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Inflammation

Alzheimer’s disease, inflammation, stress and candida: Dr. Rudy Tanzi at IHS 2016

March 4, 2016 By Trudy Scott 17 Comments

ihs-1

I spent last week in New York city at the Integrative Healthcare Symposium Annual Conference listening to some truly brilliant speakers and would like to share some highlights from the wonderful presentation by Rudolph Tanzi, PhD : What Can Alzheimer’s Disease Teach Us About the Brain, Mind, and Self?

Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is the Vice-Chair of Neurology and Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, and serves as the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. 

Dr. Tanzi co-discovered three of the first Alzheimer’s disease genes and has identified several others in the Alzheimer’s Genome Project, which he directs. He also discovered the Wilson’s disease gene and participated in the discovery of several other neurological disease genes.

The focus of his research is in identifying and characterizing the genetic and environmental factors involved in neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease and autism.

Dr. Tanzi shared this fundamental information:

  • the Alzheimer’s disease pathology begins in all of us after the age of 40
  • two thirds of those with Alzheimer’s disease are female
  • and women are especially susceptible after menopause  
  • head injuries increase the risk
  • these genes predispose us to the disease: APP, PSEN1, PSEN2 and APOE

Most of the above apply to me (I know I have the APOE gene) but I’m less concerned about Alzheimer’s disease that I have ever been and this is based on what was shared later in his presentation.

ihs-2

Dr. Tanzi’s whole presentation was fascinating and the section on fungi/candida, although concerning, was promising because we can do something about candida. This is the paper he shared: Different Brain Regions are Infected with Fungi in Alzheimer’s Disease with this question: Are clinical microbial pathogens triggering Alzheimer’s disease?

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It was really interesting to hear that

  • the amyloid is an antimicrobial agent in the brain and provides protection against the candida/fungi
  • and that that the amyloid plaques also provide protection against Borellia, periodontal bugs, Herpes Simplex 1 and other infectious agents

What was most encouraging was this:

  • your brain can handle tons of amyloid plaques and tangles and yet not develop Alzheimer’s disease.
  • the big deciding factor seems to be inflammation
  • “resilient brains” had plaques, no inflammation and no Alzheimer’s disease!

So these are some of my thoughts:

  • Tanzi did share that many people with Alzheimer’s disease suffer from depression and agitation. Here is a paper I retrieved; it does state that depression is worse when benzodiazepines have been used and we know benzodiazepines have been found to contribute to dementia so we need to consider this too.
  • We also know anxiety is a factor in Alzheimer’s disease and this study “showed that anxiolytic behavior…is predominantly due to cox-2 mediated neuroinflammation induced neurodegeneration in the brain.”
  • Some of the same underlying causes of anxiety and depression seem to be underlying factors when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease – like candida and inflammation – and there is something we can do about this. We can get rid of the candida and can use natural methods to reduce inflammation starting with eating an anti-inflammatory diet with wild oily fish, no gluten, no sugar and reduced carbs.    

Dr. Tanzi also shared these for preventing Alzheimer’s disease:

  • Social engagement (this is why addressing pyroluria/social anxiety is important – interestingly zinc, vitamin B6 and evening primrose oil are anti-inflammatory)
  • Learning new things
  • Reducing emotional stress and deep sleep (this is where my work with the amino acids comes in – interestingly I found this study that discusses how enhancing GABA signaling can prevent cognitive decline in mice with the apoE4 gene)
  • Exercise (also so beneficial in anxiety and depression)
  • And nutrients like ashwaganda and cat’s claw (to address stress and kill infections/candida)

Clearly I have more reading and researching to do! As you can tell I love putting all the puzzle pieces together.

I’ve also got more to share from Dr. Tanzi’s talk and will do so next week. Stay tuned for more information on his “three- dimensional human stem cell-derived neural culture system that recapitulates Alzheimer’s disease plaque and tangle pathology.”

Feel free to ask questions and share your thoughts in the comments section.

 

Filed Under: Candida, Events, Inflammation, Stress Tagged With: Alzheimer’s disease, candida, Dr. Rudy Tanzi, Inflammation, integrative healthcare symposium, stress

The Anxiety Summit – Psychoneuroimmunology, the new psychiatry

November 5, 2014 By Trudy Scott 9 Comments

Kelly Brogan

Dr. Kelly Brogan, MD. Holistic women’s health psychiatry was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Psychoneuroimmunology, the new psychiatry

  • The role of inflammation in anxiety and depression
  • Hormones and where the endocrine system fits in
  • Where inflammation comes from
  • What a healthy microbiome looks like
  • Natural lifestyle interventions to reverse symptoms and favorite nutraceuticals
  • Why psychiatrists don’t know about this

Here are some snippets from our interview:

What psychoneuroimmunology refers to is essentially the inherent inter-connectedness between multiple systems. So, it’s about no longer looking at psychiatry as a head up phenomenon, which at best can result in limited outcomes and at worst, can be quite dangerous. And what psychoneuroimmunology implies is that there is a relationship between neurology – so, between brain science – and the immune system. It is sometimes called psychoneuroendocrinology – it also sort of ropes in the gut and the endocrine system with the implication being that you cannot treat one without knowledge about the others. So, I think it’s very exciting and really is a term that embodies functional medicine, or naturopathy at its best.

What many are speaking about is something called the cytokine model, which has been around since 1991, the first paper hypothesizing about this model. So, it’s been a growing literature for some time. And what it refers to is essentially it looks at depression or anxiety, for example, as this non-specific sort of fever that tells us actually very little about what’s causing the body to react, but tells us that there’s is an expression of imbalance and that the body is working to recalibrate. So, there’s some sort of stressor or triggers or assault and the compensatory response on the part of the body is what we are seeing as these psychiatric symptoms.

Cytokines in the blood, or inflammatory messengers, such as CRP, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha are predictive and linearly related to depression and anxiety, especially in women.

Here is Dr. Brogan’s wonderful blog post on the topic of Psychoneuroimmunology, the new Psychiatry

What is driving this inflammation? How does it get kicked off? And how does it induce depression? With the limited clinical applications and revelations that came with the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2002, we have begun to focus on where we have outsourced our physiologic functions.

The microbiome has become an important consideration, and particularly, the gut, which houses at least 10 times as many human cells as there are in our bodies, and 150 times as many genes as are in our genome. These microbes control many vital operations and are responsible for synthesis of neuroactive and nutritional compounds, for immune modulation, and for inflammatory signaling.

Here is one of the studies on how traditional diets can impact the microbiome: Intestinal microbiota, probiotics and mental health: from Metchnikoff to modern advances: Part II – contemporary contextual research

researchers reported less potentially pathogenic bacteria, yet a far greater degree of biodiversity and microbial richness in rural Africans living a traditional lifestyle and consuming traditional high fiber foods

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com

Filed Under: Anxiety and panic, Depression, Food and mood, Inflammation, The Anxiety Summit 2 Tagged With: anxiety, cytokines, depression, Inflammation, Kelly Brogan, Psychoneuroimmunology, the anxiety summit, Trudy Scott

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