Category: Natural Health

Go With Your Gut – How To Support Your Gut Microbiome and How This Heals The Body

(Dr. Mercola) More attention than ever is being put on your gut health, and understandably so because 70 to 80 percent of your immune function resides within your gastrointestinal tract. As such, optimizing your gut microbiome is a worthwhile pursuit that will have far-reaching effects on your physical health and emotional well-being.

A first important step toward balancing your gut flora is to eliminate sugar from your diet, especially sugars found in processed foods. Then, you will want to begin eating fermented foods — some examples are kefir, kimchi, natto, sauerkraut and raw grass fed yogurt. A healthy diet, including the consumption of prebiotic foods, influences your health because it helps create an optimal environment for beneficial gut bacteria, while decreasing pathogenic or disease-causing bacteria, fungi and yeast.

Must Read: Fungal Infections – How to Eliminate Yeast, Candida, and Mold Infections For Good

Taking a probiotic or sporebiotic supplement can also be beneficial, especially during and following antibiotic treatment, to restore and promote a healthy microbiome. Many don’t realize your gut bacteria can influence your behavior and gene expression. Gut bacteria have also been shown to play a role with respect to autism, diabetes and obesity.

Mounting scientific evidence continues to suggest a large component of nutrition centers on nourishing the health-promoting bacteria in your body. In doing so, you can keep harmful microbes in check, manage your weight and protect against chronic disease. Given its importance to your overall health, now is the time to “go with your gut!”

What Is Your Gut Microbiome and What Does It Affect?

Research has determined about 100 trillion bacteria comprise your body’s microbiome. However, it is far greater than that as for every bacterium there are at least 10 viruses and fungi living on or inside your body, helping with life-sustaining functions that would not be possible without them. Your microbiome takes shape very early in life.

In fact, if you were delivered via a vaginal birth, you were coated with your mother’s microbes as you passed through the birth canal. More microbes were passed along during breastfeeding, as breast milk contains many gut-nurturing properties.

Must Read: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

During the early years, your family, dietary and environmental exposures contributed to your microbiome in ways that have and will continue to influence your lifelong health. Your microbiome is made up of several distinct areas, including your eyes, genitals, mouth and skin, as well as your intestines, which comprise your gut microbiome. Everyday activities such as brushing your teeth, eating, kissing someone or handling a family pet affect your microbiome. Notably, your gut microbiome has been shown to play a role in:

•Autism: Establishment of normal gut flora in the first few weeks of life is vital to your baby’s immune system. Babies with abnormal gut flora have compromised immune systems and are particularly at risk for developing ADHD, autism and learning disabilities, particularly if they are vaccinated while their gut flora is imbalanced.

•Behavior: A study published in Neurogastroenterology and Motility1 found mice lacking in gut bacteria behave differently from normal mice. Their altered behavior was construed as “high-risk” and was accompanied by neurochemical changes in the brain. It is widely known that your gut serves as your second brain, producing more of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is known to have a positive influence on your mood, than your brain does.

•Diabetes: According to a Danish study,2 the bacterial population in diabetic guts differs from those of nondiabetics. According to researchers, Type 2 diabetes in humans is linked to compositional changes in intestinal microbiota, highlighting the link between metabolic diseases and bacterial populations in the gut.

•Gene expression: Your gut health has been shown to be a very powerful variable of epigenetics, a cutting-edge field of medicine highlighting the role your lifestyle plays with respect to genetic expression. As noted in ScienceDaily:3

“New research is helping to tease out the mechanics of how the gut microbiome communicates with the cells of its host to switch genes on and off. … the study4 … reveals how the metabolites produced by the bacteria in the stomach chemically communicate with cells, including cells far beyond the colon, to dictate gene expression and health in its host.”

•Obesity: Because probiotics may help fight obesity, optimizing your gut flora is an important consideration if you’re struggling to lose weight.

The Importance of Fermented Foods

I often mention the value of fermented foods in helping to “heal and seal” your gut as a means of boosting your health and/or reversing disease. As demonstrated in the video above, culturing vegetables is easy and inexpensive. You can also make your own homemade yogurt. Other examples of fermented foods include kefir, kimchi, natto and sauerkraut. These foods are not only packed with good bacteria, but also are associated with the following health benefits:

Must Read: Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases

•Nutrient rich: Some fermented foods are outstanding sources of essential nutrients such as vitamin K2, which helps prevent osteoporosis and atherosclerosis, also known as hardening of the arteries. Cheese curd is an excellent source of both probiotics and vitamin K2, as are certain fermented foods like natto or vegetables fermented at home using a starter culture of vitamin K2-producing bacteria. Fermented foods also produce many B vitamins.

•Immune system booster: Because up to 80 percent of your immune system is located in your gut, probiotics play a crucial role in keeping your digestive tract operating smoothly. A healthy gut is your first defense against disease and a major factor in helping you maintain optimal health and well-being.

•Powerful detoxifier: Fermented foods are some of the best chelators available. The beneficial bacteria in these foods are highly potent detoxifiers, capable of drawing out a range of toxins and heavy metals from your bloodstream, which are then eliminated through your kidneys.

•Cost-effective: Adding a small amount of fermented food to each meal is cost-effective because it contains 100 times the probiotics of the average supplement. Given that a high-quality probiotic is expensive, you can culture vegetables for a fraction of the cost.

•Natural variety of microflora: If you vary the types of fermented and cultured foods you eat, you’ll benefit from a much wider variety of beneficial bacteria than you could ever receive in supplement form.

Eating Prebiotic Foods Can Help Nourish Your Gut

You can positively impact your friendly gut bacteria by providing them with the nutrients they need to flourish in the form of prebiotics. Prebiotics are found primarily in fiber-rich foods, which is perfect because your good gut bacteria thrive on indigestible fiber. Inulin is one type of water-soluble fiber found in asparagus, garlic, leeks and onions that helps nourish your beneficial gut bacteria.

In lab research5 involving young rats, dietary prebiotics were found to have a significant effect on rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep cycles, which may positively affect your sleep quality. Researchers studying the effect of prebiotics on gut health and REM sleep gave the test animals a diet rich in prebiotics beginning at 3 weeks old, and found:

  • Rats eating prebiotics had an increase in beneficial gut bacteria as compared to the control group6
  • As friendly bacteria metabolize prebiotic fiber, they not only grow and multiply, but also excrete a metabolite beneficial to brain health7
  • The group eating a prebiotic-rich diet spent more time in restful and restorative NREM sleep than those eating the control diet
  • Rats eating prebiotic foods spent more time in REM sleep after being stressed, which is important for promoting recovery8

The study authors said:9 “Given that sufficient NREM sleep and proper nutrition can impact brain development and function, and that sleep problems are common in early life, it is possible that a diet rich in prebiotics started in early life could help improve sleep, support the gut microbiota and promote optimal brain/psychological health.”  The following whole foods help add prebiotic fiber to your diet and improve the health of your microbiome, thus improving your overall health:10,11,12

Must Read: Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet
Apples Asparagus Banana
Beetroot Breast milk Burdock root
Cashews Chicory root Couscous
Fennel bulb Garlic Grapefruit
Green peas Jerusalem artichokes Jicama
Konjac root Leeks Nectarines
Onion Persimmon Pistachios
Pomegranate Savoy cabbage Seaweed
Shallots Snow peas Tamarillo

How Probiotics Can Help

While I highly recommend you obtain most of your nutrients from real food, probiotic supplements can be helpful, especially if you are unable to eat fermented foods. That said, for probiotics to do their job, you need to optimize the conditions where these “good” bacteria will flourish.

The first step is to nourish your microbiome with real food. If you continue to eat a highly processed diet and foods containing added sugars, you’ll only be feeding the potentially pathogenic bacteria in your gut. Pathogenic disease-causing microbes simply love sugar!

On the other hand, these microbes will not thrive in the presence of fiber-rich foods or those containing complex carbohydrates, healthy fats and proteins. When you focus on eating whole, natural foods, you’re supporting the growth of your beneficial gut bacteria. Research suggests the benefits of probiotics aren’t limited to your gut, but also affect your brain.

This is the case because your gut is connected to your brain via what’s called the gut-brain axis, which means whatever affects your gastrointestinal tract affects your brain, and vice versa.

As such, when your gut microbiome is unbalanced, it can affect your immune system, mental health, mood and even your brain function. Probiotics have even been shown to help reduce the symptoms of depression. Factors to look for when trying to identify a high-quality probiotic supplement include:

  • Make sure it’s a reputable, non-GMO brand, manufactured according to current Good Manufacturing Practices
  • Look for a potency count (colony forming units or CFUs) of 50 billion or higher
  • Check the shelf life of the CFUs and avoid capsules only declaring CFUs at the “time of manufacture”
  • Choose a product containing multiple species of bacteria; products containing species of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria are generally recommended
Must Read: Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease

Sporebiotics Stand up to Antibiotics, Help Resolve Food Intolerances

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Spore-based probiotics, or sporebiotics, are an excellent complement to regular probiotics. They are part of a group of derivatives of the microbe called bacillus. This genus has hundreds of subspecies, the most important of which is bacillus subtilis. Essentially, sporebiotics consist of the cell wall of bacillus spores, and they are a primary tool to boost your immune tolerance.

Because sporebiotics do not contain any live bacillus strains, only its spores — the protective shell around the DNA and the working mechanism of that DNA — they are unaffected by antibiotics.

Antibiotics, as you may know, indiscriminately kill your gut bacteria, both good and bad. This is why secondary infections and lowered immune function are common side effects of taking antibiotics. Chronic low-dose exposure to antibiotics through your food also takes a toll on your gut microbiome, which can result in chronic ill health and increased risk of drug resistance.

If you are wondering how antibiotics get into your food, you may not realize about 80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used in food production, including antibiotics given to farm animals living in concentrated animal feeding operations. Sporebiotics can more effectively help reestablish your gut microbiome since they’re not being destroyed by antibiotics.

Must Read: Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease

If you are not sure sporebiotics could benefit you, be advised many acidophilus products have the drawback of not being able to survive the passage through your stomach acid, especially when taken on an empty stomach.

Poor-quality probiotics may not even be alive by the time you take them, which means you’ll receive little to no benefit. Spores, on the other hand, once established in your gut, help improve your intestinal barrier function. Your gut’s mucosal barrier determines which nutrients are absorbed and which are to be excreted.

The intestinal barrier also influences your immune function, and spores increase your immune tolerance, which means they help repair damage in your intestinal barrier, such as that caused by leaky gut. My longtime mentor Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, who also holds a Ph.D., and founder of the Klinghardt Academy in Washington (state), has used sporebiotics for the successful treatment of food intolerances for those suffering from ALS, autism, Lyme disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

Whatever approach you take — eliminating sugars, adding prebiotic foods, eating fermented foods, taking probiotics or sporebiotics, or all of the above — I encourage you to begin optimizing your gut. A healthy gut will boost your immunity, help your body resist disease and positively affect your health and well-being. Now is the time to “go with your gut!”

The Most Common Nutrient Deficiencies

Abstract word cloud for Vitamin B12 with related tags and terms

(Dr. Mercola) Even when you eat a balanced, whole-food diet similar to the one presented in my nutrition plan, you may still fail to get the right balance of vitamins and minerals your body needs for optimal health. Because many factors contribute to your body’s ability to derive nutrients from the food you consume, you may eat a healthy diet and still lack proper nutrition.

Changes in animal feed, climate, farming and food-processing methods, soil conditions, water quality and weather patterns, as well as increased use of genetic engineering and toxic pesticides, can have a negative effect on the quality of food available.

Your age, genetics and health conditions such as digestive issues also impact your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from your food. Often, vitamin and mineral deficiencies can be difficult to identify because you may not develop symptoms until the deficiency has become quite pronounced.

Below, I comment on 10 of the most common nutrient deficiencies — ranging from vitamin A to zinc. As you review the list, take note of any deficiency symptoms that may apply to your current situation. Then, be sure to address any area of concern. In doing so, you will continue to protect and optimize your health.

No. 1: Vitamin D

The Harvard School of Public Health suggests an estimated 1 billion people worldwide have low vitamin D levels, with deficiencies noted across all age and ethnic groups.1 You are at risk of missing out on vitamin D from natural sun exposure if you spend most of your time indoors, use topical sunscreens or wear long clothing for religious reasons. The signs and symptoms of vitamin D deficiencyinclude:

Achy or broken bones

Because vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, it plays a role in your bone health. Studies involving older adults have associated low vitamin D levels with an increased risk of falls and fractures.2

Age 50 or older

At age 50, your kidneys may become less effective at metabolizing inactive vitamin D into its active form. At age 70 and beyond, your body will produce about one-third less vitamin D through sun exposure than it did at younger ages.

Body mass index > 30

Because vitamin D is fat soluble, when your fat cells uptake it, less is available for use elsewhere in your body.3 For this reason, some experts recommend you increase your intake of vitamin D if you are obese.

Dark skin

Melanin, which determines your degree of skin pigmentation and protects your body from harmful ultraviolet radiation (UV), impairs your skin’s ability to produce vitamin D from sunlight. If you have darker skin, your body may need up to 10 times more sun exposure to produce adequate vitamin D as compared to a person who has lighter skin.

Feeling depressed or consistently having low energy

Thanks to the brain hormone serotonin, your mood automatically elevates when you are in the sun. Researchers examining the effects of vitamin D on the moods of 80 elderly patients found the ones with the lowest vitamin D levels were 11 times more likely to suffer from depression.4

Frequent colds and flu

A study done in Japan indicated schoolchildren taking 1,200 units of vitamin D per day during winter reduced their risk of contracting the flu by about 40 percent.5

Head sweating

One of the classic signs of vitamin D deficiency is a sweaty head. Excessive sweating in newborns due to neuromuscular irritability is still described as a common, early symptom of vitamin D deficiency.6

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, get your vitamin D level tested immediately. Even if you are in good health, I recommend you have your level tested twice a year. The optimal vitamin D level for general health ranges between 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml). The ideal way to raise your vitamin D is by regularly and sensibly exposing large amounts of your skin, such as your arms, back, chest and legs, to sunshine. Getting outdoors at or around solar noon is the best time to soak up the sun.

If for whatever reason you cannot get outdoors, or not frequently enough to receive sufficient UV exposure, consider taking an oral vitamin D3 supplement along with vitamin K2 and magnesium. The only way to determine your ideal maintenance dose of vitamin D is by measuring your blood level. As a general guideline, vitamin D experts recommend 4,000 IUs per day for adults, but that level applies only if you are already in the therapeutic range. If your levels are low, you may need to start with 8,000 IUs or more per day.

No. 2: Omega-3s

If you regularly consume fast food and other highly processed foods, you probably overconsume inflammatory omega-6 fats. Such high consumption of omega-6s very likely means you may not be consuming enough of the healthier omega-3 fats. Processed foods — everything from frozen meals to salad dressings — are generally loaded with omega-6s, due to the vegetable oils used to make them.

Check labels carefully and do your best to avoid products containing corn, cottonseed, soybean, safflower and sunflower oils. If you are a regular consumer of fast food, be advised most of it is prepared with these same oils. Your recommended omega-6 to omega-3 balance should be close to a 1-to-1 ratio. However, because omega-6s are overabundant in the typical American diet, your ratio may be around 20-to-1, or as high as 50-to-1! It all depends on your eating habits.

Very often, when omega-6s predominate your diet, you will almost always suffer from inflammation and higher production of body fat. I suspect the high incidence of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, obesity and premature aging noticeable worldwide may have its roots in the chronic inflammation resulting from this profound omega-3-to-omega-6 mismatch.

Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory and vital for supporting your brain function, joints, skin and vision, as well as your heart.7,8,9 They are derived from both plant and animal sources:

  • Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA): found in plant sources such as chia, flaxseeds, hemp and walnuts
  • Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA): found in animal sources such as anchovies, salmon and sardines, as well as fish oil supplements; alternatives to fish oil include algae and my personal favorite, krill oil
  • Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA): also found in animal sources such as fish and fish oil, because wherever you find DHA, EPA is also there

I recommend an animal-based omega-3 because most of its cellular health benefits are linked to EPA and DHA, not the plant-based ALA. Although plant-based omega-3s are beneficial, and ideally you need both sources of omega-3, your focus should mainly be on the animal-based variety. To learn more about the critical differences between plant- and animal-based omega-3, and why they are not interchangeable, please see “The Critical Differences Between Omega-3 Fats From Plants and Marine Animals.”

In terms of supplementation, I believe krill oil is superior to fish oil. The omega-3 in krill is attached to phospholipids, which increase its absorption. Furthermore, compared to fish oil, krill oil contains almost 50 times more astaxanthin, a potent antioxidant that helps prevent omega-3s from oxidizing before they can be integrated into your cellular tissues. I cannot stress enough the importance of getting your omega-3 level tested.

No. 3: Magnesium

Because magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body, a deficiency can wreak havoc on your health. The fact researchers10 have detected more than 3,750 magnesium-binding sites on human proteins should give you a sense of how important this mineral is for your body’s optimal functioning. Your body needs magnesium for:

  • Activating muscles and nerves
  • Creating energy in your body by activating adenosine triphosphate (ATP)
  • Helping digest proteins, carbohydrates and fats
  • Serving as a building block for RNA and DNA synthesis
  • Acting as a precursor for neurotransmitters like serotonin

Dietary sources of magnesium include avocados, Brazil nuts, brown rice, cashews, dark leafy greens like spinach and Swiss chard, oily fish, raw cacao, seaweed and seeds. Since there is no simple routine blood test to determine your magnesium level, it is best to get a magnesium RBC test, while also carefully evaluating and tracking your symptoms. You may be suffering from magnesium insufficiency if you experience:

  • Constipation
  • Eye twitches, muscle spasms — especially “charley horses” or spasms in your calf muscle that occur when you stretch your legs, numbness or tingling in your extremities and seizures
  • Headaches and/or migraines
  • High blood pressure, heart arrhythmias and/or coronary spasms
  • Low energy, fatigue and/or loss of appetite

A few years ago, I interviewed Dr. Carolyn Dean, who has been studying magnesium for nearly 20 years. In her book, “The Magnesium Miracle,” Dean lists 100 factors to help you determine if you might be deficient. She also writes a blog, and you may find her post entitled “Gauging Magnesium Deficiency Symptoms” to be helpful.11 Check out the short video below by Dean to learn more about why your body can’t live without magnesium.

No. 4: Iodine

Iodine is an essential mineral found in every one of your organs and tissues. Your body needs iodine for normal thyroid function, including the production of thyroid hormones, which support brain development, bone maintenance, growth and metabolism. Nearly one-third of the world’s population is iodine deficient.12 Severe iodine deficiency can affect your child’s brain function and IQ. The most common symptoms you are not getting enough iodine include:

  • Dry mouth, dry skin and lack of sweating
  • Enlarged thyroid gland, also known as goiter, which contributes to a variety of cancers, including esophageal, breast, ovarian and thyroid
  • Increased heart rate
  • Shortness of breath
  • Weight gain

Dietary sources of iodine include eggs, fish, raw milk, spirulina and sea vegetables such as kelp, kombu, nori and wakame. If you take an iodine supplement, be aware of the potentially serious risks associated with taking too much iodine. As a general rule, I do not advise taking large doses of iodine supplements like Iodora or Lugol’s long term.

In the video below, Dr. Jorge Flechas, a family physician from North Carolina who specializes in iodine therapy for thyroid and breast disorders, provides an informative overview of your thyroid, the incidence of thyroid problems and the importance of intaking sufficient iodine.

No. 5: Zinc

While you may think about it mainly during cold and flu season, zinc is an essential mineral found throughout your organs, tissues and bodily fluids. Moreover, after iron, zinc is the second most abundant trace mineral in your body. Because zinc is vital to many biological processes, you may not realize your body does not store zinc. Instead, you must intake it daily through the foods you eat or a high-quality supplement. Zinc supports your body’s critical processes such as:

Blood clotting Immune function Smell, taste and vision
Cell division Thyroid health Wound healing

At least 2 billion people worldwide are thought to be zinc deficient, including about 12 percent of the U.S. population and as much as 40 percent of the elderly.13 Part of the deficit likely results from soil depletion due to conventional farming methods, as well as the use of toxic pesticides such as Roundup. Beyond the soil concerns, many simply do not eat enough zinc-rich foods, the mineral is often poorly absorbed, levels are infrequently checked and testing methods are often inaccurate.

Dietary sources of zinc include dairy products, nuts, red meat and seafood. Plant sources such as asparagus, beans, green peas and spinach also contain zinc, but it is more easily absorbed from meat and animal proteins.

If you are an alcoholic or vegetarian, are pregnant or lactating, or have a digestive disorder or sickle cell disease, you are more likely to have a zinc deficiency. Even if you consider yourself to be a healthy person, you may not be eating enough zinc-rich foods on a daily basis to achieve optimal levels of this essential nutrient.

In the video above, I discuss the importance of zinc to your health, the signs of zinc deficiency and how you may improve your zinc levels through your dietary choices. Vegetarians have a particular challenge as phytic acid in grains compete with the absorption of zinc and other nutrients, which doesn’t occur in meat and dairy sources of zinc.

If you have symptoms of a zinc deficiency and choose to use a supplement, make sure it’s from a reputable company using best-practice, quality assurance methods. Independent verification of the raw materials is vital to confirm quality and assure it is free of lead and other heavy metals. The supplement should contain several different types of zinc, such as gluconate, citrate and chelate. Unless your clinician recommends otherwise, don’t go above 40 mg per day.

No. 6: Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) is known as the energy vitamin, and you need it for blood formation, DNA synthesis, energy production and myelin formation. You may be deficient in vitamin B12 if you are not eating enough of the foods containing it, or your body lacks the ability to absorb it properly.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 40 percent of the American population may have marginal vitamin B12 status14— not low enough to qualify as deficiency, but low enough to where certain neurological symptoms may start to appear. Warning signs of a B12 deficiency are slow to appear, so you may be quite deficient by the time you recognize the symptoms, which include:

Apathy Memory problems and/or “mental fog” Muscle weakness
Fatigue Mood swings Tingling in the extremities

Vitamin B12 is present in its natural form only in animal sources of food, such as:

  • Grass fed beef and beef liver
  • Lamb
  • Venison
  • Organic pastured eggs and poultry
  • Seafood such as salmon, scallops, shrimp and snapper

If you are a strict vegetarian or vegan, you are at increased risk of B12 deficiency. While you can get some B12 from coconut oil, fortified coconut milk and nutritional yeast, you may need to take a daily supplement. Chronic long-term B12 deficiency can lead to serious conditions such as dementia, depression and fertility problems.

Most B12 supplements sold today are a waste of your money because B12 does not absorb well. Your best option is to supplement with a B12 spray, which I think is better than receiving painful B12 shots from your doctor. Whether you choose animal foods or a high-quality spray, if you are a vegan, you should consider increasing your consumption of B12 to avoid future health problems.

No. 7: Vitamin E

Vitamin E is an important fat-soluble vitamin and antioxidant designed to combat inflammation and make red blood cells. It also helps your body use vitamin K, which is important for heart health. Six billion people worldwide and 75 to 90 percent of Americans are deficient in vitamin E.15 If you are among them, you are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, cognitive deterioration and immune dysfunction.

To achieve an optimal level, you need at least 50 IUs of vitamin E daily. The recommended dietary allowance for anyone 14 years or older is 15 milligrams (mg) per day. Vitamin E is well-known for protecting against free radical damage and the effects of aging. It is actually a family of at least eight fat-soluble antioxidant compounds, divided into two main categories:

  • Tocopherols, which are considered the “true” vitamin E
  • Tocotrienols, each of which has subfamilies of four different forms

Vitamin E can easily be obtained from a healthy diet, and high amounts of it are found in three general categories of foods:

  • Leafy greens like spinach
  • High-fat foods such as nuts, seeds, fatty fish and seafood, including sardines and shrimp
  • Oil-rich, high-fat plants such as avocados and olives

Most of these foods are best eaten raw because cooking will destroy some of the nutrients. Obvious exceptions exist of course — do not eat raw shrimp, for example. If you must use a supplement, choose a full-spectrum vitamin E containing mixed natural tocopherols and tocotrienols. Avoid the synthetic form. Natural vitamin E is always listed as the “d-” form: d-alpha-tocopherol, d-beta-tocopherol, etc. Synthetic versions are listed as “dl-” forms.

No. 8:  Vitamin K2

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin that is well-known for its role in blood clotting. However, there are two different kinds of vitamin K,16each providing its own set of health benefits. Vitamin K1 is primarily responsible for blood clotting whereas vitamin K2 works synergistically with calcium, magnesium and vitamin D to impart a number of important health benefits.

Vitamin K2 also plays a crucial role in bone health,17 and may be critical for the prevention of osteoporosis (brittle bones). Osteocalcin is a protein produced by your osteoblasts (cells responsible for bone formation), and is utilized within the bone as an integral part of the bone-forming process. However, osteocalcin must be “carboxylated” before it can be effective. Vitamin K functions as a cofactor for the enzyme that catalyzes the carboxylation of osteocalcin.

If you do not have sufficient amounts of vitamin K2, you run the risk of both brittle bones and calcification in your soft tissues. In other words, vitamin K2 is necessary to keep your bones strong and your soft tissues pliable. A number of Japanese trials have shown that vitamin K2 completely reverses bone loss and in some cases even increases bone mass in people with osteoporosis.18

The pooled evidence of seven Japanese trials also show that vitamin K2 supplementation produces a 60 percent reduction in vertebral fractures and an 80 percent reduction in hip and other non-vertebral fractures.19 One Chinese meta-analysis20 of 19 randomized controlled trials found that vitamin K2 supplementation significantly improved vertebral bone density in postmenopausal women and reduced the risk of bone fractures.

Another three-year-long placebo-controlled study21 done in the Netherlands found that postmenopausal women taking 180 mcg of MK-7 per day increased their bone strength and saw a decrease in the rate of age-related bone mineral decline and reduced loss of bone density, compared to those taking a placebo. The following graphic, from a 2014 research paper22 on vitamin K2, illustrates the dual effect of vitamin K on bone and vascular health.

Vitamin K2 is found primarily in animal-based foods (MK-4) and fermented foods (MK-7). However, when it comes to MK-7, it’s important to realize that not all bacteria make K2, so only certain fermented foods will contain it. Grain fed animals will also produce far lower amounts of K2, and are best avoided for other reasons. Only grass fed animals will develop naturally high K2 levels.

For these reasons, most commercial yogurts are virtually devoid of vitamin K2, and while certain types of cheeses, such as Gouda, brie and Edam are high in K2, others are not. One of the best ways to get plenty of vitamin K2 from your diet it is to regularly eat home-fermented vegetables made with a special starter culture designed with bacterial strains that produce vitamin K2.

You can get up to 500 mcg of vitamin K2 in a 2-ounce serving of fermented vegetables using such a starter culture, which is a clinically therapeutic dose. This is also one of your most economical alternatives.

No. 9: Selenium

Selenium serves two very important and interrelated roles:

  1. At the cellular level, selenium is an active component of glutathione peroxidase, an enzyme that converts hydrogen peroxide to water. Glutathione peroxidase has potent antioxidant properties, and serves as a first line of defense against build-up of harmful free radicals in your cells.
  2. Selenium also plays an important role in the prevention of cancer. One of the reasons people get cancer is because of excessive free radical production. By reducing free radicals, selenium helps reduce your risk of cancer.

If you like Brazil nuts, eating about two to three of them per day will typically be sufficient. If you opt for a supplement, make sure to get the correct form. What you’re looking for is the high-selenium yeast form, the scientifically tested and most recommended version.

No. 10: Vitamin A

Nearly half of American adults and teens are at risk for insufficiency or deficiency of vitamin A.23 Your body needs a daily dose of this fat-soluble vitamin to maintain healthy bones, cell membranes, immune function, skin, teeth and vision. Vitamins A and D work in tandem, and there’s evidence suggesting that without vitamin D, vitamin A can be ineffective or even toxic.

On the other hand, if you’re deficient in vitamin A, vitamin D cannot function properly either, so a balance of these two vitamins is essential to good health. That said, because we do not yet know the optimal ratios between these two vitamins, balancing them well through supplementation can be challenging. For that reason, if you are able, it’s best to intake vitamins A and D from food and sun exposure, rather than supplements.

The best source of vitamin A your body can actually use is animal products such as fish, grass fed meat, liver and pastured poultry, as well as raw, organic dairy products like butter. These foods contain retinol, preformed vitamin A that your body can easily use. You will find it difficult to get sufficient amounts of vitamin A from beta-carotene, a provitamin A found in plant foods like broccoli, cantaloupe, carrots, squash and sweet potatoes.

While your body can readily use the retinol form of vitamin A, it must convert provitamin A (carotenoids) into bioavailable retinol. If you’re in excellent health, this should not pose a major problem; however, factors such as alcohol use, digestive problems and genetics can affect your body’s ability to absorb carotenoids and convert them into retinol. Medical conditions that interfere with the digestion of fat, including Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis and gallbladder and liver disease also affect your body’s ability to convert vitamin A.

A number of studies have raised warnings about vitamin A supplementation; indicating high doses may lead to toxicity, and may raise your risk of cancer, heart disease and all-cause mortality. Be particularly cautious with retinol or retinoic acid supplements, as these fat-soluble forms pose a greater risk of toxicity. Strictly avoid all synthetic versions.

Government Knew About Dangerous MMR Vaccine Strain, Used It On Children Anyway

BERLIN, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 26: A children's doctor injects a vaccine against measles, rubella, mumps and chicken pox to an infant on February 26, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. The city of Berlin is facing an outbreak of measles that in recent weeks has led to over 700 cases and one confirmed death of a little boy who had not been vaccinated. Vaccination in Germany is not compulsory by law though the vast majority of parents have their children vaccinated. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

(Natural Blaze by Brandon Turbeville) Because mass media and technology are geared to shift from one topic to the next with no real depth or understanding of the subject matter, the vast majority of people, even those who are generally more intelligent, simply cannot remember important events that took place only a year ago. For that reason, it is occasionally important to revisit recent occurrences in order to refresh the collective memory.

Nearly ten years later, many will simply not remember that the UK government, which today nauseatingly pushes vaccines and vaccine propaganda, allowed a dangerous MMR shot (more dangerous than regular MMR shots) to be sold on the market for two years in the UK, putting millions of children at risk in addition to the already toxic and deadly nature of the vaccine at play.

Related: How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children

Government officials were made aware of some problems with a version of the MMR vaccine in other countries but still introduced it in Britain in the late 1980s, newly released documents show.

The MMR vaccine with the Urabe strain of mumps was first used in Britain in October 1988. It was blamed for the deaths of several children after being withdrawn by the Department of Health in September 1992.

Previously confidential documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show how officials gradually learned of the dangers of the Urabe strain MMR which caused encephalitis-type conditions, including meningitis. Involving swelling of the brain or of the lining of the brain or spinal chord, they can lead to brain damage, deafness or even death.

The papers show that many months before the Urabe MMR vaccine was introduced in the UK, officials were made aware of problems in America, Sweden and Canada.

Related: The MMR Vaccine – A Comprehensive Overview of the Potential Dangers and Effectiveness

The first warning came when an unnamed official at a meeting of the Government’s Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation in May 1987 “expressed his reservations concerning reported adverse reactions to MMR in the USA”.

The second came in a letter from the Central Microbiological Laboratory in Sweden in September that year, where authorities reported “52 cases of febrile convulsions probably associated with MMR vaccination”.

Then, a Government working party on the introduction of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, learned of “a report of cases of mumps encephalitis” in Canada at a meeting in Feb 1988.

The documents show that the statistical risk from Urabe MMR was considered to be low. The UK went ahead with its nationwide MMR programme in October 1988 in which 85 per cent of the triple-vaccinations contained Urabe.

The minutes of another meeting of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, in May 1990, show that there was “especial concern” about “reports from Japan of a high level of meningoencephalitis associated with the administration of MMR”.

Related: Doctors Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research

Yet the government waited another two years before ending its use of the Urabe MMR vaccine. That decision to stop using the Urabe vaccine, however, only came after the manufacturer informed the government that they were going to stop making it.

The Telegraph continued by writing,

The minutes were obtained by the FOIA Centre, a specialist research company, on behalf of one of the parents of a child in a group bringing litigation at the High Court. The Government insists it acted swiftly as soon as it became aware of the dangers of Urabe MMR in September 1992.

Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, told one of the parents in a letter: “As soon as the Department of Health had clear evidence that there was a risk with Urabe-containing MMR and that there was no such associated risk with a different strain of mumps virus (the Jeryl Lynn strain) used in an alternative MMR vaccine, the department moved quickly to discontinue use.”

Related: How Plumbing (Not Vaccines) Eradicated Disease

The Telegraph cont.,

Prof Kent Woods, chief executive officer of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, confirmed that the UK authorities had been aware of “sporadic cases” in Canada. However, the risk of meningoencephalitis from Urabe MMR was lower than the risk of the same condition resulting from “wild-type mumps virus”, he said.

Urabe MMR was withdrawn “following reports of generally mild transient meningitis caused by the mumps vaccine virus in some children who recently received the Urabe mumps vaccine containing products”.

Yet, in typical fashion, the government admitted no wrongdoing, instead doubling down on its collectivist view that the “benefits outweigh the risks” and that you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. Too bad if you’re the egg.

The Telegraph wrote,

A Government spokesman said: “The UK investigated the evidence and acted promptly when this problem with Urabe strain of mumps vaccine was identified.

“On the basis of information obtained in studies, the UK was in a position to make an informed decision on whether to continue using the Urabe vaccine, as there was an alternative vaccine strain, called Jeryl Lynn, which did not appear to have the same risk.”

The spokesman added: “In 1992 the Committee on Safety of Medicine considered all of the evidence and concluded that the benefits of vaccinating with Urabe mumps strain vaccines still outweighed the risks.”

Although haven taken place in 2007, it is important to revisit incidents such as these in order to show how much things change while they remain exactly the same.

Canola Oil Proven to Destroy Your Body and Mind

(Dr. Mercola) According to a study by AARP,1 93 percent of Americans are concerned with their brain health, but very few understood some of the natural strategies they could use to improve it. Contrary to popular belief, your brain function and cognitive performance do not have to decline with age. There are steps you can take that influence your memory, processing, executive functions and more.

Even if you are already in your “golden years,” simple changes may prompt brain health for the better. For instance, where once it was believed that neurons were only generated early in life, scientists now know that neurogenesis (generation of new neurons) continues into adulthood.2 Exactly what influences the rate of new neuron growth is still being explored, as are other factors that play a role in brain health.

Related: How to Read Food Labels and Avoid Toxic Ingredients

Recent research, for instance, has uncovered damage canola oil consumption triggers in your brain and the effect this may have on your memory and learning ability.3 The study, published in the journal Nature, also found the consumption of canola oil increased weight gain.

Canola Oil Negatively Affects Brain Health and Weight Management

The study was led by researcher Dr. Domenico Praticò from Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Praticò commented to the Los Angeles Times that canola oil is perceived by many to be healthy — a widespread misconception:4

“Canola oil is appealing because it is less expensive than other vegetable oils, and it is advertised as being healthy. Very few studies, however, have examined that claim, especially in terms of the brain.”

Researchers used an animal model to evaluate the effect canola oil has on the brains of mice genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s disease.5 Canola oil developed a reputation of being healthy when doctors began warning people to reduce their saturated fat intake and consume vegetable oils instead. Canola has the lowest percentage of saturated fat of all commonly used vegetable oilsand is relatively inexpensive, but is actually one of the worst oils for your health.

Related: Best Cooking Oils – Health benefits, Smoke Point, Which to Use and Avoid

Canola oil is often used in homes and restaurants for baking, sautéing, frying and other forms of cooking, with consumers being deceived into believing it’s better for them than saturated fats. The mice were split into two groups; one group was fed the usual chow and the second group was fed chow with the human equivalent of 2 teaspoons of canola oil per day.

At the end of the experimental six months, researchers observed that the mice eating chow laced with canola oil were significantly heavier than the mice that did not eat canola oil. Additionally, the mice who had eaten canola oil demonstrated significant declines in working memory together with a decreased level of post-synaptic density protein-94, a marker of synaptic integrity. The researchers found canola oil had a negative effect on health and concluded:6

“Taken together, our findings do not support a beneficial effect of chronic canola oil consumption on two important aspects of AD [Alzheimer’s disease] pathophysiology which includes memory impairments as well as synaptic integrity.”

Your Brain Needs Healthy Fats

The same researchers used a similar model to evaluate the effects of olive oil on the brain function of mice.7 In that study,8,9 neither group was heavier than the other, and the mice fed chow enriched with extra-virgin olive oil performed significantly better on testing that evaluated the animals’ working memory, spatial memory and ability to learn.

The brain tissue of these mice, genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s disease as they age like the mice in the featured study, also revealed dramatic differences. The mice fed olive oil demonstrated preserved synaptic integrity and an increase in nerve cell autophagy, ultimately responsible for a reduction in amyloid plaques common in the brain of those with Alzheimer’s disease.10

Healthy fat is an essential component of the structure of your brain, which is composed of nearly 60 percent fat.11 It should come as no surprise that your brain needs quality fat to function optimally. Although your brain is a small part of your complete bodyweight, it uses 20 percent of your metabolic energy. Essential fatty acids are required but cannot be synthesized in your body, and so must come from dietary sources.

Most people get well over what is needed of omega-6 fats, which are found in most vegetable oils, and not nearly enough omega-3 fats. One omega-3 fat, DHA, has been linked with the growth of your retina and visual cortex during development,12 visual acuity and reduction in depression. Research has found those suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have lower levels of DHA, and DHA may play a role in neuroprotection.

Unlike the highly damaged fats in vegetable oil, saturated fat is the optimal “clean” fuel for your brain and is one of the main components of brain cells. As such, it’s excellent for brain health, with one study demonstrating that those who ate more saturated fat reduced their risk of developing dementia while those who favored carbohydrates had a significantly increased risk.13

To maintain optimal brain function, you need high-quality, undamaged omega-3s and omega-6 along with antioxidants to protect them from oxidation — not processed vegetable oils like canola oil. In summary, processed vegetable oils are bad for your brain health for a number of reasons, including the following:

  • They are loaded with damaged omega-6 fatty acids without protective antioxidants
  • They strip your liver of glutathione, which produces antioxidant enzymes, which further lowers your antioxidant defenses
  • Most vegetable oils are made with genetically engineered (GE) crops designed to resist herbicides like glyphosate. As such, they may be more contaminated with glyphosate than non-GE crops, and glyphosate has been shown to disrupt the tight junctions in your gut and increase penetration of foreign invaders, especially heated proteins, which can cause allergies

Vilification of Healthy Fats Has Contributed to Rising Rates of Disease

Defaming healthy fats over the past decades has contributed to a rising rate of disease. Although healthy fats are used as fuel and leave you feeling full, many turned to eating carbohydrates when fats were discouraged. Carbs are metabolized and burned quickly, using insulin to usher blood glucose into the cell.

However, carbs trigger insulin resistance over time and increase the potential for crashing blood sugar levels two to three hours after a meal, leaving you hungry once again and increasing your food intake. This one mechanism increases your risk for obesity, which in turn increases your potential risk for insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke.

In a time when healthy saturated fats and dietary cholesterol were publicly slandered, Canada developed an alternative oil that met with the approval of the American Heart Association (AHA) — canola oil.14 Now sitting in the first position of recommended oils for healthy cooking on the AHA website, author Praticò had this to say about the results of his canola oil study:15

Related: 35 Things You Could Do With Coconut Oil – From Body Care to Health to Household

“Amyloid-beta 1-40 neutralizes the actions of amyloid 1-42, which means that a decrease in 1-40, like the one observed in our study, leaves 1-42 unchecked. In our model, this change in ratio resulted in considerable neuronal damage, decreased neural contacts, and memory impairment.”

In other words, consuming canola oil may increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, as the oil decreases the production of a protein that protects your brain against neuronal damage and cognitive impairment.

Toxicity of Canola Oil May Result From the Seed, Source or Processing

This short video shows you the conditions under which canola oil is manufactured and produced, including the deplorable number of chemicals and bleaches added to the product to achieve the clear liquid you see on your grocery store shelves. Just the way the oil is processed should be enough to encourage you to steer clear of consuming the product. But the risk associated with canola oil doesn’t stop with processing.

The canola plant was developed from rapeseed plants by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the University of Manitoba using plant breeding techniques. In fact, the Canola Council of Canada calls the development, “Canada’s greatest agricultural success story.”16Rapeseed oil was originally used as a motor lubricant during World War II.17 Once the war ended, demand plummeted and Canada began an intensive program to make the product edible.

Before it could be ingested the erucic acid and glucosinolates had to be bred out of the plant, as they are dangerous to human health.18By the late 1970s, both chemicals were reduced to lower levels, and the plant was officially accepted as consumable. In the 1980s, research focused on shelf stability of the oil, animal diets and gaining a wider consumer acceptance.

Related: The Dangers of Industrial Vegetable Oils

By 2012, nearly all low-erucic acid rapeseed plants were genetically engineered to increase yield. Today, what began as a motor lubricant is now one of Canada’s most profitable crops.

The erucic acid is a long-chain fatty acid that is especially irritating to mucous membranes. Consuming canola oil has been associated with the development of fibrotic lesions on the heart, lung cancer, anemia, central nervous system degenerative disorders and prostate cancer.19

The featured study evaluated the effect of canola oil on brain function without identifying which characteristic of the product triggers the problems. However, as most canola oil is produced from GE seeds, using plants originally unfit for human consumption and taken through a process that injects multiple chemicals and bleaches, it isn’t surprising the study was so conclusive.

Genetic Engineering Raises Health Risk With Each GE Food Consumed

This documentary details what happens when we use GE foods. Scientists are only beginning to uncover the long-term effects of splicing the genes of one living creature into another or developing a plant immune to the effects of herbicides.

However, some companies are not convinced by independently funded research and have relied on information from organizations such as the American Medical Association (AMA) and World Health Organization (WHO), which claim there is no credible evidence that GE foods are unsafe. However, even WHO admits:20

“Different GM [genetically modified] organisms include different genes inserted in different ways. This means that individual GM foods and their safety should be assessed on a case-by-case basis and that it is not possible to make general statements on the safety of all GM foods.”

In 2015, the European Commission decided it was in the best interest of their citizens to say “no” to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) within their borders, and all 28 countries required labeling of foods containing GMO products.21 This is in stark contrast to the U.S., where most canola grown is GE22 and products created from it not labeled as such.

Healthy Cooking Options

Cooking with nearly all vegetable oils is problematic as they don’t tolerate high heat. Healthier options for cooking include pastured, organic butter, virgin coconut oil, ghee (clarified butter) and lard. Olive oil and sesame oil add wonderful flavor and healthy fats to your foods, but they have very low smoke points and should be used unheated in salad dressings or drizzled over meats or vegetables for flavor.

Boosting Brain Health Naturally

It is never too late to support your neurological health. Remember, even small changes you make each day reap big rewards over time. Seek to change your habits consistently and persistently to support your memory, cognitive function and ultimately your enjoyment of everyday life. Here are several strategies you may use to improve your brain health:

Vitamin D

There are strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer’s patients and poor outcome on cognitive testing. Optimal vitamin D levels may protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of the glial cells in restoring damaged neurons. Additionally, vitamin D has anti-inflammatory properties.

Carotenoids

These antioxidant compounds are found most often in orange colored vegetables, such as sweet potatoes and carrots. Some carotenoids, such as lutein and zeaxanthin, are found in dark green vegetables, namely kale and spinach (as well as egg yolks). Lutein and zeaxanthin are best known for the role they play in vision health, but accumulating evidence suggests they play a role in cognitive health as well by enhancing neural efficiency.23

Probiotics

You are likely familiar with the importance of probiotics for your gut health but may not know of the role they play in your cognitive health. Certain beneficial bacterial strains, such as those found in fermented foods, have a positive effect on your brain function.

In a study by the University of California Los Angeles, scientists found women who regularly consumed beneficial bacteria via yogurt experienced changes in multiple areas of their brain, including those related to sensory processing, cognition and emotion.24

Exercise

Physical activity produces biochemical changes that strengthen and renew not only your body but also your brain — particularly areas associated with memory and learning.

Diet

Reducing overall calorie and carbohydrate consumption, while increasing healthy fats, has a powerful effect on your brain health. Beneficial health-promoting sources of healthy fats that your body — and your brain in particular — needs for optimal function include organic grass fed raw butter, olives, organic virgin olive oil and coconut oil, nuts like pecans and macadamia, free-range eggs, wild Alaskan salmon and avocado, for example.

Increasing your omega-3 fat intake and reducing consumption of damaged omega-6 fats (i.e., processed vegetable oils) in order to balance your omega-3-to-omega-6 ratio also has a significant benefit for your brain.

Sleep

Sleep not only is essential for regenerating your physical body, but imperative for reaching new mental insights and being able to see new creative solutions to old problems. Sleep removes the blinders and helps “reset” your brain to look at problems from a different perspective.

Research from Harvard indicates that people are 33 percent more likely to infer connections among distantly related ideas after sleeping,25 but few realize that their performance has actually improved. Sleep is also known to enhance your memories and help you “practice” and improve your performance of challenging skills. In fact, a single night of sleeping only four to six hours can impact your ability to think clearly the next day.

Common Food Ingredient Leads To Alzheimer’s

(Natural Blaze) One of the world’s most common food ingredients is finally being outed as a big, fat fraud. We hope you are sitting down for this one!

This polyunsaturated oil is touted as healthy by the big food industries, fast food industries, the natural health communities (!), and even our regulatory agencies.

We’re talking about canola oil! One of the worst food creations in modern history if you can even call it a food product. A study came out showing that canola oil was like battery acid to the cardiovascular system – and no one listened. Cooked polyunsaturated oils were recently linked to cancer….nothing but crickets.

This oil is everywhere – in most restaurants, in pretty much all fast food items, every packaged snack you can think of, in everything you can store in a cabinet and worst of all – in nearly all natural health snack goods. 

Canola oil was recently linked to declining memory, learning deficits and… obesity!

Natasha Longo reports:

After the public health scare in the 1970s over animal fats, sales of vegetable oils of all types increased. It was the established wisdom that those oils high in polyunsaturated fatty acids were especially beneficial. However, more research into vegetable oils continues to surface showing their damaging effects on health. A new study published online in the journal Scientific Reports shows that consumption of canola oil in the diet with worsened memory, worsened learning ability and weight gain.

[…]

….In the journal Scientific Reports by researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM) associates the consumption of canola oil in the diet with worsened memory, worsened learning ability and weight gain in mice which model Alzheimer’s disease. The study is the first to suggest that canola oil is more harmful than healthful for the brain.

Canola oil contains a long-chain fatty acid called erucic acid, which is especially irritating to mucous membranes; canola oil consumption has been correlated with development of fibrotic lesions of the heart, CNS degenerative disorders, lung cancer, and prostate cancer, anemia, and constipation.

Not only are canola, soybean and corn oil now coming from genetically modified crops, but their processing is beyond toxic to human metabolism.

Any health claims for the brain regarding canola oil appear to be patently false according to the lead study author, Domenico Pratico, MD, who also directs an Alzheimer’s center at LKSOM.

Pratico and Elisabetta Laurett originally used this same Alzheimer’s mouse model while investigating olive oil earlier this year. They actually found that “Alzheimer mice fed a diet enriched with extra-virgin olive oil had reduced levels of amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau and experienced memory improvement.” They were actually checking to see if canola oil could do the same.

The report continues:

The researchers started by dividing the mice into two groups at six months of age, before the animals developed signs of Alzheimer’s disease. One group was fed a normal diet, while the other was fed a diet supplemented with the equivalent of about two tablespoons of canola oil daily.

The researchers then assessed the animals at 12 months. One of the first differences observed was in body weight — animals on the canola oil-enriched diet weighed significantly more than mice on the regular diet. Maze tests to assess working memory, short-term memory, and learning ability uncovered additional differences. Most significantly, mice that had consumed canola oil over a period of six months suffered impairments in working memory.

Examination of brain tissue from the two groups of mice revealed that canola oil-treated animals had greatly reduced levels of amyloid beta 1-40. Amyloid beta 1-40 is the more soluble form of the amyloid beta proteins. It generally is considered to serve a beneficial role in the brain and acts as a buffer for the more harmful insoluble form, amyloid beta 1-42.

As a result of decreased amyloid beta 1-40, animals on the canola oil diet further showed increased formation of amyloid plaques in the brain, with neurons engulfed in amyloid beta 1-42. The damage was accompanied by a significant decrease in the number of contacts between neurons, indicative of extensive synapse injury. Synapses, the areas where neurons come into contact with one another, play a central role in memory formation and retrieval.

“Amyloid beta 1-40 neutralizes the actions of amyloid 1-42, which means that a decrease in 1-40, like the one observed in our study, leaves 1-42 unchecked,” Dr. Pratico explained. “In our model, this change in ratio resulted in considerable neuronal damage, decreased neural contacts, and memory impairment.”

In other words, long-term consumption of canola oil – which is what most Americans are currently doing – is not beneficial to the brain at all.

“Even though canola oil is a vegetable oil, we need to be careful before we say that it is healthy,” Dr. Pratico said. “Based on the evidence from this study, canola oil should not be thought of as being equivalent to oils with proven health benefits.”

They want to conduct shorter duration studies to see when is the shortest amount of time for “exposure necessary to produce observable changes in the ratio of amyloid beta 1-42 to 1-40 in the brain and alter synapse connections.”

Pratico concludes:

We also want to know whether the negative effects of canola oil are specific for Alzheimer’s disease. There is a chance that the consumption of canola oil could also affect the onset and course of other neurodegenerative diseases or other forms of dementia.

There you have it – if you don’t want to chance it with your memory and Alzheimer’s, then drop that french fry and step away from the snack section at the health food store. At the very least, canola oil’s damaging health effects have already been established for the heart, inflammation and obesity.