Marc Joseph Nutrition - Blog

Vitamin B12 is a critical nutrient in helping to maintain cognitive function, as one of its primary roles is to aid in the formation of myelin, the insulation that lines nerve cells, such as brain cells. It’s also a key nutrient in a process called methylation, which helps control the expression of genes and proteins that are involved in many important chemical pathways in the body. An imbalance in methylation may also play a role in cancer development.

Deficiency of vitamin B12 is most commonly observed in older adults, partly because of dietary changes (less meat intake), but also as the result of impaired absorption. When foods containing vitamin B12 (e.g., meat) are eaten, intrinsic factor, a substance secreted by cells in the stomach, binds to vitamin B12. That compound travels to the end of the small intestine, where it separates and vitamin B12 is absorbed. If for some reason the stomach or gastrointestinal tract is damaged (e.g., as in atrophic gastritis) or stomach acid production is slowed (e.g., with medications such as proton pump inhibitors), this multi-step absorption process may be interrupted.

Once vitamin B12 is absorbed, utilization in the body and methylation pathways may also be impaired by the presence of heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, and aluminum.

Several laboratory measures are used together (by thorough practitioners) to test for vitamin B12 deficiency, including:

• Serum vitamin B12
• Methylmalonic acid (MMA)
• Homocysteine

In a recent paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found that high MMA values (suggestive of vitamin B12 deficiency) were associated with significantly lower scores on a standard cognitive assessment tool, especially in the areas of language comprehension and expression.

Low serum folic acid levels also were associated with poorer cognitive function scores. Folic acid, along with vitamin B12, is essential in the proper functioning of methylation pathways, which often are not working correctly in conditions such as cognitive decline, autism, and ADD/ADHD.

Lest you think that these deficiencies only affect a small percentage of people, 43 percent of the non-demented individuals age 69 and older in the study had MMA values that suggested significant vitamin B12 deficiency.

It’s critically important to make sure that both vitamin B12 and folate levels are maintained at adequate levels to reduce the risk of cognitive decline. You can learn more about treatment approaches for preventing and slowing cognitive decline here.

It’s long been suspected that viral infections, such as those caused by Epstein-Barr virus and cytomegalovirus, play a primary role in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Recently, in a small, preliminary clinical trial, researchers at Stanford University found that chronic fatigue patients treated with prescription anti-viral medications for a relatively long period of time (6 months) experienced significant improvement (21 out of 25 treated patients). Now, the same researchers are going to perform a larger, randomized study in an attempt to replicate the study’s results.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome currently affects more than 1 million people in the U.S. alone, and results in debilitating, long-term fatigue. Other common symptoms include insomnia, digestive problems, swollen lymph nodes, memory loss, inability to concentrate, and depression.

The condition often, but not always, begins after the onset of flu-like symptoms, which suggests that infections may play a role. Interestingly, the researchers in the study above found that chronic fatigue sufferers who did not experience flu-like symptoms prior to the onset of the condition, did NOT improve significantly after the anti-viral treatment. Perhaps there are different subgroups of affected individuals.

There is also clinical evidence that suggests viral infections are involved in many cases of autism. This factor would make sense, as impaired immune function is present in that condition as well. Many parents and clinicians have seen improvement in autistic children when given prescription and over-the-counter (OTC)* anti-virals, especially in combination with other treatments, such as methyl-B12, proteolytic enzymes, and heavy metal detoxification.

* Olive leaf extract is a potent and often helpful OTC anti-viral substance.

It’s unclear exactly what is causing the immune impairment in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and autistic cases, but heavy metal toxicity is a primary culprit. There is often significant symptom overlap in heavy metal toxicity and chronic fatigue cases.

You can learn more about treatment approaches for both Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and autism here and here.

David Kirby, author of the excellent book Evidence of Harm that discusses the role of the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal in autism, has a great post (There is No Autism Epidemic) on The Huffington Post blog.

Kirby notes that there is a group of people who call themselves “neurodiverse” and appear to be high-functioning autistics (often described as Asperger’s Syndrome). This group strongly resists the autism label and the stigma associated with it. Kirby says that’s fine and entirely understandable.

What isn’t ok, in both Kirby’s opinion and mine, is saying, as neurodiversity proponents do, that autism doesn’t represent a significant and widespread health problem, that children with much more severe forms of autism are “neurodiverse” and should be allowed to just live “as is” without treatment. Kirby goes on to list some of the common traits of these affected children, e.g.:

I am talking about kids who begin talking and then, suddenly, never say another word.

I’m talking about kids who may never learn to read, write, tie their shoes or fall in love.

I’m talking about kids who sometimes wail in torture at three in the morning because something inside them hurts like a burning coal, but they can’t say what or where it is.

I’m talking about kids who can barely keep food in their inflamed, distressed guts, and when they do, it winds up in rivers of diarrhea or swirls of feces spread on a favorite carpet or pet (no one said this kind of “autism” was pretty).

Kirby minces no words in calling out the severity of the situation:

American kids are in huge trouble. One in six has a learning disability. Asthma, diabetes, allergies and arthritis are ravaging their bodies in growing numbers. And little of this is due to “better diagnostics” or “greater awareness.”

It can only be attributed to radical changes in our environment over the last 10-20 years. There is something, or more likely some things in our modern air, water, food and drugs that are making genetically susceptible children sick, and we need to find out what they are.

Mercury remains a logical candidate for contributing to “autism spectrum disorders,” either alone or in combination with other environmental insults. Mercury exposure can kill brain cells. It can cause loss of speech and eye contact, digestive and immune dysfunction, social withdrawal and anxiety, and repetitive and self-injurious behaviors.

Go check out the entire post. It’s a good read. The reader comments are interesting as well.

It’s clear that what today are called autism spectrum disorders are really biomedical disorders strongly shaped by environmental factors, such as toxin exposure, and involve significant damage to the nervous, immune, and gastrointestinal systems. Surely, both scientists and practitioners will continue to push forward in 2007 to better understand the environmental triggers and to refine biomedical treatment approaches.

There’s already quite a bit that can be done today using dietary, supplementation, and detoxification interventions to help individuals affected with autism and ADD/ADHD heal and recover function. You can read more about these approaches here.

With many baby boomers about to retire, maintaining independence and the ability to live an active, engaged retirement are top of mind. A recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that deficiencies in several micronutrients may increase the risk for having difficulty performing daily tasks as people age.

Specifically, the study looked at women over the age of 65 and found that deficiencies in selenium, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 were all associated with significantly greater risk of experiencing disability, which was defined as self-reported difficulty in performing two or more activities such as bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring and eating.

Selenium is an essential trace mineral that is used by the body in important antioxidant-related enzymes. Selenium also plays an important role in immune function and may help to prevent the onset of certain cancers, such as prostate cancer.

Vitamin B6 and B12 are involved in important enzyme reactions, nervous system function, and help to maintain low homocysteine levels. High homocysteine levels are associated with oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, vascular diseases (heart disease, stroke), and, in particular, with decline of cognitive function.

Nutritionally, your best bet for avoiding the potential problems highlighted by this study are to follow a good diet, including mostly whole foods, lots of fresh vegetables & fruits, healthy fats, and lean protein sources.

Also, supplementation with a broad-based multi-vitamin/mineral containing at least 200 mcg selenium and the B vitamin equivalent of a B-50 complex, may help to ensure that you get adequate amounts of these essential nutrients on a regular basis and to prevent/delay the onset of disability. It’s important to select supplements containing both adequate and well-absorbed forms of the different nutrients.

A recent New York Times article highlighted what has become a growing trend over the last few years: giving multiple psychiatric medications to children:

[A] growing number of children and teenagers in the United States are taking not just a single drug for discrete psychiatric difficulties but combinations of powerful and even life-threatening medications to treat a dizzying array of problems.

Last year in the United States, about 1.6 million children and teenagers — 280,000 of them under age 10 — were given at least two psychiatric drugs in combination, according to an analysis performed by Medco Health Solutions at the request of The New York Times. More than 500,000 were prescribed at least three psychiatric drugs. More than 160,000 got at least four medications together, the analysis found.

The numbers are amazing, aren’t they?

The article notes that there is evidence that suggests individual medications may be useful for certain conditions, but that there is “virtually no scientific evidence to justify this multiplication of pills.”

The majority of the child prescriptions are for ADD/ADHD and depression (click image to expand):

What’s going on here? Stimulants, antidepressants, antipsychotics and anticonvulsants in young children? Why the greater use of these serious drugs (many with significant risk for side effects)? Most importantly, why the increasing prevalence of conditions in children requiring their use?

I think dietary factors and toxin exposure likely play significant roles in the greater prevalence of these conditions and the use of these drugs in children. Taking multiple prescription drugs without a closer look at potential root causes doesn’t seem to make much sense.

The behavior of many children (and adults) with attention deficit disorders often significantly improves with a shift to a whole foods diet that eliminates chemical additives. For others, exposure to toxins, such as those found in some vaccines and in the environment at large, may be an underlying cause. Safely reducing a child’s toxic body burden may help to improve the situation.

You can read more about a better approach to ADD/ADHD that attempts to identify and address underlying root causes here.

Beginning this year, 200,000 members of the U.S. military will be required to get the anthrax vaccine or lose their jobs.

The Pentagon is reviving its mandatory anthrax vaccinations despite allegations that the shots have contributed to as many as 23 deaths and sickened hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of soldiers.

How many of them will have a similar experience as James Francis?:

[M}erchant seaman James Francis and his mates got an ultimatum: Take anthrax and smallpox vaccinations or lose your jobs.

Francis’ Seattle attorney, Russell Williams, described the shipboard scene the next day off the isle of Crete as: “Wham, bam. ‘Get in line. Take your shots.’”

Within days of taking the two shots, Francis’ feet began to tingle and burn. When he later took the second in a series of six anthrax shots, his health slid downhill. Since then, the 45-year-old messmate from Las Vegas has fought a rare nervous system disease known as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, along with chronic pain, pneumonia and a life-threatening blood clot.

Members of the military often have the additional problem of receiving multiple vaccinations on the same day (some of which contain the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal). Is it any wonder that soldiers develop neuro-immunological and auto-immune diseases at such high rates?

To-date, the FDA has recorded more than 4,700 reports related to anthrax shots over the last 16 years, but acknowledges that the reports will “inevitably be underreported.” One doctor quoted in the article above notes that she alone has treated approximately 2,000 cases.

There is a little recourse for military personnel if a negative vaccination reaction occurs. Vaccine makers cannot be sued, and military personnel are prohibited from suing the federal government.

The controversial anthrax vaccine is called BioThrax, and its use and potential negative effects have been debated for years:

In 2004, lawyers for sick soldiers won a court injunction blocking the mandatory shots until the Food and Drug Administration reviewed the license of Maryland-based vaccine manufacturer Emergent BioSolutions. In December 2005, the FDA declared the vaccine safe and restored the license.

Despite testimony from military doctors regarding negative anthrax vaccination effects, the Pentagon decided in October 2006 to reinstate mandatory smallpox and anthrax shots. This despite the fact that:

Numerous public health experts believe BioThrax causes a range of problems, particularly among women and people prone to autoimmune diseases. They list Guillain-Barre, which can kill or paralyze; other neurological disorders; diabetes; arthritis; chronic fatigue syndrome; chronic muscle and joint pain; respiratory ailments; vision problems; memory loss, and depression …

… [A]s recently as May, the Government Accountability Office said that the vaccine’s long-term safety “has not been studied.”

In December 2006, the lawyers who succeeded in getting the earlier injunction filed another suit seeking a new injunction.

It’s truly a shame that the members of our military are being used as guinea pigs in this vaccination experiment. Can you blame soldiers like Retired Army Capt. B. David Hodge for saying:

“I love my country,” Hodge said. “It’s my government I don’t trust.”

Surely, he’s not alone in that thought.

China’s black gold rush:

[T]he Chinese plan to build no fewer than 500 new coal-fired power stations, adding to some 2,000, most of them unmodernised, that spew smoke, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere …

And its effects on China:

… It is often darkness at noon in Datong, just 160 miles west of Beijing, where vehicles drive in daytime with their headlights on to grope through the miasma.

One of the four filthiest towns in China, it stands at the heart of the nation’s coal belt in Shanxi province, a region that mines more coal every year than Britain, Russia and Germany combined.

Cancer rates are soaring, child health is a time bomb and the population, many of whom are heavy cigarette smokers, are paying the price for China’s breakneck rush to riches and industrialisation — an estimated 400,000 premature deaths nationwide because of pollution every year …

Some Chinese officials acknowledge the problems:

Pan Yue, the outspoken head of the government’s state environmental protection bureau.

“Acid rain falls on one third of China’s land, most of our biggest seven rivers are poisoned, a quarter of our people have no clean drinking water and a third of them breathe polluted air”

In short, it’s a big environmental mess for China.

However, as noted in this Discover Magazine article (Blown Away), it’s also a significant problem for other countries, such as Japan and the United States. Dust clouds created by storms in arid regions of Asia carry the particulates, bacteria, viruses, soot, acids, radioactive isotopes, and pesticides in the air over China across the sea. The contents of the dust clouds then settle on the land of other countries. For example, it’s estimated that:

Roughly half the mercury contamination in the United States comes from Asia; much of it may arrive aboard particles in atmospheric dust clouds.

Here’s a satellite photo of an April 2002 dust cloud extending over Japan:

Thus far, China officials have been unable to slow the growth in pollution:

Beijing has proved unable to compel local leaders to spend money on filters that could cut sulphur emissions from smoke stacks by 95%. Nor will they buy new western technology for power stations, which could operate more cleanly and efficiently.

And, like the U.S., China has not signed the Kyoto Treaty that would limit emissions of climate-changing gases.

Steps will clearly need to be taken to curb the pollution. Otherwise, other countries will experience the negative health effects observed in China — if they haven’t already.