CHOLINE

I’ve been harping on minerals, especially in terms of what prevents cancer.  I stand by the information.  More looking at research is just more convincing.  You probably are low in some or most that I have discussed unless you are supplementing or have a very unusual source of produce and protein.  The nutrient I want to talk about today is choline, sort of in the family of B Vitamins.  And btw, a deficiency of this nutrient may play a role in causing liver cancer.  But it has far reaching effects that I want to touch on.  Another btw, it’s pronounced Coline. 

Here is a list of the things the research indicates (just cut and pasted from numerous sites): 

·         Choline is positively associated with specific cognitive functions, namely verbal memory and visual memory.

·         A choline deficiency can greatly impair your memory and reasoning functions while also making it harder to focus and even affecting your mood.

·         structural integrity and fluidity of neuronal membranes

·         Lower levels may be associated with inattention, difficulty remembering new information and recalling stored memories, diminished mental energy and the characteristic sensation of “brain fog”.

·         Anti-inflammatory

·         Helps to prevent certain birth defects, such as spina bifida

·         May help you run the final miles of your marathon at a faster-than-usual pace.  Athletes have also been known to use Choline to give them an edge in sports performance. This is normally for the purpose of delaying the onset of fatigue. Endurance athletes benefit greatly, as do weight lifters and body builders looking to perform extra reps before their muscles fill with lactic acid.

·         Able to prevent fat from accumulating in the liver. Autopsies and ultrasound studies have shown that up to 75% of the obese and 70-85% of type 2 diabetics have fatty livers. And the low-profile but essential nutrient choline appears to provide the solution to the problem

·         May be useful to limit neurologic damage in stroke patients and improve retinal function in some glaucoma patients, maybe in dementia and head trauma cases as well.

·         Using Choline to lose weight is a proven, effective technique.

·         Helps reverse insulin resistance

 The last two are particularly of interest to me and I have recently started supplementing with choline.  I will report later. 

The Importance of Minerals

First of all, I have a correction.  I went back over old blog posts and realized I mis-spoke mathematically about how much selenium I took.  At most I was taking 600 mcg and then dropped that amount to 400.  The upper safe limit is 600 per day and more is not likely to help and may hurt.   I am currently looking into what difference the form of selenium supplement makes and will report.  Also, it needs to be taken with some Vitamin E as they work together.

I've run into information recently that zinc also plays a role in cancer prevention--probably other health issues.  Bottom line, all the minerals are extraordinarily important for our long term wellness.  I'd like to find a mineral supplement that is good.  All formulations I've so far looked at, are heavy on calcium and low on magnesium for a start.  We need at least as much magnesium per day as calcium, and a glass of milk is 300 mg of calcium.  If you drink milk, that Ca needs to be factored in.  None of the formulation I've looked at, has anything close to enough iodine or selenium, either, considering that nearly everyone is dangerously low in those.

Vitamins matter.  But vitamins are fairly easy to get.  Because they are so depleted in soils, I can almost guarantee you are low in many minerals and they matter big time.  They are extremely critical to all body processes, all the chemical reactions that constitute the complexity of our biology.

Miscellaneous Research

Today’s post is a collection of things I’ve run into in research that I think are interesting and useful information in terms of wellness and aging.  I will give you a plain explanation first then cut and paste from the research.

 

1)  Since we’ve been talking about cancer, this first is about cancer.  The Warburg effect is the discovery that cancer only feeds on glucose.  Unlike your muscles which can switch to another fuel, cancer cells cannot.  This research found that short term fasting kills cancer cells.  It does so by depriving them of a way to generate energy for cell activities.  This is up and coming research and we’ll be hearing more about it.

 

Fasting induces anti-warburg effect that increases respiration but reduces ATP-synthesis to promote apoptosis in colon cancer models

 

These findings indicate that the glucose and amino acid deficiency conditions imposed by STS (short term starvation) promote an anti-Warburg effect characterized by increased oxygen consumption but failure to generate ATP, resulting in oxidative damage and apoptosis.

 

2)  This one brings up our old friend inflammation.  Parkinson’s is another autoimmune disease where the immune system is cranked into high gear, then attacks its own tissues.

 

New link between neurodegenerative diseases, abnormal immune responses found

 

New insight into the link between neurodegenerative disorders and inflammation has been gained by a new study that provides a framework to explore more fully the possibility that viral infection may lead to onset of these diseases.

 

3)  This one is easy to understand. 

 

Exercise largely absent from US medical school curriculum, study shows

 

Fewer than half of the physicians trained in the United States in 2013 received formal education or training on the subject of exercise, according to new research. "There are immense medical benefits to exercise; it can help as much as medicine to address some health concerns," said a national expert on the benefits of physical activity. "Because exercise has medicinal as well as other benefits, I was surprised that medical schools didn't spend more time on it."

4)  If you are insulin resistant…and the only way to really know is a fasting insulin test (not glucose)…this is very important information.  BTW, most people I know—even some thin ones are insulin resistant.  I was really pleased with what I learned about selenium and iodine, but magnesium is every bit as critical if not more so.  Like all minerals, if it’s not in the soil it doesn’t get into the plants. 

I go in for blood work next week and will have more to say about what minerals have done for me.  But one unexpected result of adding magnesium supplements is that of reduced incidence of getting up in the night to use the bathroom.  That’s a biggie for it means my sleep is better.

 

This study basically says that magnesium can prevent the transition from insulin resistance to type II diabetes because it reduces insulin resistance.  Take some.

 

Oral magnesium supplementation reduces insulin resistance in non-diabetic subjects - a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial.

       Abstract

The incidence of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome correlates with the availability of magnesium (Mg). We studied the effect of oral Mg supplementation on insulin sensitivity and other characteristics of the metabolic syndrome in normomagnesemic, overweight, insulin resistant, non-diabetic subjects.. The results provide significant evidence that oral Mg supplementation improves insulin sensitivity even in normomagnesemic, overweight, non-diabetic subjects emphasizing the need for an early optimization of Mg status to prevent insulin resistance and subsequently type 2 diabetes.

 

5)  Along the same lines, the following from Diabetes Care, is self explanatory

 

In a 2011 controlled trial, vitamin K2 supplementation improved insulin sensitivity.

 

To summarize, we have demonstrated for the first time that vitamin K2 supplementation for 4 weeks increased insulin sensitivity in healthy young men.