Tag: seaweed for dementia

Categories
Alzheimer's Disease Biosea Health Heart Health

Healthy Heart Reduces Dementia

Heart health reduces dementia with seaweed

A recent study published in PLOS showed a healthy heart reduces dementia in a cohort of about 1500 Finish people. Improvements in heart health in midlife reduced dementia risk. It was the latest study finding people with better cardiovascular health metrics scores in midlife had a significantly lower risk of late-life dementia.

More than 5 million adults aged 65 years and older in the United States are predicted to have dementia, with projected increases to nearly 14 million people by 2050. In Australia, it affects about 1 in 15 over the age of 65. The cost is more than $15 billion and costs about $35,000 per sufferer. [4] It is not a “normal” part of aging. Lifestyle makes a big difference.

Severe cognitive dysfunction involving difficulties with memory, recognition, language, decision making, attention, and problem-solving accompanies dementia. This can interfere with a person’s daily functioning.

The Healthy Heart Reduces Dementia Study

Dementia is a long term disease and this cohort study included 1,449 participants from the Finnish Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Dementia (CAIDE) study, who were followed from midlife (baseline from1972 to 1987; mean age 50.4 years; 62.1% female) to late life (1998), and then 744 dementia-free survivors were followed further into late life (2005 to 2008). (30 year study)

Outcomes

The dementia rate was about 3.8% over a 20-year cumulative incidence for a healthy heart regime. If you had an unhealthy profile the risk of increase of dementia by about 3 times (to 9% over those 20 years)

Some lifelong modifiable risk factors identified in epidemiological studies, including cardiovascular risk factors from mid to late life, play a crucial role in the onset and progression of dementia. Seaweed reduces blood pressure and decreases heart inflammation in animal studies.

In fact, simulation research estimates that up to 35% of dementia cases may be due to modifiable risk factors across the life span. These risk factors include social and mental health factors such as education, social engagement, hearing loss, and depression.

Epidemiological studies also show the importance of cardiovascular health in the prevention of dementia. Factors such as smoking, diabetes, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, high blood pressure, obesity, and high cholesterol are all associated with an increased risk of dementia.

The American Heart Association’s (AHA) has 7 cardiovascular health metrics and four are behavioral:

  • physical activity
  • diet
  • smoking
  • body weight

Three components are biological:

  • blood cholesterol
  • blood pressure
  • blood glucose

Scientists have associated having ideal cardiovascular health metrics in midlife with a reduced incidence of dementia in later life.

Seaweed Reduces Dementia

In animal studies seaweed reduces dementia – but the translation from lab to human use is not direct. However there is enough evidence that the models are sound. This study concluded a healthy heart reduces dementia and there is data that seaweed reduces hypertension and diabetes – both major risk factor to dementia.

Dementia

References

[1] Liang Y, Ngandu T, Laatikainen T, Soininen H, Tuomilehto J, Kivipelto M, et al. (2020) Cardiovascular health metrics from mid- to late-life and risk of dementia: A population-based cohort study in Finland. PLoS Med 17(12): e1003474. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003474

[2] [1] Wanyonyi, S; du Preez, R; Brown, L; Paul, N; Panchal, S  2017 Kappaphycus alvarezii as a Food Supplement Prevents Diet-Induced Metabolic Syndrome in Rats. Nutrients (9) 11 DOI:10.3390/nu9111261 (Click for Abstract) (Click to download full paper)

[3] Bogie, J et al (Including Monique Mulder) 2019 Dietary Sargassum fusiforme improves memory and reduces amyloid plaque load in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model. Scientific Reports 9 (1) DOI 10.1038/s41598-019-41399-4 (Click for Abstract) (Click to download full paper)

[4] Dementia – an overview. Healthdirec facts https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/dementia-overview

Categories
Biosea Health Gut Microbiome

Seaweed changes Microbiome

seaweed changes microbiome Eat Pacific Sea Moss

We know seaweed changes gut Microbiome. There are more than 10 times more bacteria in the gut (microbiome) than cells in human body!

Moreover, there are more than 150 time total genome of microbiota than the human body. Mounting evidence suggested that gut microbiota plays an important role in the development of disease in the brain. And there is a bidirectional relationship between the brain, gut, and the microbiota within the gut, which is referred as the microbiota-gut-brain axis.

Seaweed Changes Gut Microibiome in Animal Studies

In a 2017 study Dr Sunil Panchal and Prof Brown[1] put rats onto a obesity inducing diet. They had 3 groups of 10 rats each.

  • Group 1 had normal rat diet.
  • Group 2 had a Junk food diet.
  • Group 3 had the Junk food diet plus some seaweed (Kappaphycus sp) and in human terms that was about 13 gm per day.

At the end of  the 8 week trial they looked at the gut microbiota.  Find the full details in the references, but this graph stands out.

There are 4 families of bacteria.  The black lines is from the feces of the normal food rat. The Red lines are from those Supersize diet, and the Green is from the Supersize plus seaweed.

Bacteriodes species – 3 times more. This is a strong marker for obesity so it helps explain why the seaweed reversed obesity. Seaweed has over 30% sulfated polysaccharide (carrageenan) and it is a good food source to the bacteria A recent study has shown that Bacteroides sp. are able to digest carrageenan
producing oligosaccharides which possess lipid-lowering properties.

In the s24-7 type seaweed increased the counts back to above the normal.

In the Clostridiacea and the Osciallspira back to normal

Microbiota in Alzheimer Disease

While improved microbiome helps in diseases such as blood pressure, obesity, there is also a growing body of evidence that microbiome is important in Alzheimer’s Disease.

Here is 1 figure between 40 patients with AD compared with “normal” patients.  Read more in Dr Zhung’s paper.

Changes in gut microbiota in Alzheimer disease

The Microbiota–Gut–Brain (MGB) Axis

The concept of the MGB axis is well established. The neuroendocrine and neuroimmune systems, in addition to the sympathetic and parasympathetic arms of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the ENS, are key pathways in gut–brain communication. Although the exact mechanisms mediating gut–brain interactions are not fully understood, they were suggested to involve endocrine, immune, and neural pathways (vagus nerve and enteric nervous system), leading to possible alteration in AD patients or aggravating inflammation.

The concept has now expanded and has become a quickly evolving area of research that led to convergence of research efforts in the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, gastroenterology, and microbiology—disciplines that were previously considered to have distinct and separate research objectives and focuses.

Further, depending on the diet that the Microbiota is living on has a cascade effect on compounds made, adsorbed and therefore the makeup of that microbiota.

No longer.  It is clearly integrated, and treating them as a whole system is now essential.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

REFERENCES

[1] Wanyonyi, S, du Preez S et al 2017 Kappaphycus alvarezii as a Food Supplement Prevents Diet-Induced Metabolic Syndrome in Rats. Nutrients 9 (11)  DOI:10.3390/nu9111261 (Pubmed)

[2] Li, M.; Shang, Q.; Li, G.; Wang, X.; Yu, G. Degradation of marine algae-derived carbohydrates by Bacteroidetes isolated from human gut microbiota. Mar. Drugs 2017, 15, 92

[3] Dinan, T Cryan, J 2017 Gut instincts: microbiota as a key regulator of brain development, ageing and neurodegeneration  Journal of Physiology 595 (2) 489-503 https://doi.org/10.1113/JP273106

[4] Zhuang ZQ, Shen LL et al. 2018 Gut Microbiome is Altered in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (2018) Journal of Alzheimer’s disease: JAD 63(4):1-10 ·  https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180176

[5] Vo Van Giau OrcID, Si Ying Wu 2017 Gut Microbiota and Their Neuroinflammatory Implications in Alzheimer’s Disease Nutrients 2018, 10(11), 1765; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10111765