10 natural ways to battle toxin exposure

In the U.S. alone, more than 60,000 chemicals are used in industry, agriculture and household products, none of which require real safety testing. Despite their widespread use, these chemicals pose real harm, and none of us are immune…

Dr. Isaac Eliaz

In the U.S. alone, more than 60,000 different chemicals are used in industry, agriculture and household products, none of which require real safety testing. These include flame retardants, pesticides and hydrocarbons and many other everyday pollutants, including byproducts of industrial processes, believed to be responsible for adverse neurodevelopmental conditions.

Despite their widespread use and assumed safety, independent research demonstrates that these chemicals pose real harm, particularly to vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, babies and children. But none of us are immune…

Common culprits

Here are some of the more common chemicals linked to neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD (autism spectrum disorder), ADD/ADHD, learning disabilities, and other developmental disorders:

• Phthalates, found in plastics
• Organophosphate (OP) pesticides
• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) flame retardants, found in furniture, electronics, household dust
• Combustion-related air pollutants
• Lead
• Mercury
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
• Many others…

If we want to support health against this constant barrage of harmful chemicals and pollutants, we need strategies to safely remove toxins and heavy metals from our bodies, and prevent their re-accumulation.

Improving our natural detox functions

While cells and certain organs are actually quite good at removing toxins, they simply can’t handle the kind of toxic load we face today. Despite the best efforts of our organs of elimination including the liver, kidneys, skin, immune system, lungs and GI tract, many toxins remain lodged in the body.

In my practice, detoxification is a starting point in the treatment of numerous chronic illnesses, including cancer, Lyme disease, heart disease, autoimmune disease and many others. Gently removing toxins from the circulation and digestion first is a key strategy.

There are a number of important botanicals that support this process, such as modified citrus pectin (MCP) and sodium alginates. These are gentle agents that support the body’s ability to remove toxic metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic, as well as environmental toxins such as certain pesticides. This combination has been clinically shown to safely remove toxic metals without affecting essential minerals as so many other detox agents do.

For deeper detoxification, I recommend additional botanicals and nutrients to support the liver, kidneys, skin and other detox organs. The goal is to enhance the body’s natural detox mechanisms, including the critical process of methylation, and encourage antioxidant activity to help neutralize free radicals generated by toxic body burden. We also want to support the body’s vitality so that we have enough energy during detox.

Here are some ingredients that can support these actions:

1. Milk thistle seed extract
2. Dandelion leaf
3. Cilantro leaf
4. Astragalus root
5. Goldenrod
6. Chinese salvia
7. N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC)
8. Alpha Lipoic Acid
9. L-Methionine
10. Calcium D-glucarate

Of course, an organic diet emphasizing whole, unprocessed foods, lots of green vegetables, and plenty of filtered water and herbal teas also provides critical detox support and supplies important phytonutrients to protect the body’s vital systems.

Regular exercise is another key modality that most of us overlook with our busy schedules. A 20 minute walk everyday can do wonders for your health, and is critical during detox to prevent toxins from getting stuck in transit.

There are also a number of therapies that can help clear the body’s detox channels and support overall health. Infrared saunas or regular saunas encourage sweating, one of our most important detox pathways. Acupuncture can help support the liver and other detox organs. Lymphatic massage is also helpful to get the lymph moving and increase blood flow, important when toxic burden, chronic inflammation or illness cause sluggish lymphatic drainage.

Today, environmental toxicity has become an immediate problem that requires an urgent solution. Yes, we absolutely need more aggressive regulations and protections for consumers. But we also need to regularly support the body’s abilities to eliminate toxins, safely and naturally.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

http://easyhealthoptions.com/10-natural-ways-battle-toxin-exposure/#

Zeolite detox myth busted - MUST READ

In lab tests, zeolites do NOT bind with aluminum, lead, uranium, mercury or cadmium... only CESIUM

(NaturalNews) Much of what we've all been told about zeolites over the years is a myth. Sadly, even articles published on Natural News have inadvertently repeated this myth, although I am now directing staff to update all zeolite articles on Natural News to reflect the latest scientific findings I'm releasing on the public record.

Monday, November 02, 2015
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

Last week, I released ICP-MS laboratory analysis data that show the elemental composition of zeolites. Those data reveal something astonishing: zeolites which are consumed as a daily dietary supplement by health-conscious people may contain anywhere from 10ppm to 60ppm lead, plus another 24,000 - 30,000ppm aluminum.

Given that many people are consuming 15g daily of this zeolite powder, they are effectively swallowing 750 micrograms of lead each day, along with as much as 450mg of aluminum daily.

Laboratory testing reveals metals claims to be bogus

The claim by zeolite manufacturers and marketers has long been that zeolites absorb these metals and remove them from the body. Thus, we were all told, even if zeolites contained some lead, that wouldn't be a problem because zeolites remove lead, we were promised.

After months of testing zeolites in the laboratory using a high-end Agilent 7700x ICP-MS instrument, I can now publicly state that zeolites are NOT effective at capturing or eliminating most heavy metals, including lead, uranium, mercury and cadium. Zeolites are also NOT effective at binding with aluminum.

See ICP-MS laboratory data below for full details. (And Click here for a tour of our lab website.)

We've all been hoodwinked by the zeolite industry

When it comes to zeolites, I believe we've all been hoodwinked by the zeolite industry and its marketers -- people who tend to just repeat the same myths they've heard from everybody else, usually without conducting any original research themselves. Even more worrisome, if I hadn't built the Natural News Forensic Food Lab and conducted this original research myself, none of what I'm about to tell you would have been made public by the zeolite manufacturers and marketers themselves.

It turns out that even zeolite consumers had no idea zeolites contained high levels of lead and aluminum. Most consumers have simply taken it on faith that zeolite marketers are telling the truth. The idea that "zeolites detox your body from heavy metals" is very nearly a truism mantra across the natural products industry. But it turns out to be no more true than the Flat Earth theories currently circulating across the 'net.

Zeolites turn out to be really, really bad at accomplishing the very thing they're promoted for: removing heavy metals from the body. The only well-known element zeolites are really strong at capturing and adsorbing is CESIUM, an element with several radioactive isotopes that often contaminate soils and water following nuclear disasters (Fukushima, Chernobyl). Cesium isotopes include 137 and 134, although 137 is by far the most worrisome and persistent in the environment (with a half life of around 29 years, if memory serves me correctly).

It seems I may very well be the only person in the world who has rigorously tested the binding ability of zeolites to various toxic elements and heavy metals in the laboratory. And here, I'm going to share the results with you that show zeolites to be all but worthless with most elements.

Metals Capturing Capacity

As you may recall, I pioneered a digestion simulation methodology that allowed me to test the ability of any substance to bind with toxic elements and heavy metals. Click here to watch my Metals Capturing Capacity video, or click here to see all my laboratory videos.

This process begins with placing the test substance into gastric acid that's almost identical to human gastric acid found in the stomach. The gastric acid solution is then spiked with a known concentration and quantity of selected heavy metals in aqueous form.

From there, the substance is gently rocked for several hours to simulate the churning of the stomach. During this process, some test substances will ABSORB toxic elements (or adsorb, in the case of zeolites), while others will EMIT toxic elements.

For example, I have long established that chlorella, peanut butter and strawberries are all very effective at trapping mercury. I've also found that certain sources of plant-derived calcium are extremely good at capturing lead and cadmium. In fact, this is how I invented my patent-pending Heavy Metals Defense formula shown at this site. As you can see from the laboratory results published there, this formula results in a 99.9% reduction of lead concentration in the gastric acid digestion simulator.

You might wonder, then, what percentage of lead reduction do zeolites accomplish in lab testing?

ZERO.

In fact, slightly worse than zero. Zeolites actually increased the lead concentration of the gastric acid:

Starting concentration of lead, analyzed via ICP-MS: 10,871ppb

Resulting concentration lead, after digestion with zeolites: 11,011 - 11,600ppb depending on the zeolite brand.

In other words, zeolites INCREASED the lead concentration, adding to the amount of lead in the gastric acid. (That's because zeolites contain a high concentration of lead and they can actually release lead during digestion.)

It's the same story for cadmium

Starting concentration of cadmium, analyzed via ICP-MS: 10,524ppb

Resulting concentration of cadium, after digestion with zeolites: 10,586 - 11,867ppb

The cadmium went UP!

Here's the result for arsenic:

Starting concentration of arsenic: 10,836ppb

Resulting concentration of arsenic, after digestion with zeolites: 9,028 - 11,198ppb

At this point, you might think something is wrong with my methodology. Why isn't zeolite adsorbing anything and reducing the concentration of potentially toxic elements?

It turns out that zeolites are very, very good at binding with CESIUM!

Starting concentration of cesium: 10,927ppb

Resulting concentration of cesium, after digestion with zeolites: 1,461 - 1,930ppb

In other words, zeolites adsorbed nearly 87% of cesium. So we know the process of measurement works. This is fully consistent with the known scientific literature on zeolites being used to help decontaminate soils surrounding nuclear accidents. The zeolites "trap" the cesium-134 and cesium-137, blocking it from being taken up by plant roots and contaminating the food supply.

But the zeolites I tested didn't reduce lead, cadmium or arsenic at all. In fact, they increased the concentration of those metals.

It is my belief that zeolite marketers started with the verifiable, true fact that zeolites adsorb cesium, then they generalized that to include "all heavy metals." This is how the myth was born. From there, the myth got repeated over and over until everybody accepted it as a truism. But it isn't true in lab tests. The only element I could get zeolites to capture in an efficient way was cesium. For other elements, the results just weren't there.

Here's the really bad news: Aluminum goes off the charts

One of the many claims made by zeolite marketers is that zeolites also remove aluminum from the body. This is a claim that's even been repeated by guest authors whose articles have appeared here on Natural News.

Yet zeolites are made of very high concentrations of aluminum, and when you place zeolites in gastric acid (i.e. the human stomach), you get a huge increase in the aluminum concentration of the gastric acid.

In my tests, we started with an aluminum concentration of 12,248ppb. Here's what we ended up with after digestion simulation using gastric acid:

Zeolite brand #1: 257,773ppb of aluminum

Zeolite brand #2: 210,044ppb of aluminum

Zeolite brand #3: 184,452ppb of aluminum

In other words, zeolites caused aluminum to INCREASE by as much as 2,100%.

That's quite an increase of aluminum for a dietary supplement that claims to "detox" aluminum from the body.

By the way, for the purpose of laboratory methodology recordkeeping, the masses of zeolite used in these tests were:

Zeolite brand #1: 0.9997g
Zeolite brand #2: 1.0489g
Zeolite brand #3: 1.0074g

We've all been lied to about zeolites

My conclusion from this scientific testing simply cannot be overstated: We've been LIED to about zeolites.

Keep in mind that I say this at great personal cost and legal risk. Not only does this make Natural News look bad for publishing articles that previously repeated the zeolite myth I'm now shattering, but I already have one zeolite company threatening to sue me over these revelations. (No doubt more will threaten me soon, too.)

My commitment is to the truth, not to artificial protectionism of any particular industry or product line. In the same way that I talk about glyphosate found in foods, I'm also dedicated to talking about heavy metals found in dietary supplements.

At this point, it is my opinion that aside from the cesium-related claims, zeolites are being marketed with false claims that imply the substance detoxes your body from all heavy metals.

It is my opinion that the marketers of zeolites have perpetuated a series of false mythologies to profit from selling a product that actually increases the quantity of aluminum and lead being introduced to the body. The fact that zeolites are made with high concentrations of aluminum and lead is indisputable.

It is also my belief that all health-conscious consumers should immediately halt any dietary intake of zeolites right now, unless they are directed to consume zeolites by a qualified naturopathic physician for some emergency application such as accidentally swallowing cesium-137. Even then, that physician needs to read about these laboratory results because they, too, may have been misinformed about zeolites.

Supplement industry FAIL

What we are really dealing with here is a very popular dietary supplement that, in my view, may be substantially increasing the load of lead and aluminum among consumers who take that product on a daily basis (as directed on the labels).

Some of the marketing that has accompanied zeolites has been so outlandishly exaggerated and falsified that it really qualifies as fraud.

This was not apparent to me, of course, until I built a million-dollar laboratory facility and used it to test both the composition and function of zeolites. But now that I've done the research, I cannot deny the validity of the scientific results acquired via careful, meticulous testing methodologies.

The fact that I'm willing to go public with these findings is all the proof you need that I am committed to public health and safety for foods, drugs and dietary supplements as well. When I see a problem that I believe poses a potential risk to consumers, I make sure the lab tests are reproducible, then I go public with it to help raise awareness among consumers.

For the record, I do not sell zeolites as a dietary supplement. The closest I come is Cesium Eliminator which is combined with Heavy Metals Defense and is positioned for use only in extreme nuclear emergencies such as nuclear war. There is no financial motive for me to artificially attack the zeolite industry. In fact, it will probably cost me tens of thousands of dollars to defend myself against frivolous lawsuits that I expect will be filed by zeolite product manufacturers. This is definitely a case where "no good deed goes unpunished."

The reason I am not afraid to go public with all this, however, is because any competent laboratory in the world can reproduce my results. Whatever lawsuits are leveled against me will eventually be thrown out because you can't sue someone for reporting the truth as verified by competent labs.

If you've been taking zeolites, get your blood tested for lead and aluminum

I'm now officially encouraging zeolite consumers to have their blood tested for lead and aluminum.

Please share your results with me at Natural News, because if this is found to be widespread, we may be blowing the whistle on a dietary product that could be directly impacting the health of tens of millions of people... almost all of whom have been wildly misinformed about the composition and function of the product they are taking.

Zeolite manufacturers should voluntarily halt sales

Zeolite manufacturers and marketers, upon reading this, should voluntarily halt all sales of zeolite products. If they wish, they can hire other ICP-MS laboratories to reproduce my own findings and thereby prove to themselves that the information I'm releasing to the public is accurate and sincere.

If a dietary supplement company is acting with integrity and safety for their consumers, they would immediately halt sales of any supplement found to contain such high concentrations of lead and aluminum, especially when that item is positioned as a "daily detox" that promises to remove lead and aluminum.

You will now be able to tell exactly which supplement manufacturers are more interested in profit than public safety by observing who continues to sell zeolite. Those are the ones that will openly LIE about the composition of their products. It has already begun, in fact. One Natural News reader forwarded me a message from a zeolite company who claims their product has "no lead" in it because there were assured it was "100% pure."

This is, of course, complete nonsense. All zeolites contain lead and aluminum. There's no such thing as a lead-free, aluminum-free zeolite, especially since zeolites are made of aluminum.

Just as happened when I published heavy metals laboratory results for contaminated rice protein products, I now fully expect to witness a wave of total lies, defamatory attacks and fraudulent claims from the zeolite industry.

Now you know why my laboratory is in a private location and why myself and other lab technicians are armed at all times with active firearms. Telling the truth is a very risky business these days, and what I've come to learn the hard way is that certain fringe elements of the natural products industry can be just as sleazy and dishonest as the pharma and vaccine industries.

Nevertheless, the science speaks for itself. If you are eating zeolites, you should probably stop. And if you are selling zeolites, you should probably stop that, too.

If you don't stop, you will probably sooner or later find yourself in a class action lawsuit from all your own customers... or shut down by the FDA or FTC, for that matter.

Don't blame me for this. All I did was analyze the stuff you've been selling and publish the results. Shame on you for selling lead and aluminum to your own health-conscious customers and calling it a "daily detox."

http://www.naturalnews.com/051805_zeolite_myths_heavy_metals_removal_daily_detox.html

This post is on Healthwise

One of the Best Ways to Dodge Alzheimer's

Recent Alzheimer’s research1 suggests preclinical signs of Alzheimer’s disease may be evident as early as 20 years before the disease actually sets in, allowing for much earlier intervention.

Advancements in Alzheimer’s Disease Detection and Risk Assessment

9 July 2015

Story at-a-glance

• Preclinical signs of Alzheimer’s disease may be evident in cognitive tests as early as 20 years before the disease actually sets in, allowing for much earlier intervention
• Blood tests measuring brain proteins (lysosomal proteins) may help predict Alzheimer’s up to 10 years before the disease develops
• Another biomarker panel may predict the disease within a two to three-year timeframe with over 90 percent accuracy; PET scans and retinal tests also offer hope of early detection

By Dr. Mercola

Recent Alzheimer’s research1 suggests preclinical signs of Alzheimer’s disease may be evident as early as 20 years before the disease actually sets in, allowing for much earlier intervention.

By the time your memory begins to noticeably deteriorate, about 40-50 percent of your brain cells have already been damaged or destroyed.

Early detection is all the more crucial considering estimates suggest Alzheimer’s diagnoses may triple by 2050, reaching nearly 14 million in the US,2 and 115 million worldwide.3

As reported by Time Magazine:4

“For 18 years, Kumar Rajan, associate professor of internal medicine at Rush University Medical Center, and his colleagues followed 2,125 elderly people with an average age of 73 and who did not [have] dementia.

Every three years, the researchers gave the volunteers mental skills tests, and then compared these results over time.

When they looked at the group that went on to receive an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, they found that these people showed lower scores on their tests throughout the study period.

In fact, their scores steadily declined with each test. For each unit that the scores dropped on the cognitive tests, the risk of future Alzheimer’s increased by 85 percent.”

Self-Administered Test May Predict Your Risk for Dementia

Previous research found similar correlations, which led to the development of the Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE) test. It's a 15-minute at-home test developed by Douglas Scharre, M.D., of the Division of Cognitive Neurology at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center.

You can download the SAGE test from the University's website.

According to Dr. Scharre, this simple test correlates very well to more comprehensive cognitive tests, and is an excellent way to get an early assessment of your cognitive function. If taken at intervals over time, it can also serve as an early warning, if your scores begin to decline.

Brain scans and various biomarkers may also one day be used to detect deterioration associated with Alzheimer’s.

Blood Proteins and Other Biomarkers May Allow for Earlier Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s

According to recent research,5,6 long before clear signs of Alzheimer’s develop, brain proteins called lysosomal proteins can be detected in a patient’s blood.

Lysosomal proteins help remove material from damaged nerve cells, and elevations in these proteins appear to be predictive of Alzheimer’s up to 10 years before the disease develops. According to lead author Dr. Edward Goetzl:

“These proteins are in very tiny nerve cell-derived blood particles called exosomes. Abnormal levels of the proteins may be useful [signals] that could help us study early treatments to limit or reverse the damage to brain cells and even prevent the development of the full-blown disease.

The results also show us that there are major abnormalities in how these proteins function in brain cells, which could potentially provide a new target for treatments.”

Another study,7 published last year, identified a set of 10 blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer’s.

Using these biomarkers, the researchers claim to be able to predict the disease within a two to three-year timeframe with over 90 percent accuracy, concluding that: “This biomarker panel, reflecting cell membrane integrity, may be sensitive to early neurodegeneration of preclinical Alzheimer's disease.”

Brain Scans and Eye Tests May Also Reveal Future Alzheimer’s Risk

According to Dr. Daniel Kraft, MD,8,9 a Stanford and Harvard trained physician, inventor, entrepreneur, and faculty chair for the Medicine and Exponential Medicine program at Singularity University:

“We’re on the cusp of having imaging modality so you can pick up the plaques in a patient’s brain 10 or 20 years before they’re showing any clinical signs of Alzheimer’s.

We’ll be able to give them interventions, whether that’s mind games, or exercise, or other therapeutics that fits under not just personalized medicine but this idea of precision medicine to participatory medicine.”

Using PET scans with a radioactive tracer, researchers have demonstrated they can detect the accumulation of beta-amyloid plaque in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s.10 According to Murali Doraiswamy, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and director of the neurocognitive disorders program at Duke University:

“Our research found that healthy adults and those with mild memory loss who have a positive scan for these plaques have a much faster rate of decline on memory, language, and reasoning over three years.”

Interestingly, researchers have found that beta-amyloid plaques also accumulate in the retina, and this buildup closely matches the buildup found in the brain. As reported by CNN11 last year:

“Based on that finding, the research team developed a noninvasive test to check the retina for the telltale beta amyloid plaques. They're now conducting a clinical trial to see if the test can identify patients who are starting to develop Alzheimer's but don't show symptoms yet...

A reliable eye test ‘would be a very important contribution,’ says Maria Carrillo, the Vice-President of Medical and Scientific Relations at the Alzheimer's Association. 

‘People tend to go to the opthamologist more frequently as we age. If you could add a quick test to see if neurogenic pathology is going on the brain, it would be really helpful.’"

Can Alzheimer’s Be Prevented?

Some medical professionals have raised questions about the psychological impact of learning you’re on your way toward developing Alzheimer’s, saying that having that knowledge may be counterproductive unless or until there’s an effective treatment.

What they fail to realize is that while there’s no pharmaceutical cure, you do have a significant degree of control over the situation if you make the appropriate diet and lifestyle corrections. So getting a 20-year early warning could likely make a tremendous difference, provided patients are given accurate diet and lifestyle instructions.

Two key instructions are:

• Avoid processed foods of all kinds, as they contain a number of ingredients harmful to your brain, including refined sugar, processed fructose, grains (particularly gluten), genetically engineered (GE) ingredients, and pesticides like glyphosate (an herbicide thought to be worse than DDT, and DDT has already been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s)
• Optimize your gut flora by avoiding processed foods (sugar, GE ingredients, pesticides and various food additives all discourage healthy bacteria in your gut), antibiotics and antibacterial products, fluoridated and chlorinated water, and by regularly eating traditionally fermented and cultured foods, along with a high quality probiotic if needed

Dr. David Perlmutter, a board-certified neurologist and a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition (FACN) has explored these important concepts in his books, Grain Brain, and Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain for Life.  

Both of them are excellent handbooks on how to take control of your health and prevent and/or treat many diseases that are considered “incurable” from the conventional point of view, including Alzheimer’s disease. From his research, Dr. Perlmutter has concluded that Alzheimer’s disease is primarily predicated on lifestyle choices, and that it is preventable—a fact that very few health professionals are talking about.

"We interact with our genome every moment of our lives, and we can do so very, very positively," Dr. Perlmutter says. "Keeping your blood sugar low is very positive in terms of allowing the genes to express reduced inflammation, which increase the production of life-giving antioxidants. So that's rule number one: You can change your genetic destiny. Rule number two: you can change your genetic destiny to grow new brain cells, specifically in the hippocampus...

Your brain's memory center regenerates. You are constantly growing new brain cells into your 50s, 60s, 80s, and 90s – throughout your lifetime – through a process called neurogenesis. That said, these two ideas come together because you can turn on your genes through lifestyle choices that enhance neurogenesis and that enhance regrowth of cells and expansion of your brain's memory center. This was proven by researchers recently. They demonstrated that there are factors under our control that can make that happen."

How to Regrow Brain Cells

Lifestyle strategies that promote neurogenesis and regrowth of brain cells include the following. All of these strategies target a specific gene pathway called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which promotes brain cell growth and connectivity as demonstrated on MRI scans.

• Exercise. In one year-long study, individuals who engaged in exercise were actually growing and expanding the brain's memory center one to two percent per year, where typically that center would have continued to decline in size.
• Reducing overall calorie consumption
• Reducing carbohydrate consumption
• Increasing healthy fat consumption. Coconut oil is ideal, as it contains 66 percent medium-chain triglycerides (MCT)—a primary source of ketone bodies, which is the preferred fuel for your brain. There’s even evidence suggesting that ketone bodies may help restore and renew neurons and nerve function in your brain, even after damage has set in. Therapeutic levels of MCTs have been studied at 20 grams per day, which is equivalent to just over two tablespoons. Intermittent fasting also boosts ketone production
• Increasing your omega-3 fat intake and reducing consumption of damaged omega-6 fats (think processed vegetable oils) in order to balance your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. I prefer krill oil to fish oil here, as krill oil also containsastaxanthin, which appears to be particularly beneficial for brain health. It belongs to the class of carotenoids, and is very "focused" on reducing free radical-mediated damage to fat, and your brain is 60 or 70 percent fat

Alzheimer’s—A Slow-Acting Form of Mad Cow Disease?

Mounting research also shows there’s a compelling link between a particular kind of brain protein and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's, and Lou Gehrig's disease. This protein, called TDP-43, behaves like toxic and infectious proteins known as prions, which are responsible for the brain destruction that occurs in Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease;12 two types of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). As explained in Scientific American:13

“Prions are misshapen yet durable versions of proteins normally present in nerve cells that cause like proteins to misfold and clump together, starting a chain reaction that eventually consumes entire brain regions. In the past 15 years scientists have learned that such a process may be at work not only in mad cow and other exotic diseases but also in major neurodegenerative disorders....”

According to research14 published in 2011, TDP-43 pathology is detected in 25-50 percent of Alzheimer’s patients, particularly in those with hippocampal sclerosis, characterized by selective loss of neurons in the hippocampus, which is associated with memory loss. Research presented at the 2014 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) also revealed Alzheimer’s patients with  TDP-43 were 10 times more likely to have been cognitively impaired at death than those without it.15,16

The question is, how do you end up with TDP-43? The common denominator between Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease17 is forcing natural herbivores to eat animal parts—a more or less routine practice in the factory farm model—so the possibility has been raised that humans might get infected with TDP-43 via contaminated meats... 

A 2005 study18 published in the journal Medical Hypotheses, titled: “Thinking the unthinkable: Alzheimer's, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and Mad Cow disease: the age-related reemergence of virulent, foodborne, bovine tuberculosis or losing your mind for the sake of a shake or burger,” states:

“In the opinion of experts, ample justification exists for considering a similar pathogenesis for Alzheimer's, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and the other spongiform encephalopathies such as Mad Cow disease. In fact, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and Alzheimer's often coexist and at this point are thought to differ merely by time-dependent physical changes. A recent study links up to 13 percent of all ‘Alzheimer's’ victims as really having Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.” [Emphasis mine]

The researchers also note that bovine tuberculosis serves as a vector for human Mad Cow Disease (aka Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease). Bovine tuberculosis is one of the most prevalent disease threats in American CAFOs, and the researchers quote USDA data suggesting that anywhere from 20-40 percent of American dairy herds are infected at any given time. The evidence is certainly suggestive, and from my perspective, it’s one more reason to avoid all meats from livestock raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). And remember, meat sold in grocery stores and served in restaurants are from CAFO animals unless specifically labeled as grass-fed and organic.

My Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies

Because there are so few treatments for Alzheimer’s, and no available cure, you’re really left with just one solid solution, and that is to prevent it from happening to you in the first place. Diet is part and parcel of a successful prevention plan, and myoptimized nutrition plan can set you on the right path in this regard. Remember that swapping out processed fare for whole foods is an important if not KEY part of the equation, as GE sugar, corn, and grains are now pervasive in most processed foods sold in the US.

In terms of your diet and other lifestyle factors, the following suggestions may be among the most important for Alzheimer’s prevention:

• Eat real food. Avoid as many processed foods in boxes and cans as you can. You, your spouse, or someone you employ needs to spend time in the kitchen to prepare your own food. Avoid eating foods from industrial kitchens that can put any one of tens of thousands of chemicals into your food.
• Avoid sugar and refined fructose. Ideally, you’ll want to keep your sugar levels to a minimum and your total fructose below 25 grams per day, or as low as 15 grams per day if you have insulin/leptin resistance or any related disorders.
• Avoid gluten and casein (primarily wheat and pasteurized dairy, but not dairy fat, such as butter). Research shows that your blood-brain barrier is negatively affected by gluten. Gluten also makes your gut more permeable, which allows proteins to get into your bloodstream, where they don’t belong. That then sensitizes your immune system and promotes inflammation and autoimmunity, both of which play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s.
• Optimize your gut flora by regularly eating fermented foods or taking a high potency and high-quality probiotic supplement.
• Increase consumption of all healthy fats, including animal-based omega-3. Healthy fats your brain needs for optimal function include organically-raised grass-fed meats, coconut oil, olives and olive oil, avocado, nuts, organic pastured egg yolks, and butter made from raw grass-fed milk. High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA are also helpful for preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer's disease, thereby slowing down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.
• Reduce your overall calorie consumption, and/or intermittently fast. Ketones are mobilized when you replace carbs with coconut oil and other sources of healthy fats. Intermittent fasting is a powerful tool to jumpstart your body into remembering how to burn fat and repair the inulin/leptin resistance that is a primary contributing factor for Alzheimer’s. To learn more, please see this previous article.
• Improve your magnesium levels. Preliminary research strongly suggests a decrease in Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain. Unfortunately most magnesium supplements do not pass the blood brain levels, but a new one, magnesium threonate, appears to and holds some promise for the future for treating this condition and may be superior to other forms.
• Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate. Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day.  
• Exercise regularly. It's been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized, thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. Research has shown that people with Alzheimer's have less PGC-1alpha in their brains and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's. I would strongly recommend reviewing the Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
• Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure. Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated with Alzheimer's.
• Avoid and eliminate mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50 percent mercury by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity. However, you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.
• Avoid and eliminate aluminum from your body: Sources of aluminum include antiperspirants, non-stick cookware,vaccine adjuvants, etc. For tips on how to detox aluminum, please see my article, “First Case Study to Show Direct Link between Alzheimer’s and Aluminum Toxicity.”
• Avoid flu vaccinations as most contain both mercury and aluminum, well-known neurotoxic and immunotoxic agents.
• Avoid anticholinergics and statin drugs. Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers. Statin drugsare particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10,vitamin K2, and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.
• Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/07/09/alzheimers-disease-early-detection.aspx

This post is on Healthwise

Go to Healthwise for more articles