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  1. <html>
  2. <head><title>The problem of Alzheimer's disease as a clue to immortality - Part&nbsp;1</title></head>
  3. <body>
  4. <h1>
  5. The problem of Alzheimer's disease as a clue to immortality - Part&nbsp;1
  6. </h1>
  7. <p>
  8. I. INTRODUCTION
  9. </p>
  10. <p>
  11. II. COMMON FACTORS IN INJURY DURING GROWTH AND AGING
  12. </p>
  13. <p>
  14. III. A VIEW OF ENTROPY--RENEWAL OF THE BRAIN
  15. </p>
  16. <p>
  17. IV. FALSE SIGNALS FROM THE ENVIRONMENT
  18. </p>
  19. <p>
  20. A. EDUCATION, DIET AND MEDICINE INTERACT
  21. </p>
  22. <p>
  23. B. SIGNALS IN THE ABSTRACT
  24. </p>
  25. <p>
  26. V. HORMONE IMBALANCE, LEADING TO FAILURE OF PROTECTIVE INHIBITION AND ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
  27. </p>
  28. <p>
  29. A. THE FUNCTION OF ENERGY
  30. </p>
  31. <p>
  32. B. EFFECTS OF ESTROGEN AND UNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS
  33. </p>
  34. <p>
  35. C. VITAMIN A AND STEROIDS
  36. </p>
  37. <p>
  38. D. THE NATURE OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
  39. </p>
  40. <p>
  41. E. AN EXAMPLE; DIET AFFECTS HORMONES WHICH AFFECT STRUCTURE AND LEAD TO APPARENT SELF- DESTRUCTION
  42. </p>
  43. <p>
  44. VI. STRUCTURE AS A REGULATORY SYSTEM--AN EMERGING VISION OF PERVASIVE EPIGENESIS
  45. </p>
  46. <p>
  47. <strong>I. INTRODUCTION</strong>
  48. </p>
  49. <p>
  50. The toxicity of estrogen and of the unsaturated fats has been known for most of the twentieth century, and
  51. much has been learned about their interactions in the aging process. The body, during this time, has been
  52. understood as a dynamic interaction of cellular trophic influences which govern both form and function. My
  53. argument here will be that some of our adaptive, protective regulatory processes are overridden by the
  54. excessive supply of unsaturated fats--supported by a few other toxins--in our diet, acting as a false-signal
  55. system, and that cholesterol, pregnenolone, and progesterone which are our main long-range defenses, are
  56. overcome by the effects of the unsaturated fats, and that the resulting cascade of ineffective and defective
  57. reactions (including various estrogen-stimulated processes) leads to lower and lower energy production,
  58. reduced function, and death. At certain times, especially childhood and old age, iron (which also has
  59. important regulatory roles) accumulates to the point that its signal functions may be inappropriate.
  60. </p>
  61. <p>
  62. It interacts with estrogen and unsaturated fats in ways that can change restraint and adaptation into sudden
  63. self-destruction, apoptotic cell death. If we look at the human organism from one perspective, it seems
  64. coherent and intelligible, but from the perspective of established academic biological doctrine, it seems
  65. appallingly complex, lacking any visible integrating principle, and as a result simplistic mechanical,
  66. pharmaceutical, or religious ideas are increasingly offered to fill the gap. But experimental data can be
  67. taken out of the muddle, and put to coherent human use. In what follows, I am acting as though the doctrines
  68. of genetic determination and regulation by membranes were mere historical relics. The emerging control
  69. systems are now clear enough that we can begin to use them to reverse the degenerative diseases: Alzheimer's
  70. dementia, epileptic dementia, arthritis, osteoporosis, depression, hypertension, hardening of the heart and
  71. blood vessels, diabetes, and some types of tumor, immunodeficiencies, reflex problems, and special atrophic
  72. problems, including clearing of amyloid and mucoid deposits. I think many people experience regenerative
  73. age-regressing when many circumstances are just right; for example, taking a trip to the mountains in the
  74. spring with friends can optimize several basic regulatory systems.
  75. </p>
  76. <p>
  77. <strong>II. COMMON FACTORS IN BRAIN INJURY DURING GROWTH AND AGING
  78. </strong>
  79. </p>
  80. <p>
  81. Most people are surprised by the number of cells in the prenatal brain, and in the very old brain: In the
  82. human fetus at 6 months of development, there are about twice as many brain cells as there are at the time
  83. of birth, and in old age the number of cells in the brain keeps increasing with age, so that at the age of
  84. 90 the amount of DNA in the brain (36.94 grams) is about 50%.greater than at the age of 16-20 (23.04 grams).
  85. In the aged brain, glial cells multiply while neurons die. In the fetus, the cells that die are apparently
  86. nerve cells that haven't yet matured. The factors that are known to reduce the brain size at birth are also
  87. factors that are involved in the degenerating brain in old age or Alzheimer's disease: lack of oxygen,
  88. excess unsaturated fats or deficiency of saturated fats, estrogen excess, progesterone deficiency, and lack
  89. of glucose. A lack of carbon dioxide is probably harmful in both. Inflammation and blood clots may be
  90. factors in the aging brain, and bleeding with vascular spasm is sometimes a contributing factor to brain
  91. damage in both the old and the fetal brain. Endotoxemia may be a factor in nerve degeneration only during
  92. adult life, but it is sometimes present during pregnancy.
  93. </p>
  94. <p>
  95. M. C. Diamond, Enriching Heredity: The Importance of the Environment on the Anatomy of the Brain. Free
  96. Press, N.Y., 1988. C. Finch and L. Hayflick, Handbook of the Biology of Aging. Van Nostrand Reinhold, N.Y.,
  97. 1977.
  98. </p>
  99. <p>
  100. <strong>III. A VIEW OF ENTROPY: RENEWAL OF THE BRAIN
  101. </strong>
  102. </p>
  103. <p>
  104. When a fertilized egg is developing into a person, each cell division creates a new environment for the
  105. daughter cells, to which they adapt. They may run into limits and resistances (sometimes a certain gene
  106. doesn't meet the need of the situation, or toxins are present, or nutrients and hormones are imperfectly
  107. supplied), but the process is flexible, and a way is normally found to get around the limitation. The
  108. embryo's brain development is my favorite example of the ways genes interact with the environment. We might
  109. think of the "optimal brain development" of a person, or a rat, or a chicken, as something which is clearly
  110. limited by "the genes." But if rats are given a stimulating environment, each generation gets a slightly
  111. bigger, slightly more intelligent brain. If rats are treated during pregnancy to increase the amount of
  112. progesterone, the offspring have bigger brains and learn more efficiently. Still, that might just be
  113. restoring a condition that was natural for rats in some perfect environment. Chickens develop inside an egg
  114. shell, and so the nutrients needed for their development are all present when the egg is laid.
  115. </p>
  116. <p>
  117. The brain, like the other organs, stops growing when the food supply is used up. But an experimenter
  118. (Zamenhof) opened the egg shells at the stage of development when the brain normally stops growing, and
  119. added glucose, and found that the brain continued growing, producing chickens with bigger brains. The
  120. "genes" of a chicken, as part of a system, have something to do with the development of that system, but the
  121. environment existing in and around the organism is able to guide and support the way the system develops.
  122. The size, complexity, and intelligence of the brain represents a very large part of the "information"
  123. contained in the organism, and Zamenhof's experiment showed that the ability to realize this potential, to
  124. create this complexity, comes from the support of the environment, and that the "genetic nature of the
  125. chicken" didn't constitute a limit to the development of its brain.
  126. </p>
  127. <p>
  128. I am going to argue that Alzheimer's disease is analogous to the situation confronted by the developing
  129. chicken embryo or the rat or human fetus, when the environment is unable to meet the needs of the highly
  130. energetic, demanding and sensitive brain cells, and the brain cells begin to die, instead of developing into
  131. a more complex state, passing beyond various barriers and limitations. There are two stereotypes that are in
  132. conflict with this view: (1) That the structure of the brain is determined at an early point in life,
  133. sometimes explicitly stated as the age of 12 or 16, and (2) that the structure of the brain goes into an
  134. "entropic" deterioration during the process of aging. My position is that the brain cells are in a vital
  135. developmental process at all times, and that the same things that injure the brain of a fetus also injure
  136. the brain of an aging person.
  137. </p>
  138. <p>
  139. If novelty is really appearing during development, then it is hard to maintain that "entropy increases"
  140. during the development of an individual. Isn't a child a richer organization than a fertilized egg? Isn't an
  141. adult more individualized or realized than an infant? Seen from the inside, our known world gets richer with
  142. experience. Learning is certainly anti-entropic. Where does the idea of "increasing entropy with living"
  143. come from? Many things contribute, including a doctrine of genetic determinism, the old Platonic idea of the
  144. imperfection of the concrete, the unreality of the existent, and the medieval idea of the "corruption of the
  145. body." These philosophies still motivate some people in aging research. The astrophysicist, N. A. Kozyrev,
  146. showed that the idea of an "entropic cosmos" derived simply from the assumptions of 19th century deism, "God
  147. set the clockwork universe in motion, and left it to run down." Early in this century, Raymond Pearl argued
  148. that the "rate of living" governed the life-span, so that "fast living" meant a short life. He based his
  149. argument on cantaloupe seeds: the faster they grew, the sooner they died. This was because he didn't give
  150. them anything but water, so they had to live on their stored energy; if they grew quickly, obviously they
  151. ran out of stored energy sooner. I have never heard that described as a stupid idea, but I think politeness
  152. is sometimes carried too far. In the clock analogy, or the seed analogy, the available energy is used up.
  153. </p>
  154. <p>
  155. The clock with its wound-up spring and the seed in a dish of water may be considered as closed systems, and
  156. we can understand their fate. But if it is foolish to argue from a confined seed to free-living organisms,
  157. then it is just as foolish to argue from a clock to a cosmos. Unfortunately, these inferences about closed
  158. systems are often applied to real situations that aren't energetically closed.
  159. </p>
  160. <p>
  161. The "rate of living" theory of aging picked up the idea of aging as a natural physical property of time, and
  162. gave it expression in mathematical form, arguing (Hershey, "Entropy, basal metabolism and life expectancy,"
  163. Gerontologia 7, 245-250, 1963) that "the total lifetime entropy production" could be calculated, to give
  164. insight into "life expectancy and evolutional development." Unfortunately, the equation Hershey used assumed
  165. that the flow of heat out of the body into the surroundings is reversible. This suggests an image of Dr.
  166. Frankenstein vivifying his monster with lightning, putting the heat back into the body. If heat is to be
  167. "put back into the body," it is necessary to make sure that it is appropriate for the structure as it
  168. exists.
  169. </p>
  170. <p>
  171. Actually, it is just the directed flow of energy which generates the structures. If any biological argument
  172. can be made from the idea of entropy, it is that it would be extremely difficult to regenerate food, by
  173. putting heat into a person. In a few situations, it is possible to show that living structures can directly
  174. absorb heat from their environment (causing the temperature to fall)--"negative heat production"--but the
  175. exact meaning of this isn't clear. (B. C. Abbott, et al., "The positive and negative heat production
  176. associated with a nerve impulse," Proc. R. Soc. B 148, 149, 1958; R. D. Keynes and J. M. Ritchie, "The
  177. initial heat production of amphibian myelinated nerve fibres," Proc. Physiol. Soc., June 1970, page 29P-30P:
  178. "It is now clear that in both crustacean...and mammalian (Howarth, et al., 1968) non-myelinated fibres there
  179. is an initial production of heat during (or soon after) the action potential, 80% of which is rapidly
  180. reabsorbed.") A. I. Zotin ("Aging and rejuvenation from the standpoint of the thermodynamics of irreversible
  181. processes," Priroda, No. 9, 49-55, 1970), citing the theory of Prigogine-Wiame, argued that the aging
  182. process involves both a decrease in entropy and a decrease in the rate of heat production.
  183. </p>
  184. <p>
  185. Regeneration involves a production of entropy, as when an egg is formed. (The temperature fluctuation at the
  186. time of ovulation might make a contribution to the construction of the entropic egg.) The argument that
  187. aging of the animal (like aging of the cosmos) is governed by "the tendency of entropy to increase" has led
  188. people to say that rejuvenation would be like unscrambling an egg. Zotin's argument is interesting, because
  189. he says that an egg is a "scrambled animal." This view is very much like Warburg's and Szent-Gyorgyi's
  190. theory of cancer, that it is like a reversion to a simpler state of life. To sketch out what I have argued
  191. in different contexts, water is the part of the living substance that we can most meaningfully discuss in
  192. terms of entropy. In fact, much of the concept of entropy has derived from the study of water, as it changed
  193. state in steam engines, etc. Cancer cells, like egg cells, have a higher water content than the
  194. differentiated, functioning cells of an adult, and the water is less rigidly ordered by the cellular
  195. molecules. This different, more mobile state of the water, can be measured by the NMR (nuclear magnetic
  196. resonance) machines which are used for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).
  197. </p>
  198. <p>
  199. Estrogen has a special place in relation to the water in an organism. It is intimately involved with the
  200. formation of the egg cell, and wherever it operates, it increases both the quantity of water and,
  201. apparently, the disorder of the water. Its function, I believe, is to promote regeneration, as in Zotin's
  202. scheme, by increasing entropy, or "scrambling the animal." The way it promotes regeneration is by promoting
  203. water uptake, stimulating cell division, and erasing the differentiated state to one degree or another,
  204. providing a new supply of "stem cells," or cells at the beginning of a certain sequence of differentiation.
  205. These more numerous cells then must find a hospitable environment in which to develop and adapt. If the
  206. proper support can't be found, then they will be recycled, like the unfed cells in the brain of a fetus. If
  207. we imagine the course of development as a summary of evolution ("ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny"), then
  208. the egg, as it "unscrambles" itself in embryonic development, passing through stages resembling jelly fish,
  209. worm, fish, reptile, bird, baboon, keeps finding that the available energy allows it to, in effect, say "I
  210. want this, I don't want that," until it emerges as a human baby, saying "I want," and begins eating and
  211. learning, and with luck continues the unscrambling, or self-actualization.. Degenerative aging, rather than
  212. being "physically derived from the properties of time," seems to be produced situationally, by various types
  213. of contamination of our energy supply. Unsaturated fats, interacting with an excess of iron and a deficiency
  214. of oxygen or usable energy, redirect our developmental path.
  215. </p>
  216. <p>
  217. The saturated fats, in themselves, seem to have no "signalling" functions, and when they are naturally
  218. modified by our desaturating enzymes, the substances produced behave very differently from the plant-derived
  219. "eicosanoids." As far as their effects have been observed, it seems that they are adaptive, rather than
  220. dysadaptive. All of the factors that affect the brain of a fetus should be examined in relation to the aging
  221. brain. Besides estrogen and fats, I am thinking of oxygen and carbon dioxide, glucose, iron and calcium,
  222. cholesterol, progesterone, pregnenolone, DHEA, the endorphins, GABA, thyroid, and vitamin A. An additional
  223. factor, endotoxin poisoning, eventually tends to intervene during stress and aging, exacerbating the trend
  224. begun under the influence of the other factors.
  225. </p>
  226. <p><strong>IV. FALSE SIGNALS FROM THE ENVIRONMENT</strong></p>
  227. <p>
  228. The environment can be supportive, but it can also divert development from an optimal course.
  229. </p>
  230. <p>
  231. Passively taking whatever you are given, by history and nature, is entropic; choosing intelligently from
  232. possible diets, selecting courses of action, will create pattern and reduce entropy. If education contains
  233. an element of choice and self-actualization, then the results seen in several Alzheimer's studies could have
  234. a significance larger than what has been suggested by the investigators. A diagnostic bias has been reported
  235. to result from the use of standardized tests based on vocabulary, because education increases vocabulary,
  236. and tends to cover up the loss of vocabulary that occurs in dementia. In the Framingham study, it was
  237. concluded that there was a real association of lower educational level with dementia, but the suggestion was
  238. made that self-destructive practices such as smoking were more common among the less educated.
  239. </p>
  240. <p>
  241. The Seattle study of the patients in a health maintenance organization showed a very distinct difference in
  242. educational level between the demented and the non-demented, both of whom had roughly similar frequency of
  243. prescriptions for estrogen. The features that seemed important to me, that weren't discussed by the authors,
  244. were that the demented women had a much lower rate of progestogen use, and a much higher incidence of
  245. hysterectomy, which interferes with natural progesterone production. Although Brenner, et al., in the
  246. Seattle study concluded that "this study provides no evidence that estrogen replacement therapy has an
  247. effect on the risk of Alzheimer's disease in postmenopausal women," they reported that "Current estrogen use
  248. of both the oral and the vaginal routes had odds ratios below 1, while former use of both types yielded odds
  249. ratios above 1...." (They seem to neglect the fact that Alzheimer's-type disease in old people has a long
  250. developmental history, so it is precisely the "former" use that is relevent. 31% of the demented women had
  251. formerly used estrogen, and only 20% of the control group. Since estrogen is a brain excitant, present use
  252. creates exactly the same sort of effect on verbal fluency and other signs of awareness of the environment
  253. that a little cocaine does. Anyone who neglects this effect is probably deliberately constructing a
  254. propaganda study.)
  255. </p>
  256. <p>
  257. This observation, that the demented had 155% as much former estrogen use as the normal group, as well as the
  258. difference in rates of progestogen use (normal patients had 50% more progestogen use than demented) and
  259. hysterectomy (demented had 44.1% vs. 17% in the normals, i.e., 259% as many; the incidence of hysterectomies
  260. after the age of 55, which is a strong indication of a natural excess of estrogen, in the demented was 374%
  261. of the incidence in the non-demented), should call for a larger study to clarify these observatons, which
  262. tend to indicate that exposure to estrogen in middle-age increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease in old
  263. age, and that even medical progestogens offer some protection against it..
  264. </p>
  265. <p>
  266. (Although this study might have been bigger and better, it is far better than the junk-studies that have
  267. been promoted by the pharmaceutical publicity machine. I have seen or heard roughly 100 mentions of the
  268. pro-estrogen anti-scientific "studies," and none mentioning this one.)
  269. </p>
  270. <p>
  271. D. E. Brenner, et al., Postmenopausal estrogen replacement therapy and the risk of Alzheimer's disease: A
  272. population-based case-control study," Am. J. Epidemiol. 140, 262-267, 1994. "Women tend to have higher
  273. age-specific prevalence and incidence rates of Alzheimer's disease than do men." A.F. Jorm, The Epidemiology
  274. of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, Chapman and Hall, London, 1990, and W. A. Rocca, et al., Ann.
  275. Neurol. 30, 381-190, 1991.
  276. </p>
  277. <p>
  278. H. C. Liu, et al., "Performance on a dementia screening test in relation to demographic variables--study of
  279. 5297 community residents in Taiwan," Arch. Neurol. 51(9), 910-915, 1994. "Commonly used dementia screening
  280. tests may be unfair to poorly educated individuals, especially women and rural residents."
  281. </p>
  282. <p>
  283. <strong>SIGNALS IN THE ABSTRACT</strong>
  284. </p>
  285. <p>
  286. When I taught endocrinology, I annoyed my tidy-minded students by urging them to consider the potential
  287. hormone-like action of everything in the body, and to think of layers of control, ranging from sugar, salt,
  288. and carbon dioxide, through the "official hormones," to complex nervous system actions such as expectancy,
  289. and biorhythms. Certain things that are active in very important processes deserve special attention as
  290. "signals," but they still have to be understood in context. In this sense, we can think of Ca2+ as a signal
  291. substance, in its many contexts; it is strongly regulated by the cell's energy charge. Magnesium and sodium
  292. antagonize it in certain situations. Linoleic acid, linolenic acid, arachidonic acid: Their toxicity is
  293. potentially prevented by the Mead acids, and their eicosanoid derivatives, which behave very differently
  294. from the familiar prostaglandins, as far as they have been compared; can be drastically reduced by dietary
  295. changes. Prostaglandins, prostacyclin, thromboxane: Formation is blocked by aspirin and other
  296. antiinflammatory drugs.
  297. </p>
  298. <p>
  299. Adenosine: Sleep inducing protective effect. Adenosine is structurally very similar to inosine, another
  300. natural substance (found in meat, for example) which is a component of "inosiplex," an antiviral drug (Brown
  301. and Gordon, Fed. Proc. 29, 684, 1970, and Can. J. Microbiol. 18, 1463, 1972) or immunostimulant which has
  302. also been found to have an anti-senility effect (Doty and Gordon, Fed. Proc. 29). Adenosine is a free
  303. radical scavenger, and protects against calcium and glutamate excitotoxicity. (I. Yokoi, et al., "Adenosines
  304. scavenged hydroxyl radicals and prevented posttraumatic epilepsy," Free Radical Biol. Med. 19(4), 473-479,
  305. 1995; M. P. Abbracchio, et al., "Adenosine A(1) receptors in rat brain synaptosomes: Transductional
  306. mechanisms, efects on glutamate release, and preservation after metabolic inhibition," Drug Develop. Res.
  307. 35(3), 119-129, 1995.) It also appears to protect against the relative hyperventilation that wastes carbon
  308. dioxide, and endotoxin can interfere with its protective action. Guanosine, in this same group of
  309. substances, might have some similar properties. Thymidine and cytidine, which are pyrimidine-based, are
  310. endogenous analogs of the barbiturates, and like them, they might be regulators of the cytochrome P450
  311. enzymes. Uridine, in this group, promotes glycogen synthesis, and is released from bacteria in the presence
  312. of penicillin.
  313. </p>
  314. <p>
  315. Iron: Regulator of mRNA stability, heme synthesis; reacts with reductants and unsaturated oils, to produce
  316. free radicals and lipid peroxides; its absorption is increased by estrogen, hypothyroidism, anemia or lack
  317. of oxygen. Glutamate and aspartate, excitotoxins, and GABA, an inhibitory transmitter.
  318. </p>
  319. <p>
  320. These have metabolic links with each other, with ammonia, and with stress and energy metabolism.
  321. </p>
  322. <p>
  323. Estrogen and acetylcholine, excitotoxins; see Savolainen, et al., 1994. The information on this is
  324. overwhelmingly clear, and the publicity to the contrary is a horrifying example of the corruption of the
  325. mass media by the drug industry.
  326. </p>
  327. <p>
  328. Endorphins: Stress induced, laterally specific, involved in estrogen action, antagonized by naloxone and
  329. similar anti-opiate drugs. I have proposed that the endorphins can cause or sustain some of the symptoms of
  330. aging. Naloxone appears to be a useful treatment for senility. E. Roberts, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 396, 165,
  331. 1982; B. Reisberg, et al., N. Engl. J. Med. 308, 721, 1983.
  332. </p>
  333. <p>
  334. Endotoxin: Antimitochondrial action, causes elevation of estrogen. It synergizes with unsaturated fats, and
  335. naloxone opposes some of its toxic effects.
  336. </p>
  337. <p>
  338. Urea, cholesterol: Structural stability of proteins and lipid-protein complexes.
  339. </p>
  340. <p>
  341. Things that act directly on the water structure: I think all of the natural regulators have an effect on the
  342. structure of water, but some unusual substances seem to act primarily on the water. Noble gases, for
  343. example, have no chemical effects, but they tend to form "cages" of water molecules around themselves.
  344. Camphor, adamantane, and the antiviral drug amantadine, probably have a similar water-structuring effect,
  345. and amantadine, which is widely used as a therapy in Parkinson's disease, has an anti-excitotoxic action.
  346. </p>
  347. <p>
  348. <a href="http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/alzheimers2.shtml"><strong>Article continued in Part 2 - click
  349. here</strong></a>
  350. </p>
  351. <p>
  352. Raymond Peat, Ph.D.
  353. </p>
  354. <p>
  355. Copyright 1997
  356. </p>
  357. <p>
  358. <strong><h3>SELECTED REFERENCES</h3></strong>
  359. </p>
  360. <p>
  361. S. Rose, "Genuine genetics or conceited convenience?" Trends in Neuro. Sci. 17(3), 105, 1994.
  362. </p>
  363. <p>
  364. F. P. Monnet, et al., "Neurosteroids, via sigma receptors, modulate the [H3]norepinephrine release evoked by
  365. N-methyl-D-aspartate in the rat hippocampus," P.N.A.S. (USA) 92(9), 3773-3778, 1995. "...progesterone may
  366. act as a sigma antagonist."
  367. </p>
  368. <p>
  369. J. L. Sanne and K. E. Krueger, "Expression of cytochrome P450 side-chain cleavage enzyme and 3
  370. beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase in the rat central nervous system: A study by polymerase chain reaction
  371. and in situ hybridization," J. of Neurochemistry 65(2), 528-536, 1995.
  372. </p>
  373. <p>
  374. V. V. Zakusov and R. U. Ostrovskaya, "Increased resistance of mice to hypoxia under the influence of
  375. tranquilizers of the benzodiazepine series," Byulletan Eksperimentalnoy Biologii i Meditsiny 71(2), 45-47,
  376. 1971. [The protection was not from the sedative effects, "Rather, the protective effect of these compounds
  377. is attributed to some specific intervention in the metabolism whereby the sensitivity of the tissues to
  378. oxygen insufficiency is reduced. ...the cortical structures of the brain especially appear to derive
  379. enhanced resistance to oxygen deficiency."]
  380. </p>
  381. <p>
  382. A. I. Zotin, "Aging and rejuvenation from the standpoint of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes,"
  383. Priroda 9, 49-55, 1970. [The process of aging "...is manifested by a decrease in entropy and...also by a
  384. continuous decrease in the rate of heat production.. The organism exhibits two types of approaches to a
  385. steady state: (i) constitutive movement of the system to the final steady state and (ii) inducible return of
  386. the system to the current steady state after deviating under the influence of internal or external factors.
  387. Oogenesis represents a constitutive deviation from the steady state; entropy reaches a level sufficient for
  388. the start of development and passage of the living system into the state of constitutive approach to the
  389. final steady state. From the standpoint of the thermodynamic theory of development, oogenesis reflects the
  390. process of regeneration of the system. In all other stages of life there is only the aging process
  391. accompanied by a decrease in entropy."
  392. </p>
  393. <p>
  394. M. M. Tikhomirova, et al., "Mechanisms underlying the resistance of genetic material of the animal cell to
  395. stress treatment," Genetika 30(8), 1092-1104, 1994. "...these studies prove that the formation of a mutation
  396. is a multistage process involving many cell and organism systems...which are affected by environmental
  397. factors.... They can hinder or accelerate the mutational process, in this way providing both a superadditive
  398. effect and adaptive response. Recent studies deal with a universal system of heat shock proteins, which is
  399. involved in the maintenance of resistance of genetic material and genetic processes in the cell." Gross,
  400. "Reproductive cycle biochemistry," Fertility &amp; Sterility 12(3), 245-260, 1961. "The maintenance of an
  401. environment conducive to anaerobic metabolism--which may involve the maintenance of an adequate supply of
  402. the substances that permit anaerobiosis...seems to depend primarily upon the action of estrogen."
  403. "Glycolytic metabolism gradually increases throughout the proliferative phases of the cycle, reaching a
  404. maximum coincident with the ovulation phase, when estrogen is at a peak. Following this, glycolysis
  405. decreases, the respiratory mechanisms being more active during the secretory phase. Eschbach and Negelein
  406. showed the metabolism of the infantile mouse uterus to be less anaerobic than that of the adult. If estrogen
  407. is administered, however, there is a 98 per cent increase in glycolytic mechanisms.""The effect of the
  408. progestational steroids may be such as to interfere with the biochemical pattern required for support of
  409. this anaerobic environment."
  410. </p>
  411. <p>
  412. M. A. G. Sissan, et al., "Effects of low-dose oral contraceptive oestrogen and progestin on lipid
  413. peroxidation in rats," J. of International Med. Res. 23(4), 272-278, 1995. "The levels of lipid peroxides,
  414. free fatty acids and glutathione in the liver, and of serum ceruloplasmin increased significantly with
  415. oestrogen treatment. Lipid peroxides (in the liver only), and serum ceruloplasmin decreased significantly
  416. when progestin was administered. The activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase decreased significantly
  417. in the oestrogen group...but increased in the progestin group."
  418. </p>
  419. <p>
  420. A. Jendryczko, et al., "Effects of two low-dose oral contraceptives on erythrocyte superoxide dismutase,
  421. catalase and glutathione peroxidase activities," Zentralbl. Gynakol. (Germany) 115(11), 469-472, 1993.
  422. "These data suggest that low-dose oral contraceptives, by decreasing the activities of antioxidant enzymes
  423. and by enhancing the lipid peroxidation, increase the risk of cardiovascular disease."
  424. </p>
  425. <p>
  426. J. W. Olney, "Excitotoxins in foods," Neurotoxicology 15(3), 535-544, 1994. "The most frequently encountered
  427. food excitotoxin is glutamate which is commercially added to many foods despite evidence that it can freely
  428. penetrate certain brain regions and rapidly destroy neurons by hyperactivating the NMDA subtype of glutamate
  429. receptor."
  430. </p>
  431. <p>
  432. K. Savolainen, et al., "Phosphoinositide second messengers in cholinergic excitotoxicity," Neurotoxicology
  433. 15(3), 493-502, 1994. "Acetylcholine is a powerful excitotoxic neurotransmitter in the brain. By stimulating
  434. calcium-mobilizing receptors, acetylcholine, through G-proteins, stimulates phospholipase C and cause the
  435. hydrolysis of a membrane phospholipid...." "Inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate is important in cholinergic neuronal
  436. stimulation, and injury. Cholinergic agonists cause tonic-clonic convulsions which may be either transient
  437. or persistent. Even short-term cholinergic convusions may be associated with neuronal injury, especially in
  438. the basal forebrain and the hippocampus. Cholinergic-induced convulsions also elevate levels of brain
  439. calcium which precede neuronal injury. Female sex and senescence increase the sensitivity of rats to
  440. cholinergic excitotoxicity." "Furthermore, glutamate increases neuronal oxidative stress...."
  441. </p>
  442. <p>
  443. L. N. Simanovskiy and Zh. A. Chotoyev, "The effect of hypoxia on glycogenolysis and glycolysis rates in the
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  446. in a low-pressure chamber or at an altitude of 3,200 meters. The rate of carbohydrate metabolism increaased
  447. during postnatal development. In the absence of hypoxia, the rate of accumulation of lactate from either
  448. glycogen or glucose increases with maturation of the animals. The brain of young rats consumes primarily
  449. glycogen, particularly under anaerobic conditions." "Adaptation of mature rats to intermittent hypoxia is
  450. related to an increase in glycolysis, whereas adaptation of rats to high altitudes results in an increase in
  451. glycogenolysis. The type of carbohydrate metabolism is thus similar to the metabolism characteristic of the
  452. early stages of ontogenesis."
  453. </p>
  454. <p>
  455. Ye. Sadovskiy, "For the prolongation of human life," Sovetskaya Belorussiya 23, page 4, Dec. 1970. "...the
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  458. </p>
  459. <p>
  460. Cerebral ischemia (and several other imbalances, relating to steroid regulation, shock) might be relieved by
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  462. </p>
  463. <p>
  464. V. Reynolds, et al., "Heart rate variation, age, and behavior in subjects with senile dementia of Alzheimer
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  466. that of normal subjects of similar age, and that phase shift of the endogenous, clock-mediated component of
  467. the rhythm (with higher heart rate at night) is to be expected in a proportion of individuals with SDAT."
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  469. <p>
  470. M. Martinez, et al., "Glucose deprivation increases aspartic acid release from synaptosomes of aged mice,"
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  472. glutamate release was higher in old than in young animals." "...there is an age-dependent dysfunction in
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  474. </p>
  475. <p>
  476. J. M. Pasquini and A. M. Adamo, "Thyroid hormones and the central nervous system," Dev. Neurosci. 12(1-2),
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  479. shown effects of thyroid hormones on myelin protein gene expression."
  480. </p>
  481. <p>
  482. G. C. Ness and Z. H. Zhao, "Thyroid hormone rapidly induces hepatic LDL receptor mRNA levels in
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  490. </p>
  491. <p>
  492. G. J. Bu, et al., "Subcellular localization and endocytic function of low density lipoprotein
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  496. </p>
  497. <p>
  498. V. Vandenbrouck, et al., "The modulation of apolipoprotein E gene expression by 3,3'-5-triiodothyronine in
  499. HepG(2) cells occurs at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels," Eur. J. Biochem. 224(2), 463-471,
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  501. </p>
  502. <p>
  503. T. Yamada, et al., "Apolipoprotein E mRNA in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease," J. Neurol.
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  505. patients who had long survival times showed high expression of apoE and low expression of GFAP [glial
  506. fibrillary acidic protein]. These results suggest that apoE suppresses the progression of AD, including
  507. gliosis, in the brain."
  508. </p>
  509. <p>
  510. G. P. Jarvik, et al., "Genetic influences on age-related change in total cholesterol, low density
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  513. genotype has been consistently associated with variation in mean levels of total cholesterol and LDL-C...."
  514. With aging, total cholesterol and LDL-C became significantly lower in the "epsilon 4 genotype" group; this
  515. is the group at risk for AD.
  516. </p>
  517. <p>
  518. S. Miller and J. M. Wehner, "Cholesterol treatment facilitates spatial learning performance in DBA/2Ibg
  519. mice," Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior 49(1) 257-261, 1994. "Our results suggest that subchronic
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  521. mice."
  522. </p>
  523. <p>
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  527. </p>
  528. <p>
  529. T. Gunther and V. Hollriegl, "Increased protein oxidation by magnesium deficiency and vitamin E depletion,"
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  531. </p>
  532. <p>
  533. F. Oyama, et al., "Apolipoprotein E genotype, Alzheimer's pathologies and related gene expression in the
  534. aged population," Mol. Brain Res. 29(1), 92-98, 1995. "...ApoE4/4 accelerates and ApoE2/3 decelerates the
  535. development of the AD pathologies in the aged brain...."
  536. </p>
  537. <p>
  538. M. L. C. Maatschieman, et al., "Microglia in diffuse plaques in hereditary cerebral hemorrhage with
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  542. plaques."
  543. </p>
  544. <p>
  545. J. Poirier, "Apolipoprotein E in animal models of CNS injury and in Alzheimer's disease," Trends Neurosci.
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  547. (LDL)] receptor, appears to regulate the transport of cholesterol and phospholipids during the early and
  548. intermediate phases of the reinnervation process." "...a dysfunction of the lipid-transport system
  549. associated with compensatory sprouting and synaptic remodeling could be central to the AD process."
  550. </p>
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  554. fatty acid containing a single double bond had such effect." R. Nogues, et al., "Influence of nutrition,
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  557. survivors than in nonsurvivors." "Mild hypothermia was a good predictor of death. Hypoalbuminemia and
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  559. </p>
  560. <p>
  561. R. C. Vannucci, et al., "Carbon dioxide protects the perinatal brain from hypoxic-ischemic damage: An
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  564. <p>
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  567. "flooding" of the neuronal elements with serum proteins would affect their performance." "The cause of the
  568. increased BBB permeability in SDAT is unknown."
  569. </p>
  570. <p>
  571. J. S. Jensen, et al., "Microalbuminuria reflects a generalized transvascular albumin leakiness in clinically
  572. healthy subjects," Clin. Sci. 88(6), 629-633, 1995. "It is suggested that the observed transvascular
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  576. C. Nilsson, et al., "The nocturnal increase in human cerebrospinal fluid production is inhibited by a
  577. beta(1)-receptor antagonist," Amer. J. Physiol.-Regul. Integr. C 36(6), R1445-R1448, 1994.
  578. </p>
  579. <p>
  580. D. L. Williams, et al., "Cell surface 'blanket' of apolipoprotein E on rat adrenocortical cells," J. Lipid
  581. Res. 36(4), 745-758, 1995. "...the zona fasciculata cell is encircled or covered with apoE on all faces of
  582. the cell. ...this cell surface 'blanket' of apoE participates in the uptake of lipoprotein cholesterol by
  583. either the endocytic or selective uptake pathways." C. A. Frye and J. D. Sturgis, "Neurosteroids affect
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  586. </p>
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  590. of pregnenolone in the brain.]
  591. </p>
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  598. of MPTP...-induced neuronal cell death." "The 1-amino-adamantanes amantadine and memantine have recently
  599. been shown to be non-competitive NMDA antagonists and are widely used in Europe as antiparkinsonian agents."
  600. </p>
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  608. and aging," Trends Neurosci. 18, 203-206, 1995. "Reconstituted lipid membranes from cortical gray matter of
  609. AD brain samples were significantly thinner (that is, had less microviscosity) than corresponding
  610. age-matched controls." "This change in membrane width correlated with a 30% decrease in the moles of
  611. cholesterol:phospholipid." "Addition of cholesterol restored the membrane width to that of the age-matched
  612. control samples."
  613. </p>
  614. <p>
  615. T. Reed, et al., "Lower cognitive performance in normal older adult male twins carrying the apolipoprotein E
  616. epsilon 4 allele," Arch. Neurol. 51(12), 1189-1182, 1994.
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  620. which are derived from different proteins in different forms of the disease. Asymptomatic amyloid deposition
  621. in a variety of tissues is a universal accompaniment of ageing, and clinical amyloidosis is not rare.
  622. Intracerebral and cerebrovascular beta-protein amyloid deposits are a hallmark of the pathology of ...
  623. Alzheimer's disease...." "Amyloid deposits are in a state of dynamic turnover and can regress if new fibril
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  645. <p>
  646. A. M. Weiner, et al., "Nonviral retroposons, genes, pseudogenes, and transposable elements generated by the
  647. reverse flow of genetic information," Ann. Rev. Biochem. 55, 631-661, 1986. I. Zs.-Nagy, "Semiconduction of
  648. proteins as an attribute of the living state: The ideas of Albert Szent-Gyorgyi revisited in light of the
  649. recent knowledge regarding oxygen free radicals," Exp. Gerontology 30(3-4), 327-335, 1995. "In this
  650. assumption, the continuous radical flux is as important for the maintenance of the living state, as the
  651. voltage power supply is essential for the functioning of the computer."
  652. </p>
  653. <p>
  654. <a href="http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/alzheimers2.shtml"><strong>Article continued in Part 2 - click
  655. here</strong></a>
  656. </p>
  657. <strong>
  658. <p>
  659. © Ray Peat 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.RayPeat.com
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