Big Pharma Agrees, Kinda

In a brilliant flash of insight, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center realized that squalamine, originally from shark livers, has anti-viral properties. Seems that, they noticed that sharks don't get many viruses, probably from the lack of great white sharks in the ER. Sharks don't have insurance.

Of course this piece of information has been available to them from the researchers in the supplement industry for decades. There have been numerous studies on shark liver oil:

Arthur, G., and Bittman, R. "The inhibition of cell signaling pathways by antitumor ether lipids." Biochim Biophys Acta 1998 Feb5; 1390(1): 85-102.

Fujiwara, K., et.al. "Cytokinetic and morophologic differences in ovarian cancer cells treated with ET-18-OCH3 and the DNA-interacting agent, etoposide." Anticancer Res 1997 May-Jun; 17(3C): 2159-67.

Hichami, A., et.al. "Modulation of platelet-activating-factor production by incorporation of naturally occurring 1-O-alkylglycerols in phospholipids of human leukemic monocyte-like THP-1 cells."
Eur J Biochem 1997 Dec 1; 250(2): 242-8.

LeBlanc, K., et.al. "1-O-hexadecyl-2-metoxy-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine-a methoxy ether lipid inhibiting platelet activating factor-induced platelet aggregation and neutrophil oxidative metabolism." Biochem Pharmacol 1995 May 26; 49(11): 1577-82.

Pugliese, Peter T. Devour Disease with Shark Liver Oil. Green Bay: Health Information Specialists, 1999.

Pugliese, PT., et.al. "Some biological actions of alkylglycerols from shark liver oil." J Altern Complement Med 1998 Spring:4(1): 87-99.

Robinson, M., et.al. "Inhibition of phorbol ester-stimulated arachidonic acid releases by alkylglycerols." Biochim Biophys Acta 1995 Feb 9: 1254(3): 361-7.

Verdonck, LF., and van Heugten HG. "Ether lipids are effective cytotoxic drugs against multidrug-resistant acute leukemia cells and can act by the induction of apoptosis." Leuk Res 1997 Jan; 21 (1):37-43.

Wang, H. "Differentiation-promoting effect in human colon cancer cells." J Cell Physiol 1999 Feb;178(2): 173-8.

Seems that these studies are not valid because they are for a “supplement”. Now that a pharmaceutical company has made a patentable synthetic version, squalamine bears studying. Of course they are quick to point out that squalamine comes from liver tissue, originally. It is however present in the oil with several other compounds that provide immune support. What I fear they are overlooking is the fact that the virus free sharks have all of these compounds, not just the squalamine. That is usually important to achieve the health benefits desired. Kinda why you have to eat your vegetables, not just “take a pill”.

I am glad they have found a more sustainable way to create squalamine. I have no issue with a company making money selling their products. It is also nice to watch them back away from the scoffing they do towards supplements as well.

This is What They Are Complaining About

I spend a great deal of my limited TV watching time complaining about the uses and side effects of the drugs advertised in commercials. The eye rolling from my wife, corresponding “here we go again” included, the best response I get, she perhaps has heard it too much. I also spend a lot of time railing against the mis-interpretation of DSHEA common in the health and media communities.

That said, when I see a company in the supplement industry acting irresponsibly, I also feel they must be called out.

I recent came across a supplement whose package claims were so vague as to be absurd. It claimed to be an “anabolic hardening agent”. I use a lot of sport supplements and I have still no clue what that means. When a company makes claims that can not be verified on its products, I get suspicious.

Advertising is the cause of most of my problems and here it is again. I uniformly tell people to ignore the front of any packaging and read the ingredients. So I turned the bottle around.

There were just three ingredients in the supplement. A palm tree extract, Bermuda grass extract, and another plant extract that I had never heard of. Time for researcher guru to step up! By the way, researcher guru is not very quick. The studies to justify the ingredients in the product were at the very best “limited”. They were not human or in vitro or just “traditional use” based. In my opinion that is the same as saying “snake oil”.

This is the the kind of thing that give functional supplements a bad name. It makes it easy to believe that supplements are all hooey and hogwash. To be sure, there is false advertising and useless products in any industry, but the supplement industry starts out because of the generally accepted false claims about its products. Step up or step out!

BPI

Solid

Energy Crisis

Wow, I meet a World War II POW camp survivor today. He was imprisoned not far from Dachau. He had some stories to tell!

He came to me because he needed help with selecting a multivitamin that he could take. The VA has him on Coumadin, so the multi cannot contain vitamin K. I am asked about this kind of situation often, so I have some ready suggestions for people to choose from. While we were talking he mentioned how tired he was and was hoping the multi would help his energy levels.

In general, the first thing I suggest to a cardiovascular patient for energy is CoQ10. This vitamin-like compound is part of the Krebs cycle in the body and is vital for energy. While our bodies can produce it, that goes down with age. It is also particularly important to the health of the heart and brain.

CoQ10 has a structure that is similar to vitamin K, however, so taking it with out the direction of his doctor would be hazardous for my new friend. After a quick little bit of research, I had ruled out adaptogens like ginseng and rhodia rosea, both of which are renowned for their energy support. Of course any stimulants were right out.

I decided to take a step back and look at the Krebs cycle again. If we cannot supplement CoQ10, then maybe we can help the other parts of the process along. First up – Magnesium. Nope, it seems Coumadin does not do well in the presence of minerals. Yep, that's right, this drug to treat a person does not do well in the presence of the building block of life. And they say supplements are a con-game!

Turns out, he can supplement with malic acid and D-ribose to support the Krebs cycle, as both of these are not contra- indicated with Coumadin. Fantastic! These are major building blocks to ATP in the body. It took an hour of research, but was more that worth it. I got to help a World War II veteran and a POW camp survivor feel better. No day that has that in it can be bad!

As anybody with joint pain will tell you controlling inflammation is the key to controlling pain. Inflammation is the body's natural response to harmful situations. Stub your toe, it swells. I have personally performed that particular “experiment” more than I would like to, you do not need to test it. Trust me.

Inflammation is part of the healing process, without it wounds would not heal and infections would get worse. Uncontrolled inflammation, however, is associated with many diseases and infirmities. Controlling inflammation also controls the pain your toe is giving you. Don't believe me, watch TV for an hour or two. You will see more than enough commercials about anti-inflammation drugs to change your mind. People do not like being in pain and will pay to make it go away.

What scares me is the non-existent response/outrage to the results of a large study released recently.
Sept. 12, 2011 -- Long-term, regular use of non-aspirinanti-inflammatory painkillers raises the likelihood of developingkidney cancer by more than 50%, a study shows. 

Chronic inflammation is bad. No question, no argument. But cancer is, I think, worse. I tell everyone who asks me for help with this kind of problem to look at systemic enzymes to support a healthy response to inflammation. I use Wobenzyme. I have recommended to my family, and to many of the people who seek me out. My personal experience with product have given me better pain relief than I ever got from the OTC painkillers. Short of the intravenous painkiller I received when my lung popped I have never had faster pain relief. I have observed similar reactions when my family use this same product. Also it very safe for most people. And would seem to be far safer that the OTC drugs available.

What Do You Know

After about four years of misunderstanding and misusing a supplement, I have been schooled!

About 4 years ago I first tried a sports supplement with beta-alanine in it. I within 15 minutes I started to feel the nerves in my skin tingle. It is a prickly feeling that also acts to wake you up. I thought this was the extent to the benefits of the beta-alanine. Sure, I had heard that it was a good alternative to creatine for muscle building, but I never notice much of a difference and creatine is common and effective for muscle production. I also believe that post-workout supplements were more important than pre-workout so I never gave it much thought.

Oops.

This summer I tried Intraxcell fromAthletic Edge Nutrition. I still notice the prickly feeling from the BA but that has gone down over time. After about 3 weeks of consistent supplementation with this product I noticed a significant reduction in muscle fatigue. I am a runner and a cyclist and I have seen a 2 minute improvement in my mile pace while running. I have found that the bar on my pace and distance has been moved well past my previous limits. I had been trying to add about 10% more distance in my run each week. I am easily making that addition and still improving my pace.

Intraxcell is backed by several clinical studies that support its formulation versus other Beta-alanine products in its class. It has several ingredients that also supports its muscle fatigue fighting efforts including NAC. My one problem with Intraxcell stems from the NAC, which comes from a natural sulfur compound. It causes the pills to smell strongly like eggs. I have spoken with Jon Lapolla, from Athletic Edge Nutrition, about this and he assured me that they have worked this problem out of all new product, so I do not expect this to be a problem in the future.

I strongly recommend this product to anyone who is into body shaping of any kind. I find it effective for endurance, MMA, and power lifting types of activities. Follow the dosing instructions on the bottle. The key to your success with this product lies in consistent use.