantime, if you know a pregnant woman who travels or resides in areas where Zika virus is known to be, you might want to consider warning her to avoid food and drink made with significant amounts of animal cartilage.
* Fun note for my readers: Almost three years ago, I learned of the existence of feijoada because our family studied Brazil for two weeks, and I learned how to cook it. Who knew it might end up relevant to Zika-caused fetal damage?
As discussed earlier this week, we miss out on many dietary sources of glycine betaine (trimethylglycine or TMG) with our western style of eating. Here are easy ways to increase the amount of easily-usable TMG in our diet:
Eat more soups/stews and cooked purees, especially ones that contain spinach, amaranth (greens or seeds), beets (greens or roots), quinoa, rye, and wheat (preferably including the wheat germ).
Eat bulgur pilaf. (Remember not to drain the cooking water.)
Boil pasta in less water and then use the cooking water in your sauce or other recipes.
Put TMG in your beverages. When they refine sugar from sugar beets, one of the things they remove from the sugar is TMG, which can be purchased as a food supplement and easily mixed into juice or milk. If the TMG is used properly in small amounts, no one can taste it.
Because there are other nutrients besides TMG in cooking water, I think the first three are preferable, but not everyone wants to change the way they eat.
I research regional cuisine differences and juxtapose them with medical research and epidemiology. Sometimes, I end up with new hypotheses as a result, which I revisit to modify or refine from time to time. Molybdenum glycinate's efficacy for treatment of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and migraines is my hypothesis that has the most evidence (real-life) for it.
