Week 13. Prevention and Reversal of Structural Cognitive Decline
Ice Breaker Questions and Overview:
What is a mentality?
What is metabolism?
Memory and Mentality vs. Concrete Metabolism of Brain Cells
The perception that thought and memory are non-concrete phenomena is often accompanied by persons attempting to prevent cognitive decline and memory loss through ‘use it or lose’ regimens and methods. The idea is:
- Treat ‘loss of thought’ by ‘think, use, or solve puzzles in your head’.
Treating the metabolism of your brain cells this way – e.g. puzzles, games – is like using your muscles in various ways and hoping they’ll recover from a degenerative condition through stress of exercise alone. Nobody in the field of ‘metabolic muscle cell science’ would refuse to admit muscle cells must be stressed in ‘proper doses’, must be fed specifically to the type of stress/exercise, must be rested and used in a patterned and structured way in order to function normally.
- Without the rest, patterned stress, feeding, and recovery regimens – cellular ‘breakdown’ through chronic accumulative stress results. The cell’s metabolic function – strength, endurance, respiration capacity, ability to clear lactate – all diminish. Using the cell will not make it better.
- Brain cells work essentially the same way muscle cells do under a similar set of metabolic physical rules.
- Ignoring ‘treatment’ of the physical metabolism of brain cells (or muscle cells) can not improve memory or thought, just as physical exercise alone does not improve fitness. Repetitive stress alone worsens the function and healthy state of cells.
Brain cells are like muscle cells; both share many of the same dependencies required for healthy function. You must rest them, provide specific nutrients to aid their recovery and promote function even if you do not ‘challenge’ them, know when to provide heat, cold, oxygen, and do other ‘things’ as if they are truly alive and respond to the environment. Keep in mind cells respond to the environment locally within the body and outside the body.
- Locally means essentially one thing for the beginner:
- The cell respires/lives in a watery, salty place and is fed by a constantly flowing stream.
- You must perceive blood flow (nutrient delivery and removal of waste products) and the condition of blood itself as vital to the cell’s function.
I DEMONSTRATE THE CONCEPT BELOW IN CLASS – BY DRAWING A FEW THINGS ON A DRY ERASE BOARD:
Growth of the synaptic web are quite different from concrete physical things which feed the cells’ metabolism and alter their structural and functional energetic state.
Sensory flow and experience which create growth, i.e. integrate neural network and increase associative understanding.
ON COGNITION:
I’m using the word cognition in the sense cells of the brain ‘operate metabolically’ and thus respond to stress, rest, nutrients in, blood flow, removal of cellular waste and metabolic byproducts – just as a muscle or any other organ or tissue respond to conditions and stuff surrounding the cells.
The only reason you are cognizant of the above statement is because:
- Your cells are alive – metabolizing ‘normally’.
- You have built a synaptic web that is complex enough to understand sophisticated relationships and concepts. A child in no way could understand these ideas collectively, coherently, and cohesively – and even though their brain cells are working metabolically ‘just fine’ – they have not built the ‘living communication crystal’ – i.e. the synaptic connections linking known concepts within various regions of the brain. We initially develop one skill, i.e. play chords and scales and then connect it with others, e.g. playing in time with others and/or singing while playing.
One more analogy:
“Thinking actively” is like a car actually moving under its own engine power; it is happening because because brains cells – like a motor – are running metabolically. Trying to make your brain cells move/think/remember (whether drawing a clock on paper or recalling your route to work) – without the cells running properly, getting fed and rested – is like believing your car will get you where you want to go, but it’s engine fails to run when the fuel delivery, air, and electrical/nutritional condition fails.
There is ‘no go’ for improving the mechanisms of cognition/memory when underlying metabolic causes are not solved at the root of the matter. In this
case the underlying cause of cognitive decline, nerve destruction, loss of motor control and balance, bone loss, and anemia does not start in the brain or the nerve tissues or reside in the blood.
- It starts with digestive power and nutritional flow – beginning in the stomach – extending to the entire body from ‘it’s river of roots’. (insert/see time lapse video)
- In fact – a single nutrient’s malabsorption can be the cause of a few of the symptoms listed above.
In this case we understand cognitive improvement or other tissue remodeling* irrefutably does happen when:
- Impaired digestive power is corrected. (Concomitant with improved nutrition) –> B12 roundup readings
- Following the same ‘exercise, rest, nutritional, and lifestyle regimens’ required to improve motor skill, muscle strength, cardiovascular fitness, or lose weight. –> Metabolic Model
* Tissue remodeling includes:
- Bone remineralization. (osteoblast activity > osteoclast activity)
- Red blood cell count improves. (blood is a moving tissue)
- Structures of cells change. (advanced micro level. for example, fatty acid profile of cell membranes may change)
Summary:
You are your cells collectively – so when you look at how even a single cell works – you are essentially looking at your whole self. (Insert astronaut/1906 biker) Apply the axiom, “As Above as Below, The Macro is the Micro.”
I won’t expound on the following; I often refer to this concept throughout the semester:
- The stuff (environment) around cells is mostly water and essentially ionic (think minerals/electrolytes). The entire area is electrical, watery, and works like a battery. See/insert ‘frog leg twitch’ video.
- ‘Watery ionic stuff around a cell’ creates the proper image that your cells are reacting to various forces around it – i.e. electrically – in addition to the biochemical reactions traditionally perceived.
1. Forward
Stemming from the previous lecture, this presentation is primarily focused on the connection between nutrient flow and metabolism – beginning from the gut and leading to cell performance – particular to but not limited nerve cells and brain cells.
After presenting some of the main ideas we’ll come back to this medical mystery challenge involving the symptoms bullet pointed below:
Think Like a Doctor: The Man Who Wobbled
- A 56-year-old factory worker with dizziness and panic attacks.
- He hadn’t been able to get to sleep. Suddenly his legs took on a life of their own; they began to shake and twitch and jump around. The man watched helplessly as his legs disobeyed his mental orders to stop moving. He had no control over them.
- He had no medical problems that put him at risk for stroke — no high blood pressure, no high cholesterol, no diabetes.
2. The 'Comparison of Seemingly Disparate Phenomena'
Seemingly disparate ways of suffering, declining, and dying – once examined – are not disparate.
1. Heatstroke and Earthquake victims.
The notion death from heatstroke may result from the same final cause that kills a crush-injured person from an earthquake may sound absurd because they appear as two disparate ways to die. Below, I explain how each die of the same cause.
2. A young male athlete who experiences exertional heatstroke and a person in a hospital suffering or dying from septic shock. (sepsis = widespread systemic infection circulating through the body attacking everything)
3. Bariatric surgery patients and ‘older’ people experiencing memory loss and cognitive decline.
The same thing (doubt) goes for this notion: A person’s memory problems or decline in cognition arises from the same specific compromised ‘digestive’ condition of a person who had bariatric surgery. (Explained in this presentation).
Case 1 Explained:
Crush victims and heatstroke victims often die from rhabdomyolysis. In each case, ‘baked’ or crushed protein components of muscles (myoglobin) released into the blood stream overwhelm and clog the kidney’s ability to filter blood. Death results from the same ‘proximal’ cause – renal failure – induced by a totally different event – the underlying cause.
The pathways involved and mechanisms on the inside of the body are the same. Crush victims die from a crush injury, not from broken bones, cuts, or being mangled – but die from soft tissue destruction a day or two later. Heatstroke victims who die from ‘Rhabdo’ also die a day or so after the event.
Case 2 Explained:
Use ‘Transformation of Food’ schematic from previous class. And Pathophysiology of Heatstroke pages 170-172.
- LPS – Lipopolysaccharides = Proximal Cause.
- Endotoxin sourced from LPS in blood is an infection – just a milder one your body will beat in a day or two. Takes time to remove what should not be in blood.
1. Heat stroke is the underlying cause for leaking LPS. Reduced splanchic blood flow* increases Gut Permeability aka Leaky gut – which lets LPS in.
- show jejunem pic and body worlds slides
2. A cut from metal can easily result in a staph infection. Staph infection can become septic. Same symptoms as heat stroke. The infection may stay local in or near a joint – resulting in red, swollen, stiff joint. If it goes systemic – you are dead without antibiotics.
From Pathophysiology of Heatstroke:
- Not all compartments of the body have recovered. P.170
- Renal failure, death by. P.171
- GUT details. P. 172
- The body’s physical performance, heat tolerance, and susceptibility to infections can be very compromised a day or two after drinking alcohol, training in heat, or taking NSAIDS.
Case 3 Explained:
A. Using the slides I have.
B. Then return to:
Think Like a Doctor: The Wobble Solved!
By Lisa Sanders, M.D.C. SUMMARY:
Hard to believe something so simple – one nutrient’s inability to absorb – does cause neurological damage and/or low energy levels and is reversible. (Like I said in section 3 – NOT a result in all people – but the causative mechanisms are irrefutable.)
Keep in mind:
- Many other nutrients also decline – as shown in slides
- Weakened digestive power is multi-faceted.
- Micro strokes (unfelt with no symptoms) also occur. Microvascular ischemia, not typical stroke.
- Metals are a big factor
These articles: (key word time saver for me)
- b12 nytimes deficiency cause alzheimer’s
- ppis nytimes deficiency alzheimer’s disease
- b12 nytimes deficiency cause cognitive decline
3. Double Talk: Medical Science Speaking With a Forked Tongue
Compare the following two ways of describing studies.
Statement 1. On ‘association vs. causality’ by a gastroenterologist:
“This is a terrible study to draw any conclusions. Importantly, this study suggests an association and does NOT demonstrate causality. All I know as a gastroenterologist is that PPIs have done wonders for treating esophageal maladies and staving off complications of such.”
Heartburn Drugs Tied to Dementia Risk
Statement 2: Not just drawing a conclusion – but a diagnosis based on explaining causality and mechanisms.
The Diagnosis:
Vitamin B12 is necessary for every cell in the body, but a deficit of the vitamin usually shows up first in nerve cells or in red blood cells, or sometimes both. It is one of the most common nutritional deficiencies seen in the United States, but it is usually not caused by a lack of B12 in the diet.*
* Ed’s comment: Proximal cause is Vit B12 deficiency. So what is underlying cause?
The vitamin is found naturally in eggs, milk and meat and is added to some cereals. While vegans who don’t eat these animal products are at risk for B12 deficiency, most people get plenty of B12 in their diets. However, for people with B12 deficiency, the issue typically is not a lack of B12 in the diet; it is a problem with absorbing the nutrient once it is in the body.* The machinery for absorbing B12 is complicated, and most people who have B12 deficiency have some problem with this organic equipment.
*Ed’s comment: More specifically – once it is in the stomach.
Absorption of vitamin B12 starts in the stomach, where acidic fluid frees up the vitamin, and a second digestive chemical known as intrinsic factor carries the vitamin to the small intestine, where it is taken up and put to work. In some people, chronic infection with a type of bacteria that has been linked to ulcer formation, Helicobacter pylori, can interfere with the stomach’s production of these essential chemicals and prevent absorption. In others, the immune system goes after the absorption machinery, leading to vitamin B12 deficiency. Other populations at risk for vitamin B12 deficiency are people who have some kind of abnormality in their small intestines that prevent vitamin absorption, including those with Crohn’s or celiac disease, following gastric bypass surgery, those who take certain medications to treat acid reflux or diabetes, and those with chronic alcoholism.
No matter where the machinery breaks down, high doses of the vitamin can overcome it. Patients can flood their systems with B12 and, in most cases, all the problems caused by the deficiency will be reversed.
Getting the Noise of Junk Science Thinking out of Your Head:
4. Reversal of Cognitive Decline Does Happen - Treated at the Root
Highlights:
From
Vitamin B12 Deficiency Can Cause Symptoms That Mimic Aging
Ilsa Katz was 85 when her daughter, Vivian Atkins, first noticed that her mother was becoming increasingly confused.
“She couldn’t remember names, where she’d been or what she’d done that day,” Ms. Atkins recalled in an interview. “Initially, I was not too worried. I thought it was part of normal aging. But over time, the confusion and memory problems became more severe and more frequent.”
Her mother couldn’t remember the names of close relatives or what day it was. She thought she was going to work or needed to go downtown, which she never did. And she was often agitated.
A workup at a memory clinic resulted in a diagnosis of early Alzheimer’s disease, and Ms. Katz was prescribed Aricept, which Ms. Atkins said seemed to make matters worse. But the clinic also tested Ms. Katz’s blood level of vitamin B12. It was well below normal, and her doctor thought that could be contributing to her symptoms.
Weekly B12 injections were begun. “Soon afterward, she became less agitated, less confused and her memory was much better,” said Ms. Atkins. “I felt I had my mother back, and she feels a lot better, too.”
Now 87, Ms. Katz still lives alone in Manhattan and feels well enough to refuse outside assistance.
Still, her daughter wondered, “Why aren’t B12 levels checked routinely, particularly in older people?”
It is an important question. As we age, our ability to absorb B12 from food declines, and often so does our consumption of foods rich in this vitamin. A B12 deficiency can creep up without warning and cause a host of confusing symptoms that are likely to be misdiagnosed or ascribed to aging.
5. Reversal of Cognitive Decline Does Happen - Metabolic Model: Treat the Whole
First know reversal of cognitive decline and memory loss is possible.
Consider this woman from the UCLA experiment – excerpt of before and after practicing a regimen (as opposed to being ‘treated’):
A 67-year-old woman presented with two years of progressive memory loss. She held a demanding job that involved preparing analytical reports and traveling widely, but found herself no longer able to analyze data or prepare the reports, and therefore was forced to consider quitting her job. Her mother had developed similar progressive cognitive decline beginning in her early 60s, had become severely demented, entered a nursing home, and died at approximately 80 years of age. When the patient consulted her physician about her problems, she was told that she had the same problem her mother had had, and that there was nothing she could do about it. He wrote “memory problems” in her chart, and therefore the patient was turned down in her application for long-term care.
Previous to following a recovery regimen, her ‘decline’ consisted of:
- By the time she reached the bottom of a page she would have to start at the top once again, since she was unable to remember the material she had just read.
- She was no longer able to remember numbers, and had to write down even 4-digit numbers to remember them.
- She also began to have trouble navigating on the road: even on familiar roads, she would become lost trying to figure out where to enter or exit the road.
- She also noticed that she would mix up the names of her pets, and forget where the light switches were in her home of years.
She was able to adhere to some but not all of the protocol components.
- Two and one-half years later, now age 70, she remains asymptomatic and continues to work full-time.
After three months of following the regimen:
- She was able to navigate without problems, remember telephone numbers without difficulty, prepare reports and do all of her work without difficulty, read and retain information, and, overall, she became asymptomatic.
- She noted that her memory was now better than it had been in many years. On one occasion, she developed an acute viral illness, discontinued the program, and noticed a decline, which reversed when she reinstated the program.
Example of progressive domino effect – upline conditions and mechanisms leading to and causing ‘down line’ cell dysfunction:
- Heat (or too-intense exercise): Increases Intestinal (epithelial) Permeability
- Stress (emotional/physical): Increases Epithelial Permeability (via Adrenal Coritsol)
- Overheated (hyperthermia) core reduces or ‘closes’ off blood flow to intestines – causing rapid cell die off under hypoxic condition. (common in stressed runners on hot days)
- More blood pumped to periphery of body in order to cool off body. (greater portion of cardiac output goes to periphery)
- Endotoxins (LPS’s) absorb in far greater amounts through the ‘leakier’ gut lumen. (LPS’s measured in blood)
- Cells of heart begin to operate at reduced function. Heart health/performance is compromised. Strength of contractility reduced. (Performance is in the cell)
- Reduced heart performance reduces ability to cool off. Less blood out reduces blood to periphery = lesser rate of cooling.
- LPS increase –> Cytokine release –> Antagonistic to heat dissipation.
The same goes for the brain – relative to conditions of the gut, stress, and nutritional intake.
6. Awaken! Learn the lingo to think at all.
It’s wise to see how truly competent and highly skilled medical scholars operate using a system of thinking and language I am talking about, namely an energetic model, which begins to resemble mystical like characteristics the deeper you read and the more distilled the thinking becomes.
For example, in the summary Pathophysiology of Heatsroke, Gaffin and and Hubbard write:
In most medical schools, heatstroke and other heat illnesses have usually been taught as a straight-forward series of well-described pathophysiological conditions characterized by various levels of core temperature, extent of dehydration in various body compartments, depression of sweat gland function, and alterations of intracellular and plasma ions and pH. These physiological mechanisms, however, do not explain why classic heatstroke victims are different from exertional heatstroke victims, nor do they explain why a number of heatstroke symptoms are similar to those of septic shock, such as DIC, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, intestinal bleeding, and so forth.
These authors are saying:
If most medical schools did and could explain why – this would demand knowing the mechanisms, the anatomy, and why the systems of the body make them the same problem – induced by different causes. In other words, the only way to know:
1. The ‘similarity’ symptoms exist between two seemingly different medical emergencies – heatstroke and septic shock – or
2.The physiological difference between two similar medical emergencies – classic heatstroke and exertional heatstoke
requires you must know the anatomy, mechanisms, and pathways that transfer substances and induce changes from one place to the next – like dominoes falling according to a ‘set-up’ where energy and substances flow and transform.
You must be an integrative systems thinker.
- We are examining the flow and transformation of energy and material into and within the body.
- We are looking at ‘nuts and bolts’ of the mechanisms – like a set of dominoes falling – where conditions in the stomach and rest of the gut directly relate to how the function of cells’ and their structure change for the worse or the better. It’s not uncommon for people to accept and understand how tissues and cells of the heart, kidney, muscles, and organs may progressively degenerate and/or decline in terms of function – and that there is a good degree of reversibility in restoring and improving cell structure and function.
- The brain too – its cells – react similarly to other tissues. They too can recover and begin to function at a former ‘lost cognitive capacity’.
The use of comparing two seemingly distinct and outwardly disparate physical-medical conditions, which are not different beneath the surface is a technique for learning the mechanisms of an energy model – which involves learning the language of physiology, anatomy, and general physics. This language is utterly unlike epidemiology and demands attention to details of the anatomy of the body and how energy transforms and moves from one system to another – like dominoes.
This is not a linear setup or way of thinking – it’s an integrative way of knowing the body and how it works in real time – relative to what you do in life, sport, and everyday recreational activities.
7. Source readings
1. Source of case studies on reversal of cognitive decline: link here
- Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095;
- Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA 94945
published: September 27, 2014
2. Gut Permeability: The Relationship Between a Healthy Gut and a Healthy Pig
3. Gastric Re-acidification with Betaine HCl in Healthy Volunteers with Rabeprazole-Induced Hypochlorhydria
4. Comparative Gut Microflora
5. Rapid Reversal of Human Intestinal Ischemia-Reperfusion Induced Damage by Shedding of Injured Enterocytes and Reepithelialisation
6. Management of Patients Receiving Bariatric Surgery
7. It Could Be Old Age, or It Could Be Low B12: Vitamin B12 Deficiency Can Cause Symptoms That Mimic Aging
8. Against the Grain: Should you go gluten-free?
8. Example of progressive domino effect
Example of progressive domino effect – upline conditions and mechanisms leading to and causing ‘down line’ cell dysfunction:
- Heat (or too-intense exercise): Increases Intestinal (epithelial) Permeability
- Stress (emotional/physical): Increases Epithelial Permeability (via Adrenal Coritsol)
- Overheated (hyperthermia) core reduces or ‘closes’ off blood flow to intestines – causing rapid cell die off under hypoxic condition. (common in stressed runners on hot days)
- More blood pumped to periphery of body in order to cool off body. (greater portion of cardiac output goes to periphery)
- Endotoxins (LPS’s) absorb in far greater amounts through the ‘leakier’ gut lumen. (LPS’s measured in blood)
- Cells of heart begin to operate at reduced function. Heart health/performance is compromised. Strength of contractility reduced. (Performance is in the cell)
- Reduced heart performance reduces ability to cool off. Less blood out reduces blood to periphery = lesser rate of cooling.
- LPS increase –> Cytokine release –> Antagonistic to heat dissipation.
The same goes for the brain – relative to conditions of the gut, stress, and nutritional intake.
Talking points, some graphics, and other stuff.
On The 'Comparison of Seemingly Disparate Phenomena'
2. The ‘Comparison of Seemingly Disparate Phenomena’. I compare two seemingly distinct and outwardly disparate physical-medical conditions, which are not different beneath the surface – because similar mechanisms happening along similar pathways occur. (Originally titled this section: Dealing with doubt. Awaken!)
In order to understand “similarity occurring underneath the surface” – and how it can explain why two seemingly disparate physio-medical situations are connected to one another – you must concretely visualize the anatomy, mechanisms, and pathways that transfer substances and induce changes from one place to the next – like dominoes falling according to a ‘organized set-up’ where energy and substances flow and transform.
If you see how a garden hose forms a loop by a water pump connecting each end together – then you can develop a more sophisticated sense of flow of substance within the body’s more complex loop of blood circulation.
This is not a linear setup or way of thinking – it’s an integrative 3-D and 4-dimensional way of knowing the layout of the body and how it works in real time – relative to what you do in life, sport, and everyday recreational activities.
NSAIDS are a top factor for increasing heat stroke susceptibility.
Vessels of Jejunem. Middle part of the small intestine where most of the food absorption is done.
80% reduction of this blood flow during maximal exercise.
Leaks start at 50% reduction.
Words and terms I learned preparing this lecture.
noun
-
a substance, typically produced by a bacterium, that produces fever when introduced or released into the blood.
noun
-
the production of abnormally small amounts of urine.
-
Medicinetemporary loss of consciousness caused by a fall in blood pressure.
carpopedal spasm: Cramps or spasms in feet or hands.
prodromal symptoms The term “prodrome” is derived from the Greek word prodromos meaning the forerunner of an event (Fava and Kellner 1991). In clinical medicine, a prodrome refers to the early symptoms and signs of an illness that precede the characteristic manifestations of the acute, fully developed illness.
lymphoctopenia: Lymphocytopenia, or lymphopenia, is the condition of having an abnormally low level of lymphocytes in the blood. Lymphocytes are a white blood cell with important functions in the immune system. The opposite is lymphocytosis, which refers to an excessive level of lymphocytes.
catecholamines
- Epinephrine
- Dopamine
- Norepinephrine
Key word searches I made (what I Googled)
- b12 nytimes deficiency cause alzheimer’s
- ppis nytimes deficiency alzheimer’s disease
- b12 nytimes deficiency cause cognitive decline
gaffin and hubbard wilderness and environmental medicine 1996
natural sources of IgG
administer crystalloid renal failure – resulted in finding below:
Ringer’s lactate solution also known as sodium lactate solution and Hartmann’s solution, is a mixture of sodium chloride, sodium lactate, potassium chloride, and calcium chloride in water.[1] It is used for replacing fluids and electrolytes in those who have low blood volume or low blood pressure.[2]