Plaque is the stuff of coronary heart disease. It is CONTROLLABLE, it is STOPPABLE, it is REVERSIBLE.
But you must be equipped with the right information on diet, nutritional supplements, and hopefully the avoidance of medication.
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Among the most common effects of wheat are those on the brain.
Consume wheat and susceptible individuals will experience a subtle euphoria. Others experience mental cloudiness or sleepiness. (This is what I personally get.)
It gets worse. Children with ADHD and autism have difficulty concentrating on a task and have behavioral outbursts after a cookie. Schizophrenics experience paranoid delusions, auditory hallucinations, and worsening of social detachment. People with bipolar disorder can have the manic phase triggered by a breadcrumb. All these effects are blocked by administering drugs that block the brain’s opiate receptors. (This is why, by the way, a drug company is planning to release an oral agent, naltrexone, formerly administered to heroin addicts to help control addiction, for weight loss: block the euphoric effect, take away the temptation, lose weight.)
Here is Heart Scan Blog reader, Nicole’s, mental fog story:
I have been grain-free (no gluten free grains either) for quite a long time (about a year and a half). Earlier this week, I decided to try white bread and pasta. The experiment only lasted two days. I had horrible terminal insomnia both nights, causing me on the second night to wake up at 2:30 am unable to get back to sleep at all. I felt drugged and in a mind-fog all the next day and even dozed off a few times! Luckily I had the day off work.
I had very bad forgetfulness also. I forgot that I left my bag and groceries at work, so I had to go back for them. Then I had to use my husband’s keys to get in because I thought my keys were in my bag, but it turns out they were in my pocket. Then I got my bag, set the alarm, locked the door and then realized I forgot my groceries. So I had to re-open the door, unset the alarm, and go back for the groceries. Then I locked the door, forgetting to set the alarm, so I had to unlock it, open up and set the alarm. It was just ridiculous, I am NEVER like that!
In addition to the insomnia and forgetfulness, I also had horrible anxiety and paranoia, almost to the point of panic. Which I NEVER have, I am usually very easy-going, even-tempered, and worry-free. But this was horrible, I really was quite paranoid and anxious about everything. Weird!
And the worst, was that in just two days of eating wheat, I gained 4 lbs and 2% bodyfat!! It’s two days wheat-free now, and it’s finally going back down, but wow. Just two days of wheat-eating caused that much weight and fat gain!
Anyway, I’ve learned my lesson and will continue to avoid grains (including gluten free grains) entirely.
Eat more “healthy whole grains”? Modern dwarf Triticum aestivum, perverted even further by agricultural geneticists and modern agribusiness, subsidized by the U.S. government to permit $5 pizza, is better than any terrorist plot to discombobulate the health and performance of the American people.
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M-Al and Teresa –
You might be interested in this recent research:
"Divergence of gut permeability and mucosal immune gene expression in two gluten-associated conditions: celiac disease and gluten sensitivity"
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/9/23
A non-technical summary of the research here:
http://celiacdisease.about.com/b/2011/03/11/u-of-md-study-identifies-differences-between-celiac-gluten-sensitivity.htm
Helen, you are ahead of me in the literature search race. I am familiar with the lactulose/mannitol test for intestinal permeability. Of course I can't immediately lay my hands on the resource, but some don't think that is a good test for permeability. I can't tell you why off the top of my head, either. Been too long since I looked at it.
Such is my lot today – remember the information but can't produce the source. I'll be away from work for several days and also boycotting pubmed. So again if anybody wants references, they'll have to wait! lol
Anywho, test are great, and we can debate the merits of different ones. Bottom line is some people (myself included) feel much better without gluten.
Teresa
Manic "fog" is due to the low oxygen (hypoxia) in brain cells. The cell responds to the hypoxia by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS); it is "normal" protective signalling for the cell. Super-oxide is a feed back mechanism to let more O2 into that cell; we are designed to make oxidants because they are quick acting in stress.
So, are you saying that oral antioxidants prevent "normal" protective cell signalling ? If so, what is your stance on anti-antioxidant theory of down regulation of AO enzymes with oral AO use. If so, how that explains body building achievements using massive amounts of AOs ?
"Good grief, Al, what physiology book did you crawl out of?"
LOL. Keep them coming M-Al! Fantastic comments
Forgive an obvious point, but we seem to be talking about refined wheat products, not whole grain wheat.
Such refined carbs are well known to assist in sleep induction or drowsy state induction.
http://www.begin2dig.com/2009/03/carbs-or-protein-before-bed-not-what.html
citing
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/85/2/426
High-glycemic-index carbohydrate meals shorten sleep onset
mc
Hi Majkinator,
Hypoxia in brain tissue is not really a normal state, so my comment was how the cell signals struggle there. The brain uses oxidative phosphorylation to make it's ATP.
Body building is not a stalled state of hypoxia in skeletal muscle tissue, to my way of thinking. Muscle can generate energy via several pathways, not just oxidative phosphorylation. Anti-oxidant behavior in different tissues is not necessarily acting in a uniform
way.
Reactive oxygen species, a.k.a. ROS are mostly made when
mitochondria perform energy generation via oxidative phosphorylation. Body building activity soon depletes glucose and skeletal muscles use other oxidation to "burn" other substrate(s); so ROS aren't continually over-produced.
Dietary anti-oxidants don't stop ROS actually being made pursuant to oxidative phosphorylation, when that dynamic is happening in real time. And then too, the mitochondria membrane channels' +/- 140mV keeps the anion charged oxidation byproducts inside it(the mitochondria)until they are dealt with naturally.
In the muscle cell interior cytoplasm the ROS made there are potentially accessible to dietary anti-oxidants; yet there is debate on how much consumed gets into which human cells. An experiment with muscle tissue in vitro is not necessarily the same; I don't know if that's what you read about of course.
My impression is that after exercise, in vivo, the ROS signalling contribute to processes that cause beneficial metallo-protein dynamics to occur inside in the cell; again as part of natural design. And then the anti-oxidants just help clear them (ROS) out of the way, once their normal role is done; "quenching" isn't what exerted muscle needs to survive.
If dietary anti-oxidants contribute to body building it would be in the recuperating muscle, probably during sleep. By assisting "tidying up" the muscle cell cytoplasm other signalling molecules can rebound into action; that recycles the damaged proteins and mitochondria.
A worked muscle cell can even go on to make more numbers of mitochondria than the amount it recycled. So, next time that muscle cell gets used, the burden is shared by more mitochondria; that efficiency (rather than "x" units of anti-oxidant "xyz") puts out less ROS, which in turn favors signal cascades inducing cell transcription factors that improve the muscle.
2 M-al
What I was reading were not in-vitro studies.
Some of it is discussed here:
http://tinyurl.com/3jeb5rj
with links to research papers.
Thx.
Hi, MC–
No. I am talking about ALL wheat products, refined or unrefined.
It's all the same: the product of dwarf variants of wheat.
Hi Majkinetor,
Followed your studies; one said "… ROS are signals that serve to upregulate the expression of a number of genes…". My comments mirror that. Other study said "… presumably harmful ROS …" and my surmise is that ROS are not inherently detrimental; although genetic/epigenetic/pathology factors can make ones response to ROS problematic.
I discussed body "building" exercisers, being that you mentioned their "achievements" with anti-oxidant supplementation. To bulk up, the "damage" their training does (to the mucscle fibers) has to be repaired even more than that fiber's original state.
Repair for them involves myogenic (muscle) satellilte (stem) cells promoting transcription factors. This would be an anabolic process (if it were catabolic it would break down muscle protein); I suggested during sleep extra-ordinary metallo-protein dynamics would be way dietary anti-oxidants help them bulk up.
This is a different situation than the very interesting study of "healthy men only" who ingested anti-oxidants getting (compared to those abstaining) less exercise benefits (ie:
glucose infusion rate/sensitivity, fasting glucose, adiponectin, glutathione peroxidase, super-oxide peroxidase, PPAR gamma, PGC1 alpha & beta). It would be good to see the same study done with male and female Type II diabetics; we can't assume their metabolism responds similarly, diabetes is a disease state.
I did read that for the 1st 3 days those who got anti-oxidants had reduced thio-barbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS); indicating ROS were less active for them originally. It later stated there was no decisive dietary anti-oxidant influence on TBARS; despite TBARS paralleling glucose infusion rate data.
If I read the preceeding detail correctly then my earlier post (ie: body builders rebounding with more mitochondria per muscle cell makes for less ROS per muscle cell, which further improves natural ROS signals for transcription, leading to progressive benefit including bulking up )is not contradicted by the study on glucose infusion rate.
Body builders are not stopping at aerobic oxidative phosphorylation (glucose burning for ATP), they go beyond that limit; then Beta-oxidation energy keeps the muscle fiber going. To be clear here, I am not up to date on physical culture nuances; merely suggesting a way to explain how context affects data extrapolation (ie: paradox of how dietary anti-oxidants bulk up despite study's implications).
Again Majkinator,
A quick postscript from online search …. For Type II diabetics 500 mg C lowered fasting plasma free radicals, insulin and tri-glycerides. For Type II diabetics 1000 mg C had no change on fasting glucose but reduced plasma glucose 22%. For Type II diabetic subclass (+/- 40% diabetics) vitamin E had beneficial vascular/cardiac effects suggesting lowered risk.
This suggests they benefit from those dietary anti-oxidants, even if that benefit may not be from the anti-oxidants improving their exercise data. And this indicates, that exercise is good for diabetics in a way that is independant of dietary anti-oxidants. Of course, I didn't examine the search results in detail; it was an after-thought follow up browse.
2 M-AL
Yes, Vitamin C seems to be essential nutrient for any type diabetics. Its not clear how it does its magic – is it compensation for increased oxidative stress in that disease or GLUT4 competition or the fact that GLUT1 has highest affinity to ascorbate (which then protects erythrocites, which life span is shorter with diabetics, probably because RBCs don't have substantial anti-oxidant mechanisms AFAIK) or combination of all of that and who knows what more. The dose has to be much higher then 500/1000 mg unless it is in some more bio available form (LET or IV).
In any way, the benefit of megadoses of Vitamin C in disease state are well known.
Thats why I am interested in healthy peoples response to Vitamin C and/or other AOs combined with exercise. Its hard to imagine totally healthy person nowdays tho, but some young people can be put into this category…
Thx for the input.
OK Majkinetor,
Metallo-proteins are poorly understood, when they form part of a transcription factor( regulating role) the metallo-protein often becomes part of it's own feedback cycle. It gets a gene to make things and participates in how that thing plays out; sort of like being the messenger and part of the reply.
Cu/Zn SOD1 is a protein (enzyme) that interacts with DNA and RNA. The cited study measured less increase of SOD with vitamin C and concluded dietary anti-oxidants un-beneficial; their paradigm was self-limiting.
I used the phrase "tidying up" since metallo-proteins difficult to categorize. Cu,Zn SOD1 levels recover when body resting (ie: ATP demand less = less ROS for the SOD to be busy with)and the body builders high intake of
vitamin C (plus assimilated protein)get into their muscle cells during repose.
The ascorbate (vitamin C), being slightly acidic in pH "oxidizes" the Cu moitie of Cu,Zn SOD1. This modifies the metallo-protein configuration and it becomes hydro-phobic ("shy" against fluid).
The Cu,Zn SOD1 in it's oxidized form has a + (positive)surface charge engendering an affinity for DNA. DNA neutralizes that charge and forms an exo-thermic bond with the oxidized Cu,Zn SOD1; this "tidying up" phase is governed by electro-static attraction.
Each single strand of DNA has only 1 binding site for oxidized Cu,Zn SOD1. This de-regulates (alters) the steady state (ie: status quo conserving) function of mRNA and allows other molecules (ie: non Cu,Zn SOD1 binding factors)to splice that
DNA (ie: then other metallo-proteins can get involved).
Then the electro-static bond becomes so low, due to entropy, that the oxidized Cu,Zn SOD1 goes free from the DNA strand. It is stripped of it's + charge by the DNA, but it is still hydro-phobic; and as such,
aggregates with other protein molecules inside the cell.
The ribo-nucleo-protein complex just formed (ie: between other metallo-proteins and the cell's RNA binding factors) are involved in both the differentiation of cells (ex:
stem) and growth of that muscle cell; a so called "trans-dominant effect" coming from initial transcription. It is the back-hand way ascorbate (vit. C) oxidized Cu,Zn SOD1 instigates gain of function for bulking up muscle fibers using Cu,Zn SOD1 as part of the feed back loop.
The aggregate of protein molecules (described above) stays "shy" of solution (hydro-hobic) and under new orders from the cell's genes moves toward the exercise torn tissue; it brings in protein to patch and a bit more that adds extra bulk. This is anabolic, and does not occur when the muscle is being exerted or mal-nourished.
Zn will have been "peeled" away and then the Cu bond to the protein aggregate failed; these valuable trace minerals will get recycled inside the cell. Metallo-proteins, such as the
Zn,Cu SOD1 metallo-enzyme,
are rate limiting factors; how fast they can be freed up governs how efficiently they can match the demand for them. This is why exercising different muscle groups on alternate days (or variations of this concept) show more bulk results when physical culture otherwise just hits a plateau.
For Storage Pro….
Just so you know, I have taken Biostatistics. I am a college graduate with a doctoral degree. It is virtually impossible to totally prove or disprove anything especially with clinical trials. Your research as a gold standard before you will believe or try anything might be scientific, but it is NOT necessarily the best way. My dad always said to make a point, give the exploded view of something. I will try this now. There has NEVER been a placebo controlled double blinded clinical trial to prove that firing a bullet into your temporal lobes with a 38 special is harmful to your health. But I can guarantee it is. And I did not need scientific research to back up my assumption. Since we are all genetically different to some degree, it is probably best for a person to do what works for them. To me, personal experience is the Gold Standard. NOT scientific reserach. There are simply to many variables. From bias by researchers to genetics to environmental differences to personal stressors. The list can go on and on.