Health

Health

Enterocytes Love Glutamine!

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Enterocytes Love GlutamineGlutamine is one of the most important supplements you can take for digestive problems. While it plays a significant role in the functioning of the entire digestive system from mouth to anus, it is especially important for the “enterocytes” which are cells of the small intestine. Enterocytes use glutamine as a preferred fuel for producing the large quantities of energy they require for food absorption.

Glutamine supplementation has a well-deserved reputation for helping heal small intestinal health issues. In 1990, research published in the Archives of Surgery showed that oral glutamine accelerated the healing of the small intestine after abdominal stress. Anyone suffering for Crohn’s or Irritable Bowel disease would be well-advised to begin supplementing with at least 1 or 2 grams of glutamine daily.

Enterocytes, or intestinal absorptive cells, are simple columnar epithelial cells found in the small intestines and colon. A glycocalyx surface coat contains digestive enzymes. Microvilli on the apical surface increase surface area for the digestion and transport of molecules from the intestinal lumen. The cells also have a secretory role. [Wikipedia]

Posted by Ben Fuchs in Health

Inflammation is Immune System Manifestation

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

One of the latest red herring boogie men of the medical world is inflammation, which many doctors will tell you is the cause of accelerated aging and disease.

Well, of course inflammation is related to all illness including cancer and diabetes and digestive distress and adrenal ailment and every other symptom known to man. Inflammation is immune system manifestation. It’s the way immune system activation shows up. And inflammation completely changes the health milieu of the body’s chemistry. Disease cannot help but result. The biggest shock is how long it sometimes takes.

Inflammation is Immune System ManifestationInflammation/immunity typically means one thing and that is that there is a breach in the body’s defenses. Historically battles sites would forts or city walls. The objective of an enemy invader was to breach the fort or the walls. And typically the site of the battle, at the direct juncture or connection between the enemy invader and the city wall would be a horrific scene. There’d be all kinds of dead bodies and blood and guts and body parts. If the battle had been raging for days or weeks eventually there would be all kinds of rotting and putrefying flesh. The smell would be hideous. Can you imagine the horror?

Now, in your imagination, take our walls and cities and dead bodies and replace them with your digestive wall and the rest of the body and dead, rotting cells and pus. You see where I’m going here folks. Of course symptomology will result. Blood sugar changes would be inevitable. Pancreatic and Liver function challenges likewise cannot help but result. And from there it’s a short hop to the adrenal glands which must provide emergency energy to fuel the chronic distress response. And then? Everything from diabetes to heart disease to depression, mental fog and emotional disorders. Everything, really, including the Emperor of All Maladies, cancer, which is the title of a new book on the subject. The study which focused ON INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE AND WAS published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences didn’t really reveal anything that hadn’t previously been suspected although it did highlight a specific molecular mechanism, connecting inflammatory chemistry to tumors. My point is who cares about the specifics of the molecular mechanism. You see, that what scientists do when they perform these investigations. They look for specific molecular markers so they can create drugs that manipulate the specific molecules. That’s the wrong approach. It creates the illusion, that whatever you’re doing you can keep on doing and we can sell you a drug at a ridiculous cost – and keep in mind the cost of these drugs both creating them and selling is borne by everybody in the form of higher insurance costs and other ways too- keep in mind if a patient is interacting with an inflammatory trigger and then takes a drug that masks the symptoms, but doesn’t do anything for the inflammation, we, all pay for that patient!

There is no need folks to find the specific molecule, we just need to do simple things, maybe not easy, but simple! Stop activating the immune/inflammation system. And where is the largest percentage of immune attack’? The digestive system. What we’re talking about here folks is the digestive link to all disease. Yes its inflammation and there is no disease that can possibly occur without inflammation. But the inflammation is not the problem. It is a sign of the problem It is secondary to the problem. And what’s more significant it is the body’s way of healing and resolving the problem. The inflammatory process should never be suppressed except as a last resort. There’s a reason why drugs like Vioxx and prednisone and even Motrin are associate d with significant side effect and toxicities including death. The inflammation is not the problem, and more studies that highlight specific molecules that are related to the inflammatory process aren’t needed to take care of the problem. All we need to do is begin to incorporate lifestyle changes. I talked to a good friend of mine yesterday. He’s a diabetic and has a history of kidney problems. Now keep in mind diabetics’ often have problems with their kidneys and have to take special care of these important organs. Blood sugar explosions, remember we talked about glycation in the past and how small blood vessels are especially prone to damage. Well the kidneys are made up of tiny blood vessels that are easily damaged by high blood sugar and my friend has all the signs of kidney problems. When I told him that he better thinking about changing his diet, well let’s just say that didn’t go over so well. But that’s really the choice we’re left with folks. Whether it’s diabetes or kidney disease or inflammation of any kind. The medical model that targets this molecule or that enzyme flat out doesn’t work. That’s why I say ambulatory medicine is an abject failure. The responsibility for health and wellness is not the doctors or the drugs companies. It’s ours.

So what’s the solution? Eat your veggies, among other strategies, and eat more protein, essential fatty acids and get yourself on a well-rounded supplement program that feature digestive support and blood sugar control. And, don’t forget to breathe deeply in for oxygen and to move lymph and exhale deeply out to move out acid and toxins. Is it simple? Very! Is it easy? Maybe not so but definitely worth it.

Posted by Ben Fuchs in Health

“Obesity Gene” a Ploy of Big Pharma

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Some time ago, scientists from King’s College in London proudly proclaimed success at finding an obesity-causing gene. It’s linked to diabetes and functions as a “master switch” in controlling other genes that are involved in obesity and obesity related disease. While some may feel like congratulations are in order, others, including myself, are taking the approach that the obesity epidemic that is currently raging across the planet (100 million obese or overweight in America and 500 million worldwide) would be more appropriately treated as a biochemical breakdown due to poor lifestyle choices than as a genetic malady.

Obesity GeneIt can be instructive to recall that research requires funding and drug companies are always on the lookout for data that can support and lead to profitable pharmaceutical treatments. Scientific manipulation of DNA can provide a cornucopia of potential drug treatments and pharmaceutical companies love research that studies the genetic links to disease. Even in today’s unfavorable economic climate, there are lots of dollars available to researchers who are willing to participate in the genetics-causes-disease hypothesis.

Clearly, weight and obesity issues are significant health problems. However, while obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10% of medical spending in the United States, what are needed are not more pharmaceutical remedies. For most people, weight loss can be easily and simply accomplished through effective nutritional strategies.

The most important of these involves taking advantage of the glycemic index (GI), which measures how much carbohydrates affect blood sugar levels. Foods with a high GI value cause a surge of the hormone insulin and this is one of the most significant causes of weight gain issues. The so-called fat-insulin axis has been regarded as a key component of the body’s obesity-inducing mechanism for over a decade. In fact, it is now recognized that fat tissue actually secretes hormones that have an impact sugar metabolism.

Nutritional supplements that improve blood sugar control can and should also be included in a nutritional weight loss-based program. Chromium and vanadium are two such mineral supplements.

Chromium is a component of the glucose tolerance factor, which is a dietary agent that is involved in sugar control. Taking 200 mcg with every meal is probably a good idea.

VanadiumVanadium is an insulin-supporting mineral. Some research suggests it may even act to replace insulin in some cells. There is a a lot of research currently being conducted on vanadium’s use as a blood sugar control agent. I’d suggest at least 200-400 mcg a day.

The B-complex of vitamins, especially thiamin and niacin, play an important role in sugar metabolism. You can take as much of these as you want and err on the side of extra. The B’s are non-toxic and because of their important role in helping the body process all food material including sugars, you want to take these around mealtime.

Magnesium, the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body, helps improve blood sugar control. Take at least 1000 mg a day. The mineral zinc is involved in several hundred chemical reactions in the body. Some of these involve sugar control and 50 mg a day is a standard daily dose.

The genetic connection to disease is a red herring that serves to distract us from the real issues confronting us in the fattening of America (the title of an interesting book by health economist Eric Finkelstein). As always, good nutritional behaviors should be the first place we look to improve our health.

The obesity crisis we’re confronting can be corrected without genetics, medicine or academic posturing. It’s simply a question of the lifestyle choices we make. The correct application of dietary and nutritional strategies are a healthy, non-medical route to blood sugar control, and weight loss that can play an important non-pharmaceutical role in alleviating the obesity epidemic.

Posted by Ben Fuchs in Health

Good Cholesterol, Bad Cholesterol

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Good CholesterolDid you know that HDL and LDL are NOT cholesterol? Did you know that there are no biochemical entities called good cholesterol or bad cholesterol? And, did you know that cholesterol is an incredibly important biological chemical, maybe the most important in the body and to this day, there has been no definitive link established between cholesterol in the blood and heart disease?

Given that there were 174 million prescriptions written for statin drugs in 2010 and tens of millions of Americans are currently on or have been on these cholesterol-lowering medications, it may be important to delve into some of these ideas a bit further. HDL and LDL are abbreviations for High Density Lipoprotein and Low Density Lipoprotein. They are transport molecules that carry cholesterol (among other substances) throughout the body. Although the cholesterol contained in both of these substances is exactly the same, HDL is said to be “good” because it delivers cholesterol to the liver and LDL is said to be “bad” because it carries cholesterol from the liver to the arteries where it is used as a precursor to dozens of critical biochemical substances including cortisol, Vitamin D, DHEA, pregnenolone, progesterone, estrogen, testosterone and many other reproductive hormones.

It also serves as a parent compound to numerous skin moisture factors. And it is a critical component of the membrane that surrounds each of the estimated 100 trillion cells in the body.

Given the utter lack of evidence that cholesterol in its non-oxidized form has any causal link to heart disease and that the guidelines for supposedly healthy blood cholesterol levels are determined to a large degree by the drug companies that make billions of dollars by selling cholesterol-lowering medications, it may make sense to think long and hard before filling or refilling your next statin drug prescription.

Posted by Ben Fuchs in Health

Benefits of Betaine HCL

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

One of the most important supportive digestive aids you can ever take is betaine HCL, which while well recognized as a source HCl (hydrochloride) for improving the food dissolving acid activity of digestive juices is less recognized as a source of  betaine, which is one of the least appreciated supplemental substances.  The technical name for betaine is trimethylglycine (TMG) and there are lots of neat things about it that don’t get a lot of attention.

Benefits of Betaine HCL

Beets via Wikimedia Commons

As implied by its nomenclature trimethyl glycine is a two section molecule, one part called “trimethyl” the other is called “glycine”.  The glycine component is one of the most important of all the amino acids.  It’s not considered to be essential, your body can make a small amount, but when you’re taking supplemental betaine HCL you’re going to beef up your body’s glycine stores.  Glycine is key element of the of the detoxification machinery.  By adding a little TMG to your daily supplement program you’re going to be helping your liver eliminate and process of toxins. You want more detox benefits?  Well, glycine is one third of the body’s most important detox substance, the tripeptide glutathione.

Glycine is also important for the digestive system too.  It’s a component of bile so it’s got a role to play in fat absorption too and it helps improve stomach acid secretion. Glycine is one of the active ingredients in bone soup, and it’s one of the reasons I’m always talking about using bone soup for improving the health of the digestive tract.

Glycine also has some important relaxation properties.  It can be used as anti-stress supplement, it’s been used to minimize the impact seizure disorders, it’s can balance out the effect of excitotoxins, and it can help balance out the stress promoting properties of estrogen. It’s brain- calming properties are why scientist call glycine an inhibitory neurotransmitter, it’s very similar to another relaxing brain chemical GAMA, and both chemicals can be used as sleep aids.

Muscle building?  Glycine can help you make creatine, which is not only important for athletes and body builders, but also a supports the vitality and vigor for the most important of muscles the heart.  Older folks and cardiac patients take note!

And that’s not all!  Glycine is a keep component of bone building collagen, the most important and multi-functional protein in the body.  Collagen is the key chemical entity in bone and it’s the most important protein in the skin too.   Every year American women spend billions of dollars for anti-aging cosmetics, but no matter how fancy or expensive you’re skin care product is you aren’t going to making any collagen or doing your skin or wrinkles any good if you don’t have enough glycine.  But there’s even more!  Glycine via upregulation of collagen can help strengthen the circulatory system, veins and arteries which like bone and skin contain large amounts of the versatile protein.

Glycine can help with sugar metabolism too, and it can be an important biochemical for diabetics; to counteract insulin resistance, which is one of the most significant of all health challenges.  In an article that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2002, it was shown that glycine can potentize insulin allowing for lower section and it can facilitate glucose removal from the blood.  An added benefit to using to using the ultimate enzymes after meals

Can you see I love betaine HCl so much? And we haven’t even talked about the trimethyl part yet!

Trimethyl means three methyls and methyls are involved in one of the most important of all biochemical reactions, something called methylation.  Methylation is a keep chemical for genetic health.  Methyls basically activate DNA and in fact it is the reason why pregnant women are pretty much universally told to use folic acid to prevent birth defects.  Folic acid is a key methylating supplement.  Methyls or methyl groups as they’re called by biochemists can have important anti-cancer properties and methylation plays a role in activating numerous biochemical processes, especially for the heart and liver and brain.

TMG can help lower heart toxic homocysteine and it can help the body make a key brain chemical called DMAE which is important for learning and memory.  If you want to improve brain health or you have a parent or grandparent dealing with Alzheimer’s disease the trimethyl glycine via its conversion to DMAE and choline can be very, very helpful.

Detox, relaxation, muscle building, brain boosting and heart health, cancer fighting too; all of these benefits are a bonus and this exemplifies one of the coolest about nutritional supplementation.  When  you supplement with betaine HCL for your digestive system, you’ll improve liver functioning, build muscle, reduce your risk of heart disease, garner protection from excitotoxins and get a good night’s sleep to boot.  You take a drug and you have to deal with toxic side effects and you take a nutritional supplement and you get so many extra beneficial effects it’s hard to keep track of them all.  Beneficial effects that have nothing to do with your original reason for taking the supplement in the first place!

You’ll find some betaine HCL in many quality digestive enzyme supplements, usually around a100mg or so.   Or, you can just straight betaine HCl, which is available for many suppliers as 600 to 650 mg capsules.  It’s best taken with meals and a little apple cider vinegar to enhance its stomach acid supporting properties.

Now Foods Betaine HCl
Betaine HCL
NOW Betaine Hydrochloride with Pepsin is formulated for maximum potency combines Betaine Hydrochloride with Pepsin that is standardized to National Formulary requirements. This blend is encapsulated for quick delivery. A great complement to any dietary regime.

Now Foods Betaine HCl, 648 mg , 120 Capsules
  

Posted by Ben Fuchs in Health