The UltraMind Solution (81 page)

One of the keys to this program is to rebalance your diet by eating real, whole foods instead of the highly processed, high-calorie, high-fat diets that cause imbalance in your blood sugar and produce catastrophic effects on your mitochondria.

Or you could drink 1, 500 bottles of red wine a day.

But what else can you do to boost your mitochondrial function and prevent the destruction of your brain?

Taking supplements to enhance your mitochondrial performance is actually a well-founded scientific approach to overcoming oxidative stress. It’s
simply that taking huge quantities of resveratrol
alone
(or as some magic pill) without changing your lifestyle or using all the other nutrients needed for optimal mitochondrial function is a misguided approach. This is especially true considering the fact that resveratrol really has an impact on your insulin/sugar balance, which is more effectively treated with diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes anyway.

Many vitamins and minerals and “conditionally essential” nutrients are known to control energy production and to protect and defend your mitochondria. These “antiaging” or neuroprotective supplements work because of the way they help protect and optimize mitochondrial function, both directly and indirectly.

A number of “basics” are essential, including omega-3 fats, which make up the membrane of the mitochondria, and the two B vitamins, niacin (B
₃
) and riboflavin (B
₂
), which are necessary to help the enzymes involved in turning food into energy in your mitochondria.

We get others from our diet or our bodies produce them. But as we age, or are exposed to any type of physical, toxic, or emotional stress, we need to replace these nutrients.

The top mitochondrial nutrients are acetylL-carnitine,
²⁷
alpha lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10, NADH, D-ribose, magnesium, riboflavin (vitamin B
₂
), niacin (vitamin B
₃
), and n-acetylcysteine (NAC). These mitochondrial nutrients and antioxidants can protect your critical energy-producing factories.

Dr. Bruce Ames, of the University of California at Berkeley, has been investigating the use of these mitochondrial protective nutrients with much success. In fact, he suggests that we should not just think of nutrients as compounds to prevent disease, but rather as substances that can give us a metabolic tune-up.
²⁸

He has shown that providing compounds such as alpha lipoic acid and acetylL-carnitine can reduce mitochondrial injury and the effects of aging on the brain, including memory, learning, and speed of motor function.
²⁹

The key, he says, is not to get focused on just one nutrient, but to use a whole team of natural compounds to help the body function the way it was designed.
³⁰

All our efforts to help prevent aging and mitochondrial injury have to be coordinated. Here is what Dr. Ames says:

1.
Problems with mitochondrial enzymes lead to less energy production and more free radicals and oxidative stress.

2.
Enzymes can be made to work better by providing helpers, namely vitamins and minerals and conditionally essential nutrients (nutrients required under certain conditions such as unique genetic needs, extremes of age, stress, and sickness) like B
₃
, B
₂
, magnesium, D-ribose, coenzyme Q10, NAC, acetylL-carnitine, lipoic acid, and NADH.

3.
The right nutrients can help the body induce its own antioxidant defenses. For example, zinc, copper, and manganese are needed for the function of one of our own most powerful antioxidant enzymes called SOD, or superoxide dismutase, and selenium is needed for the function of glutathione peroxidase, which helps your glutathione do its job as an antioxidant and detoxifier.

4.
Use combinations of antioxidants to soak up free radicals and prevent overproduction of oxidants in the mitochondria.

5.
Use phospholipids and omega-3 fats such as DHA and EPA to repair and rebuild the mitochondrial membrane.

The reason studies don’t show benefit for this or that nutrient is that the studies are designed wrong. What if you put Michael Jordan on a court by himself against the worst team in the NBA? Could he win? Of course not.

Antioxidants and nutrients work as a team,
³¹
and giving just one compound in isolation can actually backfire, producing more damage.

Studies have shown that high levels of the antioxidants vitamin E and C in the diet are very powerful, and can lower Alzheimer’s risk by 70 percent.
³²
But people who eat diets high in vitamin C and E are eating a plant-based, nutrient-dense diet full of other nutrients and antioxidants.
³³
The combination is the key.

The plant world is full of powerful protective compounds such as curcumin (the yellow color in curry) and green-tea catechins that can reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.
³⁴
We must focus on a plant-based diet first, and then boost our efforts with supplemental mitochondrial nutrients.

Another energy booster is coenzyme Q10,
³⁵
which has been shown to stop or slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease in a sixteen-month study of eighty people.
^36
;
37
The dose given was very high, at 1, 200 mg a day, but there were no side effects.

In fact, some patients with Parkinson’s may have a defect in the enzyme
that needs coenzyme Q10 to operate properly.
³⁸
Therefore, if they have any increased oxidative stress such as from exposure to toxins, their mitochondria are much more susceptible to damage and loss of energy and they need much higher doses of coenzyme Q10 to protect themselves.

What concerns me is new research on the statin drugs (drugs designed to lower cholesterol, like Lipitor and Zocor), which shows that they are mitochondrial poisons. Statins block the body’s ability to produce its own coenzyme Q10.
³⁹
We know that statins cause muscle damage,
⁴⁰
but even in people without any symptoms
⁴¹
or abnormal blood tests,
⁴²
muscle biopsy shows cell injury.

How does this affect a susceptible population? Or someone already burdened by a load of mitochondrial toxins, inflammation, and other factors that create excess free radicals, which are so common in the twenty-first century?

One hundred years ago, heart disease was almost unknown and there were no statins. Some cardiologists now suggest putting these drugs in our water supply.
⁴³
Should we be wondering what those more natural conditions were and what we should be eating and doing so we don’t develop preventable lifestyle diseases? Or should we dump medications in our water supply?

Other nutrients have also been shown to be beneficial in animal studies of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. These include creatine, nicotinamide,
⁴⁴
and n-acetylcysteine.
⁴⁵

But lest you think that all this protection is just important for old brains, it appears that loss of energy production and oxidative stress are critical components of little autistic brains as well.
⁴⁶

So all across the age spectrum and all across the spectrum of different diseases that affect the brain (and almost everything else), we must focus on keeping our free radicals and oxidative stress in check and our mitochondria healthy.