Lecithin

Mar

2014

Lecithin is Protective

Lecithin, a key component and “bio-product” made in all cells is also is an active ingredient in “bile”, the body’s soap or detergent. Bile is an under-appreciated substance that’s charged with the role of dissolving fatty substances from foods, loosening them, if you will, so that the rest of the body can have access to them. Because bile is important for mineral absorption from the intestine, lecithin plays a role in helping the body obtain valuable elements like calcium, magnesium, and zinc. Conveniently, lecithin is readily available as a dietary supplement and it’s really inexpensive. An average dose (it’s organic and GMO free) will cost you less than 10 cents. So a couple of capsules or a teaspoon of the stuff taken once (or twice) a day can be a cheap way to support health and wellness.

Because cholesterol is dissolved by bile, lecithin is protective against the formation of gall-stones which can result from poorly dissolved or crystallized cholesterol. Under ordinary and healthy circumstances, cholesterol stays dissolved in bile. However if our cells are making too much cholesterol, it can precipitate out in crystals and form little rocks or stones (gall stones) which can clog up the tiny tubes in the gall bladder. If this sounds familiar, the last thing you want to do is what half a million people do every year and that’s remove your gall bladder. You can keep stones from forming by making sure the bile detergent system is operating as it should and that may mean supporting it with supplemental and/or dietary lecithin.
Lecithin plays a special role in supporting the health of the brain and the nervous system. It’s an essential component of nerve cells and its electrical properties facilitate the movement of nerve impulses. This makes it valuable for helping prevent movement disorders and dementias. For kids, a little lecithin taken on a daily basis can improve learning and perhaps help reduce the symptoms of attention deficit disorder.

Lecithin can be a good source of essential fatty acids. A 1200 mg capsule of soy lecithin can contain over half (696mg) Omega-6s and more importantly it may contribute 82mg of ordinarily-hard-to-obtain Omega-3 fatty acids. There are other important nutrients in lecithin too. It’s a good source of phosphorus, a vital component of bones and teeth and a major chemical cog in the cellular energy production process. It has inositol which has a relaxing and calming effect on the brain and may be partially responsible for lecithin’s beneficial effects on focus and attention. Diabetics can benefit from lecithin too; it’s packed with the B-vitamin like substance choline, which is important for sugar control. That’s a lot of great stuff for one natural, non-toxic, food-based nutrient!

If you have history of gall stone formation, or if you want to improve brain health and mental functioning, or if you’re looking for a good source of essential fats and nutrients, you’d be wise to make sure you’re using lecithin, especially with fatty meals. Because lecithin is found throughout nature, there are lots of foods you can use to give yourself a lecithin bump. There’s not a lot in processed foods but you can get lecithin in organ meats, seeds and butter. Eggs are nature’s richest source and yet another reason why enjoying eggs on a daily basis can be an important and delicious health strategy. Aside from the aforementioned food sources, you can get lecithin as a liquid or in capsules. It’s also available as a powder that you can blend into a protein drink. Its tastes great and it’ll give your smoothie a nice creamy texture too.

Make your own healthy “PAM” by dissolving organic non-GMO lecithin in some macadamia nut oil. You’ll get the non-stick effects and lots of nutritional value too!

Mar

2014

Keratin

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Keratin, the hard protein that gives hooves and horn and feathers and scales and claws their tough, solid quality is a critical component of human skin as well. In fact, the surface of human is in effect coated with a super-thin layer of the resilient and protective substance.

The 22 square foot organ called the skin is composed of layers and skin cells are born in the bottom layer and they gradually rise to the top. Skin cells are technically called keratin-o-cytes which is the Latin term for “cells that make keratin”.
Skin cells or keratinocytes are born in the bottom layer of the skin and they gradually rise to the top becoming more and more filled with keratin. As they’re rising to the top they’re shriveling up too. Interestingly as the keratinocyte journeys upwards it produces a complex mixture of non-keratin amino acids called the Natural Moisturizing Factor (NMF) that act as a water attractant to help maintain skin moisture. By the time a skin cell has made it from the bottom layer to the top layer it is shrunken and filled with keratin and NMF to the point where it is not much more than a little speck of the hard protein and water trapping amino acids.

Sometimes skin cells will make way too much keratin. They’ll basically overproduce the stuff and you can little hard bumps called milea or keratosis, which is medical talk for excessive production of keratin. Excessive keratin can also clog pores and cause pimples to form.

If you have tiny little bumps on the skin, milea or keratosis, or your dealing with troublesome acne, one of the most functional ways to deal with the problem is to use topical vitamin A, especially retinoic acid (brand name Retin-A) or retinol. Even application of the mildest form of Vitamin A, retinyl palmitate can be helpful. Taking a couple 10,000 iu capsules a day is probably good idea too. You can apply apple cider vinegar or a 10 percent solution of glycolic acid directly on the skin, too. Correcting fat malabsorbtion problems with supplemental digestive enzymes, probiotics, lecithin and bile salts can help clear skin up, too.

Jul

2013

Vitamin A Part 2

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Athletes take note: Vitamin A can improve performance and provide tremendous benefits because it helps increase protein synthesis from muscle cells. This means Vitamin A is one of the most important nutritional supplements for weight lifters and body builder and anyone interested in improving athletic performance. And you don’t have to be pumping iron or running a marathon to benefit; the increased protein synthesis cans also improve vitality and energy and day to day strength for sedentary couch potatoes too.

By Martin Doege (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps the most well-known role for vitamin A involves vision. Some of the Vitamin A you ingest ends up in your eyes where it acts to turn light into our reality (!). In other words, if you think see the world through rose colored glasses think again. You actually observe the world through lenses made up of (partially, at least) of Vitamin A! From a historical perspective, the most significant sign of a lack of Vitamin A was night blindness, which can which can ultimately result in total blindness. This was noted as early as 3500 years ago by ancient Chinese and Egyptian physicians used Vitamin A-rich fish liver oil as a treatment and cure. The health of the cornea also depends on Vitamin A and deficiencies can lead to swelling, inflammation and ultimately ulceration and blindness.

It’s also important for the immune system. While most people think of Vitamin Cwhen it comes to warding off colds and supporting the body’s defenses, as it turns out Vitamin A plays even more significant anti-pathogenic, anti-toxin role. In addition to having an enhancing effect on specific antibodies, the workhorses of immunity, Vitamin A upregulates the body’s non-specific, general resistance to infection. Dr. Robert Atkins, of Atkins Diet fame recommended taking extremely high doses (up 100,000 i.u., 50 times RDA) to be taken (along with Vitamin C and Zinc) at the first sign of a cold.

Finally, no discussion on Vitamin A would be complete without mentioning its non-essential cosmetic properties. Topical Vitamin A is one of the most important and powerful anti-wrinkle ingredients you could every use. The same connective tissue and protein stimulating properties you can get from eating or supplementing with Vitamin A can be targeted to the skin by directly applying the stuff. It’s so effective at driving protein and collagen synthesis that it’s regulated by the FDA as a drug. The brand name for this prescription Vitamin A cream as most people know is Retin-A and it contains just .01 to 1 percent retinoic acid (the most potent form of Vitamin A) and that’s all you need to use just a few times a week to have noticeably smoother, healthier and younger looking skin.

Worldwide, Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is considered a serious problem by the World Health organization. Because of its growth stimulating properties, children are especially susceptible to the negative health impacts of VAD. According to the World Health Organization, deficiencies in Vitamin A affect nearly 250 million preschoolers; it’s the leading cause of preventable blindness in children and it increases the risk of disease and death from serious infections. In addition to visual problems some of the indicators of VAD include dry eyes, skin conditions including acne and dermatitis and decreased resistance to infections and chronic colds and respiratory conditions.

Luckily, while Vitamin A deficiency is relatively common in undeveloped countries, in the United States and Europe full blown deficiencies are rare. Yet, it’s safe to say, most people could benefit from extra Vitamin A taken as a nutritional supplement. This critical nutrient is important for bone and eye health, the immune and reproductive systems and it helps keep skin looking soft, supple, and blemish-free. It acts synergistically with thyroid hormone and helps the body use protein and iron more efficiently. If you’re deficient in Zinc or if you have problems absorbing fats, you’re probably not getting the benefits you need from this versatile and very important vitamin.

Vegetarians and vegans are especially at risk for Vitamin A deficiency which is only found in animal products. Eggs, beef organ meats and dairy are nature’s richest sources of Vitamin A and especially high concentrations are found in liver and kidney. Non-meat eaters (as well as carnivores that want make sure they’re getting enough) may want to consider supplementation with 20,000 international units a day. The RDA for Vitamin A is a paltry 5000 i.u., but daily doses as high as 50,000 iu have been used for short periods of time for treating acne and heavy menstrual bleeding. In one study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 1993,la whopping 300,000 iu daily dose was used to suppress the formation of tumors in lung cancer patients.

While Vitamin A is only found in animal products, many fruits and vegetables do produce a “phyto” version of this important nutritional molecule. It’s called beta carotene and can be obtained via dark green leafy vegetables as well as red and orange fruits veggies like cantaloupe, carrots, pumpkins and squash and sweet potatoes. Kale and turnip greens are particularly good source of beta carotene which is essentially 2 molecular chunks of Vitamin A stuck together to form what can be considered pre-vitamin A. Beta carotene conversion to Vitamin A requires enzymes and effective biochemistry and depending on the health of the individual this may or may not occur.

Last, but most certainly not least, Vitamin A absorption requires bile and that means you want your gall bladder, and hundreds of thousands of patients lose theirs every year. Liver disease, which affects 30 percent of Americans, can mess up the body’s ability to process Vitamin A too. Pretty much anything that impairs fat absorption, including pancreatic insufficiency, small intestine inflammation and lymphatic congestion, can have a negative impact on the body’s ability to process and utilize vitamin A from foods and even supplements. If you suspect any issues with fat malabsorbtion or you are sans gall bladder, you might want to think about taking a vitamin A supplement and eating vitamin A rich foods with fat absorption aids such as lecithin, digestive enzymes, pancreatic enzymes, bile salts, probiotics and apple cider vinegar.

May

2013

Eggs, Lecithin, Choline & TMAO

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Summary:
1) Gut bacteria can convert eggs and lecithin into chemicals that are associated with heart disease.
2) These chemicals are also produced by the body they have a long and proven reputation for NON toxicity and perform many vital functions especially for the heart.
3) While elevated blood levels of these substances are associated with heart disease, the body has very efficient mechanisms for clearing them out.
4) If your blood levels of this chemicals are elevated, don’t blame the foods which can very helpful, healthy and nutritionally valuable.
5) If your blood levels of these chemicals are elevated you probably are dealing with a digestive health issue or a detoxification issue and not a food issue.

Earlier this week a study was published in the New England Journal of Medline that has raised quite an internet ruckus. According to the article, gut bacteria can metabolize substances found in eggs like lecithin, and choline into precursor of something called TMAO which again supposedly is linked to heart disease. And now the mainstream media, as they tend to do, are making the leap to “eggs and lecithin consumption is associated with heart disease”.

The NEJM study follows fast on the heels of another study, this one released by the Cleveland Clinic that implicated carnitine, an amino acid found in red meat in the production of TMAO. As with the egg and lecithin study researchers as well as the media again the hastily linked the carnitine derived TMAO with heart disease.

Here’s the problem with drawing these types of conclusions. First of all, they leave out the important and relevant fact that these substances, (e.g. carnitine, lecithin, choline) that are supposedly so dangerous for the health of your heart in addition to being found in foods, ARE MADE BY YOUR BODY! And , researchers advocating abstinence seem to be unaware of the fact that there is voluminous literature published over the course of at least 50 years that lend credence to these biochemicals as not only being gentle and benign, but really being very, very important. They perform numerous vital functions in the body and are beneficial for overall health as well as cardiovascular health.

Is it conceivable, even likely that blood levels of chemicals like TMAO are increased by the ingestion of certain foods and perhaps supplements like choline and carnitine? Yes. And no one disputes the possibility, based on their chemistry, that when these chemicals build up in the blood, toxicity, especially heart toxicity, can result (remember however: possible does NOT mean proven!)

The link between the offending cardiotoxic chemical TMAO and eggs and lecithin and choline and meat are bacteria that live in our large intestine. The critters, generically referred to as “probiotics” feed on these types of foods and readily convert them into precursors which the body then metabolizes into TMAO precursors

Bacteria like fatty nutrients as much as we do! And bacteria produce waste materials as a function of their digestion of foods just like we do. Our gut bacteria eat the food we eat and then they poop! Bacteria poop! This makes all food is a potential problem. Eating and digesting can, even under normal healthy circumstances result in the production of these kinds of wastes. This is why we want to be careful about what and how we eat. But we do need to eat.

We have trillions of bacterial cells that live with us. And they are our friends! They make vitamins and purify our blood and help us digest our food. They make good fats for our digestive tract and the fight yeast and other bacteria and cancer. And, they need to eat too. And, they eat what we eat. In other words, anything we eat is likely to feed these little critters. And one of the things bacteria produce as a result processing and digesting eggs and other foods are TMAO precursors. They’re the bacterial version of feces. And like all waste, it’s not supposed to hanging around. That’s why the body has mechanisms for dealing with these types of chemicals. The liver has enzymes for processing it and most of it is eliminated very effectively through urine.

The bottom line is if blood levels of TMAO are elevated, eggs are not the issue. Nor is lecithin or choline or carnitine or any other vitamin or nutrient biochemical. The issue is bad blood chemistry following a breakdown in digestive tract health that leads to an accumulation of food derived WASTE; it’s not the fault of the food. If your metabolic and detoxification systems are whacked out and you are accumulating TMAO in the blood, solving the problem by avoiding eggs and lecithin and choline is simplistic and silly. These supposed bad guys like lecithin and eggs, are not only innocent bystanders, they are motherlodes of nutrients that make your heart strong and health. Substances like Vitamin A and D and Zinc, the b-complex, choline, essential fats and precious phospholipids. And meat carnitine is one of the most important, heart- strengthening amino acids you can ingest. Please, don’t blame these healthy foods. It’s not their fault. What we need to be doing instead of staying away from these powerful and important foods and supplements is fixing our guts, fixing our digestive systems.

Is elevated TMAO problematic? Perhaps. The chemistry is right for it. These kinds of chemicals are unstable and need to be eliminated from the body. That’s why you have a liver and that’s why you should be careful about how you eat. But this is a far cry from the claim that eggs or lecithin cause or are even associated with heart disease.