Alzheimer’s: New Protease Inhibitor Effective in Reducing Plaque Formation and Improving Memory in APP Mice

Maybe this is the treatment we’ve all been hoping for! Ninety-nine per cent of humans with Alzheimer’s have this same genetic mutation. This has not been tried in humans yet. It seems like mice have all the luck!

New research indicates that the cause of Alzheimer’s in most (99%) humans is an incorrect splicing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) by a protease named Cathepsin B (CatB). The small peptides that are formed are toxic to brain cells. These peptide particles combine to form Amyloid Beta plaques which are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s.

There is not complete agreement as to whether the resulting Amyloid Beta plaque is toxic or not.

The CatB enzyme which incorrectly splits the APP has been blocked in mice bred to have the mutation causing their Alzheimer-like disorder by the enzymes, E64d and CA074Me. This resulted in improved memory and reduced Amyloid Beta plaque.

There was no mention of deleterious side effects.

No human trials have been announced.

You can see a more complete summary of this article by going to http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/uoc--pad031108.php

To see the article itself, go to the March 21 edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, online March 14 at
http://www.jbc.org/cgi/gca?allch=&SEARCHID=1&FULLTEXT=beta+secretase+protease&VOLUME=283&ISSUE=12&FIRSTINDEX=0&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&gca=jbc%3B283%2F12%2F7745&allchb=

Thank you Professor Vivian Y. H. Hook and colleagues, Mark Kindy and Gregory Hook for this research.

Alcohol Increases Your Risk of Getting Breast Cancer

Red wine is good for you, right? – Buzzz. - Not when it comes to breast cancer. According to a study involving 70,033 multi-ethnic women, anything that contains alcohol increases your risk for breast cancer.

How much of a risk are we talking about? Compared to women who drank less than one alcoholic beverage a day, those drinking one or two had a 10% increased risk. Those drinking three of more per day had an increased risk of 30%.

This 30% risk is similar to the increase in risk which results from smoking a pack or more of cigarettes per day.

The statistical risk of using Hormone Replacement (HR) is not universally agreed upon. One study reported an increased risk of 1 chance in 60 and another an increase of 1 chance in 1000 of developing breast cancer from use of conjugated progesterone/estrogenic hormones or plain estrogen.

Unfortunately, the jury is still out on the effects of the hormone therapies. In the meanwhile, drug companies are rushing to supply us with drugs to reduce development of osteoporosis, weight gain, circulatory disorders and hot flashes.

The information on the alcohol effects was presented by Dr. Arthur Klatsky of the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, Oakland, USA at the European Cancer Conference (ECCO 14) in Barcelona.

For further information on how alcohol affects the development of breast cancer, go to http://www.eurekalert.org - Wine, women and... spirits, beer and breast cancer risk

Roasted Corn in Coffee

Dr. Gulab Jham and his associates at the USDA have developed a method of detecting adulteration of ground coffee with roasted corn by measuring its Vitamin E content. Based on his detection method, one popular brand of Brazilian coffee was found to contain about nine percent corn.

Consumers are being cheated by this substitution as coffee beans are much more expensive than corn.

This article, “Gamma-Tocopherol as a Marker of Brazilian Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) Adulteration by Corn” can be found in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry located on line at < http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/jafcau/2007/55/i15/pdf/jf070967n.pdf >.

Now wouldn’t it be a kick in the head if it were the Vitamin E in coffee that was responsible for the recently touted health effects of coffee?

Lowering Blood Sugar Level While Reducing Hunger

According to new research, if you moderate sugars and consume low Glycemic Index (GI) foods, your blood sugar level will be improved. If you eat such foods for both breakfast and supper, the effect continues for the entire 24 hour period. More information can be found at <http://www.eurekalert.org/ - Right breakfast bread keeps blood sugar in check all day>.

Glucose has a Glycemic Index of 100. Low glycemic foods have GIs around half of that of glucose. Some examples are whole/cracked grains and most fruits and vegetables. Notable exceptions are potatoes and some types of rice. A good source of information for Glycemic Indexes is .

Because these foods are not quickly and easily digestible, they pass from the upper part of the digestive tract where food breakdown and absorption generally occur, to the colon where friendly bacteria continue this processing. Some of the short-chained fatty acid byproducts can be absorbed into the blood stream. These can reduce inflammation and risk of diabetic conditions. As a bonus dividend, they also moderate hunger.

According to Wikipedia (Vinegar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) consuming vinegar as part of a meal will lower the GI of foods.

May all your sandwiches be on dark bread served with an extra slice of dill pickle.

Making Fresh Vegetables and Fruits Safe

USDA scientists spoke on Monday at the ongoing meetings of the Society for General Microbiology’s 161st Meeting at the University of Edinburgh, UK about safety in harvesting, processing and marketing of fresh produce. They said that there was no absolute way to assure safety in these procedures despite use of harvesting mowers for some products, use of water flumes for processing, triple washing, and packaging in a modified atmosphere.

Prior to the recent fresh spinach contamination problem, I read about a cheap and simple way of disinfecting fresh vegetables.

You put hydrogen peroxide in one spray bottle and a solution of water and vinegar (I use 1 part cider vinegar to 2 parts water.) in another. Spray the vegetables with one, wait a few minutes and spray with the other. It doesn’t matter which solution you use first. If you have clean water, you can rinse with it. But that’s not necessary.

As a bonus, when I used this with grapes and strawberries, they seemed to keep longer in the refrigerator.

If you wish to read the summary for the latest article on fresh produce contamination, you can go to

http://www.eurekalert.org – Lettuce, leafy greens and E. coli

Diabetics: Many of Your Worst Problems Are Due to Vitamin B1 Deficiency

This article may sound to you like Elisha's directive to Naaman sounded to him. "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times..." (2 Kings 5: 1 - 15) At first Naaman refused this easy cure for his leprosy as being too simple.

This information on Diabetes sounds almost too simple to me, but the medical literature (not the popular stuff out there) says researchers have "shown conclusively that diabetic patients are thiamine deficient in blood plasma". Please go to the source articles and even print them out for your doctor. It is hot off the press and I would really be surprised if very many doctors have seen it yet.

The summary article is at the following URL:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r4723142882735l5/?p=de1637f799b94f9eaf1affc684404efb&pi=1

The article, "High prevalence of low plasma thiamine concentration in diabetes linked to a marker of vascular disease", was published on August 4, 2004 in the journal, Diabetologia.

Many of the complications of diabetics are those related to blood vessels not functioning correctly. This can give rise to

Damage to the retina of the eye which can lead to vision problems.
Peripheral neuropathy or pain in the arms and legs due to nerve damage.
Damage to the heart due to damaged blood vessels.
Inflammation to blood vessel walls.
High blood pressure.
Kidney damage which can lead to the need for dialysis.

The cause for these complications? Loss of thiamine (Vitamin B1) from the body. This is due not to lack of thiamine in the diet, but the loss of it by way of the kidneys.

Doctors typically test for levels of thiamine by measuring the activity of transketolase. This can check out as being normal when the level in either Diabetes I or Diabetes II will actually be only a quarter of the level needed.

Please, please, please check with your medical specialist before any more damage is done!

Colon and Breast Cancer: Vitamin D3 is Deterrent

Adequate levels of Vitamin D3 should reduce breast and colorectal cancer worldwide rates by 600,000 cases per year, according to University of California, San Diego studies. The researchers showed an inverse relationship between levels of serum vitamin D3 and numbers of individual with these cancers.

In order to obtain an adequate level of D3, you would need approximately fifteen minutes in the sun and an intake of 2000 IU of D3 per day. If you have more sun exposure, there is less need for the nutritional or pill form of this vitamin. Both the pigmentation of your skin and the quality of sunlight make a difference in your needs.

For a more detailed summary of this study, go to http://www.eurekalert.org - Study shines more light on benefit of vitamin D in fighting cancer