 |
 |
Fluctuating Dose Responses? If you are taking supplemental vitamins and your dose responses are fluctuating check your vitamin label. Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride) may be the reason. Vitamin B6 is an antidote for levodopa. The 1995 Physicians GenRX says, "Pyridoxine hydrochloride in oral doses of 10 to 25 mg rapidly reverses the toxic/therapeutic effects of levodopa. This should be considered before recommending vitamin preparations." Other foods that are rich in vitamin B6 which could be minimized in the diet to avoid reduced levodopa effect are: brewers yeast spinich wheat bran sweet potatoes wheat germ white potatoes liver bananas kidney prunes heart watermelon cantaloupe milk cabbage eggs blackstrap molasses beef The daily requirement for healthy men is 1.8 mg and for non-pregnant/non- lactating women is 2.0 mg per day. Vitamin B6 doesn't have to be replenished every day. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Atkins/Birkmayer/NADH What Does all This Mean? Dr. Atkins was quoted in his newsletter as saying: "This info is taken from Dr. Atkins "Health Revelations" Newsletter... NEW SUPPLEMENT EASES ALZHEIMERS, PARKINSONS People with pd stop trembling, those with ad stop forgetting, and everyone else gets a big boost from fatigue - all with a new natural substance that excites me more than anyother discovery of the past decade. NADH, also called Coenzyme 1, is the stored form of energy in every cell of our bodies, and is now available w/o prescription as a suppllement. ................ I was already well-informed about NADH when Jorg Birkmayer, M.D., the world's chief NADH researcher, came to the Foundation for the Advancement of Innovativei Medicine in March. I was even taken aback tho' when Birkmayer, director of Birkmayer Institute for PD Therapy in Vienna, played a video of 3 of his patients before & after NADH therapy." **** Kind of reminds many about the pallidotomy videos *************** "The only difference was NADH. Since 1988, Birkmayer & his father, Walter Birkmayer, M.D., have used NADH to treat more than 885 people with pd. 80% of them showed moderate to excellent improvement in their disability (Acta Neurologica Scandinavia, 1993; 87 [Suppl146]:32-35). The younger Birkmayery believes that most of theh people who didn't improve had advanced arteriosclerosis that prevented the coenzyme from reaching the brain. Far more important that even the initial improvements is that those people haven't deteriorated at all in the years since NADH treatments began. Most of them have been able to discontinue/decrease use of l-dopa. Until Birkmayer began giving NADH to a small group of people with ad, no glimmer of hope existed in the treatment of this dreaded destroyer of memory. But ad & pd share many biochemical similarities, including an ad-like dementia in later stages of pd On the heels of his initial success, Birkmayer decided to test NADH vs the memory robber. All of the 17 people with ad who received supplements of the coenzyme showed significant improvements on standard memory tests, according to unpublished test results. And for the past 2 yearrs further brain deterioration has been stopped in its tracks." ********** And now back to the commercial *************************** "And now for the rest of us. I can't state it any more simply than this: supplements of NADH increase your energy levels. In addition, the evidence so far suggests that NADH will become a safe, commonly used supplement to treat depression and garden-variety memory lapses & concentration difficulties. People with family histories of ad may also want to consider taking NADH to prevent mental deterioration." .................................................................... .......................... ***** If we could interupt the commercial for the facts, here is what is ***** published. ***** This is the abstract of the study Dr. Atkins is referring to. Authors Birkmayer JG. Vrecko C. Volc D. Birkmayer W. Institution Birkmayer-Institut fur Parkinsontherapie Vienna, Austria. Title Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH)--a new therapeutic approach to Parkinson's disease. Comparison of oral and parenteral application. Source Acta Neurologica Scandinavica. Supplementum. 146:32-5, 1993. Abstract The reduced coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) has been used as medication in 885 parkinsonian patients in an open label trial. About half of the patients received NADH by intravenous infusion, the other part orally by capsules. In about 80% of the patients a beneficial clinical effect was observed: 19.3% of the patients showed a very good (30-50%) improvement of disability, 58.8% a moderate (10-30%) improvement. 21.8% did not respond to NADH. Statistical analysis of the improvement in correlation with the disability prior to treatment, the duration of the disease and the age of the patients revealed the following results: All these 3 parameters have a significant although weak influence on the improvement. The disability before the treatment has a positive regression coefficient (t value < 0.01). The duration of the disease has a negative regression coefficient (< 0.01) and so has the age a negative regression coefficient (t value < 0.05). In other words younger patients and patients with a shorter duration of disease have a better chance to gain a marked improvement than older patients and patients with longer duration of the disease. The orally applied form of NADH yielded an overall improvement in the disability which was comparable to that of the parenterally applied form. ******* This was a Phase 1 study for testing the safety and efficacy of a ******* compound. There are 2 other Phases that have to be completed ******* before a compound can be licensed by the FDA as a new drug. ******* Another group, upon finding the Birkmayer study deficient in ******* certain facts, initiated a double-blind study to verify the ******* improvements alluded to and emphasized by Dr. Atkins in the ******* ad. Authors Dizdar N. Kagedal B. Lindvall B. Institution Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Linkoping, Sweden. Title Treatment of Parkinson's disease with NADH. Source Acta Neurologica Scandinavica. 90(5):345-7, 1994 Nov. Abstract It has earlier been claimed that clinical improvement of patients with Parkinson's disease is obtained by treatment with NADH. This has to be verified by double-blind, clinical studies and measurement of biochemical effects of the treatment. In a double blind study five patients with clinically moderate Parkinson's disease were treated with NADH, 25 mg, given intravenously once a day for four days. Then they were given 25 mg NADH intramuscularly after 2 and 4 weeks. Disability scores were determined before each treatment and two weeks after the final injection. A control group (n = 4) with the same degree of Parkinson's disease obtained sodium chloride with the same schedule. According to the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale a tendency to clinical improvement was seen after the iv infusions in both treatment and placebo groups. However, the changes were not statistically significant, and no changes occurred during the following weeks. No changes were found neither in the study nor the control group regarding cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of dynorfin, metenkefalin, somatostatin, hydroxy-methoxy-phenylglycol, homovanillic acid and 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid. The results indicate that no great changes are obtained after short-term treatment of parkinsonian patients with NADH, neither clinically nor biochemically. ***** This double-blind study while informative does not meet FDA require- ***** ments for a Phase 2 double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled study ***** with 200 to 300 study subjects. ***** Back to Dr. Atkins newsletter... "The planned clinical trials of NADH, which the FDA is expected to approve this summer with Birkmayer's own patented oral version of the coenzyme, should further unlock some of the secrets of this utterly astounding supplement." *** From what I can find, no company has filed an IND with the FDA for *** NADH and there have been no results published in any of the mainstream *** peered journals. "Buyer Beware!" John Cottingham KNOWLEDGE is of two kinds: we know [log in to unmask] a subject, or we know where we can OR find information upon it." [log in to unmask] Dr. Samuel Johnson