A Good Vitamin Supplement Could Be Just What the Doctor Ordered

Posted on by

By Nancy Schimelpfening
Updated September 14, 2016

Did you ever wish that you could take a vitamin for depression? Well, for some of you it may be important that you do. There are a variety of vitamin deficiencies that can contribute to or lead to depression symptoms. That being said, if you’re experiencing symptoms of depression, it’s important to seek help — from you doctor and/or a therapist before taking vitamins or other supplements. Here are vitamins that, when deficient, are linked to depression.

Remember, food is usually the best source for nutrients, including these vitamins. Eat a well-balanced diet to make sure you’re getting a sufficient quantity of these important vitamins.

The B-Complex Vitamins

The B-complex vitamins are essential to mental and emotional well-being. They’re water-soluble, meaning they can’t be stored in your body. Instead, you need your daily diet to supply them. B vitamins may be depleted by alcohol, refined sugars, nicotine, and caffeine so if any of these are a large part of your lifestyle, you could be deficient.

Here’s a rundown of recent finding about the relationship of B-complex vitamins to depression:

  • Vitamin B1 (thiamine): The brain uses this vitamin to help convert glucose, or blood sugar, into fuel, and without it the brain rapidly runs out of energy.  Thiamine deficiencies are rare, but can accompany alcohol use disorders and lead to a variety of psychiatric and neurologic symptoms.
  • Vitamin B3 (niacin): Niacin deficiency can cause pellagra, a disease which produces psychosis and dementia, among other symptoms. Many commercial food products now contain niacin, and pellagra has virtually disappeared. However, subclinical deficiencies of vitamin B3 can produce agitation and anxiety, as well as mental and physical slowness.
  • Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): Deficiencies of this vitamin are rare, but may lead to symptoms of fatigue and depression.
  • Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine): This vitamin helps your body process amino acids, which are the building blocks of all proteins and some hormones. It is needed to make serotonin, melatonin and dopamine. Vitamin B6 deficiencies, although very rare, cause impaired immunity, skin lesions, and mental confusion. A marginal deficiency sometimes occurs in alcoholics, people with kidney failure, and women using oral contraceptives. MAOIs, ironically, may also lead to a shortage of this vitamin. Many nutritionally oriented doctors believe that most diets do not provide optimal amounts of this vitamin.
  • Vitamin B12: Because vitamin B12 is important to red blood cell formation, deficiency leads to anemia as well as a variety of neurologic and psychiatric symptoms. Deficiencies take a long time to develop, since the body stores a three- to five-year supply in the liver. When shortages do occur, they are often due to a lack of intrinsic factor, an enzyme that allows vitamin B12 to be absorbed in the intestinal tract. This condition is known as pernicious anemia.  Since intrinsic factor diminishes with age, older people are more prone to B12 deficiencies.
  • Folic acid: This B vitamin is needed for DNA synthesis. It is also necessary for the production of SAM (S-adenosyl methionine). Poor dietary habits contribute to folic acid deficiencies, as do illness, alcoholism, and various drugs. Pregnant women are often advised to take this vitamin to prevent neural tube defects in the developing fetus.

Vitamin C

Subclinical deficiencies can produce depression symptoms, which requires the use of supplements. Supplementation is particularly important if you have had surgery or an inflammatory disease. Stress, pregnancy, and lactation also increase the body’s need for vitamin C, while aspirin, tetracycline, and birth control pills can deplete the body’s supply.

Minerals

Deficiencies in a number of minerals have been associated with depressive symptoms along with a variety of physical problems.  Among theses minerals are magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron, manganese and potassium.

https://www.verywell.com/5-htp-for-depression-1066521

Six Tissues in the Body Which Can Regenerate

Posted on by

6 Bodily Tissues That Can Be Regenerated Through Nutrition

It may come as a surprise to some, especially those with conventional medical training, but the default state of the body is one of ceaseless regeneration. Without the flame-like process of continual cell turnover within the body – life and death ceaselessly intertwined – the miracle of the human body would not exist.

In times of illness, however, regenerative processes are overcome by degenerative ones. This is where medicine may perform its most noble feat, nudging the body back into balance with foods, herbs, nutrients, healing energies, i.e. healing intention. Today, however, drug-based medicine invariably uses chemicals that have not one iota of regenerative potential; to the contrary, they almost always interfere with bodily self-renewal in order to suppress the symptoms against which they are applied.

Despite the outright heretical nature of things which stimulate healing and regeneration vis-à-vis the conventional medical system which frowns upon, or is incredulous towards, spontaneous remission in favor of symptom suppression and disease management, over the course of the past few years of trolling MEDLINE we have collected a series of remarkable studies on the topic…

Nerve Regeneration – There are actually a broad range of natural compounds with proven nerve-regenerative effects. A 2010 study published in the journal Rejuvenation Research, for instance, found a combination of blueberry, green tea and carnosine have neuritogenic (i.e. promoting neuronal regeneration) and stem-cell regenerative effects in an animal model of neurodegenerative disease. [1] Other researched neuritogenic substances include:

  1. Curcumin
  2. Lion’s Mane Mushroom
  3. Apigenin (compound in vegetables like celery)
  4. Blueberry
  5. Ginseng
  6. Huperzine
  7. Natto
  8. Red Sage
  9. Resveratrol
  10. Royal Jelly
  11. Theanine
  12. Ashwaganda
  13. Coffee (trigonelline)

nerve cell regenerationThere is another class of nerve-healing substances, known as remyelinating compounds, which stimulate the repair of the protective sheath around the axon of the neurons known as myelin, and which is often damaged in neurological injury and/or dysfunction, especially autoimmune and vaccine-induced demyelination disorders. It should also be noted that even music and falling in love have been studied for possibly stimulating neurogenesis, regeneration and/or repair of neurons, indicating that regenerative medicine does not necessary require the ingestion of anything; rather, a wide range of therapeutic actions may be employed to improve health and well-being, as well.

[View the first-hand biomedical citations on these neuritogenic substance visit our Neuritogenic Research page on the topic]

Liver Regeneration – Glycyrrhizin, a compound found within licorice, and which we recently featured as a powerful anti-SARS virus agent, has also been found to stimulate the regeneration of liver mass and function in the animal model of hepatectomy. Other liver regenerative substances include:

  1. Carvacrol (a volatile compound in oregano)
  2. Curcumin
  3. Korean Ginseng
  4. Rooibos
  5. Vitamin E

[view the first-hand biomedical citations on the Liver Regeneration research page]

Beta-Cell Regeneration – Unfortunately, the medical community has yet to harness the diabetes-reversing potential of natural compounds. Whereas expensive stem cell therapies, islet cell transplants, and an array of synthetic drugs in the developmental pipeline are the focus of billions of dollars of research, annually, our kitchen cupboards and backyards may already contain the long sought-after cure for type 1 diabetes. The following compounds have been demonstrated experimentally to regenerate the insulin-producing beta cells, which are destroyed in insulin dependent diabetes, and which once restored, may (at least in theory) restore the health of the patient to the point where they no longer require insulin replacement.

  1. Gymenna Sylvestre (“the sugar destroyer”)
  2. Nigella Sativa (“black cumin”)
  3. Vitamin D
  4. Curcumin (from the spice Turmeric)
  5. Arginine
  6. Avocado
  7. Berberine (found in bitter herbs such as Goldenseal and Barberry)
  8. Bitter Melon
  9. Chard (yes, the green leafy vegetables)
  10. Corn Silk
  11. Stevia
  12. Sulforaphane (especially concentrated in broccoli sprouts)

[view the first-hand biomedical citations on the Beta Cell Regeneration research page]

Hormone Regeneration – there are secretagogues, which increase the endocrine glands’ ability to secrete more hormone, and there are substances that truly regenerate hormones which have degraded (by emitting electrons) into potentially carcinogenic “transient hormone” metabolites. One of these substances is vitamin C. A powerful electron donor, this vitamin has the ability to contribute electrons to resurrect the form and function of estradiol (estrogen; E2), progesterone, testosterone, for instance. [2] In tandem with foods that are able to support the function of glands, such as the ovaries, vitamin C may represent an excellent complement or alternative to hormone replacement therapy.

Cardiac Cell Regeneration – Not too long ago, it was believed that cardiac tissue was uniquely incapable of being regenerated. A new, but rapidly growing body of experimental research now indicates that this is simply not true, and there is a class of heart-tissue regenerating compounds known as neocardiogenic substances. Neocardiogenic substances are able to stimulate the formation of cardiac progenitor cells which can differentiate into healthy heart tissue, and they include the following:

  1. Resveratrol
  2. Siberian Ginseng (Eleuthero)
  3. Red Wine Extract
  4. Geum Japonicum
  5. N-acetyl-cysteine

Another remarkable example of cardiac cell regeneration is through what is known as fetomaternal trafficking of stem cells through the placenta. In a recent article we discussed the amazing process known as “fetal microchimerism” by which the fetus contributes stem cells to the mother which are capable of regenerating her damaged heart cells, and possibly a wide range of other cell types.

Cartilage/Joint/Spine Regeneration – Curcumin and resveratrol have been shown to improve recovery from spinal cord injury. Over a dozen other natural compounds hold promise in this area, which can be viewed on our Spinal Cord Injury page. As far as degenerative joint disease, i.e. osteoarthritis, there are a broad range of potentially regenerative substances, with 50 listed on our osteoarthritis research page.

Ultimately, regenerative medicine threatens to undermine the very economic infrastructure that props up the modern, drug-based and quite candidly degenerative medical system. Symptom suppression is profitable because it guarantees both the perpetuation of the original underlying disease, and the generation of an ever-expanding array of additional, treatment-induced symptoms.

This is the non-sustainable, infinite growth model which shares features characteristic of the process of cancer itself – a model, which by its very nature, is doomed to fail and eventually collapse. Cultivating diets, lifestyles and attitudes conducive to bodily regeneration can interrupt this pathological circuit, and help us to attain the bodily freedom that is a precondition for the liberation of the human soul and spirit, as well.

[1] NT-020, a natural therapeutic approach to optimize spatial memory performance and increase neural progenitor cell proliferation and decrease inflammation in the aged rat. Rejuvenation Res. 2010 Jun 29. Epub 2010 Jun 29. PMID: 20586644

[2] Photo-induced regeneration of hormones by electron transfer processes: Potential biological and medical consequences. Radiat Phys Chem Oxf Engl 1993. Updated 2011 Aug ;80(8):890-894. PMID: 21814301

*article cited from http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/6-bodily-tissues-can-be-regenerated-through-nutrition

Your Brain Works Like a Radio:

Posted on by

your brain cells learn best at an optimal frequency.

Ask a scientist what memory is, and you’ll probably get long-term potentiation (LTP) as an answer. To understand what LTP is, you need a little basic nerve cell (neuron) anatomy. Neurons have a nucleus and internal structures like other cells, but they also have fibrous projections called axons and dendrites. Axons carry messages (impulses—something like electrical charges) away from the cell body. Dendrites receive information from the axons of other neurons. But neurons do not touch, so nerve impulses must “jump the gap” from axon to dendrite. They do this chemically, by way of neurotransmitters that act as chemical messengers.

The axon of one neuron, a dendrite of another, and the gap between them are collectively called a synapse. LTP is the idea that synapses that are used often grow strong. That is learning. The action goes something like this: When a nerve impulse reaches the end of an axon, it triggers the release of a neurotransmitter into the gap of the synapse. When the neurotransmitter attaches to the dendrite of the next neuron, it starts an impulse in the second cell. If this happens many times, the signal is strengthened, maybe permanently. In this way, neurons become conditioned to respond strongly to signals they have received many times before.

LTP is a good explanation for the neural basis of learning, but researchers are constantly refining the idea. This week, UCLA neurophysicists report that there is an optimal brain “rhythm,” or frequency, for changing synaptic strength. And further, like stations on a radio dial, each synapse is tuned to a different optimal frequency for learning.

Mayank R. Mehta and Arvind Kumar, researchers at UCLA, have found that stimulating neurons at high frequencies is not the best way to increase synaptic strength. For example, in these experiments, synapses stimulated with 10 impulses at a frequency of 30 per second achieved greater LTP than did synapses stimulated with the same number of impulses at a higher frequency (say, 100 per second). Thus, a synapse has a natural, preferred frequency for optimal learning.

That conclusion led the researchers to compare optimal frequencies based on the location of the synapse on a neuron. Mehta and Kumar found that the optimal frequency for inducing synaptic learning changed depending on where the synapse was located. The farther the synapse lay from the neuron’s cell body, the higher its optimal frequency.

“Incredibly, when it comes to learning, the neuron behaves like a giant antenna, with different branches of dendrites tuned to different frequencies for maximal learning,” Mehta said.

The researchers found that not only does each synapse have a preferred frequency for achieving optimal learning, but for the best effect, the frequency needs to be perfectly rhythmic—timed at exact intervals. Even at the optimal frequency, if the rhythm was thrown off, synaptic learning was substantially diminished.

Their research also showed that once a synapse learns, its optimal frequency changes. In other words, if the optimal frequency for a naïve synapse—one that has not learned anything yet—was 30 impulses per second, after learning, that very same synapse would learn optimally at a lower frequency, perhaps 24 per second. Thus, learning itself changes the optimal frequency for a synapse.

Originally sourced from an article by Dr. Faith Brynie, which has subsequently been edited and is found at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-sense/201110/you-brain-works-radio