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"Do differences in metabolites in the brain affect our capacity for motivation?" asks Professor Carmen Sandi. "Could nutritional interventions that can affect metabolite levels be an effective vehicle to improve motivated performance?" Sandi's group published a study that shines light into answering that question. The researchers focused on an area deep into the brain called the "nucleus accumbens." The brain is often subjected to excessive oxidative stress from its neurometabolic processes—and the question for the researchers was whether antioxidant levels in the nucleus accumbens can affect motivation. To answer the question, the scientists looked at the brain's most important antioxidant,...

Background/Aim: Increased oxidative stress plays a crucial role in pathogenesis of various diseases. The present study aims to investigate glutathione reductase (GR) and malondialdehyde (MDA) enzymes as markers of oxidative stress mechanisms in lumbar disc degeneration disease (LDDD). Patients and Methods: The study group consisted of 39 patients diagnosed with LDD and 37 healthy individuals in the control group. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method was used to determine serum GR and MDA levels in the two study groups. Results: Serum GR levels were significantly lower (p=0.008), while MDA levels were significantly higher in the patient group compared to the...

A pilot human clinical trial conducted by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reveals that supplementation with GlyNAC—a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine as precursors of the natural antioxidant glutathione—could improve many age-associated defects in older humans. The results of this study show that older humans taking GlyNAC for 24 weeks saw improvements in many characteristic defects of aging, including glutathione deficiency, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, body fat, genomic toxicity, muscle strength, gait speed, exercise capacity and cognitive function. The benefits declined after stopping supplementation for 12 weeks. GlyNAC supplementation was well tolerated during the...

Researchers have investigated the effect of infection with COVID-19 on the levels of oxidative stress, oxidant damage and glutathione, the most abundant physiological antioxidant. Compared to healthy age-matched individuals whose samples were taken before the pandemic started in 2019, patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had significantly increased levels of oxidative stress and oxidant damage, and markedly reduced levels of glutathione. The results suggest that supplementation with GlyNAC, a combination of glutathione precursors previously shown to reduce oxidative stress and oxidant damage and increase glutathione as well as improve health indicators such as inflammation, might be beneficial to COVID-19 patients. However, GlyNAC...

Antioxidants (Basel). 2020 Jul; 9(7): 624.Published online 2020 Jul 16. doi: 10.3390/antiox9070624PMCID: PMC7402141PMID: 32708578Francesca Silvagno,* Annamaria Vernone, and Gian Piero PescarmonaAuthor information Article notes Copyright and License information DisclaimerThis article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Go to:AbstractThe novel COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the world’s population differently: mostly in the presence of conditions such as aging, diabetes and hypertension the virus triggers a lethal cytokine storm and patients die from acute respiratory distress syndrome, whereas in many cases the disease has a mild or even asymptomatic progression. A common denominator in all conditions associated with COVID-19 appears...

Purpose Infection with COVID-19 potentially can result in severe outcomes and death from “cytokine storm syndrome”, resulting in novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) with severe dyspnea, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), fulminant myocarditis and multiorgan dysfunction with or without disseminated intravascular coagulation. No published treatment to date has been shown to adequately control the inflammation and respiratory symptoms associated with COVID-19, apart from oxygen therapy and assisted ventilation. We evaluated the effects of using high dose oral and/or IV glutathione in the treatment of 2 patients with dyspnea secondary to COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods Two patients living in New York City (NYC)...

A Brooklyn woman desperately ill with the coronavirus is breathing easy this Mother’s Day thanks to a novel treatment her medical-student son helped provide. Josephine Bruzzese, who is 48 and otherwise healthy, woke up on March 22 with a fever, body aches, dry cough and trouble breathing. She lost the ability to smell or taste. Her family rushed her to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in Sunset Park. “She was so short of breath she couldn’t speak” said her 23-year-old son, James. The hospital diagnosed the mom of four with pneumonia, but with no coronavirus tests available, it sent her home as...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Mushrooms may make our favorite pizza and pasta dishes taste delightfully better, but it turns out they may help keep our brains and hearts younger too. A new study finds that some of our favorite toadstools may have high concentrations of antioxidants with anti-aging benefits. Researchers at Penn State analyzed the chemical composition of a wide variety of types of mushrooms, finding that many contained high levels of ergothioneine and glutathione, both of which are important antioxidants. “What we found is that, without a doubt, mushrooms are highest dietary source of these two antioxidants taken together,...

Children with autism have a abnormal metabolic profile that may play a role in the condition, according to researchers at the University of Arkansas. The researchers believe autistic children are more vulnerable to oxidative stress, which occurs when the antioxidant system fails to counteract the production or exposure to free radicals. These free radicals then damage cells in the brain, as well as the gastrointestinal tract, and the immune system, which they believe may contribute to the the neurological, gastrointestinal and immunologic pathology that occurs in autistic children. The team analyzed and compared blood samples from 95 autistic children with...