Natural support for Alzheimer's Disease

[Islander]

from Life Extension (lef.com)

Researchers are quietly making amazing discoveries about the nature of Alzheimer's disease that may soon redefine the way we view—and treat—this dreaded condition.
Currently, conventional medicine is helpless in the face of Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease cannot be definitively diagnosed until after death, and there is no effective cure for the disease. People afflicted with Alzheimer’s gradually lose cognitive ability as their neurons (brain cells) are attacked and destroyed. In the end stages of the disease, patients become completely disoriented and rely on caregivers for even their most basic functions.
There is a desperate need for a new approach to Alzheimer’s. It is already a significant health problem and the most common cause of dementia, and will get worse as the population ages, according to experts from the National Institute of Aging. Over the past 25 years, the number of patients who have Alzheimer’s disease has doubled, and the incidence is expected to increase in coming decades as the US population ages (ADEAR 2004).
Sadly, while Alzheimer’s disease continues to claim more victims, evidence is building that some of the best therapies to slow its progression and lower the risk of developing the disease are being ignored.

Read more: http://www.lef.org/protocols/neurological/alzheimers_disease_01.htm?source=eNewsLetter2011Wk 34-1&key=Body+Health+Concern

[Reesacat]

Excellent article! I was reading through the cautions at the end, and noticed one I had not seen before:

"Do not take vitamin C if you have a history of kidney stones or of kidney insufficiency (defined as having a serum creatine level greater than 2 milligrams per deciliter and/or a creatinine clearance less than 30 milliliters per minute."

Has anyone else run across a caution to not take Vitamin C if you have a history of kidney stones?

[mellowsong]

"Do not take vitamin C if you have a history of kidney stones or of kidney insufficiency (defined as having a serum creatine level greater than 2 milligrams per deciliter and/or a creatinine clearance less than 30 milliliters per minute." Has anyone else run across a caution to not take Vitamin C if you have a history of kidney stones?

I have heard this before but my understanding is that the evidence is inconclusive and only applies to those with calcium oxalate stones. Basically Vitamin C does increase oxalate levels in the body so in theory it could contribute to kidney stone formation but the reality is that a direct relationship is rarely seen. They've also tried to say that Vitamin D increases the risk of kidney stones because it increases absorption of calcium but this has never been proven either.

[Reesacat]

Mellow was correct, as usual! I found this about Vitamin C and kidney stones in a 2002 article from William Fallon:

Does Vitamin C Cause Kidney Stones?

Linus Pauling came under attack by medical doctors who asserted that vitamin C caused kidney stones. Based on Dr. Pauling’s molecular knowledge of chemistry, he meticulously rebutted these unfounded allegations. What Dr. Pauling lacked in the 1960s and 1970s, however, were human studies to validate that vitamin C did not increase kidney stone risk.

Dr. Pauling was exonerated again by a report from Harvard Medical School that showed no increased risk of kidney stones when evaluating 85,557 women over a 14-year study period. This report, published in the April 1999 issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, showed that women who consumed 1,500 mg a day or more of vitamin C were no more likely to develop kidney stones than women who consumed less than 250 mg of vitamin C a day. The study did reveal that women who consumed 40 mg or more of vitamin B6 were 34% less likely to develop kidney stones compared to women taking fewer than 3 mg a day of B6.7

The only reason Linus Pauling was not thrown in jail for promoting the benefits of vitamin C is that he did not sell it. Before 1994, the FDA prohibited distributors of vitamin supplements from making health claims.

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2011/jun2011_Optimize-Your-Internal-Defenses-Against-Radiation-Exposure_02.htm