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Fight Parkinson's and Huntington's with Vitamins and Antioxidants

Published by Healing Arts Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

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About The Book

The most up-to-date resource on the powerful benefits of nutritional supplements for the treatment of Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease

• Provides an easy-to-follow program of supplements to optimize the benefits of treatment, slow the progression of symptoms, and help delay onset in those predisposed to these diseases

• Shows how specific combinations of antioxidants counteract the oxidative stress and chronic inflammation at the root of these diseases

• Based on more than 35 years of scientific and medical research

In this practical scientific guide, micronutrient researcher Kedar N. Prasad, Ph.D., reveals the latest revolutionary discoveries on the use of antioxidants to treat Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease. He details how the proper combinations of vitamin and antioxidant supplements, along with polyphenic compounds such as curcumin and resveratrol, can greatly increase the effectiveness of standard medical treatments for these diseases, slowing the progression of symptoms as well as delaying onset despite family history.

Prasad shows how oxidative stress and chronic inflammation play a significant role in the initiation and progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease. He provides an easy-to-follow daily supplement regimen to target free-radical damage and inflammation and slow the progression of these diseases. Reviewing the scientific research on micronutrients and neurodegenerative disease, he debunks the flawed conclusions of the neurological community that vitamins and antioxidants are ineffective, revealing how their studies focused on specific micronutrients used alone rather than synergistic combinations.

Offering a safe self-help complement to standard medications, this guide provides a truly holistic approach to the prevention and treatment of both Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease.

Excerpt

PREFACE

Why Should You Read This Book?

Although humankind suffers many neurological diseases, this book focuses on the neurodegenerative Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. About 1 million people suffer from Parkinson Disease, with about sixty thousand new cases diagnosed annually in the USA and three to four million people remaining undiagnosed. Huntington’s disease, on the other hand, is estimated to have an incidence of about fifteen hundred per year.

The direct and indirect cost of Parkinson’s disease is estimated to be about $25 billion per year, while the annual cost of treating Huntington’s disease may vary. The average annual medical cost per individual is about $10,500, but it could be as much as $47,000 if the cost of care givers is included.

Parkinson’s disease is considered a slow progressive chronic neurodegenerative disease, appearing later in life and characterized by the loss of dopamine neurons from the brain, which causes involuntary tremors of the limbs and trunk as well as non-motor deficits and neurological symptoms, including impaired sense of smell, memory loss, and psychiatric symptoms. Parkinson’s is the most common form of neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease.

In contrast, symptoms of Huntington’s disease--an incurable and fatal genetic disease caused by a gene mutation--appear in young adult life and become progressively worse. The major symptoms of Huntington’s include movement disorders, cognitive dysfunction, and psychiatric problems. The movement disorders are characterized by uncontrolled movement or tics in the fingers, feet, face, or trunk, which become more intense when the individuals are anxious or disturbed. As the disease progresses, other symptoms appear, such as clumsiness, jaw clenching (bruxism), loss of coordination and balance, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing and eating, uncontrolled continual muscular contractions (dystonia), difficulty walking, stumbling, and falling. The cognitive dysfunctions are characterized by progressive loss of memory, including the ability to concentrate, answer questions, and recognize familiar objects.

At present, there is no adequate strategy for the prevention of Parkinson’s disease and the mitigation of Huntington’s disease symptoms, and their treatment options remain unsatisfactory. In this book I propose a unified hypothesis that increased oxidative stress and chronic inflammation are primarily responsible for the initiation and progression of these diseases. Therefore, mitigating oxidative stress and chronic inflammation appears to be a logical solution to reduce development or progression in both. The proposed strategy, in combination with standard therapy, may improve management outcomes more than just standard therapy alone.

To reduce oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, it’s essential to increase the body’s levels of all antioxidant enzymes and all standard dietary and endogenous antioxidants. This goal cannot be achieved by the use of the one or two antioxidants that have been used in clinical studies. Therefore, I have proposed that a preparation of micronutrients containing multiple dietary and endogenous antioxidants, B vitamins with high doses of vitamin B3 (nicotinamide), vitamin D, selenium, and certain polyphenolic compounds (curcumin and resveratrol), should be employed in clinical studies to reduce the risk of development and/or progression of Parkinson’s and Huntington’s. These micronutrients are capable of increasing the levels of all antioxidant enzymes by activating a nuclear transcriptional factor-2/antioxidant response element pathway as well as by enhancing the levels of standard dietary and endogenous antioxidants.

Even though some laboratory data exist to suggest that even the genetic basis of neurological disease can be prevented or delayed by micronutrient supplements, the increase in the amount of micronutrients that I propose flies in the face of conventional theory, for most neurologists believe that antioxidants and vitamins have no significant role in the prevention or improved management of neurodegenerative diseases. These beliefs are primarily based on a few clinical studies in which supplementation with a single antioxidant, such as coenzyme Q10 in Parkinson’s disease, produced only modest beneficial effects in the study group. Another study demonstrated that vitamin E alone was ineffective in reducing the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

The fact of the matter is that patients with neurodegenerative diseases may have a high oxidative environment in the brain, thus the administration of a single antioxidant should not be expected to produce any significant beneficial effects. This is due to the fact that an individual antioxidant in the presence of a high oxidative environment may be oxidized, and then act as a pro-oxidant rather than as an antioxidant. Also, the levels of the oxidized form of an antioxidant may increase after the prolonged consumption of a single antioxidant; this can subsequently damage brain cells. Coupled with this is the fact that a single antioxidant cannot elevate all antioxidant enzymes as well as a multitude of dietary and endogenous antioxidants.

In this book I discuss oxidative stress, inflammation, properties and function of antioxidants and certain phenolic compounds, structure and function of normal human brain, and the incidence, cost, and causes of each neurodegenerative disease. In addition, this book presents evidence in support of a hypothesis that increased oxidative stress and chronic inflammation in the brain play an important role in the initiation and progression of neurodegenerative diseases. I also provide formulations of micronutrients containing multiple dietary and endogenous antioxidants and B vitamins, vitamin D, selenium, and certain polyphenolic compounds (curcumin and resveratrol) specific to each neurodegenerative disease.

I hope that this book will serve as a guide to the consumers who are interested in using micronutrients to reduce the risk of developing Parkinson’s or the mitigation of the symptoms of Huntington’s disease.

About The Author

Kedar N. Prasad, Ph.D., is the chief scientific officer of the Premier Micronutrient Corporation, the former director of the Center for Vitamins and Cancer Research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the former president of the International Society of Nutrition and Cancer. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Healing Arts Press (March 27, 2016)
  • Length: 240 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781620554333

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Raves and Reviews

“As the world’s leading scientist and educator on the practical use of a multiple micronutrient strategy to combat leading diseases, Kedar Prasad now addresses Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease in this latest book. After providing a proper background in immunology, antioxidant science, and neurodegenerative disorders and debunking myths for both proactive citizens and clinicians, Prasad provides a rational antioxidant/anti-inflammatory/immune supportive approach that can improve the health of millions. To maximize the benefit of Prasad’s authoritative research-based advice, buy two copies of this book now--it may well be the most valuable addition to your physician’s practice!”

– James E. Ehrlich, M.D., clinical associate professor, University of Colorado, Denver

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