Posted on 09/29/2021 1:23:42 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Worms don't wiggle when they have Alzheimer's disease. Yet something helped worms with the disease hold onto their wiggle in Professor Jessica Tanis's lab.
While all the worms were grown on a diet of E. coli, it turns out that one strain of E. coli had higher levels of vitamin B12 than the other.
"The worms we use all have exactly the same genetic background, they react to amyloid beta like humans do, and we can exactly control what they eat, so we can really get down to the molecular mechanisms at work."
In the brains of humans with Alzheimer's, the buildup of amyloid beta over the years causes toxic effects in cells, resulting in reduced energy, fragmentation of the mitochondria—the cells' power plants, and oxidative stress from an excess of free radicals. The same thing happens in C. elegans, Tanis said, but in a matter of hours. Amyloid beta causes paralysis in the worms.
"The read-out is black or white—the worms are either moving or they are not," Tanis said. "When we gave vitamin B12 to the worms that were vitamin B12 deficient, paralysis occurred much more slowly, which immediately told us that B12 was beneficial. The worms with B12 also had higher energy levels and lower oxidative stress in their cells."
The team determined that vitamin B12 relies on a specific enzyme called methionine synthase to work. Without the presence of that enzyme, B12 has no effect, Tanis said. Also, adding the vitamin to the diet only worked if the animals were deficient in B12. Giving more B12 to animals with healthy levels does not help them in any way. The team also showed that vitamin B12 had no effect on amyloid beta levels in the worms.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC5244710/
From other things I saw, getting more antioxidants could be helpful. It appears there could be either a genetic or an autoimmune component to it. If autoimmune, fish oil, magnesium, Vitamin D and boron, along with eating fewer foods which encourage inflammation, could be helpful. Boron and Vitamin D also help with your bones, but not the discs in your back.
I will see what else I can find. That is a rare disease and my normal “go to” places didn't have lay person's writeups, so I will need to look deeper.
For B12, use the Methylcobalamine form and look into Benfotiamine and Sulbutiamine forms of Thiamine (helps nerves). Make sure you get your vitamins and minerals.
“Funny how the worm never remembers anything.”
I guess we are governed by worms. They don’t remember anything either. And the head of the senate probably wiggles the most.
wy69
A good form of a B complex that actually has intrinsic factor added is this:
https://www.amazon.com/Douglas-Laboratories%C2%AE-B-Complex-Metafolin-Supports/dp/B006U1220Y
That is our B complex. We add sulbutiamine and benfotiamine on top of that.
Synthesizing from ConsumerLab.com’s information:
There is no Upper Tolerable Limit for B12, but issues are found (77% higher risk of colon cancer) when taking 500 mcgs of B12 with 400 mcgs of folic acid. Death rates go up for those with the highest B12 blood levels, too, so checking them could be a good idea. An Israeli study strangely found sublingual B12 was better absorbed than an intramuscular injection of the cyanocobalamin form of B12.
Yeah, I’m on a special diet that includes fish. No red meat. Yes vitamins, fresh fruit and green veggies are on my list. My B12 is cyanocobalamine. I out grew layman articles about 10 years ago. My neurologist tells me I read too much. But having a condition considered orphan requires you to do a lot of your own research.
She probably has one.
Coffee is also a Covid deterrent.
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