Classic deficiencies cause classic psychiatric and neurologic symptoms in the young but if they occurred in an older person, they can be misdiagnosed as senile changes. Thiamine is essential for the metabolism of sugar. When large quantities of sugar are consumed, the body's metabolism tends to increase its own demand for the vitamin. In the same way, alcohol increases the demand for it. Alcohol and sugar have similar biochemical and metabolic effects on the body.
In contrast to carbohydrate-rich foods, which carry thiamine as a component to metabolize the sugar in the whole food , sugar rich artifacts carry little to no thiamine. The consumption of sugar artifacts creates a net deficit in the vitamin economy of the body. It is a condition similar to Wernicke-Korsakoff syyndrom, a partial destruction of the brain resulting from a lack of thiamine that occurs in chronic alcoholics.
Korsakoff's syndrom was first described as being present in people with a long history of alcoholism. It has also been found in people with no history with alcohol.
The mental symptoms include anxiety and depression, obsessive thinking, confusion, defective memory especially for recent events, time distortion, irritability, agitation and sometimes confabulation. These are certainly not unlike the mental changes in the senile person.
The symptoms can wax and wane and the patient may cover them up successfully for a long time, but symptoms reappear when stress is placed upon the person. These stressors may be slight or severe and include things such as unusual work, an extra job, accidents, injuries or surgery. Memory problems are the first to appear. In some symptoms have been present for many years as a form of minimal brain dysfunction, discounted or unrecognized and considered a result of other conditions, such as sinus and allergies or thyroid deficiency.
About three decades ago, a brief survey of newly admitted senile patients to a mental hospital in Saskatchewan revealed that 25 percent were there because of dehydration. These patients had a very low awareness of thirst. They only needed to increase their intake of fluids to get well . Zinc deficiency can cause a decreased sense of taste and sense of thirst, as well.
It is also, possible that many senile people are simply examples of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome where the additional stresses of age have precipitated another outburst of symptoms.
Men and women who consume large quantities of refined sugars may be just as vulnerable to the deficiency. If this is the case we can see a significant increase in the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome among the younger generation before and when they reach their sixties and seventies because of the massive consumption of food artifacts that has occurred in the past four decades.
Pyroglutamate has also shown to be effective in alcohol and sugar induced memory deficits in humans. (Sinforiani, 1985) and more recently, in people affected with multi-infarct dementia (Scoppa) In these patients, the administration of pyroglutamate brought about a significant increase of attention and an improvement on psychological tests investigating short term memory retrieval, long term retrieval and long term storage of memory. A statistically significant improvement was observed also in the consolidation of memory.
In human subjects, pyroglutamate was compared with placebo in a randomized double -- blind trial for assessing its efficacy in treating memory deficits in 40 aged subjects. Twenty subjects were treated with pyroglutamate and 20 with placebo over a period of 60 days. Memory functions were evaluated at baseline and after 60 days of treatment by means of a battery made up of six memory tasks. The results show that pyroglutamate is effective in improving verbal memory functions in subjects affected by age - related memory decline (Grioli, 1990).
Another naturally occurring nutrient is Acetyl-L-carnitine. It is related to choline compounds both chemically and in clinical effects.
In animal studies, long-term administration of ALC preserves spatial memory in aged rats (Gihirardi, 1989) and improved learning and memory in mice and rats (Bossoni, 1986, Drago, 1986).
ALC may also have some important properties of protecting the brain from the effects of aging. NMDA - sensitive glutamate receptors in the brain are important for learning but they decrease with age. One study of these receptors in rat brains found that ALC has a neuroprotective and neurotrophic ( brain-cell nourishing ) effect during aging.
Of great interest to researchers is ALC's ability to inhibit the formation of lipofuscin in the brains of aged laboratory animals ( Kohjimoto, 1988). The build up of these fatty deposits in the nerve cells is associated with a reduction of cognitive powers.
In human studies, ALC has increased attention span and alertness in people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of senility. One study using 2000mg of ALC per day showed small but significant improvements in short term memory in people with Alzheimer's disease (Rai, 1990). In another study they found ALC increased brain levels of choline acetyltransferase. Low levels of this enzyme are found in Alzheimer's patients, and is the major reason for their severe deficiency of acetylcholine (Pearson and Shaw, 1990.
Vitamin (B-3) Niacin
Niacin, also called vitamin B-3, has many interesting health benefits including memory enhancement. In one study, 141 mg of niacin per day improved memory in both young and middle aged normal, healthy subject by 10 to 40% (Loriaux, 1985). The study was conducted as a double-blind placebo-controlled study.
PRECAUTIONS: If you have diabetes, high blood pressure, ulcers or porphyria, niacin should be taken under the supervision of a someone experienced in vitamin therapy. Niacin is very acidic. People with ulcers may need to take something to buffer that acidity with the niacin. Some if not most people experience a flushing and temporary heat sensation that usually lasts only a few minutes. Flushing is much more likely to occur if the niacin is taken on an empty stomach. The flushing is not harmful and should disappear after niacin is taken for several weeks or so.
NUTRIENT DEFICIENCY VS. DEPENDENCY
Soon after the vitamin concept was established, it was found that if a diet lacked a vitamin a deficiency disease followed. Such as, beriberi in the lack of thiamine or pellagra in the deficiency of niacin and scurvy in the lack of Vitamin C. Much later, it was recognized that some individuals suffer from the same problems because their requirements for a vitamin
is very much greater than normal and that even a diet adequate for most people, there are number of reactions that crop up between the time the nutrient is ingested and its final interaction in the cells.
* Sometimes there is destruction or binding of the vitamin in the intestinal tract by certain foods, bacteria, or parasites.
into larger molecules called coenzymes. There can be a block or defect in coenzyme formation reactions. Increasing the amount of vitamin in solution would drive the formation reaction toward synthesis of more coenzyme. e a specific absorption of fat soluble vitamins.
* Before the B vitamins - thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, and vitamin B12 - become functional, they must be incorporated
into larger molecules called coenzymes. There can be a block or defect in coenzyme formation reactions. Increasing the amount of vitamin in solution would drive the formation reaction toward synthesis of more coenzyme.
* Vitamins may not be conserved well or may be destroyed too quickly due to oxidation or bacterial degradation.
*There may be an increased destruction due to stress. For example, during any physical or mental stress, there is a marked increase in destruction of vitamin C.
* Vitamin dependency may be genetic (inherited) or acquired. Medications may and can effect the gut heath and effect vitamin absorption along with toxins that may get into the body.
Many people experience all kinds of digestive problems after an operation especially after a long operation. The anesthesia effects the stomach and the bowls. It causes mild to severe digestive problems that can last from weeks , months or even years. Here at Sunnyslope Healing Arts it has been observed over and over that once we clear the rest of the anesthesia out of the digestive system and body that the person is greatly relieved and normal digestion returns immediately.
Now people are looking into how vaccines are effecting gut health and the microbiome.
Trace nutrients are also required in different quantities. Since all nutrients are required, one nutrient cannot be more important than another. But for any individual, one or more nutrients that he is dependent on will be relatively more important. Many nutrients may be easily available to him in food, but those on which he is dependent on will have to be taken in the form of supplements.
Nutrient deficiencies and dependencies play a major role in the development of senility. This means there are as many types of senility as there are dependencies or deficiencies. Grey hair is one of the manifestations of aging. For some people, taking large doses of vitamin E restores their original hair color. Others its a form of calcium and others its a Classic ( vegetable based) Chinese Herbal Formula that helps restore the hair and the skin as well. In one case history, a patient who began to grey over ten years earlier decided to try a protocol involving taking vitamin E daily along with a Traditional Classic Chinese Herbal Formula over a six month period and we witnessed his hair color restored along with reduced facial wrinkles.
When I went to China to study acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Herbal medicine I had the opportunity to go to an open Flee market or swap meet, black market actually in those days, and I saw a woman with bound feet walking around easily and she had black hair. I was amazed because binding feet had become outlawed a long time ago, which meant that she was pretty old and yet she had shinny black long beautiful hair. So I said in my amazement Wow! how good you look, but do your feet hurt. Her daughter ( a mature woman herself) answered me and said no her feet don't hurt her and I asked did she dye her hair and the daughter answered no she didn't need to because it was all naturally black. The daughter told me her mother was 96 years old and was in good health. I have also learned that mostly only the wealthy families bound the feet of their female children and it was a sign of wealth and status, which also means they had access to good herbalists and Acupuncturists who would give them herbal formulas with many trace elements to nourish the body, the likes of which western science has not identified yet. In this case both the mother and daughter were emphatic that her hair was naturally shinny black and her feet didn't hurt and she was very spry and moved easily and quickly around but also easily stood still to talk with me a few minutes.
In another case there was a Chinese man who was in his fifty's and had a very young looking face and his body was in great shape, like that of a twenty year old in good shape. I asked him how often did he work out and he said never. But I later learned that he grew up in China and his family was very wealthy and he had private martial arts teachers, herbalists and acupuncturists to take care of him which set him up with good health and a great physique even into his fifties.
MOTOR CONTROL
B vitamins exert a great influence on fine motor control. One double-blind placebo-controlled study found that normal, healthy volunteers who were experienced marksmen improved their aim significantly by taking a vitamin B formulation. (Bonke, 1986). Improvement in shooting accuracy was between ten to twenty percent.
B vitamins, like vitamin C and Beta Carateen vitamin A are water soluble in your body. This means that they are not stored in your fat cells. If you take them, divide the dose into three or four parts and take them with each meal.
DIGESTION
Mayo Clinic researchers published an article that tabulated the statistics on stomach function in peoples of all ages. They found that 50 percent of all the people they tested over age sixty had less stomach acid produced in their stomachs than is necessary to completely digest their food. When we don't digest our food , we don't get the nutrition out of it. For instance, we could be eating free range chicken and if we don't completely digest it, we won't get the amino acids out of the protein and minerals in the protein. And then if one has digestive difficulties the normal societal conditioning is to take an acid - blocking medication and shut off our digestion. But what is missing is hydrochloric acid and possibly pancreatic enzymes. Now many researchers are saying that macular degeneration in the eyes, which is so serious and can lead to blindness, starts in the stomach. Same with hair loss. Hair is made from protein.