A multipronged, nutritional-based strategy for managing Alzheimer's disease. (June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Glick, J. Leslie; McMillan, Philip A.
• Is Part Of: Medical hypotheses. Volume 91(2016)
• Page Start: 98
• Page End: 102
• Publication Date: 2016-06
• Subjects: Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine -- Périodiques; Medicine; Periodicals; 610
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2016.04.007
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-9877

Abstract

Abstract: A nutritional-based strategy has been proposed in order to improve cognitive performance of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. The strategy requires daily dietary supplementation with magnesium (Mg), folic acid, and vitamins B6 and B12, daily consumption of silicic acid-rich mineral water in order to lower the body burden of Al, and several plasma exchange procedures in order to replace Aβ-bound albumin with fresh albumin. Evidence suggests that the deteriorating cognitive performance associated with AD may be improved by supplementation with either Mg alone or with the combination of the above three B vitamins (B vitamin combo), or by drinking silicic acid-rich mineral water, or by undergoing plasma exchange. However, for the following reasons the combination of all four therapeutic approaches may have a synergistic effect on improving cognitive performance of AD patients. 1. Various studies suggest that AD represents a form of diabetes of the brain, otherwise known as Type 3 diabetes. Proper functioning of carbohydrate metabolism requires both Mg and the B vitamin combo. 2. High levels of homocysteine associated with gray matter atrophy found in AD patients can be lowered by the B vitamin combo, which has also been found to prevent loss of intracellular Mg induced by homocysteine. 3. Consumption of silicic acid-rich mineral water not only removes Al, but lowering the body burden of Al enables more Mg to access the brain and regulate neurochemical processes that would otherwise be disrupted by Al. 4. As a result of plasma exchange, fresh albumin, not bound to the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide that is associated with AD and which binds extensively to albumin, replaces Aβ-bound albumin. Compared to Aβ-bound albumin, the fresh albumin has an increased affinity for Mg, thereby facilitating the distribution of Mg across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and into brain tissue.