PQQ and health.
A Breakthrough in Nutritional Discoveries!
I don’t believe that in all my years of writing articles about nutrition have I ever been able to talk about a true newly discovered nutrient, until now. However today I am very excited about a discovery that may have implications that apply to all of us on serious issues such as aging, Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, memory, and almost all chronic diseases. It involves an ingredient that only recently become available in 2010. Before I explain the new discovery I must give you a little background on our body.
The sad truth regarding the majority of todays treatments and thinking on health is that it is focused primarily on only “treating symptoms” and the goal is almost never to look deeply into why we became unhealthy in the first place. Thankfully there are a few individuals and researchers today who can think outside the box and I believe they will change the future of medicine and health. When I read and listen to experts in all fields of health I find a thousand ideas on how to stay well or regain health, however the truth is that every method we attempt, when distilled down to its basic biochemical process, involved only one structure in the body and that is theindividual cells that makes us a living being. We are nothing but a community of cells that make our bodies run and operate and when I finally realized this it changed everything in my thinking on health. If the individual cell is operating at anything less than ideal, our bodies cannot be optimally healthy and when we finally die, it simply means that so many cells became dysfunctional that the machine stopped running. A cell is in truth nothing but a little organism that has a mouth for food to enter, a detox system to get rid of its waste, and a factory inside that produces it own energy and power. Disable any of these processes and you will start down the path to poor health. When I look at how my body has aged over my life I now know that the energy factory that resides inside every single cell in my body has become less efficient than it was when I was a kid. This energy factory inside the cell is called the mitochondria and is the absolute key to maintaining health, vitality and energy in our bodies. The mitochondria is what takes the nutrition that I eat and drink and transport it inside the cell which turns it into ATP and that becomes basically equivalent to the gasoline that runs an engine. The problem with mitochondria is that it gets damaged very easily by being exposed to anything that is a toxin, stress, infections, nutrient deficiency, etc. By the time we are 90 years old, 95% of our mitochondria is severely damaged compared to almost NO damage in that of a 5 year old. It reminds me closely to a truck I own that has almost 300,000 miles on it and yet when I compare it to my newer truck, the difference is instantly apparent. They both get me to my destination but how they run are radically different.
Up to this point the only way to greatly slow aging and reduce damage to mitochondria is calorie deprivation. Living a life under 1000 calories per day for the rest of my days is not really an option because I truly enjoy eating and I also don’t like weighing 50 pounds less than I presently weigh. However in almost ALL animal studies this treatment is overwhelmingly effective in keeping animals healthy and disease free for a considerable time longer than any other method discovered. This mechanism of action makes the cell able to become more efficient at producing higher levels of quality fuel for the cell to run on and this equates to less disease and more optimal health and vitality and this is all done by maintaining healthy mitochondria.
The exciting news today is that research has shown that a recently isolated natural substance called PQQ, (pyrroloquinoline quinone) can not only protect your mitochondria but actually can REVERSE some of the damage that has occurred over the decades. I seriously cannot fathom the implications of PQQ because up to this point in nutrition it has only been possible to slow damage to the cells but never to turn back the clock.
PQQ is found almost everywhere in the natural world in all plant species and even human milk however humans cannot synthesize it from foods. Findings show that PQQ deficiency in mice results in 30% reduction in the number of mitochondria in the liver yet when given PQQ the mice reversed all their pathological effects and it increased NEW mitochondria which is a key to cellular anti-aging and longevity. Other observed benefits of raising the bodies level of PQQ is that it significantly reduces the size of cerebral brain damage that can occur during a cardiac arrest, stroke, or trauma. Mounting evidence also points to its potent intervention in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s because of its impact on brain cells. Life Extension produces the product and requires two caps per day for therapeutic effects. I know I will be adding this to my list of essential nutrients based on the growing evidence pointing to the fact that no other product ever discovered can accomplish reversal of mitochondrial dysfunction.
'til next time,
ed
I don’t believe that in all my years of writing articles about nutrition have I ever been able to talk about a true newly discovered nutrient, until now. However today I am very excited about a discovery that may have implications that apply to all of us on serious issues such as aging, Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, memory, and almost all chronic diseases. It involves an ingredient that only recently become available in 2010. Before I explain the new discovery I must give you a little background on our body.
The sad truth regarding the majority of todays treatments and thinking on health is that it is focused primarily on only “treating symptoms” and the goal is almost never to look deeply into why we became unhealthy in the first place. Thankfully there are a few individuals and researchers today who can think outside the box and I believe they will change the future of medicine and health. When I read and listen to experts in all fields of health I find a thousand ideas on how to stay well or regain health, however the truth is that every method we attempt, when distilled down to its basic biochemical process, involved only one structure in the body and that is theindividual cells that makes us a living being. We are nothing but a community of cells that make our bodies run and operate and when I finally realized this it changed everything in my thinking on health. If the individual cell is operating at anything less than ideal, our bodies cannot be optimally healthy and when we finally die, it simply means that so many cells became dysfunctional that the machine stopped running. A cell is in truth nothing but a little organism that has a mouth for food to enter, a detox system to get rid of its waste, and a factory inside that produces it own energy and power. Disable any of these processes and you will start down the path to poor health. When I look at how my body has aged over my life I now know that the energy factory that resides inside every single cell in my body has become less efficient than it was when I was a kid. This energy factory inside the cell is called the mitochondria and is the absolute key to maintaining health, vitality and energy in our bodies. The mitochondria is what takes the nutrition that I eat and drink and transport it inside the cell which turns it into ATP and that becomes basically equivalent to the gasoline that runs an engine. The problem with mitochondria is that it gets damaged very easily by being exposed to anything that is a toxin, stress, infections, nutrient deficiency, etc. By the time we are 90 years old, 95% of our mitochondria is severely damaged compared to almost NO damage in that of a 5 year old. It reminds me closely to a truck I own that has almost 300,000 miles on it and yet when I compare it to my newer truck, the difference is instantly apparent. They both get me to my destination but how they run are radically different.
Up to this point the only way to greatly slow aging and reduce damage to mitochondria is calorie deprivation. Living a life under 1000 calories per day for the rest of my days is not really an option because I truly enjoy eating and I also don’t like weighing 50 pounds less than I presently weigh. However in almost ALL animal studies this treatment is overwhelmingly effective in keeping animals healthy and disease free for a considerable time longer than any other method discovered. This mechanism of action makes the cell able to become more efficient at producing higher levels of quality fuel for the cell to run on and this equates to less disease and more optimal health and vitality and this is all done by maintaining healthy mitochondria.
The exciting news today is that research has shown that a recently isolated natural substance called PQQ, (pyrroloquinoline quinone) can not only protect your mitochondria but actually can REVERSE some of the damage that has occurred over the decades. I seriously cannot fathom the implications of PQQ because up to this point in nutrition it has only been possible to slow damage to the cells but never to turn back the clock.
PQQ is found almost everywhere in the natural world in all plant species and even human milk however humans cannot synthesize it from foods. Findings show that PQQ deficiency in mice results in 30% reduction in the number of mitochondria in the liver yet when given PQQ the mice reversed all their pathological effects and it increased NEW mitochondria which is a key to cellular anti-aging and longevity. Other observed benefits of raising the bodies level of PQQ is that it significantly reduces the size of cerebral brain damage that can occur during a cardiac arrest, stroke, or trauma. Mounting evidence also points to its potent intervention in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s because of its impact on brain cells. Life Extension produces the product and requires two caps per day for therapeutic effects. I know I will be adding this to my list of essential nutrients based on the growing evidence pointing to the fact that no other product ever discovered can accomplish reversal of mitochondrial dysfunction.
'til next time,
ed
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