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Oxidative Stress/Cellular Damage Affects Everyone
Posted by Jackie
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Oxidative Stress/Cellular Damage Affects Everyone March 14, 2011 05:08AM |
Registered: 6 years ago Posts: 18,881 |
Oxidative Stress/Cellular Damage Affects Everyone
This is an Awareness Alert.
Life is energy; without energy in our cells, we die. We cant live without fuel and oxygen, yet from the process of metabolizing food and breathing, we are exposed to oxidative stress or free-radical damage.
The goal then becomes protecting our body from harm.(1)
My notes from various sources and webinars have been languishing for a long time-- nagging at me to organize and post because this is such critical information for everyone--especially afibbers.
The current Conference Room topic related to pump function and ultimately, energy and voltage, prompted me to pull my notes together because this is very relevant to The Theory or to any other health topic or health issue we might discuss because Oxidative Stress Damage affects every one of us; undoubtedly, much more than we realize.(2)
It is one thing to discuss text-book biochemistry/physiology function in a perfect-world scenario, but as we are painfully aware, we do not live in a perfect world and many influences such as oxidative damage can hamper proper functioning of cells, pumps, organs, systems and, ultimately, our whole body. We are exposed continually to free-radicals and that damage can prevent good health from prevailing.
INTRODUCTION
Mitochondria -- should be a familiar term from many other discussions. These are the microscopic cell components (organelles) we call energy furnaces or power generators that convert oxygen and nutrients into energy. The result of this cellular respiration is ATP, a nucleotide which carries a large amount of chemical energy.
Recall from other posts, the quote: Its all about ATP (adenosine triphosphate). ATP is the fuel or gasoline that runs the body. If we dont make enough, we are fatigued, have brain fog, metabolism slows to a halt and, in time, we have chronic illnesses. And for afibbers, if we are deficient in ATP, we may suffer from arrhythmia.
Mitochondria are extremely sensitive to various insults but the most significant is free-radical damage. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a primary cause of age-related decline.(3)
Free radicals produced in the mitochondria are the normal, natural byproducts of the metabolic process. Some say free radicals are the agents that cause Metabolic Rust. Free-radical damage occurs when tissues are oxidized and it occurs more in some individuals than others but everyone has free-radical damage. If you slice an apple and leave it exposed to air, the cut surface quickly turns brown this is the chemical process of oxidation (metabolic rust). Same in our bodies. Free radicals are dangerous because they damage or oxidize cells throughout your entire body. You can visualize your body as rusting.
When reading about oxidative stress damage, youll see reference to Reaction Oxygen Species (ROS) defined as: molecules and ions of oxygen that have an unpaired electron, thus rendering them extremely reactive. Many cellular structures are susceptible to attack by ROS contributing to cancer, heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease.
Free radicals build up in our body and attack cells. The critically-important mitochondria are particularly vulnerable to the rusting process where free radicals attack them and they stop functioning optimally which leads to more oxidative stress which leads to the downhill slide to illness and eventually, death.
In addition to the normal, metabolic by-products, there are huge influences from environmental factors that, again, affect everyone to some degree and can be extremely detrimental. We all need to understand Oxidative Stress damage and to learn how to help prevent or at least, lessen the severity.
Fortunately, we have built-in mechanisms for dealing with free radicals. Our own antioxidant factories function to send out molecules to find and clean up free-radicals before they do too much damage. However, our modern lifestyle doesnt support this natural process, called redox (meaning REDuction of OXidation). Typical modern diets cause an escalation of free radicals from too many empty calorie choices and not enough dietary antioxidants from appropriate foods which means we cant produce our own endogenous antioxidants in the first place leaving us extremely vulnerable.
Since oxidative stress damage is so all-encompassing and profound, it undoubtedly is related to the current Conference Room topic and the function of the sodium/potassium pump mechanism. Damaged cells and receptors may contribute to impairments that prevent the optimal electrical response so very important to afibbers keeping voltage in the range that supports Normal Sinus Rhythm.
We also know from the research by David Van Wagoner, PhD, Translational Scientist, working in the Metabolic Cardiology area of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, that AF is associated with evidence of oxidative injury to atrial tissue, and suggests that oxidative stress may directly contribute to the pathophysiology of AF.
Recent studies have examined the role of oxidative stress in the electrophysiological remodeling associated with atrial fibrillation, the mechanisms underlying postoperative atrial fibrillation and the relationship between the systemic inflammatory response and persistence of atrial fibrillation.
Mitochondria are responsible for energy production within the cardiac myocytes. Prolonged episodes of calcium overload also lead to mitochondrial abnormalities and increased production of free radicals (oxidative stress).
It is hypothesized that myofibrillar creatine kinase (MM-CK), an important controller of myocyte contractility, is highly sensitive to oxidative injury, and we hypothesized that increased oxidative stress and energetic impairment during AF could contribute to contractile dysfunction.
CONCLUSIONS: The present results provide novel evidence of oxidative damage in human AF that altered myofibrillar energetics may contribute to atrial contractile dysfunction and that protein nitration may be an important participant in this condition.(4)
In his report, Copper: The Missing Link? Hans examined a link to a copper deficiency and oxidative injury to myofibrillar creatine kinase (MM-CK) which would influence control of contraction of individual heart cells (myocytes) and a connection to AF.(5)
The link to oxidative stress or free radical damage cannot be ignored.
Fortunately, we can reverse mitochondrial damage by first addressing the cause.
FOOD CHOICE & PREPARATION.
Eat whole, fresh foods, as much raw as possible, healthy fats and adequate protein with an eye on enhancing our endogenous production of antioxidants by focusing on richly-colored fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. Avoid junk food and empty calorie foods that provide high carbs, calories and little nutrition. Understand that we need to detoxify regularly. Understand what causes silent inflammation in our bodies and take steps to minimize. Address hormonal imbalances.
Exercise regularly, specifically with interval training to increase mitochondrial function and efficiency. Strength training increases muscle and the number of mitochondria.
Nutrients considered protective to mitochondria include: Coenzyme Q10, especially and plenty of it. this is the super-antixodant along with Acetyl L- carnitine, Alpha lipoic acid. N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), d-ribose, resveratrol and magnesium, potassium. Of new interest is PQQ recently mentioned in Dr. Gravelines recent health update.
More in-depth information on using Coenzyme Q10 will be covered in a separate post. Optimizing CoQ levels becomes especially important for anyone having statin drug exposure -- past or present.
I hope this post is a useful addition to your knowledge about the dangers of oxidative stress and what we can do to help minimize it.
Awareness is the first step.
Jackie
WEBINAR NOTES
For over 20 years, PhD Nutritionist, Tony Perrone of California has focused his research on the area of free radical damage so he can treat and advise his clients optimally. Following are his observations and recommendations. He notes all information is verifiable through PubMed searches. Based on the results seen in his client base, the following guidelines should be useful for everyone and especially afibbers.
TOPIC: OXIDATIVE STRESS: THE ROLE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Tony Perrone, PhD, CNC(6)
Oxidative stress or the term free radical ties into a bigger picture which Nutritionist, Tony Perrone, calls molecular damage. Molecules assembled in a certain way will be damaged by free radicals, will have the addition of oxygen, the addition of nitrogen and various things happen to precious molecules - called oxidative stress but it can also happen in other ways not called oxidative stress so, it becomes what he calls, molecular damage.
This is whats making patients ill. This is the missing factor in why many people seem not to improve; and in many cases, the best thing that can be done in medicine is to manage their symptoms.
So what I want to discuss tonight is this is the thing that is making ALL of us sick, not just our patients, but us, too and not just with auto-immune disease which was addressed in the previous talk last year but with the top ten ailments published by the CDC recently. It is a major factor that has a huge impact on your patients but its one that can be dealt with immediately with proper therapies.
After almost 20 years of practicing alternative medicine and at times being booked almost as much as 6 months in advance, Ive finally found something that, on a regular basis, produces dramatic results and I see people actually healed and not just blood tests moderately changed and symptoms minimally improved. Ive seen auto-immune antibodies going from extremely high levels to zero or near zero! Im seeing the other doctors they consult in the medical profession saying the original tests must have been wrong; I dont know who did the original scans because this just cant be. I see this on a regular basis. So I want to impress upon you not just tonight, but go to PubMed and really get into reading about this and start managing oxidative stress and the other forms of molecular damage that well be discussing.
Defining Oxidative Stress
By scientific definition, oxidative stress is the loss of one or more electrons from an atom or the addition of oxygen to the molecule. Oxidation and further, oxidative stress, is usually accompanied by free radicals and other oxidants and is the reason why we take anti-oxidants.
Weve heard of blueberry, acai berry, and taking green tea pills and drinks and we do eat the richly colored fruits and vegetables because they have anti-oxidants which either prevent the loss of the electrons, prevent the addition of the oxygen into the molecule or actually put the electrons back onto the damaged molecule called electron donation.
Most benefit of fruit and vegetables is not coming from the vitamins and mineral content, but from the anti-oxidants (a/o). Fruits and vegetables sit in the sun, all day- every day and yet they stay beautiful, soft and colorful compared to what our bodies would do if we basked in the sun every day .and thats because fruits and vegetables are very high in anti-oxidants.
Free radicals and the talk about taking a/o to prevent free radical damage. The free radical is an atom and maybe molecule that is missing or has an additional electron- primarily it is an atom with an unpaired electron whether it is an extra or one too little, and its a highly reactive atom that, when it comes in contact with anything else, is going to drop off its extra electron or take the one that is missing. An example of this is called nitration or oxidation when oxygen is actually added to something where it doesnt belong or the nitrogen, peroxynitrite, can cause a lot of damage because it can go in and add itself to things.
You can picture a free radical as a Tasmanian devil spinning at billions of times per second wanting to harm and damage anything it comes in contact with and they do that on a regular basis. You just have to be alive today but especially if you live in or near a city youll have free radicals damaging your 100 trillion cells in your body up to 10 thousand times - each cell each day if you can even imagine a 100 trillion times ten thousand Its huge, its dramatic and its destructive. This is again why we take anti-oxidants to help prevent that free-radical damage known as oxidative stress.
Another factor to cause you to be under oxidative stress is if you dont have enough anti-oxidants in your body. So you might have the normal level of oxidation going on; i.e. the normal, inside-the-body oxidation that we produce when we need to kill bacteria, when we want to burn sugar as energy or burn fat, etc and the body has defenses against oxidation called antioxidants and sometimes we become deficient in these. When that happens then even the normal endogenous or inside-the-body level of oxidative stress can become a problem.
Damage to fats
When the oxidative stress, molecular activity, molecular damage starts taking place, it damages DNA up to and including DNA mutation and forms adducts which we know is a primary cause of cancer formation the DNA mutation and damage the oxidative stress/free radicals that are going around not well controlled will damage the lipids in your body theyll oxidize cholesterol forming the atherosclerotic plaque in arteries and leading to heart attack
And by the way, its only OXIDIZED cholesterol (LDL) that forms that plaque not healthy cholesterol. Cholesterol, itself, is an antioxidant and cholesterol can function as a hydrogen donor.
One of the things that cholesterol does for us we dont have time to talk about the high-cholesterol nonsense but the cholesterol lodges itself into the cell membrane to protect the cell from various types of damage including free-radical damage and also to hold the cell rigid and strong according to the scientific studies.
When you think of a cell and the health of a cell, you think of the cell membrane there is the membrane on the outside of the cell keeping whats inside inside. And whats outside, outside. The cytoplasm and the matrix. What you may not realize is you also have an inner membrane that is also a lipid bi-layer fat composed membrane protecting the DNA. Fats are highly subject to this free-radical attack so as free radicals attack the outer cell membrane very frequently get inside the cell finally make it to the inner nuclear membrane and they often get through that as well damaging DNA and causing a whole series of catastrophic effects.
Damage to proteins
Proteins can also be oxidized. So here comes insulin, as an example. Insulin is wanting to come out into the blood stream and get all that blood sugar from your last party meal get that out into your blood and send it to a cell or put it in some body fat. Well, insulin can actually be oxidized right as its transporting in the blood stream. When insulin or any other hormone is oxidized, they will no longer function as they are supposed to.
This is a new problem in medicine. We are recognizing that everything is subjected to oxidative stress every single cell, every function, every tissue, every enzyme everything in your body is subject to oxidative stress and free-radical attack. Because of that susceptibility, no tissue is safe.
Nothing is protected or safe and thats why we need to go after this vigorously. In a moment, when I talk about the sources of free-radical damage and oxidative stress, the listeners have to be saying Im doing that thats me, Im doing that, my neighbor is doing that, because were all doing these things. And the effects are really catastrophic basically by what we do to the environment which affects us as well.
As my neighbor is spraying pesticides and the cloud of pesticide which I cant see comes drifting over-- landing in my swimming pool which I dont like to use much because of that but there he is spraying his weed killer and pesticides in his back yard and now when I jump in my pool its all over me.
Pesticides kill pests through free radicals now, thats not only on my skin but in my eyes, lungs and so on. So free-radical damage is ubiquitous in the environment. We need to start dealing with this; where we can look for it and what we can do about it.
Moderator: What diseases can be linked to oxidative stress? What research supports that?
Perrone: This sounds outlandish, but I dont know if Ive seen an exception and I have been doing this research and treatment for about 20 years. Examples:
Skin Damage
Sunburn is a free radical attack and skin ages (wrinkles) because of the free-radical damage that occurs on the surface of the skin.
Diabetes
Diabetes, is now believed to be caused by oxidative stress to the beta cells in Insulin-Dependent Diabetes. Its known that when blood sugar goes too high, and we start having the series of problems associated with hyperglycemia, it is oxidative stress thats happening up to and including the production of hydroxyl radicals from the hyperglycemia (itself).
So now even the illness that was caused by free radicals in the first place once it starts to happen generates even more free radicals because of the biochemical imbalance it creates. So when these free radicals damage the pancreas, we are in big trouble and when they can actually get into your blood stream and kill insulin enroute it is a very interesting situation.
Regarding receptors there are vitamin D receptors on the beta cell of the pancreas. Vitamin D is, among other things, an antioxidant . and influences the regulation of a/o enzymes and the production of a/o in the body.
Metabolic Syndrome/Insulin Resistance
There is a study in 2010 and the connection of oxidative stress to Metabolic Syndrome or Insulin Resistance and even the cell receptors on the wall of the cell which interact with insulin can be damaged by free radicals and other oxidants causing Insulin Resistance at the cellular level. One thing that damages insulin receptors is when you are producing too much insulin, youll cause downgrade, of course, but you can damage these receptors and all receptors in cell membranes by free radicals and other oxidants.
Anti-bodies
Antinuclear antibody and other antibody testing is a direct measurement of free-radical stress or oxidative stress in the body. Heres why
This may be the most important thing I tell you this whole evening
Auto-antibodies respond to OXIDIZED ANTIGENS ONLY.
With auto-antibodies, your body is supposedly turning on itself trying to kill its own tissues. What weve discovered in science is those antibodies are responding ONLY to free-radical, oxidatively-modified tissues. Not regular healthy tissues. Type into a PubMed search Auto antibodies and oxidatively-modified auto-antigens and youll see what Im talking about. Were not responding to our own tissues we are trying to remove the bad stuff.
Let me repeat auto-antibodies respond to ONLY to oxidatively modified auto-antigens. If you are involved in auto-immune disorders, you should look up the research Ive mentioned and we would stop this goal of suppressing the immune response as treatment and go for the actual causative problem which is the oxidative stress .then watch those antibodies go away.
Thyroid Antibodies.
Check thyroid peroxidase routinely.
Heavy metals like mercury exert their toxic effects on the body through oxidation and free-radical stress. When mercury damages a vital enzyme, it does so by stealing its electrons or incorporating itself into them and then the enzyme itself becomes an oxidant. So many studies say that mercury damages enzymes. Can contribute to Hashimotos thyroiditis.
With a/o therapy, thyroid peroxidase can go from 1000 down to 100; 450 down to 20 and it stays there with a/o therapy and removing the source of the free radicals. Antinuclear antibodies, double-stranded DNA antibodies, phospholipids antibodies, and so on and so on in fact, youll see oxidized LDL antibodies.. remember its not an LDL antibody, but rather an OXIDIZED antibody because it is only responding to a damaged cholesterol not the healthy one.
Cancer Obviously, cancer is important to us all and it seems to come with a death sentence or something terrible and it doesnt have to be that way when you use really good scientific data preferably not coming down from the drug company data line. Cancer is something that we know stems from DNA mutation and other things; there are a lot of opinions- but it seems that most of us believe that DNA mutations and other DNA changes are the cause of the tumor formation and other factors accelerate the growth and so on.
Well, what mutates DNA? If you look at the long list they are free radicals and other oxidizing compounds. The National Cancer Institute and WHO have long lists of known carcinogens: diesel smoke, auto exhaust, chlorine, many things we know are cancer-causing do so through oxidative stress and the subsequent damage to DNA.
Example lung cancer is one of the top killers in the US and they may not be smokers. Smokers cause their lung cancer because the smoke damages the lining of the lungs, gets into and damages the DNA, causes mutations and causes cellular damage and a tumor forms. This is airborne pollutants causing oxidative stress.
Is cigarette smoke the only thing that does that? No! All kinds of burning things byproducts, auto exhaust, diesel exhaust, standing close to your stove while you are cooking something, the exhaust from the natural gas burning and the preservatives in the natural gas - its airborne pollutants
usually coming from a burning source that are the primary causes of lung cancer. You dont have to be a smoker.
If you go to PubMed and type in Cancer and Oxidative Stress, there are 7800 papers. Plenty of other data bases to check out as well. Or type in Free Radicals and then a space and the disease. Or take it further and use the name of some of the free radicals like Peroxynitrite or Hydroxyl radical or Super Oxide if you have trouble finding a link and then type in the condition you want to search. Doing this type search enables you to have much greater effect with some of your more difficult patients.
Skin cancer
Non-fatal melanoma is the #1 cancer in the US according to the National Cancer Institute. Melanoma is obviously catastrophic. We have demonstrated in science that it is very easy to cause skin cancer in humans and lab animals by applying the right chemicals to the skin. A lot of scientists who want to study skin dont try to use UV light because it is unpredictable and not so reliable compared to using chemicals on the skin and then often put those in the UV light which produces a definite result.
The point is, according to the best science I can find, it doesnt appear to be the sun but instead it appears to be low antioxidant defenses against the sun i.e., melanin, vitamin D, CoQ etc. It appears to be the chemicals that many of us have on our skin when we go into the sun on a regular basis many of those chemicals which will be damaged by the Ultraviolet light while sitting on your skin form pro-carcinogens. So you put on your tanning butter, go to the beach and the countless unregulated chemicals now sitting on your skin frying away are creating chemicals never before studied, never before known to man, and they are sitting on your skin while you are in the sun. That appears to be a bigger concern. This is not just my opinion this is what Ive found in science by vigorously researching this cancer issue. Do your own research on the Internet.
Myocardial Infarction - cholesterol
Important to monitor CRP levels and Homocysteine not just cholesterol.
With heart attack or MI, the plaque formation in fatty deposits or cholesterol in fatty deposits and this would be oxidized cholesterol only then at some point breaks off and causes blockage. Same thing happens in stroke and plaque blocks off blood flow.
Bottom line: it is oxidative stress causing the plaque in the first place because only oxidized LDL will form those foam cells; only LDL is involved in plaque.
The goal is not to lower cholesterol, the goal is to prevent oxidation of cholesterol, keep it in the blood stream on the way to the tissues where it was going because it was needed there and stop standing in the way of the formation of cholesterol.
The body doesnt start just making too much cholesterol but it is made on demand in almost all instances and very few rare exceptions. Cholesterol manufactured by the body and not just in the liver; there is also extra-hepatic cholesterol synthesis in various sites. Its made on demand so when you see an elevation of cholesterol - and you use your discretion as to what is an elevated cholesterol (which I think probably starts in the mid to high 200s not in the low 200s) so if you see this elevation that tells us as practitioners that that patients body is making it to send it where its needed for cell repair or digestive purposes or immune system purposes. Remember that all hormones are made of cholesterol and when multiple hormone deficiencies exist, then often, the body reacts to produce more cholesterol to try to make more hormones. Routinely, I see elevated LDL cholesterol normalize when bioidentical hormone therapy is initiated at the proper doses and so on.
Infertility
is a huge connection to oxidative stress. Check PubMed. Oxidative stress kills the sperm motility, count and morphology. If the egg is damaged by oxidative stress, you may have problems fertility problems and if you do have success there may be problems with the child there is oxidative stress in pre-eclampsia.
PMS symptoms - (damaging cells that make progesterone and other hormones)
Macular Degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma
Very well connected to have oxidative stress as the pathogenic factor.
We know diet, exercise, high blood pressure are contributory but the initial cellular damage and the major part of the progression is oxidative stress.
Asthma Highly connected. The epithelial lining of the cells become oxidiatively damaged; inflammation sets in.
Brain
Depression oxidative stress can damage areas in the brain ie dopamaine-producing neurons or serotonin-producing neurons of the brain will be damaged by oxidative stress as well. Once again, .check the literature - depression and all other emotional issues you can think of. Not necessarily treated by just giving them all the a/o you can think of and it will go away, but we are searching for what can be done at the core of these issues so that people can actually get better over time and no longer require therapy and multiple medications.
Alzheimers, Parkinsons, ALS, Huntingtons, Multiple Sclerosis - all of these are connected to oxidative stress in the literature not just me saying it.
Hypertension
Nitric oxide and other factors that promote vessel relaxation; in constriction vessels become highly damaged by free radicals and other oxidation compounds.
WHERE DOES OXIDATIVE STRESS COME FROM?
How do free radicals get into our body?
Two methods of exposure to free radicals and other oxidants that cause molecular damage by inserting themselves into molecules where they dont belong. Chemicals that get into the spiral of the DNA and actually lock into it and form an adduct.
These come from the inside and the outside.
Endogenous things that happen inside the body
We produce free radicals
-to kill bacteria
-as a byproduct of energy production
-in the liver as part of detoxification and processing of compounds
It is a normal, everyday occurrence to produce things that oxidize (oxidants) and free radicals inside the body but those are actually not our concern and are not the ones that are killing you or your patients. The endogenous ones belong there and we dont want to alter their normal functions.
Exogenous things coming from the outside which can even increase those on the inside is what were after. This list is not complete and it is an ongoing project for me--..more than anything I have ever been on in medicine and Ive seen results, by the way, routinely to which I previously did not have access.
#1 Auto Exhaust is killing us. It is the #1 most terrible thing that is happening everywhere all the time. Its a huge offender.
He uses a gas removing, high-tech interior air cleaner in his wifes car and a two stage carbon and HEPA filter in his car which he says immediately you can feel the difference in your health and wellness when driving on the freeway because you arent breathing the exhaust of countless other cars, the asbestos from their brake pads, the burning chemicals on the hot surfaces of the engine. Diesel exhaust is even worse.
Persistent Free Radicals
In science, it is known that free radicals only last a short time in the body with reaction times as short as a billionth of a second is how long it takes to gain or lose an electron. But scientists have now discovered, persistent free radicals where a free radical is waiting to gain or lose an electron and damage something somewhere. These come from coal burning or automobiles unregulated in Maylasia or wherever and floats over here where days to weeks later, it is still a free radical. This is in the air coming from all the countries, all of the cities, all of the time. Thats a major player. Diesel has a lot more of these damaging effects and it happens as particles and in these diesel particles are these damaging persistent free radicals. Try to avoid diesel smoke.
Air Pollutants
coming from all sorts of unregulated places in the home, burning wood in the fireplace, having your gas stove on, burnt food all create a tremendous amount of free radicals. [outdoor grilling; blackened food]
Pesticides, herbicides, chlorinated tap water, pool water, excessive exercise actually creates a huge amount of free radicals.
Exercise
several studies have shown that running is a huge oxidative stress on the body and damages not only cells throughout the body measurably. It kills mitochondria and damages DNA. DNA damage happens on a regular basis. Exercise, sun, and other things damage DNA and we have DNA repair enzymes, but what they found with half marathon running, as an example, and even in hobby runners for shorter distances is that there was significant damage to DNA that didnt repair itself in the usual time.
When DNA is damaged, there are a lot of serious, and maybe catastrophic consequences so look up running and oxidative stress, running and DNA damage on PubMed. I dont think you should be running much.
[From another webinar: It is observed that those doing continual high rates of endurance exercise suffer more from oxidative stress. Runners often look much older than their age because of the free-radical damage. If the visual effect of free-radical damage is obvious, then consider the internal damage that you cant see.]
Diet
is a huge source of oxidative stress because of all the oxidized lipids
This is an important point. All the oxidized fats that we consume all the time pan-fried foods (high heat) you put your healthy something in a pan and fry it in olive oil its still fried food. The surface temperature of the underside of the pan hundreds and hundreds of degrees way beyond the level that it takes to oxidize the olive oil and then those oxidized free radical lipids go straight down the hatch right to your liver, everything in your body so it is just not good to ever cook anything in oil no matter how deep or shallow. Steam veggies with water in the pan along with the chicken; find alternative ways but dont cook fats in a pan.
Blackened foods brown is questionable but if black thats a carcinogen. That food, now blackened is known by the World Health Organization to be involved in tumorigenesis. (oudoor grilling)
If you must use oil in cooking, he prefers coconut oil which is completely saturated versus olive oil.
Radiation
Avoid CT scans, etc. unless you really need them and dont prescribe them unless perhaps they are needed. Im not giving medical advice or telling you to ignore your doctor but sometimes X-rays are not necessary. Sometimes CT scans are not necessary. We all agree that radiation causes cancer. Minimize wherever possible. Ultrasound causes oxidative stress .and for those of you who are U/S techs, if you hold it in one place for too long, the patient will say oh thats hot that causes huge cellular oxidative stress on the inside. Recent studies have found that not only does U/S damage tissues via heating and oxidative stress, it produces birth defects. Look this up on PubMed and think about U/S as something you would not just do but do when you really, really need it.
MRI
again huge molecular derangement the rearranging and dearranging of molecules with MRI because of the extremely powerful electro-magnetic field produced many, many, many times greater than what the body can tolerate safely. So yes there is no ionizing radiation but now science is discovering other things to worry about.
[Additional support for the efficacy of nutrient protection from ionizing is found in an article, Protect your DNA from CT Scans and Xrays
which notes that the main culprit is computed tomography (CT) scans which exposes patients to the equivalent amount of radiation received by atomic bomb survivors in the low-dose range. Published scientific studies document that these excessive amounts of radiation will result in catastrophic numbers of new cancers due to DNA mutations. The report gives an analysis of recent studies showing protective properties of various nutrients](7)
Overheating as in Sauna - can produce massive oxidative stress.
High-pressure tanning beds
where you get a tan in one minute;.15-20 minutes, you get a tan like you were out in the sun for two days immediately overwhelms the anti-oxidant capacity of your skin leaving your DNA open for mutation and other types of cell damage. Avoid high pressure tanning beds as they will damage your skin in such a way where you may lose the ability to form vitamin D correctly.
REDUCING OXIDATIVE STRESS IN THE BODY
What can we do?
Immediately get proper air filtration for your homes and offices because a large amount of the oxidants and terrible pollutants to which you are being exposed are in the air .even if you dont live near a road or in a city. Very important to make sure the filtration you get removes gases.
California and other states have outlawed air cleaners that produce ozone so if any of you are doing that, there is a massive amount of science suggesting that ozone is bad news to be producing inside your house. I like Austin Air Healthmate Plus 400. Very high tech. Removes the types of gasses; not just particles.
Water filtration If I could show you the list of whats in tap water it is unbelievable that we are still being fed tap water just multiple carcinogens and neurological harm and reproductive effects and so on in most municipal tap water. Nothing that uses electricity to filter the water- just a filter. The one we like in my office is Aquasana.
These are so important air and water filtration, I often tell people who come to see me that if they have limited funds or cant come in that often, then go do the filtration first and then when set up in your house, come back to see me because then antioxidants I recommend you take will be able to work better. Thats how serious those two issues are.
If its CoQ10 or air filtration, I often say air filtration and Ill see you in two months when your bank account recovers. Thats how important it is.
FAVORITE ANTIOXIDANTS STARTING WITH ENDOGENOUS FIRST
1. Coenzyme Q10 is killed by the environment. And I have never seen a healthy level at any age in very young children to senior citizens. I have never seen a healthy level of Coenzyme Q10 ever in one patient who wasnt actually taking it supplementally.
The only way you can determine if youve got the CoQ10 level right for your patient is by testing the level. There is no right or wrong dose. You really have to test it and I would suggest Lab Corp as we are shooting for a level of 7 to 8 and Quest Labs stops at 4.
When you take CoQ and Alpha lipoic together, it also recharges glutathione very effectively so there is less concern about having to take glutathione if you get enough CoQ and lipoic.
2. Alpha lipoic acid
3. Vitamin D is an antioxidant. He prefers to give it topically and has a special protocol for doing that. Oral is absolutely fine as well. He says not greater than 2000 in a sitting with food.
4. Melatonin
5. Lycopene is one of his favorites because it protects both outer and inner cell membranes.
6. Balancing hormones as every hormone functions as an anti-oxidant
EXOGENOUS ANTIOXIDANTS include Clove, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Thyme, Garlic, Green Tea with lots of EGCG, lots of clean water because its Hydrogen and hydrogen is one of the bodys main a/o sources.
ROUTINE TESTS
Uric Acid high or low levels mean oxidative stress no questions asked; it just is according to science uric acid is an oxidative stress marker
Bilirubin again high or low
Cholesterol when its high, its almost always 99 out of 100 times an indication of oxidative stress
LDL levels - LDL carries CoQ10, lycopene and other antioxidants to the tissues so why in the world would I want to stand in the way of someone making LDL when that LDL is going somewhere delivering antioxidants and other benefits to the target location? Something to think about.
Iron can be a huge oxidant so compare it to ferritin or tranferrin and make sure the ratio is correct so you dont have too much iron sitting around unprotected.
Ferritin -
Transferrin
CRP always, always, always goes down when you give enough antioxidants. Recent test showed a women with an 11 going down to .2 with antioxidants.
Homocysteine
Blood tests that are a very direct measure of Oxidative Stress are auto-antibodies of any variety. It may sound outlandish, but go look it up.
Diet richly colored fruits and vegetables have a ton of antioxidants that whats giving them the color. Adequate protein is very important to control oxidative stress. Cool-processed Whey protein for those who use dairy is good because it raises glutathione and has many other benefits.
And repeating for diet adequate hydration.
LIFESTYLE CHANGES
Getting rid of the offenders
- get rid of chemicals use only organic deodorizers and deodorant on your body
-organic natural cleaners and disinfectants essential oils, colloidal silver instead of chemical disinfectants such as Lysol. Spraying Lysol in your vicinity is asking for DNA mutation and hoping that 10 years from now you dont have a tumor from it.
Use organic but they still may sneak certain chemicals in and call it organic they call it preservatives to get around it.
Go to Skin Deep cosmetic data base non-profit website run by a company The Environmental Working Group . Their data base allows you to enter names of your skin care products, shampoos, hair conditioners, straighteners, make up, etc. and they show what studies have been done on the ingredients and if its likely to cause you an illness. You can also enter individual ingredients.
Remember organic doesnt mean chemical free so actually read the label to see if there are items that sound like chemicals.
ORGANIC FOOD
Its not always guaranteed to be free of pesticides for various reasons even if its certified organic but you do have a higher chance of having organic food.
Remember that tomatoes, shipped in a truck on the road, those diesel exhaust fumes are falling all over the tomatoes on the way to your grocer and even in an organic farm sitting at the side of a major freeway all of the road dust is settling on the same produce. So always, always wash your produce more than you think you need to with an organic based vegetable cleaner like Castile soap. Just strongly dilute Castile soap in water and use that. Even then, its probably still not enough, but it does help some.
NO TAP WATER unless you are absolutely dehydrated. Tap water is just a gateway to illness.
DRY CLEANERS are using chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects and so on. One of the methods is through oxidative stress.
Look for a dry cleaner that uses organic cleaning or carbon dioxide.
Those are the safest I can find.
LAUNDRY DETERGENTS get organic, chemical free. He uses soap nuts in the washer come from India a fruit that makes a sudsy solution in the water. Organic dryer sheets versus the typical dryer sheets.
EXERCISE - Lastly on lifestyle changes that can reduce oxidative stress No more than 2 days of exercise in a row before taking at least one day off because you will deplete your antioxidants and become subject to everything you are exposed to in the environment. (Unless you have a paying ****to do that then you have to make that decision).
Very big deal--over-exercising. You wont burn fat right, you wont have nice firm, tight muscles, you will be tired, you will deplete your neurotransmitters and exhaust your adrenals all kinds of things happen; you will be a sitting duck out on the freeway because you depleted your antioxidant stores and ability to make antioxidants from chronically over-exercising. 2 days on and at least one day off.
NATURAL SUN EXPOSURE
Last try to get small amounts of sun while you build up to a greater amount of sunlight since the sun causes a natural production of internal antioxidants and not just in the skin. Very important to get what we are lacking called sun. and not to the point where you burn but get some and build up to a higher level of exposure tolerance realizing that early man was running round naked all the time. So imagine running around, all the time, completely naked, what kind of vitamin D level people had back then and you can understand what were talking about here. We are chronically sun-starved. Again, if your doctor has told you to stay out of the sun, maybe we three should get on the phone for a chat about some new findings. Get some sun exposure without sunblock unless your doctor has told you to wear that because sunscreen blocks the formation of vitamin D and it blocks the formation of melanin which is an antioxidant not just something that makes your skin tan.
End
By now you are probably on overload for this topic. My notes continue, but this covers the main points.
The Coenzyme Q10 post will follow shortly, (I hope)
Jackie
SOURCES:
(1)Mark Hyman, MD.
Ultra-Wellness
Biologic Tune-up Program
[drhyman.com]
(2) A theory for the potassium/sodium ratio in atrial fibrillation
E. Waller
[www.afibbers.org]
(3) [www.lef.org]
(4) VanWagoner
Circulation. 2001 Jul 10;104(2):174-80.
Impaired myofibrillar energetics and oxidative injury during human atrial fibrillation. Mihm MJ, Yu F, Carnes CA, Reiser PJ, McCarthy PM, Van Wagoner DR, Bauer JA.
PMID: 11447082 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
(5)Copper The Missing Link?
[www.afibbers.org]
(6) Tony Perrone, PhD, CNC
14724 Ventura Blvd
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Webinar - Courtesy Designs for HealthMarch 10, 2010.
(7) [www.lef.org]
This is an Awareness Alert.
Life is energy; without energy in our cells, we die. We cant live without fuel and oxygen, yet from the process of metabolizing food and breathing, we are exposed to oxidative stress or free-radical damage.
The goal then becomes protecting our body from harm.(1)
My notes from various sources and webinars have been languishing for a long time-- nagging at me to organize and post because this is such critical information for everyone--especially afibbers.
The current Conference Room topic related to pump function and ultimately, energy and voltage, prompted me to pull my notes together because this is very relevant to The Theory or to any other health topic or health issue we might discuss because Oxidative Stress Damage affects every one of us; undoubtedly, much more than we realize.(2)
It is one thing to discuss text-book biochemistry/physiology function in a perfect-world scenario, but as we are painfully aware, we do not live in a perfect world and many influences such as oxidative damage can hamper proper functioning of cells, pumps, organs, systems and, ultimately, our whole body. We are exposed continually to free-radicals and that damage can prevent good health from prevailing.
INTRODUCTION
Mitochondria -- should be a familiar term from many other discussions. These are the microscopic cell components (organelles) we call energy furnaces or power generators that convert oxygen and nutrients into energy. The result of this cellular respiration is ATP, a nucleotide which carries a large amount of chemical energy.
Recall from other posts, the quote: Its all about ATP (adenosine triphosphate). ATP is the fuel or gasoline that runs the body. If we dont make enough, we are fatigued, have brain fog, metabolism slows to a halt and, in time, we have chronic illnesses. And for afibbers, if we are deficient in ATP, we may suffer from arrhythmia.
Mitochondria are extremely sensitive to various insults but the most significant is free-radical damage. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a primary cause of age-related decline.(3)
Free radicals produced in the mitochondria are the normal, natural byproducts of the metabolic process. Some say free radicals are the agents that cause Metabolic Rust. Free-radical damage occurs when tissues are oxidized and it occurs more in some individuals than others but everyone has free-radical damage. If you slice an apple and leave it exposed to air, the cut surface quickly turns brown this is the chemical process of oxidation (metabolic rust). Same in our bodies. Free radicals are dangerous because they damage or oxidize cells throughout your entire body. You can visualize your body as rusting.
When reading about oxidative stress damage, youll see reference to Reaction Oxygen Species (ROS) defined as: molecules and ions of oxygen that have an unpaired electron, thus rendering them extremely reactive. Many cellular structures are susceptible to attack by ROS contributing to cancer, heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease.
Free radicals build up in our body and attack cells. The critically-important mitochondria are particularly vulnerable to the rusting process where free radicals attack them and they stop functioning optimally which leads to more oxidative stress which leads to the downhill slide to illness and eventually, death.
In addition to the normal, metabolic by-products, there are huge influences from environmental factors that, again, affect everyone to some degree and can be extremely detrimental. We all need to understand Oxidative Stress damage and to learn how to help prevent or at least, lessen the severity.
Fortunately, we have built-in mechanisms for dealing with free radicals. Our own antioxidant factories function to send out molecules to find and clean up free-radicals before they do too much damage. However, our modern lifestyle doesnt support this natural process, called redox (meaning REDuction of OXidation). Typical modern diets cause an escalation of free radicals from too many empty calorie choices and not enough dietary antioxidants from appropriate foods which means we cant produce our own endogenous antioxidants in the first place leaving us extremely vulnerable.
Since oxidative stress damage is so all-encompassing and profound, it undoubtedly is related to the current Conference Room topic and the function of the sodium/potassium pump mechanism. Damaged cells and receptors may contribute to impairments that prevent the optimal electrical response so very important to afibbers keeping voltage in the range that supports Normal Sinus Rhythm.
We also know from the research by David Van Wagoner, PhD, Translational Scientist, working in the Metabolic Cardiology area of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, that AF is associated with evidence of oxidative injury to atrial tissue, and suggests that oxidative stress may directly contribute to the pathophysiology of AF.
Recent studies have examined the role of oxidative stress in the electrophysiological remodeling associated with atrial fibrillation, the mechanisms underlying postoperative atrial fibrillation and the relationship between the systemic inflammatory response and persistence of atrial fibrillation.
Mitochondria are responsible for energy production within the cardiac myocytes. Prolonged episodes of calcium overload also lead to mitochondrial abnormalities and increased production of free radicals (oxidative stress).
It is hypothesized that myofibrillar creatine kinase (MM-CK), an important controller of myocyte contractility, is highly sensitive to oxidative injury, and we hypothesized that increased oxidative stress and energetic impairment during AF could contribute to contractile dysfunction.
CONCLUSIONS: The present results provide novel evidence of oxidative damage in human AF that altered myofibrillar energetics may contribute to atrial contractile dysfunction and that protein nitration may be an important participant in this condition.(4)
In his report, Copper: The Missing Link? Hans examined a link to a copper deficiency and oxidative injury to myofibrillar creatine kinase (MM-CK) which would influence control of contraction of individual heart cells (myocytes) and a connection to AF.(5)
The link to oxidative stress or free radical damage cannot be ignored.
Fortunately, we can reverse mitochondrial damage by first addressing the cause.
FOOD CHOICE & PREPARATION.
Eat whole, fresh foods, as much raw as possible, healthy fats and adequate protein with an eye on enhancing our endogenous production of antioxidants by focusing on richly-colored fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. Avoid junk food and empty calorie foods that provide high carbs, calories and little nutrition. Understand that we need to detoxify regularly. Understand what causes silent inflammation in our bodies and take steps to minimize. Address hormonal imbalances.
Exercise regularly, specifically with interval training to increase mitochondrial function and efficiency. Strength training increases muscle and the number of mitochondria.
Nutrients considered protective to mitochondria include: Coenzyme Q10, especially and plenty of it. this is the super-antixodant along with Acetyl L- carnitine, Alpha lipoic acid. N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), d-ribose, resveratrol and magnesium, potassium. Of new interest is PQQ recently mentioned in Dr. Gravelines recent health update.
More in-depth information on using Coenzyme Q10 will be covered in a separate post. Optimizing CoQ levels becomes especially important for anyone having statin drug exposure -- past or present.
I hope this post is a useful addition to your knowledge about the dangers of oxidative stress and what we can do to help minimize it.
Awareness is the first step.
Jackie
WEBINAR NOTES
For over 20 years, PhD Nutritionist, Tony Perrone of California has focused his research on the area of free radical damage so he can treat and advise his clients optimally. Following are his observations and recommendations. He notes all information is verifiable through PubMed searches. Based on the results seen in his client base, the following guidelines should be useful for everyone and especially afibbers.
TOPIC: OXIDATIVE STRESS: THE ROLE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Tony Perrone, PhD, CNC(6)
Oxidative stress or the term free radical ties into a bigger picture which Nutritionist, Tony Perrone, calls molecular damage. Molecules assembled in a certain way will be damaged by free radicals, will have the addition of oxygen, the addition of nitrogen and various things happen to precious molecules - called oxidative stress but it can also happen in other ways not called oxidative stress so, it becomes what he calls, molecular damage.
This is whats making patients ill. This is the missing factor in why many people seem not to improve; and in many cases, the best thing that can be done in medicine is to manage their symptoms.
So what I want to discuss tonight is this is the thing that is making ALL of us sick, not just our patients, but us, too and not just with auto-immune disease which was addressed in the previous talk last year but with the top ten ailments published by the CDC recently. It is a major factor that has a huge impact on your patients but its one that can be dealt with immediately with proper therapies.
After almost 20 years of practicing alternative medicine and at times being booked almost as much as 6 months in advance, Ive finally found something that, on a regular basis, produces dramatic results and I see people actually healed and not just blood tests moderately changed and symptoms minimally improved. Ive seen auto-immune antibodies going from extremely high levels to zero or near zero! Im seeing the other doctors they consult in the medical profession saying the original tests must have been wrong; I dont know who did the original scans because this just cant be. I see this on a regular basis. So I want to impress upon you not just tonight, but go to PubMed and really get into reading about this and start managing oxidative stress and the other forms of molecular damage that well be discussing.
Defining Oxidative Stress
By scientific definition, oxidative stress is the loss of one or more electrons from an atom or the addition of oxygen to the molecule. Oxidation and further, oxidative stress, is usually accompanied by free radicals and other oxidants and is the reason why we take anti-oxidants.
Weve heard of blueberry, acai berry, and taking green tea pills and drinks and we do eat the richly colored fruits and vegetables because they have anti-oxidants which either prevent the loss of the electrons, prevent the addition of the oxygen into the molecule or actually put the electrons back onto the damaged molecule called electron donation.
Most benefit of fruit and vegetables is not coming from the vitamins and mineral content, but from the anti-oxidants (a/o). Fruits and vegetables sit in the sun, all day- every day and yet they stay beautiful, soft and colorful compared to what our bodies would do if we basked in the sun every day .and thats because fruits and vegetables are very high in anti-oxidants.
Free radicals and the talk about taking a/o to prevent free radical damage. The free radical is an atom and maybe molecule that is missing or has an additional electron- primarily it is an atom with an unpaired electron whether it is an extra or one too little, and its a highly reactive atom that, when it comes in contact with anything else, is going to drop off its extra electron or take the one that is missing. An example of this is called nitration or oxidation when oxygen is actually added to something where it doesnt belong or the nitrogen, peroxynitrite, can cause a lot of damage because it can go in and add itself to things.
You can picture a free radical as a Tasmanian devil spinning at billions of times per second wanting to harm and damage anything it comes in contact with and they do that on a regular basis. You just have to be alive today but especially if you live in or near a city youll have free radicals damaging your 100 trillion cells in your body up to 10 thousand times - each cell each day if you can even imagine a 100 trillion times ten thousand Its huge, its dramatic and its destructive. This is again why we take anti-oxidants to help prevent that free-radical damage known as oxidative stress.
Another factor to cause you to be under oxidative stress is if you dont have enough anti-oxidants in your body. So you might have the normal level of oxidation going on; i.e. the normal, inside-the-body oxidation that we produce when we need to kill bacteria, when we want to burn sugar as energy or burn fat, etc and the body has defenses against oxidation called antioxidants and sometimes we become deficient in these. When that happens then even the normal endogenous or inside-the-body level of oxidative stress can become a problem.
Damage to fats
When the oxidative stress, molecular activity, molecular damage starts taking place, it damages DNA up to and including DNA mutation and forms adducts which we know is a primary cause of cancer formation the DNA mutation and damage the oxidative stress/free radicals that are going around not well controlled will damage the lipids in your body theyll oxidize cholesterol forming the atherosclerotic plaque in arteries and leading to heart attack
And by the way, its only OXIDIZED cholesterol (LDL) that forms that plaque not healthy cholesterol. Cholesterol, itself, is an antioxidant and cholesterol can function as a hydrogen donor.
One of the things that cholesterol does for us we dont have time to talk about the high-cholesterol nonsense but the cholesterol lodges itself into the cell membrane to protect the cell from various types of damage including free-radical damage and also to hold the cell rigid and strong according to the scientific studies.
When you think of a cell and the health of a cell, you think of the cell membrane there is the membrane on the outside of the cell keeping whats inside inside. And whats outside, outside. The cytoplasm and the matrix. What you may not realize is you also have an inner membrane that is also a lipid bi-layer fat composed membrane protecting the DNA. Fats are highly subject to this free-radical attack so as free radicals attack the outer cell membrane very frequently get inside the cell finally make it to the inner nuclear membrane and they often get through that as well damaging DNA and causing a whole series of catastrophic effects.
Damage to proteins
Proteins can also be oxidized. So here comes insulin, as an example. Insulin is wanting to come out into the blood stream and get all that blood sugar from your last party meal get that out into your blood and send it to a cell or put it in some body fat. Well, insulin can actually be oxidized right as its transporting in the blood stream. When insulin or any other hormone is oxidized, they will no longer function as they are supposed to.
This is a new problem in medicine. We are recognizing that everything is subjected to oxidative stress every single cell, every function, every tissue, every enzyme everything in your body is subject to oxidative stress and free-radical attack. Because of that susceptibility, no tissue is safe.
Nothing is protected or safe and thats why we need to go after this vigorously. In a moment, when I talk about the sources of free-radical damage and oxidative stress, the listeners have to be saying Im doing that thats me, Im doing that, my neighbor is doing that, because were all doing these things. And the effects are really catastrophic basically by what we do to the environment which affects us as well.
As my neighbor is spraying pesticides and the cloud of pesticide which I cant see comes drifting over-- landing in my swimming pool which I dont like to use much because of that but there he is spraying his weed killer and pesticides in his back yard and now when I jump in my pool its all over me.
Pesticides kill pests through free radicals now, thats not only on my skin but in my eyes, lungs and so on. So free-radical damage is ubiquitous in the environment. We need to start dealing with this; where we can look for it and what we can do about it.
Moderator: What diseases can be linked to oxidative stress? What research supports that?
Perrone: This sounds outlandish, but I dont know if Ive seen an exception and I have been doing this research and treatment for about 20 years. Examples:
Skin Damage
Sunburn is a free radical attack and skin ages (wrinkles) because of the free-radical damage that occurs on the surface of the skin.
Diabetes
Diabetes, is now believed to be caused by oxidative stress to the beta cells in Insulin-Dependent Diabetes. Its known that when blood sugar goes too high, and we start having the series of problems associated with hyperglycemia, it is oxidative stress thats happening up to and including the production of hydroxyl radicals from the hyperglycemia (itself).
So now even the illness that was caused by free radicals in the first place once it starts to happen generates even more free radicals because of the biochemical imbalance it creates. So when these free radicals damage the pancreas, we are in big trouble and when they can actually get into your blood stream and kill insulin enroute it is a very interesting situation.
Regarding receptors there are vitamin D receptors on the beta cell of the pancreas. Vitamin D is, among other things, an antioxidant . and influences the regulation of a/o enzymes and the production of a/o in the body.
Metabolic Syndrome/Insulin Resistance
There is a study in 2010 and the connection of oxidative stress to Metabolic Syndrome or Insulin Resistance and even the cell receptors on the wall of the cell which interact with insulin can be damaged by free radicals and other oxidants causing Insulin Resistance at the cellular level. One thing that damages insulin receptors is when you are producing too much insulin, youll cause downgrade, of course, but you can damage these receptors and all receptors in cell membranes by free radicals and other oxidants.
Anti-bodies
Antinuclear antibody and other antibody testing is a direct measurement of free-radical stress or oxidative stress in the body. Heres why
This may be the most important thing I tell you this whole evening
Auto-antibodies respond to OXIDIZED ANTIGENS ONLY.
With auto-antibodies, your body is supposedly turning on itself trying to kill its own tissues. What weve discovered in science is those antibodies are responding ONLY to free-radical, oxidatively-modified tissues. Not regular healthy tissues. Type into a PubMed search Auto antibodies and oxidatively-modified auto-antigens and youll see what Im talking about. Were not responding to our own tissues we are trying to remove the bad stuff.
Let me repeat auto-antibodies respond to ONLY to oxidatively modified auto-antigens. If you are involved in auto-immune disorders, you should look up the research Ive mentioned and we would stop this goal of suppressing the immune response as treatment and go for the actual causative problem which is the oxidative stress .then watch those antibodies go away.
Thyroid Antibodies.
Check thyroid peroxidase routinely.
Heavy metals like mercury exert their toxic effects on the body through oxidation and free-radical stress. When mercury damages a vital enzyme, it does so by stealing its electrons or incorporating itself into them and then the enzyme itself becomes an oxidant. So many studies say that mercury damages enzymes. Can contribute to Hashimotos thyroiditis.
With a/o therapy, thyroid peroxidase can go from 1000 down to 100; 450 down to 20 and it stays there with a/o therapy and removing the source of the free radicals. Antinuclear antibodies, double-stranded DNA antibodies, phospholipids antibodies, and so on and so on in fact, youll see oxidized LDL antibodies.. remember its not an LDL antibody, but rather an OXIDIZED antibody because it is only responding to a damaged cholesterol not the healthy one.
Cancer Obviously, cancer is important to us all and it seems to come with a death sentence or something terrible and it doesnt have to be that way when you use really good scientific data preferably not coming down from the drug company data line. Cancer is something that we know stems from DNA mutation and other things; there are a lot of opinions- but it seems that most of us believe that DNA mutations and other DNA changes are the cause of the tumor formation and other factors accelerate the growth and so on.
Well, what mutates DNA? If you look at the long list they are free radicals and other oxidizing compounds. The National Cancer Institute and WHO have long lists of known carcinogens: diesel smoke, auto exhaust, chlorine, many things we know are cancer-causing do so through oxidative stress and the subsequent damage to DNA.
Example lung cancer is one of the top killers in the US and they may not be smokers. Smokers cause their lung cancer because the smoke damages the lining of the lungs, gets into and damages the DNA, causes mutations and causes cellular damage and a tumor forms. This is airborne pollutants causing oxidative stress.
Is cigarette smoke the only thing that does that? No! All kinds of burning things byproducts, auto exhaust, diesel exhaust, standing close to your stove while you are cooking something, the exhaust from the natural gas burning and the preservatives in the natural gas - its airborne pollutants
usually coming from a burning source that are the primary causes of lung cancer. You dont have to be a smoker.
If you go to PubMed and type in Cancer and Oxidative Stress, there are 7800 papers. Plenty of other data bases to check out as well. Or type in Free Radicals and then a space and the disease. Or take it further and use the name of some of the free radicals like Peroxynitrite or Hydroxyl radical or Super Oxide if you have trouble finding a link and then type in the condition you want to search. Doing this type search enables you to have much greater effect with some of your more difficult patients.
Skin cancer
Non-fatal melanoma is the #1 cancer in the US according to the National Cancer Institute. Melanoma is obviously catastrophic. We have demonstrated in science that it is very easy to cause skin cancer in humans and lab animals by applying the right chemicals to the skin. A lot of scientists who want to study skin dont try to use UV light because it is unpredictable and not so reliable compared to using chemicals on the skin and then often put those in the UV light which produces a definite result.
The point is, according to the best science I can find, it doesnt appear to be the sun but instead it appears to be low antioxidant defenses against the sun i.e., melanin, vitamin D, CoQ etc. It appears to be the chemicals that many of us have on our skin when we go into the sun on a regular basis many of those chemicals which will be damaged by the Ultraviolet light while sitting on your skin form pro-carcinogens. So you put on your tanning butter, go to the beach and the countless unregulated chemicals now sitting on your skin frying away are creating chemicals never before studied, never before known to man, and they are sitting on your skin while you are in the sun. That appears to be a bigger concern. This is not just my opinion this is what Ive found in science by vigorously researching this cancer issue. Do your own research on the Internet.
Myocardial Infarction - cholesterol
Important to monitor CRP levels and Homocysteine not just cholesterol.
With heart attack or MI, the plaque formation in fatty deposits or cholesterol in fatty deposits and this would be oxidized cholesterol only then at some point breaks off and causes blockage. Same thing happens in stroke and plaque blocks off blood flow.
Bottom line: it is oxidative stress causing the plaque in the first place because only oxidized LDL will form those foam cells; only LDL is involved in plaque.
The goal is not to lower cholesterol, the goal is to prevent oxidation of cholesterol, keep it in the blood stream on the way to the tissues where it was going because it was needed there and stop standing in the way of the formation of cholesterol.
The body doesnt start just making too much cholesterol but it is made on demand in almost all instances and very few rare exceptions. Cholesterol manufactured by the body and not just in the liver; there is also extra-hepatic cholesterol synthesis in various sites. Its made on demand so when you see an elevation of cholesterol - and you use your discretion as to what is an elevated cholesterol (which I think probably starts in the mid to high 200s not in the low 200s) so if you see this elevation that tells us as practitioners that that patients body is making it to send it where its needed for cell repair or digestive purposes or immune system purposes. Remember that all hormones are made of cholesterol and when multiple hormone deficiencies exist, then often, the body reacts to produce more cholesterol to try to make more hormones. Routinely, I see elevated LDL cholesterol normalize when bioidentical hormone therapy is initiated at the proper doses and so on.
Infertility
is a huge connection to oxidative stress. Check PubMed. Oxidative stress kills the sperm motility, count and morphology. If the egg is damaged by oxidative stress, you may have problems fertility problems and if you do have success there may be problems with the child there is oxidative stress in pre-eclampsia.
PMS symptoms - (damaging cells that make progesterone and other hormones)
Macular Degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma
Very well connected to have oxidative stress as the pathogenic factor.
We know diet, exercise, high blood pressure are contributory but the initial cellular damage and the major part of the progression is oxidative stress.
Asthma Highly connected. The epithelial lining of the cells become oxidiatively damaged; inflammation sets in.
Brain
Depression oxidative stress can damage areas in the brain ie dopamaine-producing neurons or serotonin-producing neurons of the brain will be damaged by oxidative stress as well. Once again, .check the literature - depression and all other emotional issues you can think of. Not necessarily treated by just giving them all the a/o you can think of and it will go away, but we are searching for what can be done at the core of these issues so that people can actually get better over time and no longer require therapy and multiple medications.
Alzheimers, Parkinsons, ALS, Huntingtons, Multiple Sclerosis - all of these are connected to oxidative stress in the literature not just me saying it.
Hypertension
Nitric oxide and other factors that promote vessel relaxation; in constriction vessels become highly damaged by free radicals and other oxidation compounds.
WHERE DOES OXIDATIVE STRESS COME FROM?
How do free radicals get into our body?
Two methods of exposure to free radicals and other oxidants that cause molecular damage by inserting themselves into molecules where they dont belong. Chemicals that get into the spiral of the DNA and actually lock into it and form an adduct.
These come from the inside and the outside.
Endogenous things that happen inside the body
We produce free radicals
-to kill bacteria
-as a byproduct of energy production
-in the liver as part of detoxification and processing of compounds
It is a normal, everyday occurrence to produce things that oxidize (oxidants) and free radicals inside the body but those are actually not our concern and are not the ones that are killing you or your patients. The endogenous ones belong there and we dont want to alter their normal functions.
Exogenous things coming from the outside which can even increase those on the inside is what were after. This list is not complete and it is an ongoing project for me--..more than anything I have ever been on in medicine and Ive seen results, by the way, routinely to which I previously did not have access.
#1 Auto Exhaust is killing us. It is the #1 most terrible thing that is happening everywhere all the time. Its a huge offender.
He uses a gas removing, high-tech interior air cleaner in his wifes car and a two stage carbon and HEPA filter in his car which he says immediately you can feel the difference in your health and wellness when driving on the freeway because you arent breathing the exhaust of countless other cars, the asbestos from their brake pads, the burning chemicals on the hot surfaces of the engine. Diesel exhaust is even worse.
Persistent Free Radicals
In science, it is known that free radicals only last a short time in the body with reaction times as short as a billionth of a second is how long it takes to gain or lose an electron. But scientists have now discovered, persistent free radicals where a free radical is waiting to gain or lose an electron and damage something somewhere. These come from coal burning or automobiles unregulated in Maylasia or wherever and floats over here where days to weeks later, it is still a free radical. This is in the air coming from all the countries, all of the cities, all of the time. Thats a major player. Diesel has a lot more of these damaging effects and it happens as particles and in these diesel particles are these damaging persistent free radicals. Try to avoid diesel smoke.
Air Pollutants
coming from all sorts of unregulated places in the home, burning wood in the fireplace, having your gas stove on, burnt food all create a tremendous amount of free radicals. [outdoor grilling; blackened food]
Pesticides, herbicides, chlorinated tap water, pool water, excessive exercise actually creates a huge amount of free radicals.
Exercise
several studies have shown that running is a huge oxidative stress on the body and damages not only cells throughout the body measurably. It kills mitochondria and damages DNA. DNA damage happens on a regular basis. Exercise, sun, and other things damage DNA and we have DNA repair enzymes, but what they found with half marathon running, as an example, and even in hobby runners for shorter distances is that there was significant damage to DNA that didnt repair itself in the usual time.
When DNA is damaged, there are a lot of serious, and maybe catastrophic consequences so look up running and oxidative stress, running and DNA damage on PubMed. I dont think you should be running much.
[From another webinar: It is observed that those doing continual high rates of endurance exercise suffer more from oxidative stress. Runners often look much older than their age because of the free-radical damage. If the visual effect of free-radical damage is obvious, then consider the internal damage that you cant see.]
Diet
is a huge source of oxidative stress because of all the oxidized lipids
This is an important point. All the oxidized fats that we consume all the time pan-fried foods (high heat) you put your healthy something in a pan and fry it in olive oil its still fried food. The surface temperature of the underside of the pan hundreds and hundreds of degrees way beyond the level that it takes to oxidize the olive oil and then those oxidized free radical lipids go straight down the hatch right to your liver, everything in your body so it is just not good to ever cook anything in oil no matter how deep or shallow. Steam veggies with water in the pan along with the chicken; find alternative ways but dont cook fats in a pan.
Blackened foods brown is questionable but if black thats a carcinogen. That food, now blackened is known by the World Health Organization to be involved in tumorigenesis. (oudoor grilling)
If you must use oil in cooking, he prefers coconut oil which is completely saturated versus olive oil.
Radiation
Avoid CT scans, etc. unless you really need them and dont prescribe them unless perhaps they are needed. Im not giving medical advice or telling you to ignore your doctor but sometimes X-rays are not necessary. Sometimes CT scans are not necessary. We all agree that radiation causes cancer. Minimize wherever possible. Ultrasound causes oxidative stress .and for those of you who are U/S techs, if you hold it in one place for too long, the patient will say oh thats hot that causes huge cellular oxidative stress on the inside. Recent studies have found that not only does U/S damage tissues via heating and oxidative stress, it produces birth defects. Look this up on PubMed and think about U/S as something you would not just do but do when you really, really need it.
MRI
again huge molecular derangement the rearranging and dearranging of molecules with MRI because of the extremely powerful electro-magnetic field produced many, many, many times greater than what the body can tolerate safely. So yes there is no ionizing radiation but now science is discovering other things to worry about.
[Additional support for the efficacy of nutrient protection from ionizing is found in an article, Protect your DNA from CT Scans and Xrays
which notes that the main culprit is computed tomography (CT) scans which exposes patients to the equivalent amount of radiation received by atomic bomb survivors in the low-dose range. Published scientific studies document that these excessive amounts of radiation will result in catastrophic numbers of new cancers due to DNA mutations. The report gives an analysis of recent studies showing protective properties of various nutrients](7)
Overheating as in Sauna - can produce massive oxidative stress.
High-pressure tanning beds
where you get a tan in one minute;.15-20 minutes, you get a tan like you were out in the sun for two days immediately overwhelms the anti-oxidant capacity of your skin leaving your DNA open for mutation and other types of cell damage. Avoid high pressure tanning beds as they will damage your skin in such a way where you may lose the ability to form vitamin D correctly.
REDUCING OXIDATIVE STRESS IN THE BODY
What can we do?
Immediately get proper air filtration for your homes and offices because a large amount of the oxidants and terrible pollutants to which you are being exposed are in the air .even if you dont live near a road or in a city. Very important to make sure the filtration you get removes gases.
California and other states have outlawed air cleaners that produce ozone so if any of you are doing that, there is a massive amount of science suggesting that ozone is bad news to be producing inside your house. I like Austin Air Healthmate Plus 400. Very high tech. Removes the types of gasses; not just particles.
Water filtration If I could show you the list of whats in tap water it is unbelievable that we are still being fed tap water just multiple carcinogens and neurological harm and reproductive effects and so on in most municipal tap water. Nothing that uses electricity to filter the water- just a filter. The one we like in my office is Aquasana.
These are so important air and water filtration, I often tell people who come to see me that if they have limited funds or cant come in that often, then go do the filtration first and then when set up in your house, come back to see me because then antioxidants I recommend you take will be able to work better. Thats how serious those two issues are.
If its CoQ10 or air filtration, I often say air filtration and Ill see you in two months when your bank account recovers. Thats how important it is.
FAVORITE ANTIOXIDANTS STARTING WITH ENDOGENOUS FIRST
1. Coenzyme Q10 is killed by the environment. And I have never seen a healthy level at any age in very young children to senior citizens. I have never seen a healthy level of Coenzyme Q10 ever in one patient who wasnt actually taking it supplementally.
The only way you can determine if youve got the CoQ10 level right for your patient is by testing the level. There is no right or wrong dose. You really have to test it and I would suggest Lab Corp as we are shooting for a level of 7 to 8 and Quest Labs stops at 4.
When you take CoQ and Alpha lipoic together, it also recharges glutathione very effectively so there is less concern about having to take glutathione if you get enough CoQ and lipoic.
2. Alpha lipoic acid
3. Vitamin D is an antioxidant. He prefers to give it topically and has a special protocol for doing that. Oral is absolutely fine as well. He says not greater than 2000 in a sitting with food.
4. Melatonin
5. Lycopene is one of his favorites because it protects both outer and inner cell membranes.
6. Balancing hormones as every hormone functions as an anti-oxidant
EXOGENOUS ANTIOXIDANTS include Clove, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Thyme, Garlic, Green Tea with lots of EGCG, lots of clean water because its Hydrogen and hydrogen is one of the bodys main a/o sources.
ROUTINE TESTS
Uric Acid high or low levels mean oxidative stress no questions asked; it just is according to science uric acid is an oxidative stress marker
Bilirubin again high or low
Cholesterol when its high, its almost always 99 out of 100 times an indication of oxidative stress
LDL levels - LDL carries CoQ10, lycopene and other antioxidants to the tissues so why in the world would I want to stand in the way of someone making LDL when that LDL is going somewhere delivering antioxidants and other benefits to the target location? Something to think about.
Iron can be a huge oxidant so compare it to ferritin or tranferrin and make sure the ratio is correct so you dont have too much iron sitting around unprotected.
Ferritin -
Transferrin
CRP always, always, always goes down when you give enough antioxidants. Recent test showed a women with an 11 going down to .2 with antioxidants.
Homocysteine
Blood tests that are a very direct measure of Oxidative Stress are auto-antibodies of any variety. It may sound outlandish, but go look it up.
Diet richly colored fruits and vegetables have a ton of antioxidants that whats giving them the color. Adequate protein is very important to control oxidative stress. Cool-processed Whey protein for those who use dairy is good because it raises glutathione and has many other benefits.
And repeating for diet adequate hydration.
LIFESTYLE CHANGES
Getting rid of the offenders
- get rid of chemicals use only organic deodorizers and deodorant on your body
-organic natural cleaners and disinfectants essential oils, colloidal silver instead of chemical disinfectants such as Lysol. Spraying Lysol in your vicinity is asking for DNA mutation and hoping that 10 years from now you dont have a tumor from it.
Use organic but they still may sneak certain chemicals in and call it organic they call it preservatives to get around it.
Go to Skin Deep cosmetic data base non-profit website run by a company The Environmental Working Group . Their data base allows you to enter names of your skin care products, shampoos, hair conditioners, straighteners, make up, etc. and they show what studies have been done on the ingredients and if its likely to cause you an illness. You can also enter individual ingredients.
Remember organic doesnt mean chemical free so actually read the label to see if there are items that sound like chemicals.
ORGANIC FOOD
Its not always guaranteed to be free of pesticides for various reasons even if its certified organic but you do have a higher chance of having organic food.
Remember that tomatoes, shipped in a truck on the road, those diesel exhaust fumes are falling all over the tomatoes on the way to your grocer and even in an organic farm sitting at the side of a major freeway all of the road dust is settling on the same produce. So always, always wash your produce more than you think you need to with an organic based vegetable cleaner like Castile soap. Just strongly dilute Castile soap in water and use that. Even then, its probably still not enough, but it does help some.
NO TAP WATER unless you are absolutely dehydrated. Tap water is just a gateway to illness.
DRY CLEANERS are using chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects and so on. One of the methods is through oxidative stress.
Look for a dry cleaner that uses organic cleaning or carbon dioxide.
Those are the safest I can find.
LAUNDRY DETERGENTS get organic, chemical free. He uses soap nuts in the washer come from India a fruit that makes a sudsy solution in the water. Organic dryer sheets versus the typical dryer sheets.
EXERCISE - Lastly on lifestyle changes that can reduce oxidative stress No more than 2 days of exercise in a row before taking at least one day off because you will deplete your antioxidants and become subject to everything you are exposed to in the environment. (Unless you have a paying ****to do that then you have to make that decision).
Very big deal--over-exercising. You wont burn fat right, you wont have nice firm, tight muscles, you will be tired, you will deplete your neurotransmitters and exhaust your adrenals all kinds of things happen; you will be a sitting duck out on the freeway because you depleted your antioxidant stores and ability to make antioxidants from chronically over-exercising. 2 days on and at least one day off.
NATURAL SUN EXPOSURE
Last try to get small amounts of sun while you build up to a greater amount of sunlight since the sun causes a natural production of internal antioxidants and not just in the skin. Very important to get what we are lacking called sun. and not to the point where you burn but get some and build up to a higher level of exposure tolerance realizing that early man was running round naked all the time. So imagine running around, all the time, completely naked, what kind of vitamin D level people had back then and you can understand what were talking about here. We are chronically sun-starved. Again, if your doctor has told you to stay out of the sun, maybe we three should get on the phone for a chat about some new findings. Get some sun exposure without sunblock unless your doctor has told you to wear that because sunscreen blocks the formation of vitamin D and it blocks the formation of melanin which is an antioxidant not just something that makes your skin tan.
End
By now you are probably on overload for this topic. My notes continue, but this covers the main points.
The Coenzyme Q10 post will follow shortly, (I hope)
Jackie
SOURCES:
(1)Mark Hyman, MD.
Ultra-Wellness
Biologic Tune-up Program
[drhyman.com]
(2) A theory for the potassium/sodium ratio in atrial fibrillation
E. Waller
[www.afibbers.org]
(3) [www.lef.org]
(4) VanWagoner
Circulation. 2001 Jul 10;104(2):174-80.
Impaired myofibrillar energetics and oxidative injury during human atrial fibrillation. Mihm MJ, Yu F, Carnes CA, Reiser PJ, McCarthy PM, Van Wagoner DR, Bauer JA.
PMID: 11447082 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
(5)Copper The Missing Link?
[www.afibbers.org]
(6) Tony Perrone, PhD, CNC
14724 Ventura Blvd
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Webinar - Courtesy Designs for HealthMarch 10, 2010.
(7) [www.lef.org]
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Mike Harris
Re: Oxidative Stress/Cellular Damage Affects Everyone March 14, 2011 06:44AM |
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Hans Larsen
Re: Oxidative Stress/Cellular Damage Affects Everyone March 15, 2011 09:49AM |
Jackie,
Thank you for posting this valuable information regarding oxidative stress and the effect it has on our health. While I agree that most exogenous sources of oxidative stress are detrimental I think the statement: Overheating as in sauna can produce massive oxidative stress needs clarification. I would certainly like to see a medical reference that supports the assertion that saunas produce massive oxidative stress with the implied negative effects on health.
Japanese researchers have done extensive research on the benefits of saunas, both conventional and far-infrared. The conclusion of one such study is: These results suggest that repeated sauna therapy may protect against oxidative stress, which leads to the prevention of atherosclerosis.
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Other Japanese researchers report that far-infrared sauna therapy is effective in the treatment of fibromyalgia.
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Also in Japan, researchers found that far-infrared therapy decreases oxidative stress in heart failure patients.
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Finns, who have a longer life-expectancy than do Americans and Canadians, have used saunas to improve their health and well-being for thousands of years and some of the benefits are outlined here:
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Finally, sauna therapy (hyperthermia) is widely used in Germany for cancer treatment and was discussed in the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients in June 2004.
[Findarticles.com]
So, I would suggest that Dr. Perrones implication that sauna therapy is detrimental is just plain wrong. When accompanied by proper hydration it is safe and beneficial for most people unless they have suffered a recent heart attack or have instable angina pectoris or severe aortic stenosis.
Hans
Thank you for posting this valuable information regarding oxidative stress and the effect it has on our health. While I agree that most exogenous sources of oxidative stress are detrimental I think the statement: Overheating as in sauna can produce massive oxidative stress needs clarification. I would certainly like to see a medical reference that supports the assertion that saunas produce massive oxidative stress with the implied negative effects on health.
Japanese researchers have done extensive research on the benefits of saunas, both conventional and far-infrared. The conclusion of one such study is: These results suggest that repeated sauna therapy may protect against oxidative stress, which leads to the prevention of atherosclerosis.
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Other Japanese researchers report that far-infrared sauna therapy is effective in the treatment of fibromyalgia.
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Also in Japan, researchers found that far-infrared therapy decreases oxidative stress in heart failure patients.
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Finns, who have a longer life-expectancy than do Americans and Canadians, have used saunas to improve their health and well-being for thousands of years and some of the benefits are outlined here:
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Finally, sauna therapy (hyperthermia) is widely used in Germany for cancer treatment and was discussed in the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients in June 2004.
[Findarticles.com]
So, I would suggest that Dr. Perrones implication that sauna therapy is detrimental is just plain wrong. When accompanied by proper hydration it is safe and beneficial for most people unless they have suffered a recent heart attack or have instable angina pectoris or severe aortic stenosis.
Hans
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Re: Oxidative Stress/Cellular Damage Affects Everyone March 15, 2011 10:02AM |
Registered: 6 years ago Posts: 18,881 |
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