Tag: Anti-aging

MANY thoughts must be swirling in the head of President – elect Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd). Lame duck President Ebele Jonathan, who will quit office in about 14 days, has suddenly abandoned the toga of a “Shockingly slow and inept “ President and begun to dig the ground around Gen. Buhari. In the digging around the incoming President, President Jonathan has been planting human “mines” in the forms of appointment of his party–men to public offices. In other words, he is infusing the blood of his party into the blood of the in–coming administration. And since the “blood” of both political parties do not belong to the same “blood group”, we can expect the infusion of PDP men through the back door into an APC government to produce a “Shockingly slow and inept” effect in the Buhari administration, if he does not immediately quash all appointments President Jonathan has been making since his election defeat by Gen Buhari (rtd) on March 28. I expect you to ask me how I came by the expression, “Shockingly slow and inept.” It isn’t my own coinage. It was developed by the American media to describe the responses of the Jonathan administration to burning issues of governance in Nigeria. So if a shockingly slow and inept president suddenly becomes an “active volcano” on the eve of his departure from office, this must create a swirl in the head and mind of the man who is to take office from him, in this case Gen. Buhari (rtd). There are other ongoing political matters that can or are creating more swirls.

This swirl will be generating free radicals in the blood and in the cells of the brain and else where which will require antioxidants to quench. We should remember that this series has focused on:

•Knowledge from anti – aging research that the free radicals we ingest or produce in our bodies destroy our cells and organs, make us age prematurely or make us die many years before the expiry date of our bodies.

•Antioxidants destroy these free radicals, thereby protecting our bodies and giving us the opportunity to live for as long as possible pain and disease free.

•An aged person like Gen. Buhari (rtd), 72, will face severe rigours of office which may expose him to free radicals barrage, thereby making him unable to apply his physical body as effectively and as efficiently as the needs to, if he is to ride the storms and keep his election promises predicated on Change of all life forms in Nigeria for the better.

•What applies to Gen. Buhari (rtd) applies to us all, young and old. I am glad many readers of the column are getting the message of this free radicals battle to destroy our bodies and how we can add antioxidants to our diet to destroy them. Last week, I met with one of such readers for more than one hour. He is Mr. Onisomo, a senior company executive in Lagos. A young man in comparison with my age (65 by, August 23),he did not wish to make the mistake old people of today made in their youth, carrying less about their health than everything else and arriving in old age with One Or more deformities of their health. He obtained the first inspiration for this from a talk given somewhere by Charlie Boy. 62, in that talk, Charlie Boy advised the youth not to delay care for their bodies until those bodies literately began to protest lack of care with manifestations of pain and disease. As the series progresses, it would visit other organs in need of care and return occasionally to the brain and the eyes on in respect of which some ideas have been shared. For now, I would like to share one more on the brain. It is about melatonin, a hormone produced by the pineal gland, an endocrine gland situated deep behind the brain. As we age, the pineal produces smaller amounts of melatonin than it did when we were young. One  of our guides on this anti – aging tour, Judy Limberg Mcfarland, whose book, Aging without growing old, which I have been suggesting is a must – book for the health library of every one ,

reports:  ,,… 30 years of laboratory research  resulted in Dr. Walter Pier. Paoli’s landmark studies which demonstrated that the pineal gland is our body’s natural time keeper and is regulated by natural ebb and flow by the hormone melatonin. I had the honour of meeting and hearing Dr. Pier Paoli’s lecture on melatonin at the 2nd international Anti – Aging Conference in Monte Carlo, Monaco. He feels that we may be able to slow the process of aging, turn back the hands of time, strengthen our immune system, and thereby heighten our resistance to disease and even prolong our sexual vitality by simply restoring the melatonin levels of youth. There are thousands of animal and human studies that suggest many roles for melatonin”.

Judy Mc farland says Dr. Frank Varese, of Laguna Hills, California, introduced her to natural hormone replacement many years ago. And this would spur her interest in melatonin.

She said that, through him, she learned about Dr Pier paoli’s, a leading researcher on melatonin who co– authored the book

MELATONIN MIRACLE.

rom him and other researcher it has come to light that melatonin miracle may be the most powerful antioxidant yet to be discovered. according to Dr. Russel J. Riter, Ph.D.,  author of Melatonin your body’s natural wonder drug, and professor of neuroendocrinology, of the University of Texas. He had behind him more than 30 years of melatonin research. We now know that melatonin is made from tryptophan

An essential amino acids, which the body cannot manufacture from other amino acids but obtain from the diet. Judy Mcfarland says some dietery sources of melatonin include turkey, milk, whey, soy protein, cottage cheese, yoghurt, fish, bee, liver, lamb, peanuts, pumpken, and sesame seeds, brown rice and lentils” I would not forget to add SPIRULINA, the blue green aigae which warehouses all 23 or80 amino acids.

Judy mcfarland goes on: “66

Melatonin was discovered in 1958 when Dr. Lernar at Yale University isolated the molecule. The other sex hormones have discussed, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, prognorelone, is all made from cholesterol. Melatonin, however, is made from the amino acid tryptophan.”

Tryptophan is converted to serotonin, a neurotransmitter (brain chemical) which helps to control mood and sleep may therefore, be good for people suffering from depression. Sleep at night,” says Judy Mcfarland,” serotonin is converted into melatonin.The initial clinical studies on melatonin focused on problems related to the sleep wake cycle or circadian rhythm of the body. But today, melatonin ranks as one of the important hormones, stimulating the release of a wide variety of other hormones from the pituitary gland. Not to bore you, I would quickly like to mention a study which I believe will excite your interest in melatonin and encourage you to add more tryptophan rich foods or supplement, including spirulina, to your diet.

Dr. Pierpaoli, mentioned earlier, reports on his melatonin experiments with mice:

“In the fall of 1985, I began the first of what will be many experiments, testing the effect of administering melatonin supplement to older mice. I selected healthy male mice that were 19 months old (human equivalent of about 65 years). They live to about 24 months. I divided the mice into two groups, one given melatonin in the evening drinking water, the other group regular tap water. Everything else, diet, living conditions, was exactly the same. At first, I could detect very little difference between the two groups of mice.

Within five months, however, the difference was astonishing. The untreated mice began to display the expected signs and symptoms of old age of senescence. They lost muscle mass, they developed bald patches, their eyes grew cloudy with cataracts, their digestion slowed down, and, so, generally, did they in some they seemed horn out and tired. They were winding down and becoming old. On the other hand, the melatonin –treated mice looked and behaved like their grand children. The mice on melatonin had actually grown more for and continued to boast thick, shiny coats. Their eyes were clear and cataracts free, their digestion had improved and, instead of growing thin and wasting in the manner of the non- melatonin treated mice; they maintained their strength and muscle tone. The vigour and energy with which they moved around their cage resembled the behaviour of mice half their age.

Most importantly, they lived much longer than the untreated mice, having reached their expected lifespan of about 24 months (70- 75 years in human terms), began to die. Yet the melatonin mice lived on and on, an astonishing six months longer, which in human terms would amount to gaining an extra 25 years of life, or living part 100.

Judy Mcfarland says when Dr. Pierpoli determined the cause of death in the untreated mice; he found they had died of cancer. This was common for the breed and age “surprisingly, the melatonin- treated mice were disease free, even in their extended lives. Their organs had shrunk, typically of old age but they did not suffer or die from cancer.”

The import of these experiment, says Judy Mcfarland, is that if melatonin extended the lives of the rats, and they did not die of disease even during the extension, disease couldn’t be age-related as many people think but a cause of the abundance of free radicals and a deficiency of antioxidants.

The experiments were repeated many times over, and the same results were observed. When male and female mice were used, it was discovered that they “displayed the sexual prowess of much younger mice, in fact, right up until their death these mice were sexually active.” As this would be the equivalents of men and women 100 years old, it was thought melatonin supplementation of the diet could improve libido and sexual response to that age in humans.

Beyond these, melatonin has been put up as capable of lowering high blood cholesterol, reducing the formation of atheroma plaque in blood vessels and damaging them, offsetting or normalising high blood pressure; checking damage to heart muscle by corticosteroids and free radicals, apart from boosting immune function. In young people in whom the pineal gland is working optimally, Dr. Pierpoli says melatonin can enlarge the size of the thymus gland to normal. This gland matures the T-Cells which fight off foreign organisms and cancernous cells. In old people, the thymus gland would have shrunk and may even reappear to disappear. In breast cancer research, the pineal gland has been found to pump out more melatonin, which is found in deficient states in cancer disease. Coincidentally, chemotherapy suppresses the pineal gland.

The eye

s promised last Thursday, here’s more information on eye care. I did promise to provide more information on EYEMAXPLUS which I suggested was more comprehensive with about 20 nutrients than many of the eye health formulas on the Nigerian market today. These eye health antioxidant formulas are good for the prevention of eye disease and for supporting eye recovery from surgery, for example. The package of EYEMAXPLUS (every two capsules comprises Vitamin A beta carotene) 15,000.Vitamin C ( as a cerola fruit and Aascorbic Acid) 500 mg. Vitamin D ( as ergocalciferol) 200 i.u. i.u.Vitamin E ( as Aloha tocopherol and succinate)

400 i.u. Vitamin B1 (as thiamine mononitrate) 25mg. Vitamin B2  (as Riboflavin ) 10 mg. Vitamin B3 (as Nacinur) 50 mg.Vitamin B6 (as pyriodoxine) 25 mg. folate (as folic acid 800mg. Vitamin B12 (as cyanocobamin) 25mg. Biotin 300 mg. pantothenic acid ( as calcium pantothenate) 150 mg. calcium (as calcium carbonate) 200 mg. iodine from help 400 mg. magnesium (as magnesium oxide) 400 mg. zinc (as zinc aspartate, oxide complex) 25 mg. selenium ( as selenium amino acid ) 200 mcg. copper ( amino acid chelate) 2mg.

Macular degeneration

If you find someone standing right before you, who does not look at you straight in the eye but from the corners of the eye, he or she most probably is suffering from macular degeneration.

Judy mcfarland describes it as follows The cause of macular degenerating is unknown, although it is suggested that free radicals damage due to long – term exposure to visible light and uv radiation may be responsible. Several studies have shown that when deprived of antioxidants, many different species, including primates, our closest relatives in the annual kingdom, are likely to develop retinal degeneration. Studies also show that exposure to bright light also accelerates retinal degeneration in animals. Macular degeneration is a progressive but painless disorder that affects the central part of the retina, causing gradual loss of vision. The retina is responsible for central vision, which is required for writing, swimming, driving and distinguishing colour. It usually affects both eyes, either simultaneously or one shortly after the other. She says trouble begins with partial breakdown of an misulating layer between the retina and the choroid.” Fluid leaks and new blood vessels growing from the choroid through the retina damage the latter. This creates “a circular area of blindness” which grows until it may wipe off two or three words at normal reading distance.

Diabetic retinopathy:

This is a disease of diabetics and hypertensive’s. Blood vessels of the retina begin to bleed in diabetes, a group of blood cells called platlets clump together, causing diseases of small and large blood vessels. Vitamin E reduces this tendency. All other antioxidants, including Alpha Lipoic Acid, especially good for diabetics are well recommended by Judy McFarland for this condition. So are Chromium and Selenium. Chromium helps burn blood sugar. Selenium sometimes acts like Vitamin E.

The information comes with the warning that, going by the Physician Desk Reference List, there are about 94 Pharmaceutical medications that can cause glaucoma. This includes steroids, anti-hypertensive and anti-depressants. Other suggestions made for eye health are Bilbery, ginkgo biloba, Lutein and Zeazanthen, Taurine, Carotenoids, Grape Seed extract, Vitamin C, Selenium, Vitamin A, B2, B6, Glutathione etc.

Conclusion

As we wade through the storms of earthly existence, we cannot avoid those swirls of the head, mind and body which expose us to free radical predation. Lame duck President Jonathan is already digging the ground around in-coming President Buhari and planting human mines everywhere. There should be some combustion if a President Buhari erases these human – mine appointments. Besides the outgoing government party has been trying to belittle or flaw the election victory of General Buhari. It says votes were inflated for General Buhari and that President Jonathan is not contesting the votes to prevent bloodbath in Nigeria. That makes Jonathan a hero of Nigerian people and paints Buhari as a villain. The Jonathan side does not mention votes on its side configured under “special circumstances” they do not say what Jonathan would have done if we won the polls outright and the north rose against him. Anyone who knows Jonathan well knows he would have done same.

Poor me: Toga and called in the troops. Happily, while Jonathan was busy throwing money at the voters, the opposition was getting the international community interested in the upcoming polls. They, and the Nigerian courts, dissuaded Jonathan from using soldiers to railroad himself back to power. His balloon was punctured, and he had no choice but to go. If he did not go away and people died through his use of troops, he would have faced the wrath of the world community trying to discredit the victor is uncharitable and ungentlemanly. Trying to set bobby traps with lame duck – time appointments is worse. Equally terrible is the agenda that, within six months, Buhari’s government would have failed every-one. We all should expect the swirls and arm up with antioxidant defenses for our health.

MOTHER nature is wise and right wherever you turn in this wonderful Creation. Can it be otherwise when nature bears or anchors the will of God in Creation? In the fourth part of this series last week, I answered the question of a reader who wanted to know why mother Nature did not equip the human body with antioxidants to destroy free radicals which destroy human cells, tissues, organs, system, and by, extension, shorten human life, when it is clear that we must always encounter free radicals and even produce them in our bodies every day.

The enquirer thought that Mother Nature, always credited with WISDOM, should have seen well ahead and provided the human body with a free radicals antidote. The reader arrived at this point of enquiry after reading about how free radicals are present in the air we breathe, water we drink and food we eat, how germs produce them in our bodies to destroy the immune system, how the immune system produces its own free radicals to destroy germs, how waste product of metabolism (breathing, digestion e.t.c) are all free radicals. It is reasonable to infer from this that if these wastes are not completely eliminated as they are produced, we accumulate free radicals overtime, endanger the cells and shorten life on earth.

Many people, for example, do not employ up to 40 per cent of the capacity of their lungs to bring in oxygen and to eliminate carbon dioxide produced during metabolism. Exercise helps to improve utilisation of more lung capacity.

Many people are constipated. This means the organs of digestion have been so impaired by free radicals that they cannot function properly and this is causing constipation, which is loading and poisoning the system with free radicals. Can we imagine a motor car with a running engine (“metabolism”) in which the waste products ( carbon and soot of the combustum of petrol or diesel do not leave the engine through the exhaust pipe? Even the kitchens and fire places of old were equipped with chymnies to take smoke and soot safely out.

The reader in reference was baffled by what he considered a slack on the part of Mother Nature when he learned that researchers extended the lives of some animals, including fruit flies, five times over when they fed them antioxidants to erase free radicals which previously ravaged their bodies, causing premature aging and early death in their species.

In the second part of the series, GINGKO BILOBA was thrown up as one of the best antiaging antioxidants for the brain. This has spurred interest in this ancient herb which protect the brain and the eyes in particular against free  radicals. More antioxidant for the brain will be mentioned as the series progress.

Last Thursday, the fourth part of this series showed that Mother Nature equipped our bodies from birth with no fewer than three antioxidants complexes to deal with all sorts of free radicals which may assail us. Our duty is to maintain their levels by consuming foods and drinks which contain them or their building blocks. Happily today, the natural health industry, responding to the work of the research community, has produced food supplements which we can take to augment or boost the stock levels.

In this, we can be like the wise motorist who never allows his petrol tank to fall below the half guage before he “fills up” the tank. Some wait till the red light warns them they are on “reserve” fuel. Often, I see pictures of people  who are on full antioxidant tank and those who are on “reserve”. Both may be heavy smokers. One may be on Vitamin C food supplement, whereas, the other is not. cigarette smoke produces free radicals, especially for the passive smoker, to inhale. Every cigarette sick smoked is said to deprive the smoker of about 60 mg of Vitamin C, an antioxidant Vitamin.

he one who takes about 1000mg of  Vitamin C everyday with food may loose about 600mg of it to smoking, whereas the smoker who does not take Vitamin C may be completely depleted of the little stock of it he had. He ages faster than his friends, and may be in and out of the doctors’ clinic everyday, whereas the other man suffers no complain.

What happens to the cigarette smoker happens to the alcohol consumer and the coffee drinkers, to mention a few examples. I learnt from Dr. Don. Colbert that, since he discovered coffee to be acidic, free radicals laden and, therefore, toxic, and since he could not stop taking coffee, he took an antioxidant with every cup. Dr. Colbert patient may sight him taking coffee and assume, stupidly, that he was a doctor and taking coffee, they too, could take it without any harm to their bodies.

They would be ignorant of his antidote and harm themselves. I learned, also from Dr. author of, ‘What your doctor does not know about your nutrition may be killing you’, that he never fails to add Grape seed extract to his prescriptions. Many pharmaceutical drugs require antioxidant fire power to eliminate the free radical they produced in the body.

Ever since I shared this idea with an Alhaja I met in a cab on the way to Ilorin a few years ago, she has not fail to take it whenever Vitiligo spots appeared on her skin, and It has not failed to work for her.

Nature wisdom.

As suggested last week, everyone must strive to build up or fill up or top up the natural antioxidant complex stocks Mother Nature gave to us all at birth. These are:

•Clutathatione

•Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD) and

•Catalase

As a reminder, Glutathatione is made in the liver from three of the 23 or 50 amino acids, namely:

•Cysteine

•Glutamic Acid and •Glycene.

or these reasons, it was suggested that free form amino acids or Spirulina be a part of the daily diet. There are two lines of SOD. One Zinc and Copper. This line protects the cytoplasm of the cell. The other line comes from Manganese and protects the Mitochondria or energy factories of the cell.  For this reason, Zinc, Copper and Manganese should be in the daily diet. Many people prefer cheap and pharmaceutical Vitamin C. I go for the alkaline or buffered type which comes with Calcium, magnesium, Iron and Manganese, among others. As for Catalase antioxidant enzyme complex, which destroys hydrogen perozide in the body, converting it to water and oxygen, the ingredient to consume is Selenium, a good supplement for HIV- challenged people and of which we shall soon learn more.

The eye and the vision of President Mohammadu Buhari’s desk should be laden with files in the change era. For change is not roler-coaster, but work. My high school physics taught me in the 1960’s that work was force on distance. I do not think that definition has changed. It means the force applied on a mass over a specific distance. How much change President Buhari would bring about in Nigeria, therefore, would be how much force he can apply over the obtuse, heavy minds and brains of Nigerians in one, two, three, four years. This will call up lots of information which he has to study and take decisions on. If he will keep his election promise, he will not be like President Ebele Jonathan who delegated his office wholesales or thereabout to his ministers who, recognising his weakness for work, capitalised on it. So, can we hear the opinions of our friends, JEAN CARPER’s on good vision, in her best- seller “Stop aging now” and JUDY LIMBERG MCFARLAND in ‘Aging without growing old’? Both are star books for health libraries I have been recommending in this series. Problems of the eyes are many and beyond the scope of this column. I would, therefore, limit their suggestions to those problems prevalent in Nigeria. This including (1) Cataract (2) Glaucoma and (3) Macular degeneration among others.

The bottom line, according to many studies they cite, is that the eye is saturated with antioxidants to prevent its vital organs from being oxidised by rays of the sun. But, overtime, these antioxidants molecules are used up and not restocked. Many people resort to surgery rather than diet only to find the knife couldn’t sort their problems. I’ve had glaucoma since I was 45 in 1995. This was to be joined by cataract from which opthalmogists says I am now free. In learning to take care of my eyes, I learned about how it is well supplied with blood and oxygen and of how blockages of blood circulation may cause vision to or induce blindness. Vitamin A is a good antioxidants present in the eye to protect and replenish the retina. But the eye cannot absorb vitamin A well in the absence of zinc, another antioxidant. Alpha Lipoic Acid, yet another antioxidant, functions in the fluid and tissue parts of the eye.

Beta carotene, yet another antioxidant protects the lens against cataracts. So do the twin antioxidants Lutein and Zeazanthin, plentiful in Marigold flower from where they are commercially extracted for eye formulas. They filter the damaging blue spectrum of light from sunlight to prevent it from “cooking” the lens to a “cataract” against light flow through the eye. From the Cambridge Institute for Better Vision, I was to learn the eyes need 33 nutrients everyday. These are present in the company’s EYE MAXPLUS.

Many more are present in its Advanced eye and vision formula. Let’s hear from Jean Carper:

“Everybody knows cataracts are a phenomenon of getting old. Right? The figures show it: only about 4.5 percent of Americans have cataracts in their fiftieth. By ages 70 and 80, that figure has multiplied 10 times… almost 50 percent have vision dimmed by cataracts. But is age the real culprit? And are cataracts really a necessary part of aging? Bluntly, such senile cataracts, like so many infirmities as we get older, appear to stem from a Vitamins deficiency, says Dr. Irwin H. Rosenberg, director of USDA’s Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Turfts. Or, more especially, an antioxidant deficiency. Yes, it’s those destructive free radicals at work again.

“This time, they have targeted the lens of the eyes. They are born of photo oxidation that comes with simple exposure to ultraviolet light or being in sunlight so the light strikes the lens of the eyes. Its normal, but after years, it takes a toll by oxidising proteins, damaging crystalline in the lens, turning it opaque. That is, unless you have plentiful supply of antioxidants in the lens to spice out the damaged crystalline so it does not build up into cloudy lens.  Its rather clear-cut, says Dr. Rosenberg.

“A number of studies indicate that cataracts tend to come to people who gets the least antioxidant Vitamins and spare those who get the most. In particular, Vitamin C seems most powerful in warding off cataracts. In one study, Americans in the lowest one third of Vitamin C intake were 14 times more apt to develop cataracts than those in the tight end. Those getting the least Vitamin E had a three times greater risk of developing cataracts, those skimping on Beta Carotene had one and a half times greater risks for cataracts as they aged.

“In other recent research, at the State University of New York at Stonybrook, investigators found that relatively high intakes of antioxidant nutrients corresponded with low risks of cataracts in a group of nearly 1,400 people, aged 40 to 70. Also, those who took multivitamin supplements at least once a week for at least a year were less apt to develop cataracts as they aged than non-vitamin takers. Nor do you have to suffer macular degeneration, a serious degeneration of the eye’s macular leading to blindness.

recent study by Micheal S. Kaminski, at the Pacific University College of Optometry in Oregon, reported that 92 percent of a group of men and women with macular degeneration were deficient in at least one anti-oxidant nutrient. 75 percent lacked two or more, most notably Vitamin E, Zinc and Selenium. Research shows that nearly everybody over age 55 lacks at least one of the major antioxidants thought to protect against macular degeneration, and three-quartres are deficient in all three. A study at the Natural eye institute show that people with the highest blood level of fruit and vegetable chemicals called carotennoids, including Beta Carotene, were only one third as apt to develop macular degeneration as those with the lowest carotenoid levels. Even those who ate moderate amounts of carotenoids cut their odds of macular degeneration in half. A carotenoid called Lutein may be particularly powerful according to Swiss researchers. They have found Lutein highly concentrated in the macular, the part of the eye responsible for sharp vision. They theorise that antioxidant Lutein and other Carotenoids fight off oxygen free radicals that can damage the macular, destroying sight. Interestingly, vegetables highest in Lutein are Kale, Spinach and collard greens. ‘’In animal studies, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and Beta carotene  have been especially protecting against macular degeneration.”

Jean Carper reported, also, that Havard University researchers found that 18,000 male physicians cut their chances of developing cataracts by 27 percent simply by taking a multivitamin formula every day. They tracked the men for 10 years.

JUDY LIMBERG McFARLAND says: “Light is our richest sense, and link to the world and its wealth of imagery. It’s always amazing to me when I study the eye to think of all processes that must take place for us to be able to see. Each waking second, the eyes sends about a billion pieces of information to the brain. The eye can sense about 10 gradations of light and seven million gradations of colors. We see in such detail because the eye is almost an extension of the brain. The health of the eye is largely dependent  on a variety of nutrients, the foremost of which is oxygen. When the  normal  function that delivers nutrition and oxygen to the eye is impaired, many disorders soon follow. Most of these disorders are associated with aging- cataract, glaucoma, and macular degeneration. But are they truly linked to aging? They may not be. “Although cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration have been called signs of aging for years, these  health problems may also be austed or lessened with proper diet and nutritional supplement. In both human and animal studies, antioxidants seem to offer the greatest protection against aged related degeneration of the eye.”

She speaks of cataracts, as the loss of transperancy in the lens of the eye, the only transparent organ in the body.

Judy Mcfarland adds: “Many investigators, beginning as early as 1935, have reported that cataract patients have very little Vitamin C in the Aqueous humour, the fluid held between the lens and the tissue at the front of the eye. According to the late Linus Pauling, Ph.D., in a normal person there is 25 times more Vitamin C in the Aqueous humour of the eye than in the blood plasma. Supplementation with Vitamin C has caused early cataract to regress or even disappear. The vision of 60 to 90 percent of patients with early cataract improved in one study with some cares of improvement labeled “dramatic”?

Low Vitamin C has actually been labeled by researchers as the cause, not the consequence of cataract formation. What I want to know is why, after  60 years of  research, this information hasn’t been filled to every senior citizen. As part of their health care programme. Now, you know cataract can regress, reverse, or disappear.

Gingko biloba

This ancient blood circulation herb is still ringing bells of sonorous sounds in many ears and brains. Last Thursday, it featured in this series as a star brain herb for moving blood and oxygen to the micro units of the brain, thereby waking them up, if they are sleeping or dying, improving memory, alertness, vigour and…. I used Ginkgo biloba as a food supplement ( I still do) in my work days as editor and never for a movement experience foggy or faded thought. Today, Gingko biloba is a star anti–aging, antioxidant prescription for the brain, going by several scientific studies worldwide.  It is an indispendable food supplement, also, for people who are recovering from stroke or any other brain trauma.

And for many of us who rely almost exclusively on the cell phone for telephone communication, Gingko should be a feature of the daily diet. I got this impression some years ago when I watched a documentary on what the cell phone may be doing to the brain. It is said to be powered on the energy frequency on which the microwave oven functions.

That means that any time we hold a cell phone close to the ear during a telephone conversation its energy actually “cooks” the brain as the microwave oven cooks food.

Microwave cooking damages or at best alters the molecular structure of food. It is the structure of the food molecule which performs such functions in the human cell which corresponds with the structure of the molecule.

Thus, an altered molecular structure will produce nothing other than an altered molecular functions. And an altered molecular function means an aberrant or deviant or abnormal cell. Is this why critics of the cell phone believe it can predispose its users to cancer? Is this why cases of brain tumour are growing? The Russians may know what the rest of the world doesn’t know or are pretending not to know. They do not eat microwave food. I too, do not. In the said documentary, the colour of the parts of brain irradiated, so to say, by cell phone “Microwaving” change for some time. It normalises after a while, perhaps after the cells fight back to repair the damage. Inflicted upon them by this seemingly  indispensable modern technology.

It is possible the cells mobilize all the antioxidants at their disposal to fight off free radicals unlashed upon them by the cell phone. That process is called ionization . The complex cell is being reduced to its component parts. It is a feature of electro pollution  in our modern age. Every cell in the human body produces, electricity of a particular frequency. Electricity of a higher frequency can break down the cell and its electric energy. That’s why people get electrocuted when they are exposed to high voltage electric current.

How many men wonder what may be happening to their brains. ‘During a haircut, when the barber runs an electric clipper over their heads? Is brain cell frequency “jammed” by the frequency of electricity in the clipper’s electric motor coil? What protection have they in the brains or from dietary supplements such as Gingko biloba? As president, Gen Mohammodu Buhari (rtd) will make and receive many cell phone calls every day. Gingko biloba will surely help him. But so will also many other antioxidants.

adies and gentlemen, we are discussing how a president of Gen. Buhari’s age can cope with the pressure of office without slacking or slurring in the job or suffering a health break–down. Remember the age, 70 something, was an election campaign subject for the government party, the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) which did not expect him to survive rigours of the campaigns in opposition, I expect the PDP to continue to hammer this subject. Already, its members are making a mountain of post election statement by Gen. Buhari that he should not be expected to perform miracles. A President Buhari can knock the bottom out of this drive.

Happily, as shown last Thursday, anti–aging researchers have found that we age rapidly and suffer health deteriation largely because we do not have enough antioxidants to overcome free radicals which we ingest from food, air and water, which our immune system unleashes on germs and which they, too, unleash on the immune system, and from the waste products of our body’s metabolic processes.

Thinking about this war of antioxidants and free radicals going on within us, which we hardly know about until we are down from free radicals fire power. I remembered an interesting book, The wonderful world within, written by Dr Roger Williams, whose research led to the discovery of some vitamins, including,  I think, pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5).  Later, I may return to this vitamin for the benefit of people who are mangled by stress.

Now, I wish to think about the question which one of the readers of the column asked after reading last week about how free radicals make us age and die prematurely and about how a rich store of antioxidants can extend our lifespan, as they have extended those of some experimental animals about five times or more, and make us disease and pain free even at close to double the present span of earth – life.

The question was if mother nature is  wise and perfect and kind, why didn’t she not equip our bodies naturally to fight free radicals for as long as she expects us to live?

I asked this question in the 1980s when all the doctors I sought help from for my grandmother’s breast cancer said there was no cure for cancer. I just couldn’t believe that the good Lord would have permitted the human body to come into being without adequate safeguards of its health being provided prior to that great event which, from many creation stories, was actually the last event in the creation process. I was to learn while searching for the grains of truth of life for the care of the healthy human body that neither drugs nor injections but the right kinds of foods and drinks bring lasting health. “These right kinds of foods and drinks” are the natural edibles mother nature provides for the replenishment, always, of natural antioxidant complexes she factored into our bodies. Thus, each one of us was endowed from birth with three major, if not more, antioxidant complexes and must maintain them in high store if we are ever to win the battle with free radicals. Another lesson for me in this scenario is that we cannot avoid exposure to free radicals. We can only minimize the exposure and maximize our antioxidant response to them. For free radicals are like criminals and antioxidants like policemen who must hold them in check. In which society are there no criminals and policemen?

Antioxidant complexes

As usual, we will listen to our two best–seller author friends, whose books I again recommend for the health section of your library. They are Judy Limberg Mcfarland, author of ‘Aging without growing old’, and Jean Carper’s ‘Stop aging now’. Before they take the floor I will like to say that three of SOD natural antioxidant complexes found in every cell of the body are:

•Glutathione,

•Super oxide Dismutase

•Catalase

Glutathione: This antioxidant produced by the body, Judy Limberg Mcfarland says: “Glutathione” is manufactured in the liver by three naturally ocuring amino acids. Cysterine, Glutamic Acid, and Leucine. Glutathione is a power house of antioxidants. A lack of it in the cells is considered by some researchers to be the foremost cause of premature aging. It protects  every cell, tissue, and organ in the body. In one study, those with 20 per cent higher blood levels of Glutathione had only one–third the rate of arthritis, high blood pressure, heart disease, circulatory symptoms, diabetes, stomach symptoms, and urinary tract infections (UTIs) when compared to those with lower Glutathione levels.”

Dr Mara Julius, the author of this finding at the University of Michigan, said even in every old age, people with the highest levels of Glutathione bounce back from diseases and accidents, the same way much younger people do. They are just more vigorous. In a section in the “Anti–aging: Benefits of Glutathione”, Judy Mcfarland quotes researcher Jean  Carper as reporting that Glutathione offers the following health benefits:

•Protects from cancer

•Rejuvenates immunity

•Blocks damage to the cells by breaking down from free radicals

•Rejuvenates old and weak immune system

•Prevents lung injury from free radicals fights against the free radicals produced by rancid fats

•Keep blood cholesterol from oxidizing and becoming toxic

•Cures some form of type II diabetes

•Helps prevent macular degeneration and

•Maintains healthy immune function

Comments

Glutamic acid, Glycine and cysteine, components of Glutathione, are amino acids. Some researchers argue that Glutathione blood levels are not boosted by Glutathione food supplement as it is boosted by the consumption of Glycine, Glutamic acid and cysteine. For this reason, they suggest these three amino acids be consumed from diets rich in them or from amino acids food supplements which contain them. In the light of this, and given the fact that amino acids make up the proteins in our bodies, the health food industry has striven to provide us with amino acids in forms we can easily absorb them without the need to obtain. The get them from meat, fish or other flesh sources which leave lots of toxic and free radical waste in the body. One of the provisions is known as FREE FORM AMINO ACIDS. They come in softgels or sauce past. There are also plant sources, of which SPIRULINA is a prime asset. This blue–green algae was discovered by Europeans in the lake chad region. European researchers were surprised that inhabitants of this region aged gracefully, had a long life span and were not disposed to many of the diseases of modern life. They ate little of beef and egg. Their staple was SPIRULINA.  Now, Spirulina has been found to have one of the richest plant sources of Beta carotene, an antioxidant, and it has all 23 amino acids (including Glycine, Glutamic acid and Cystane) in an easily digested and absorbable form. On Glutathione, Jean Carper says: Glutathione is made up of three amino acids and is produced in all cells of the body. Its main purpose is to break down and dispose of potentially dangerous toxics that invade your body. It is an antioxidant that cleanses fatty foods of free radicals hazards in the digestive tract and protect cells everywhere against free radical harm. Because Glutathione is a natural substance, it is also found in certain foods. Additionally, Glutathione has been synthesized and made into supplements. Therefore you can combat aging both by eating Glutathione in food and by taking it as a supplement. Further, you can up your bloods levels of Glutathione by ingesting certain vitamins and other compounds that are building blocks the body uses to synthesis Glutathione.  If you have low Glutathione, one, you are one third more likely to have chronic diseases a sense of poor health, decreased functions and early death.

Two, fully 77 per cent hospitalised with chronic diseases had a low Glutathione defiency. In one study, taking fat boosts your need for Glutathione, thus the more that you eat, the greater your expected defiency of Glutathione. A drop in Glutathione as we age allows free radical activities to heat up unchecked, causing a gradual decay of immune functioning. Yet, by replenishing Glutathione, you can abort and reverse this inheritability. When tufts researchers, Dr Simin Meydani added Glutathione to the white blood cells of elderly people, immune activity revived up nearly equally that of cells of much younger people. Specifically, Glutathione boosts the ability of cells to divide, enabling them to mount stronger attacks on the foreign invaders. How utterly devastating shortages of Glutathione can be to cells was dramatically illustrated by experiments at Stanford University School of Medicine. When deprived of their normal Glutathione, T. cells (the warriors of the immune system) of healthy individuals became so disturbed, they could no longer appropriately respond to signals to wage war on microbes: the famished cells eventually became so confused that they actually killed themselves, a phenomenon researchers call programmed cell death.

Post Script:

lutathione has such a powerful effect that, in test  tubes it stops the replication or spread of the AIDS virus by about 90 per cent. AIDS patients are typically low in Glutathione  thus, the antioxidants is being tested on HIV patients to see if it can partially restore immune functioning. Glutathione is the Rambo that rushes in to safe your cells by neutralising and breaking down free radicals. So they are harmlessly flushed out of the body. It can deactivate at least 30 cancer–causing substances, according to Dean Jones, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Emory University School of Medicine. Glutathione even acts as a prophylactic against the formation of free radicals by destroying peroxides that are parents to free radicals. Glutathione formidable powers, as a free radicals terminator may help explain why eating fruits and vegetables, naturally high in Glutathione, is so often tied to lower rates of cancer, heart disease and other chronic diseases. In a resent study, people who are the most Glutathione rich raw fruits and vegetables were only half as likely to develop oral cancer as those eating the least. Jean Carper says, also, that “sufferers of some Type II diabetes can be helped by Glutathione. Especially spectacular, Glutathione can help save you from the harmful consequences of eating rancid, dangerous fats” she says. “Glutathione actually detoxifies or cleanses food of oxidized or rancid fats in your intestinal tract preventing it from detonating into showers of free radicals to attack your cells.

In a striking study by, Yee Aw Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physiology at the Louisiana State University Medicals Center, put oxidized fats into animals intestinal tract. When she added Glutathione the amount of free radicals that were metabolised and released from intestinal cells into the blood, strain fell dramatically.

The moment rancid fats enters the cells, explains Dr Aw, Glutathione destroys it. If there is enough Glutathione to destroy all the rancid fats that enters, none is left to go back out to circulate through the blood. But if your cells in the G.I tract have so little Glutathione, and you eat too much rancid fats, or both, the defense collapses, releasing harzardous oxidized fats to circulate throughout your body, promoting all the torment of aging. “In an exciting breakthrough researchers at Duke University Medical Centre actually cured Type II (adult onset) diabetes in animals by boosting Gluthathione levels. In the experiment, diabetes – prone mice on high fat diets developed diabetes. The reason, explains Biochemist Dike Opara, when mice burned the gobs of dietary fats, high amounts of oxygen free radicals were generated. These radicals interfered with or shut off the body’s ability to metabolise sugar. This led to an overload of sugar in the blood causing the diabetes. Increasely, the diabetes disappeared when the mice were fed glutamine, a natural amino acid that caused levels of gluthathione to skyrocket. The gluthathione then mopped up the destructive free radicals so they no longer hindered sugar metabolism.