Alzheimer’s and MT Promoter developed by Dr William Walsh Phd.

NOTES FROM 10/18/16

Notes from Dr Walsh’s presentation at the October 2016 Physician Workshop and Training Conference.

Alzheimers was named after the Doctor bearing his name. Hallmarks of this condition include

1. Apoptosis – spontaneous death of cells at rate of 5000 times normal.
2. Severe oxidative stress – inflammation and tissue damage.
3. Neurofibrillary tangles – twisted fibers inside brain cells. Derived from microtubules that are responsible for transporting nutrients to nerve cells.
4. Metal problems – initially believed to be aluminum, then brain volume, then concentration of aluminum. Theory of metal toxicity is back in favor with issues of role of copper and zinc recognized as playing a more important role.

Dr Walsh has developed an amino acid blend, called MT Promoter which is intended to improve metallothionein protein production. One such protein, ceruloplasmin is important for binding or chelating ‘free metals’. Unbound copper and other metals are free radicals that cause tissue damage. From a neurotransmitter standpoint, free copper lowers dopamine, the reward and executive thought neurotransmitter, and raises levels of norepinephrine, an excitatory neurotransmitter.  To prevent this conversion and avoid other effects of oxidative stress, we like to increase these binding proteins. In addition to MT Promoter, binding proteins level improves with improved consumption and digestive uptake of protein.  Metallothionein proteins are found in border cells of the digestive track and brain. They are believed to be a first line of defense against free radical damage.

There are believed to be two types of Alzheimer’s conditions:

1. Genetic – runs in some families – out of 5-6 siblings, 1-3 will get this, as they get progressively older
2. ApoE – genetically expressed proteins – Believed now that 50% of people 85+ have some amount

Signs and symptoms of progressive worsening condition:

1. Early warning signs – often as early as 55-60 years old
   1. Lose interest in schedules – move away from life
   2. MCI
   3. Why recent/old – as memories formed, as sensory nerves strike outer part of brain and lay down inputs, memories are processed, info transferred to hippocampus and base of brain parts, processed/organized, then back where it came from and laid down as memory
2. Moderate symptoms
   1. Inability to form new memories
   2. Years 4-6
   3. Often require nursing home – though may not be bothered by this
3. Later stage
   1. Awful
   2. Complete loss of speech and response
   3. Some may have some understanding of who’s there but unable to respond

Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s

1. Only realized in mid-50s had something to do with age
   1. Prior didn’t have long enough lifespan
2. Many documented cases of boxers
   1. Family of well-known boxers in England – all developed
   2. Also football players – more and more cases now
3. Education – big surprise
   1. Someone in MI developed ability to measure amyloid plaque level in alive human being – proportional to disorder in autopsies
   2. People who never went past HS, vs. college – factor of 5 difference – Even stronger if didn’t finish 8^th grade
4. Keep mind as active as possible
   1. If retired and learn new language or learn something new
5. Sedentary FAR more likely
6. Vascular Alzheimer’s Disease – not vascular dementia
   1. Most begins very close to blood vessels
   2. People with hypertension AND hypotension are more prone
7. Alcohol abuse – factor 2-3
8. Toxic metals – seen in high levels
9. Poor nutrition
   1. Lots to do with glial cells nourishing all neurons
   2. Need nutrition to stay healthy, or neurons deteriorate and die

Diagnostic tests for Alzheimer’s:

1. MMSE – common
2. Best test – CANTAB – from Yale
   1. Like video game test – spend 45” going through the test
   2. Measures many cognitive functions, not just memory
   3. He got that to test his people pre/post
3. Odor discrimination – entorhinal cortex is first to go
   1. Scratch and sniff, differentiate smells in multiple choice
   2. Correctly tell 10+ – very low likelihood of Alzheimer’s Disease development
   3. If 2-4, chances within 5 years much higher
   4. He gave to a good friend, who flunked the test – dad had died of Alzheimer’s Disease
      1. Had been getting affairs in order, then found out had a bad cold that day!
      2. Totally normal on retest, repeated since
   5. Direct measure
      1. Not yet FDA approved – research only

Theories:

1. Ach
2. Amyloid – losing favor
   1. They have gunky material in brain when they die
   2. As it grows, when it touches neuron, it dies – they thought
   3. 12-13 years ago – discovered drug to eliminate plaque from rat brains, rushed to human testing
      1. At first, so exciting. Got rid of plaques with mild-mod Alzheimer’s Disease
      2. Bad news – didn’t change trajectory of disease – still deteriorate and die
   4. Tau
      1. Makes the tangles
      2. Still leading theory
   5. Inflammation
      1. Could be this alone?
      2. Curcumin theory – India incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease in old people – 90yo – very small
         1. Curcumin very able to reduce inflammation in brain
      3. Oxidative stress
         1. Present in almost every neurodegenerative condition
      4. Toxic metal causation
         1. Persuasive Alzheimer’s Disease research on copper
      5. Could also be glial and nutrition related

ApoE isoforms:

1. Small protein, linear
2. Cysteine is great antioxidant
3. When replaced progressively by arginine, raises risk
4. Most people with Apoe4 don’t get it – 40-45%
5. 40% of Alzheimer’s Disease have neither

FDA approved:

1. Can improve symptoms 6-12 months (actually 4-6 in practice)
2. Does not stop progress
3. Enables dying brain to function a bit better – just what’s left works better

Case for Metallothionein:

1. As much as anything else in brain, protective of metals
2. If don’t have above-average levels of these metals, highly unlikely to form plaques
3. Fresh brains with and w/o Alzheimer’s Disease – those who died OF Alzheimer’s Disease had less than 1/3 of normal conc
4. Very intriguing

MT Promoter for Alzheimers:

1. He had already developed for autism
2. Formulation of 22 nutrients that promote synth and fxn of MT
   1. They looked at over 900 studies to see which nutrients promote expression of Alzheimer’s Disease, and which promoted function of brain once expressed
   2. They found by taking it themselves that there ARE side effects if low in Zn
   3. Zn is a metal-regulating element actually on DNA – tends to promote expression of MT
   4. But, it gets expressed without Zn (naked molecule) which immediately grabs Zn, dropping blood level, and causing irritability
3. Zn loading followed by MTP
   1. Do this till plasma zinc reaches 100 mcg/dL
4. Aimed at overcoming brain oxidative stress and inflammation, and repair of the BBB
   1. Prevents bad stuff from coming in

MT Promoter for Alzheimer’s Disease:

1. Unproven until RCTs confirm efficacy
2. Very promising results
3. Don’t give to anyone without good quality of life – don’t preserve them in state of misery, so NOT advanced
4. Have to have caretaker