Electronic Pen

A 2023 study1 published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) demonstrated that participants with poor diet quality and low intake of flavanols experienced improved memory when flavanols were added to their diets. Flavanols are readily available in certain foods, but for the purposes of this study participants took a pill-form supplement.2

The large-scale study was conducted over a three-year period with supplements containing 500 mg of flavanols and 80 mg of epicatechins, an amount normally recommended that adults consume through the foods they eat. While participants with a baseline flavanol deficiency benefited from the supplementation, researchers noted that it had "no effect on people who don’t have a flavanol deficiency."

There is a range of normal memory and learning in the elderly. You likely know an older adult who is cognitively sharp and rarely forgets anything and others who may forget things occasionally. The National Institute on Aging3 calls mild forgetfulness a normal part of aging.

However, serious forgetfulness and memory problems are an indication there may be something wrong. Poor memory and learning skills make it difficult to live independently, pay your bills and do everyday things like driving a car or using a phone.

In the featured study, researchers were interested in how nutrient deficiencies may impact hippocampal function in memory. The hippocampus is a brain structure important for encoding and retrieving events in episodic, or long-term, memories. Animal models have demonstrated that lesions in this area make it difficult to remember the sequential ordering of scent despite the ability to recognize the odor.4

The nutrient the scientists evaluated was flavanol, which is a type of flavonoid with high antioxidant properties. Flavanols are commonly found in green tea, cinnamon, red wine, grapes, apples and cocoa products.5

Flavanol Deficiency Contributes to Memory Loss in the Elderly

The result of this study brings to mind the old expression that an apple a day may keep the doctor away. It's the flavanols in apples that were the focus of the study, the first to conclusively establish that a diet low in flavanols is one driver behind age-related memory loss.6

This was the most recent study from the same team that has been researching age-related memory loss for over 15 years. The studies began with animal models and the most recent data was gathered from the COcoa Supplements and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), which involved 21,442 men and women from across America.7

The arm of the COSMOS study designed to evaluate the impact flavanols may have on cognitive aging in the hippocampus is called COSMOS-Web. Data was gathered from 3,562 older adults who were randomly assigned to receive either a daily supplement of flavanol in pill form or a placebo for three years.

At the start of the study, the researchers assessed the participants’ diet and short-term memory using web-based activities at home. These same tests were repeated at the end of years one, two and three. Additionally, roughly one-third of the participants also sent urine samples so researchers could identify biomarkers indicating levels of dietary flavanols. This offered greater accuracy in measuring if flavanols were associated with the participants’ cognitive performance.8

The researchers found what you may have expected — memory scores increased greatest when compared to baseline in the participants who had the lowest level of flavanol intake in their diet. The 16% improvement was measured in year one and was sustained for the following two years. Memory scores for the entire group improved only slightly.

These results suggest that a deficiency in flavanol is one driver of age-related memory loss, but additional flavanols over and above what the body requires does not provide added benefits. Adam M. Brickman, Ph.D., professor of neuropsychology and co-leader of the study commented in a press release:9

"The improvement among study participants with low-flavanol diets was substantial and raises the possibility of using flavanol-rich diets or supplements to improve cognitive function in older adults."

What Are Flavanols, Flavonols, Flavonoids and Flavones

Although the terms are very similar, the structures of flavanols, flavonols, flavonoids and flavones are different. Flavonoids are a family of polyphenolic compounds in plants. Within that family are six large subclasses of compounds. These include flavanols, flavonols, flavones, isoflavones and anthocyanidins.10

Flavones are a large subgroup of flavonoids and can be found in flowers and fruits such as parsley, red peppers, ginkgo biloba and celery.11 Flavonols have a ketone group and are the building blocks of proanthocyanins. They can be found in abundance in fruits and vegetables. The most studied of these are kaempferol, quercetin and myricetin.

Flavanols, the subject of the featured study, are also called catechins or flavan-3-ols in reference to a hydroxyl group in the compound. You may recognize two flavanols that are found in tea, chocolate and berries — epicatechin and gallocatechin.12

Flavonoids Are Key to a Sharp Mind

The results of the featured study support the results of a 2021 study13 from the same team published in Scientific Reports. In this shorter 12-week study, researchers engaged 211 healthy adults and investigated the effects of daily administration of 260 mg, 510 mg and 770 mg of cocoa flavanols. The primary outcome was an object recognition task that engaged the hippocampus.

The findings suggested that flavanols "may be associated with memory function of the aging hippocampus and normal cognitive decline." Another 2023 study14 looked at the association between dietary intake of flavonols with changes in cognition.

The study engaged 961 people between 60 and 100 years in the Rush Memory and Aging Project. This is a prospective cohort of community-dwelling people living in Chicago. The participants were followed for an average of 6.9 years, during which cognitive performance and flavonol intake was assessed.

They found the participants who had higher levels of dietary intake had a slower rate of decline in global cognition and across other cognitive domains. The researchers wrote:

"Results suggest that dietary intakes of total flavonols and several flavonol constituents may be associated with slower decline in global cognition and multiple cognitive abilities with older age."

The key to this study was that the researchers did not use supplementation, but only looked at whole food intake. Nutritional researchers who spoke with CNN15 about the findings stressed that since whole food was used and contains many other bioactive compounds, we cannot be certain that it was flavanols that warded off dementia.

However, it's worth noting that the synergistic effect between compounds in whole food is what creates the best benefits. So, the take-home message here is that fruits and vegetables are good for you, especially for your brain.

Take Care to Include Kaempferol and Quercetin

Many people used quercetin supplements for early treatment of COVID-19 once access to hydroxychloroquine was restricted. Both are zinc ionophores, which means they help shuttle zinc into the cell where it has potent antiviral activity. Initially, researchers thought this was the only reason why quercetin worked so well against the virus but later discovered several other beneficial mechanisms that impact COVID.

For those interested in general long-term health, you can get quercetin from a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including onions and shallots, apples, broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, red leaf lettuce and green tea.16

The quercetin content in the food is dependent on light exposure, so depending on where the food was harvested, the foods that top the quercetin-rich list will differ. Aside from slowing cognitive decline, quercetin also is helpful in the prevention and/or treatment of:

High blood pressure and triglycerides17

Cardiovascular disease18

Obesity and metabolic syndrome19

Certain types of cancer20

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)21

Gout22

Arthritis23

Mood disorders24

Aluminum-induced neurodegenerative changes,25 such as those seen in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

Like quercetin, kaempferol selectively inhibits the growth of cancer cells.26 Good sources of this nutrient include kale, spinach and other green leafy vegetables, onions, chives, dale, tarragon, wild leeks, asparagus and berries.27 Kaempferol is also found in ginkgo biloba and is one of the plant’s most important constituents.

Ginkgo is a tree native to China that's been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. Ginkgo’s ability to improve memory and cognition and to prevent or treat dementia has also been studied for decades. In general, Ginkgo is believed to positively affect your body by increasing blood supply, reducing blood viscosity, boosting neurotransmitters and reducing harmful free radicals.28

A word of caution though — the seeds of the Ginkgo tree contain ginkgotoxin (4'-O-methylpyridoxine), an "antivitamin" that may lead to neurological problems in certain people, particularly those who are deficient in certain B vitamins.29

More Strategies to Help Protect Memory and Cognition

In addition to ensuring that you consume a nutrient-dense diet and adequate amounts of the appropriate vitamins and minerals, there are more strategies that you can use to help protect your cognitive health and memory, such as:

• Staying hydrated — In 2013,30 CBS News reported that it was possible up to 75% of Americans were chronically dehydrated. While it may be the simplest way to support your overall health and your cognitive health, it is apparent that many people have difficulty staying hydrated.

The best way to determine if you have had enough to drink is the color of your urine. Aim to urinate every 2 to 3 hours and for urine that is a light straw color.

• Keeping active — Exercise encourages your brain to work, stimulating nerve cells to multiply and strengthening their interconnections. During exercise, nerve cells release neurotrophic factors such as brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which triggers other chemicals that promote neural health and directly benefit cognitive functioning.

Exercise improves brain structure and function, and research has shown it significantly increases hippocampal volume in older adults with probable mild cognitive impairment.31

• Getting good sleep — Sleep is vital to brain health. Research from Harvard suggests that people are 33% more likely to infer connections between distantly related ideas after sleeping, but few realize that their performance has improved.32 Data have also shown that a midday nap can dramatically boost and restore the brain's learning capacity.33

You can improve the quality of your sleep by using a sleep mask to eliminate light during the night. In a two-part study, the results of the first part showed participants who wore light-blocking sleep masks had "Superior episodic encoding and an improvement on alertness."34 Further testing showed the participants perform better on word pair association tests and tests to measure reaction times.

In the second part of the study, those wearing light-blocking sleep masks had an increased ability to learn new information and form memories and had more slow-wave sleep, which may be beneficial for memory.35

• Avoiding anticholinergics — One risk factor that may impair memory development and increase the risk for dementia is a class of drugs known as anticholinergics. These compounds block acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter that performs important functions within your brain such as triggering muscle contractions and pain responses and the regulation of your endocrine system and REM sleep cycle.

In your brain, it's a key player in attention, concentration,36 memory formation and consolidation,37 which is precisely why these drugs can cause symptoms identical to dementia. Anticholinergic drugs are widely prescribed for depression, motion sickness, insomnia, allergies and dizziness.

You’ll find a long list of these medications on TheSeniorList.com,38 some of which you may recognize such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl), Tylenol PM, pseudoephedrine and Xanax.

 Comments (21)

June 5, 2023, the World Health Organization and the European Commission announced the launch of a “landmark digital health initiative to strengthen global health security.”1,2

As explained in the press release,3 as of this month, the WHO will establish a global COVID-19 vaccination certification system based on the European Union’s (EU) already existing Digital COVID Certificate (EU DCC) to “help facilitate global mobility and protect citizens across the world from ongoing and future health threats.”

Eventually, this vaccine passport system will be expanded into a Global Digital Health Certification Network (GDHCN) run by the WHO that will include “a wide range of digital products to deliver better health for all.” The vaccine passport will also, in time, cover all recommended vaccinations, not just COVID-19.4 The press release continues:5

“This partnership will work to technically develop the WHO system with a staged approach to cover additional use cases, which may include, for example, the digitization of the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis. Expanding such digital solutions will be essential to deliver better health for citizens across the globe.

This cooperation is based on the shared values and principles of transparency and openness, inclusiveness, accountability, data protection and privacy, security, scalability at a global level, and equity. The European Commission and WHO will work together to encourage maximum global uptake and participation.”

Why Implement COVID Passport When Shots Don’t Work?

As reported by The Daily Sceptic, the announcement raises many questions:6

“Vaccine passports are controversial, even in the United Nations ... June 30th 2021 ... the UNESCO World Commission for the Ethics of Science and Technology and the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee released a joint statement warning that ‘any COVID-19 certificate ... should account for scientific uncertainty regarding the degree of protection that specific vaccines, past infections and negative COVID-19 test results provide’ ...

In light of these concerns, the UN agencies proposed that ‘a research program should be developed to assess their impact on society and public health, and the risks they might bring.’

The new press release from the WHO and EU makes no mention of the progress of this research program, or whether it has been established at all. Is it not necessary to ascertain the effectiveness and cost-benefit profile of an intervention before rolling it out globally and making it permanent?

Given how leaky COVID vaccines are, and how short-lived any protection offered by them might be — some studies even show the vaccinated suffering higher infection rates than the unvaccinated — it’s hard to imagine that vaccine passports delivered any real limitation of disease transmission.

But the WHO and EU don’t appear to regard this as a relevant question to ask. Is that because they blindly assume they are beneficial, or because they have other reasons for wanting to roll out this restrictive technology globally?”

The implementation of a vaccine passport system — which the WHO claimed it did not support when concerns were initially raised about it in 20217 — is a clear sign that the WHO fully expects to take the reins on global health, and that public health is not the primary incentive behind this power grab.

WHO Takeover Moves Full Speed Ahead

Already, WHO members have approved a $6.83 billion budget for the next two years (2024 through 2025), which will require a 20% hike in mandatory member fees.8,9 “Strategic priorities” that will receive large chunks of this funding include:10

• Expanding universal health coverage to at least 1 billion people who do not currently have it
• Ensuring 1 billion more people are “better protected from health emergencies”
• Ensuring 1 billion more people can enjoy “better health and well-being”
• Developing more effective and efficient WHO support to member countries
• Eradicating polio (most likely through expanded vaccination programs)

That budget increase is also needed because the WHO is being set up as the sole decisionmaker over public health globally through the proposed pandemic treaty and International Health Regulation (IHR) amendments, each of which reinforces the WHO’s authority and power through different avenues while erasing national sovereignty and human rights.

If the WHO gets its way, it will no longer be a body that makes recommendations that countries can choose to follow. Rather, its “advice” will be akin to declarations of international law. Member states will be required to follow the WHO’s “recommendations” or face costly consequences.

Once the pandemic treaty and the IHR amendments are implemented, the WHO will have the authority to impose everything from climate lockdowns and border closures to mandatory vaccinations of all kinds. We’ve also warned that the WHO would implement a mandatory vaccine passport system for population control purposes, and with the announcement above, we can consider that a done deal.

The WHO will even have the authority to dictate what is truth and what is misinformation that must be censored. The WHO will essentially outlaw democracy worldwide because democracy cannot exist unless there is freedom of speech in public discourse.

Member states will have no choice but to censor what the WHO wants censored, because each country is also required to set up an enforcement agency to ensure the WHO’s edicts are followed nationwide, and that includes censorship activities.

Understand Where We’re Headed

For a further review of the WHO’s new Global Digital Health Certification Network, see John Campbell’s video review above.

It’s now beyond imperative that people understand where we’re headed, and that the COVID measures weren’t just responses to a given pandemic, but rather were the foundation for a totalitarian one world government where human rights and freedoms will no longer exist.

Indeed, the pandemic treaty redefines human rights as “health equity” and nothing else. The IHR amendments also eliminate individual rights and freedoms specifically. IHR Article 3 is being amended as follows (strikethroughs in the text indicate that the text is to be deleted, and the additions or revisions are underlined in bold):

“The implementation of these Regulations shall be with full respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons based on the principles of equity, inclusivity, coherence and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities of the States Parties, taking into consideration their social and economic development.”

In other words, bodily autonomy and personal choice are being replaced by one-size-fits-all medicine that has no regard for human dignity, human rights or fundamental freedoms. The right to opinions that differ from the WHO’s is also being removed on the national level.

IHR Article 2 is also being amended in such a way that the WHO will have the authority to take action on ANYTHING that has the “potential to impact public health,” and this includes everything from climate and pollution to agricultural land use and the food industry, as specified under the One Health agenda,11,12 which is baked into the pandemic treaty.

To understand what’s at stake, please review the article-by-article compilation of the proposed IHR amendments,13 found here, and then compare that to the proposed treaty. A “Zero Draft” dated February 1, 2023, can be found here.14

As explained by the WHO back in 2021, the treaty is the “framework that recognizes the central role of the IHR.”15 So, these two instruments are designed and intended to work as a unit, with the treaty giving recognition to the IHR, and the IHR amendments stripping nations of their sovereignty.

But that’s not all. Baked into the pandemic treaty we also have One Health, which perfectly dovetails with The Great Reset narrative. When you add these three things together — the treaty, the IHR amendments and One Health — it becomes clear that the WHO is being set up as the de facto power center of the deep state, and this One World Government will rule everything.

Treaty Expands WHO’s Power Beyond Pandemics

As illustrated in the graphic16 below, the One Health agenda is based on the premise that a broad range of aspects of life and the environment have the potential to impact human health.

In addition to the life segments listed on this graph, the scope of One Health, according to a One Health Commission document,17 also includes communications, economics, civil society, global trade, commerce and security, public policy and regulation, research, noncommunicable diseases and much more.

Under the new treaty, the WHO will have unilateral power to make decisions about all of these areas, and its dictates will supersede and overrule any and all local, state and federal laws. In short, if the pandemic treaty is enacted, the WHO will not merely have the authority to dictate how countries prepare for and respond to pandemic threats: It will have the authority to dictate every aspect of our lives.

The WHO, in turn, is beholden to and does what its funders want, and the largest funder is Bill Gates (when you add together all his various donation sources). Gates, of course, is invested in all primary Great Reset necessities, including fake food, drugs, vaccines, surveillance and climate modification technologies.

One Health Is the Subversion of Holistic Health

As noted by David Bell, a senior scholar at Brownstone Institute, a public health physician and former medical officer and scientist at the WHO, the One Health agenda is really the subversion of the age-old holistic concept of health:18

“Ill health is a lever for fear, and death even more so, especially to those who believe that we are simply organic constructs that end in dust and decay. A cult feeding off these fears, holding that the entire biosphere is threatening us with diseases and death, would therefore have real potential for mass control.

Convince followers that humans are the poison that made this world so destructive, and you will also have a means to stoke hate against non-believers whilst adding guilt to the tools for compliance.

A cult based on fear of the world and the people who poisoned it, dressed up in philanthropy and virtue, has risen amongst us. Co-opting One Health terminology, it is now funded by the spoils of COVID, and empowered by technology that can take this medieval witch-hunting sect global.

The environment, everywhere, should be managed and protected for human benefit — physical, mental, and social. The One Health concept, centered in such common sense, was once no more than this. It is a rational way to express an age-old principle ... Sanitation and improved nutrition will save more lives than the next round of profiteering brought to us by Pfizer.

However ... One Health has been hijacked by self-proclaimed philanthropists ... One Health is being corrupted in two ways, but for the same ends and by much the same people. Understanding one tells us about the people we are dealing with, the other reveals their motives.”

The One Health Ideology Is Anti-Human

As explained by Bell, One Health is an ideology that places human life and welfare on par with all other life, including plants and animals. This means that your life, and the lives of your children, are no more important than the lives of polar bears, trees, waterways and soil.

If your actions cause ecological harm, and the polar bear doesn’t, then you are the one who must be eliminated from the equation. That’s really the crux of this ideology. It’s not pro-environment but, rather, anti-human at its core.

“Within this ‘equitable’ worldview, humans become a pollutant,” Bell writes.19 “Ever-growing human populations have driven other species to extinction through environmental change, from the megafauna of ancient Australasia to the plummeting insect populations of modern Europe.

Humans become a plague upon the earth, and their restriction, impoverishment and death may therefore be justified for a greater good.

It is difficult for people to grasp that this is a guiding ideology of public figures, as it runs counter to most human moral systems or Natural Law ... We must understand the ideology driving this movement, as they intend for us to follow their dictates, and they intend to indoctrinate our children.”

Expose the Barren Ideology of One Health

One Health is also designed to control the masses through fear. We’re constantly bombarded with predictions of doom and told we must be protected for our own good.

“Expanding this approach from a single virus to any aspect of the biosphere impacting human well-being, such as climate, provides an opportunity to use this totalitarian tool of population control to reshape society to the model that the purveyors of fear desire,” Bell notes, adding:

“Through amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) and a new ‘pandemic treaty,’ the WHO is coupling this broad definition of One Health with a definition of ‘emergency’ that simply requires recognition of a threat rather than actual harm.

When applied to the WHO’s broad definition of health, ‘physical, mental and social well-being,’ almost all aspects of normal life could be included in its scope. Addressed through a proscriptive public health paradigm that encompasses global mandates, restrictions and censorship, and those running this agenda have an opportunity for unprecedented power ...

[In] 2019, the WHO stated in its recommendations for pandemic influenza that border closures, quarantine, and prolonged business closures should never be undertaken in response to a pandemic. These measures would drive inequality and disproportionately harm low-income people, destroying both economies and social capital.

In 2020, refocusing priorities on a new constituency, the WHO promoted these same inequitable policies. The evidence did not change, but the constituency did. Wealthy people and corporations had become significant directive funders of WHO programs. Those who benefit from improved nutrition and sanitation cannot fund the WHO’s growing staff, but those profiting from the largesse of the COVID response can ...

Evil is not defeated by hiding from it. It is fought by exposing the ideology that drives it, the greed, the lies, and the deceit ... In the end, mad ideologues collapse under the weight of their own deceit and the shallowness of their dogmas.

The earth-mother religion of a corrupted One Health and the feudalist ambitions of its priests will be no different. We should not fear public health or a holistic view of the world. They are ours and can be a force for good. Rather, we should expose the hollowness of the people who would subvert them, driven by their own greed and barren ideologies.”

We’re Running Out of Time

Importantly, as noted by comedian Jimmy Dore in the featured video above, the pandemic treaty is not something that member nations must opt into. It’s an opt-out proposition. If a nation fails to opt out before the deadline, they automatically accept the treaty.

Based on the current timeline, the World Health Assembly (WHA) will vote on the pandemic treaty in May 2024, and it will take force 30 days later. That gives us just under a year and a half to get the U.S. to either opt out, or better yet, exit the WHO altogether.

The IHR amendments will also be voted on in May 2024. The 10-month deadline for member states to reject the amendments will expire in March 2025, and the amendments will come into force for any nation that did not reject them in May 2025. For any member that rejects the amendments, the 2005 IHR will apply.

Strangely enough, some of the IHR amendments have been adopted already. As reported by author and researcher James Roguski,20 they were adopted during the 75th World Health Assembly, May 27, 2022, even though nothing was signed. This is yet another testament to the rampant lawlessness and subversive tactics we’re dealing with.

Disturbingly, many Americans aren’t even aware that the U.S. government is about to relinquish our national sovereignty and everyone’s personal bodily autonomy to the WHO21 because mainstream media aren’t talking about it.

So, please, share this and any other articles you find on this subject with everyone you know, and continue to educate yourself. By far, these are the greatest threats to freedom the world has ever seen, and the risks apply evenly to everyone, no matter where you live.

Fact Checkers Take Advantage of Confusion

Keep in mind that while the IHR amendments and treaty address different areas of the WHO’s new power structure, they will work together to massively empower the WHO once both come into force. Also be aware that since the global takeover is happening on several fronts at the same time, it’s easy to get confused on the details, and this confusion can easily become fodder for fact checkers. As reported by The Defender:22

“The AP recently ‘fact-checked’ claims that the pandemic treaty endangers national sovereignty. According to the AP, it ‘does not overrule any nation’s ability to pass individual pandemic-related policies’ and ‘does not overrule any nations’ individual health or domestic policies.’ There would be ‘effectively no legal consequences for signatories who fail to adhere to it or violate its terms.’

The AP ‘fact-check’ doesn’t mention the proposed IHR amendments. [Author and researcher James] Roguski cited this as an example of the frequent conflation of the pandemic treaty and the IHR amendments. He said language eroding national sovereignty is not found in the pandemic treaty — but is found in the IHR amendments.

‘Everyone’s paying attention to the treaty,’ Roguski said. ‘They’re completely and totally cross-pollinating the details that are in the amendments, attributing them to the treaty, and getting ‘fact-checked’ to high heaven.”

Call on Congress to Withdraw US From the WHO

While the U.S. House and Senate have introduced identical bills to thwart the WHO’s power grab through the proposed pandemic treaty, that still might not protect us, because the treaty is specifically written to circumvent the Senate-approval process.23

A far more effective strategy would be for Congress to withhold its annual contributions to the WHO, and then withdraw the U.S. from the WHO altogether. I believe it may be worth supporting all these strategies. So, please, contact your representatives and urge them to:

• Support the No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act24,25,26,27,28
• Withhold funding for the WHO
• Support U.S. withdrawal from the WHO

We also need to protect our nation against the IHR amendments. To that end, the World Council for Health has launched a global #StopTheWHO campaign. Here’s how you can get involved:29

Speak — Raise awareness on the ground and online. Use articles, posters, videos

Act — Campaign through rallies, political mobilization, legal notices and cases and similar campaigns

Collaborate with health freedom coalitions such as the World Council for Health

Explore activist toolboxes such as the World Council for Health Stop the Who Campaign and stopthewho.com

Engage global indigenous leadership to take a united stand against the WHO’s IHR

Activate people’s parliaments, legislatures or referendums to oppose the amendments

 Comments (123)

Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published May 3, 2018.

According to some estimates, as many as 90% of the population have experienced some form of traumatic brain injury (TBI), be it from a car accident, slip and fall incident or simply hitting your head on a cabinet. Unfortunately, most go undiagnosed and untreated, and the accumulation of low-grade concussions over time has been shown to raise your risk for neurological dysfunction later in life. This includes not only Alzheimer's but also Parkinson's disease.1,2

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder in which neurons in dopamine-producing cells within a region of your brain known as the substantia nigra, which is required for normal movement, begin to weaken and die.

Symptoms, which typically progress over time, include tremors, slow movement, rigid limbs, stooped posture, an inability to move, reduced facial expressions and a shuffling gait. The condition can also cause depression, dementia, speech impairments, personality changes and sexual difficulties.

Concussion Linked to Increased Risk of Parkinson's Disease

According to research published in the journal Neurology,3 even a single concussion could increase your risk for this degenerative brain disease. Here, "concussion" was defined as loss of consciousness for up to 30 minutes or alteration of consciousness and/or amnesia for up to 24 hours.

Medical records of nearly 326,000 U.S. military veterans ranging in age from 31 to 65 were evaluated in this retrospective cohort study, showing that a TBI resulting in loss of consciousness raised the risk of Parkinson's by 56%.

Veterans who experienced more serious TBIs (classified as moderate-to-severe) were 83% more likely to develop Parkinson's. Overall, all-severity TBI (i.e., TBIs of any severity classification) was associated with a 71% increased risk. Those with one or more TBIs in their past also received a diagnosis of Parkinson's on average two years earlier compared to those who had never had a TBI.

Lead author Dr. Raquel Gardner,4 staff neurologist at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center and assistant professor in the department of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) told Reuters:5

"This is not the first study to show that even mild traumatic brain injury increases the risk for Parkinson's disease.6 But we were able to study every single veteran across the U.S. who had been diagnosed at a Veterans Affairs hospital, so this is the highest level of evidence we have so far that this association is real …

While on an individual level the actual amount of risk is pretty low, on a population level this could translate into a lot of people being affected [with Parkinson's]."

Implications for General Population

Coauthor Dr. Kristine Yaffe, professor of psychiatry, neurology and epidemiology at UCSF and the VA, added that these findings have "important implications for the general population" as most of the TBIs veterans suffered actually occurred during their civilian life, not during active service. As of yet, the exact mechanism behind the TBI-Parkinson's link is unknown. According to Gardner:7,8

"We don't have brain autopsies, so we don't know what the underlying biology is. But in Parkinson's you see abnormal protein accumulation, and there's some evidence that TBI is linked to deposits of these abnormal proteins … The TBI might directly trigger changes in the brain that weren't there before.

The other possibility is that maybe there was a process already happening in the brain and the person might have gotten Parkinson's disease [anyway] many years later. But the brain injury made the symptoms come on sooner and the diagnosis come sooner. We need more studies to unravel the biology behind what's going on here."

That said, the authors stressed that TBI in no way assured the development of Parkinson's. Ninety-nine percent of veterans with TBIs did not develop Parkinson's, so individual risk is still very low, even with a TBI. The disease is also strongly dependent on lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise. As noted by Gardner, "If anyone is worried, do a little bit better to live more healthily."9

Telltale Signs of TBI

Oftentimes the head injury doesn't seem severe enough to have caused TBI, which is why symptoms are often overlooked. Common telltale signs of head trauma — which need to be addressed — include:

• Poor concentration and foggy thinking
• Impaired word recall
• Mood changes, irritability and emotional dysregulation
• Lowered ability to focus and follow through on mental tasks
• Sleep problems or hypersomnolence

Whenever you experience an injury to your head, regardless of how severe it appears to be, it's important to pay careful attention to any psychological changes that might occur over the coming week or two. Signs such as those mentioned above are indications that your nervous system is on high alert due to an inflammatory cascade, which presents itself as psychological and cognitive downstream effects.

Adults injured at home will be able to self-reflect and notice psychological and neurological changes. Children on the other hand may not be able to do this, and need to be carefully monitored by their parents for changes in behavior and function. If you notice a change in your child within the days or weeks following a head injury, a more comprehensive medical evaluation and workup is strongly recommended to avoid long-term repercussions.

How to Prevent TBIs

There are a number of commonsense strategies that will help prevent the occurrence of a TBI in the first place. This includes the following:10

• Always wear your seat belt when driving or riding in a car, and never drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This includes many prescription drugs that may alter your ability to drive safely, such as opioid pain killers, which are now responsible for more fatal car crashes than drunken driving.

Also make sure your child is properly buckled into a child safety seat while driving. Infants should be kept in a rear-facing seat that has been properly secured in the back seat, not the front passenger seat. Children aged 2 to 5 should be in a forward-facing seat in the back seat until they exceed the height or weight limit for the seat.

Ages 5 to 9 should ride in a front-facing booster seat in the back seat. Never drive with a child aged 12 or under in the front passenger seat, as deployment of the air bag may cause severe injury or death to undersized passengers.

• Wear a helmet when:

◦ Riding a bicycle, motorcycle or any other motorized vehicle, including off-roading with an all-terrain vehicle

◦ Playing contact sports

◦ Skating or skateboarding

◦ Playing baseball or softball

◦ Horseback riding

◦ Skiing or snowboarding

• Safeguard the elderly in your home by:

◦ Removing tripping hazards such as throw rugs and clutter

◦ Using nonslip mats in bathtub and shower

◦ Installing grab bars next to your toilet, tub and shower, and handrails along both sides of stairways

◦ Improving lighting

◦ Maintaining a regular physical activity program to maintain or improve strength and balance

• Safeguard children in your home by:

◦ Installing window guards

◦ Using safety gates at top and bottom of stairs

◦ Using nonskid bathmats and nonslip mats in tub and shower

◦ Never leave your child unattended in a highchair

• Make sure your child's playground has shock-absorbing material such as hardwood mulch or sand in key areas where falls are likely to occur

Long-Term Effects of Accumulative TBIs Download Interview Transcript | Video Link

Long-term, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, i.e., the accumulation of low-grade concussions over time, accelerates the process of dementia. If you are genetically predisposed to Alzheimer's by having one or two ApoE4 alleles and suffer a TBI, your risk of Alzheimer's increases at least tenfold.

Stacked with an inflammatory diet and other lifestyle factors such as lack of exercise and not fasting (which promotes neuroregeneration), the process of neurological degeneration is further exacerbated and accelerated.

In his book, "The Concussion Repair Manual," Dr. Dan Engle, provides comprehensive guidance on how to recover from TBIs. I recently interviewed him about this, and if you missed it, you may want to review it now. Engle discusses a variety of healing strategies in his book, including nutritional components that optimize brain function and help repair neurological function in case of injury. I'll review some of these at the end of this article.

The Importance of Omega-3 Fats

Among the most important nutrients for brain health are the animal-based omega-3 fats docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). The department of surgery at Oregon Health & Science University now advocates use of omega-3 supplements presurgery, because outcomes are so much better. Animal-based omega-3 has also been shown to protect your brain against damage associated with dementia.

Omega 3 fats affect cellular health and DNA chiefly by how they influence your cell membranes. It is these cell membranes that are critical in switching your genes on and off, because cell membranes contain receptors that respond to hormones and other agents, and these are affected by the fatty acids on their surface.

Your cell membranes contain EPA, DHA and phospholipids, and all help to shuttle molecules into and out of your cells. So, having adequate fatty acids in your system is crucial to keeping your cell membranes working properly.

DHA is especially important, as it is a structural component of every cell in your body that helps regulate communication within the cell and between cells, and has a profound influence on mitochondrial health. It's particularly crucial for your brain, as more than 90% of the omega-3 fat found in brain tissue is DHA.

There are actually specific transporters for DHA in your blood-brain barrier that shuttle these molecules in a very precise way into the cell membranes where they belong.

The Omega-3 Index Test Is an Important Health Screen

I believe the omega-3 index test can be an enormously important health screen — regardless of whether you've already had a TBI or not, as optimizing your omega-3 level can help cushion the effects of a future head injury. As with vitamin D, getting your level tested is really the best way to customize your dosage to ensure sufficiency, because requirements for omega-3 will vary depending on your lifestyle.

Your intake of fatty fish, for example, and your level of physical activity will play a role. Athletes tend to burn off their omega-3 quite rapidly, as the DHA gets burned as fuel rather than being used as a structural component of their cell membranes. Hence they will need higher dosages.

Seafood is your best source of DHA and EPA. However, it's important to realize that not all fish contain these fats. Tilapia, for example, contains neither. The fish needs to be harvested from cold water, as this is where the fish richest in omega-3 fats are found. Some of your best options for clean fats are wild-caught Alaskan salmon, sardines and anchovies.

An excellent alternative, if you do not want to eat fatty fish, is to take a krill oil supplement. I firmly believe krill oil is superior to fish oil. Although both contain EPA and DHA, krill oil is bound to phospholipids that allow these omega-3 fats to travel more efficiently through your bloodstream. Hence, it's more bioavailable.

TBI Treatment Aids

Other helpful interventions for TBIs, which are discussed at depth in Engle's book, include the following:

Curcumin — Curcumin, one of the most well studied bioactive ingredients in turmeric, has been shown to have over 160 potentially therapeutic activities. Many of curcumin's benefits are attributed to its ability to quench inflammation, which is a hallmark of most chronic diseases. Importantly, it has the ability to cross your blood-brain barrier and exhibits potent neuroprotective properties, suggesting it may be useful for neurodegenerative disorders.

Researchers at the University of California recently demonstrated it may have long-term effects on your cognitive function by protecting against brain inflammation.11 Curcumin has also been shown to enhance neurogenesis and improve cognition by increasing levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).12 Reduced levels of BDNF have in fact been linked to Alzheimer's disease, and correlate with the level of motor impairment in patients with Parkinson's.13

Hyperbaric oxygen — By saturating your tissues with oxygen, the oxygen is able to get into all of the neuroreparative mechanisms in your entire neurologic system. It accelerates all wound repair processes, be it in peripheral vasculature or in central vasculature, around the nervous system, brain and spinal cord.

An alternative for home use would be Exercising with Oxygen Therapy (EWOT). It's not as effective as hyperbaric oxygen treatment for neurological recovery because you're not saturating the tissues with oxygen, just your blood, but you can still benefit if you have a low partial pressure of oxygen (low oxygen in your blood).

Low-light laser therapy (LLLT), also known as photobiomodulation, which can be done using either lasers or light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

"There are a lot of different studies that show light is beneficial," Engle says. "When we're talking about neurologic recovery or building adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, driving mitochondrial function, there are certain wavelengths that seem to be optimal for that.

Most of the wavelengths for neurologic recovery are going to be in the near-infrared (810 to 830 nanometers) and far-infrared spectrum. There are some handheld devices that can be used." Red light in the 660-nanometer frequency is also beneficial, and many technologies will combine red with near- and far-infrared.

Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF) — Engle explains, "If we're optimizing voltage and frequency into the cell, then there are going to be energy thresholds below which disease happens, and above which optimized function happens. PEMF tends to raise the voltage and the energy in the cell, in the system globally, to improve physiologic function.

I use a combination of both low-voltage systems and high-voltage systems. There's a low-voltage system called a Bio Electromagnetic Energy Regulation (BEMER). There's a high-voltage system called the Pulse. I found benefits in both … There's also a subset of pulsed frequencies called transcranial magnetic stimulation, which is more based in magnetic impulse to the brain."

Transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) — TDCS provides a more global stimulation, so while some patients experience good results, others do not, due to lack of specificity. According to Engle, if it's going to work, you'll notice results quickly. If no benefit is noticed in the first few sessions, move on to some other therapy.

Electroencephalography (EEG) and neurofeedback are similar technologies of varying complexity.

"You go into master your ability in real time to see where your brainwave patterns are firing, and then to lock into the necessary thought modalities and internal states to be able to consistently access an alpha state," Engle explains. Alpha states are indicative of calmness and centeredness.

"If I can access that and find that place within myself, then I'm starting to generate my own sense of personal empowerment." The Evoke system is an easy one to use. It involves watching a movie for 20 to 30 minutes. Your focused attention will keep the movie playing. When your attention drifts, it slows down and loses volume.

Cannabidiol (CBD) oil — "CBD is up there with fish oil for neuroreparative support," Engle says. "Cannabis has two primary therapeutic components; one is tetrahydrocannabidiol (THC) and one is CBD. THC has a psychoactive component. CBD has a neuro-reparative component.

There seems to be an upregulation effect or an enhanced effect if there's a little bit of THC with CBD. The CBD to THC ratio will be like 20-to-1. We've consistently seen benefit in the neurologic system, whether it was stroke recovery, concussion recovery or seizure and epilepsy support … There seems to be this neurologic repair effect.

The CBD receptors are globally affiliated with neurologic function throughout the entire brain. When we're engaging and stimulating those receptors, we see the neurochemical cascade toward repair, regardless of the input, but particularly with concussion. That's why during the acute phase, if somebody has an injury that is significant, I say, first and foremost, do [these] things:

1) Lifestyle management. Get quiet. Float if you can.

2) Take fish oil, take CBD, vitamin D and melatonin, particularly if there are issues with sleep. Boost the antioxidants."

CBD may actually be a really potent stimulator of nuclear factor-like 2 (Nrf2) pathway, which stimulates the hermetic production of antioxidants in your body.

 Comments (10)

In May 2023, researchers from the University of Helsinki linked a strain of Desulfovibrio bacteria as a causative agent of Parkinson's disease.1 Researchers hope this breakthrough will enable screening for and removal of the bacteria from the gut and potentially prevent the disease.2

Parkinson's disease causes unintended or uncontrollable movements that result from brain damage, the mechanism of which has not yet been confirmed. People notice that symptoms begin gradually and then worsen over time. These movements occur because the cells that make dopamine,3 a neurochemical that helps coordinate movements, stop working or die.

Although it's known as a movement disorder and the primary symptoms include slowness and stiffness with walking and balance, it also triggers other symptoms such as depression, memory problems and constipation. While the condition is not curable, some treatment options may offer relief.4

Because the symptoms can differ from person to person, the treatments must also be customized. Medications are primarily used, but a surgical brain implant delivering mild electric current has offered symptom relief for some people. This is also known as deep brain stimulation. Other experimental treatments include stem cell transplants, neuron repair treatments and gene therapies or gene-targeted treatments.5

Harmful Bacteria Are a Possible Cause of Parkinson's Disease

Evidence from the featured study suggests that with testing and removal of the harmful bacteria, doctors may be able to prevent Parkinson's disease, or halt its progression. The key feature in pathology is the aggregation of the neuronal protein alpha-synuclein.6 Past research has suggested these aggregations could be induced in the gut by pathogenic microbes, which have been associated with Parkinson's disease.

The researchers used fecal samples of 10 patients with Parkinson's and fecal samples from their healthy spouses to look for Desulfovibrio species of bacteria. Isolated strains were fed to nematodes to fuse the alpha-synuclein with a yellow fluorescent protein. These were then used in an animal model and compared against a control bacterial strain.

The goal was to determine how the different strains of bacteria contributed to the progression of Parkinson's disease. The researchers found that the strains of bacteria isolated from patients with Parkinson's disease caused aggregation of the protein associated with Parkinson's.

They also noted that different strains of the same bacteria from healthy individuals did not cause aggregation to the same degree. Commenting on the results of the study, Per Saris from the department of microbiology at the University of Helsinki said:7

"Our findings make it possible to screen for the carriers of these harmful Desulfovibrio bacteria. Consequently, they can be targeted by measures to remove these strains from the gut, potentially alleviating and slowing the symptoms of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Once the Desulfovibrio bacteria are eliminated from the gut, α-synuclein aggregates are no longer formed in intestinal cells, from which they travel towards the brain via the vagus nerve like prion proteins."

In addition to this bacteria, researchers have also found exposure to the widely used chemical trichloroethylene (TCE) is also linked to Parkinson's disease.8 One study evaluated more than 340,000 service members stationed at Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendleton. When the data were compared, it showed a 70% higher risk of developing Parkinson's for servicemen stationed at Camp Lejeune between 1975 and 1985.

The risk factor was exposure to TCE in the water supply that had reached limits 70 times higher than the EPA deemed safe. Gary Miller is a neurotoxicologist studying Parkinson's disease at Columbia University. He was not involved in the study, but commented that researchers had suspicions that TCE was linked to a higher risk of Parkinson's disease and these results were "very compelling."

TCE has been used since the 1920s in liquid or vapor form. It was an inhaled surgical anesthetic and an ingredient in several types of cleaning products. One of the researchers commented that the chemical is still used in the U.S. and worldwide and "production has been increasing over the past several years."

The chemical breaks down slowly in the environment and is found in one-third of U.S. drinking water. As Ray Dorsey, a neurologist from the University of Rochester commented, "Almost everyone reading your story likely lives near a site contaminated with TCE."

Gut Brain Link in Parkinson's Disease

According to the Parkinson's Foundation,9 there are 1 million people in the U.S. who are living with Parkinson's Disease, 90,000 are diagnosed with the disease each year and the incidence of the disease increases with age. A 2018 study10 published in the Journal of Parkinson's disease demonstrated an association between the development of Parkinson's and your gut microbiome.

This study also focused on alpha-synuclein pathology and, as other studies, found it plays a role in the development of familial and sporadic cases of Parkinson's disease. Because the symptoms are only apparent after brain cells have already been affected, it is difficult to slow the progression of the disease.

Researchers have been looking for ways to detect the condition earlier and the results of the featured study may help positively impact prevention and treatment. Alpha-synuclein is a presynaptic protein linked neural pathologically and genetically to Parkinson's disease.11

While it may contribute to symptoms, these cells are toxic to cellular homeostasis and trigger neuronal death, which affects synaptic function. Secreted alpha-synuclein may also have negative effects on neighboring cells, seeding aggregation and contributing to progression. Researchers want to identify pathways that are involved in the transfer of protein from the brain to the gut where it's found in people with Parkinson's disease.

Importance of Autophagy in Parkinson's Disease

Some of the aspects12 of the disease include suppressing the autosomal-lysomal autophagy system, which is a systematic degradation of your body's functional components due to cell destruction and is characterized by the loss of dopamine-transmitting neurons in a section of the midbrain. By activating autophagy, you can begin repairing the dysfunctional mechanism.

Researchers believe neurodegenerative diseases may be successfully addressed by activating autophagy. The term literally means "self-eating" and refers to the process of eliminating damaged cells by digesting them. In essence, it helps clean out old and damaged cells and encourages the growth of new healthy cells, which is foundational to cellular rejuvenation and longevity.

In a paper13 published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, researchers explain the pathway is involved in a variety of human health conditions, including metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and infectious diseases. In 2012,14 researchers noted that dysregulation of autophagy has been observed in the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease as well as in animal models.

Scientists also recognize that autophagy plays a pivotal role in maintaining neurological health. Two major features15 of Parkinson's disease pathology are the impairment of autophagy that allows alpha-synuclein accumulation and subsequent degeneration of dopaminergic neurons.

Several studies have examined the potential for measuring autophagy biomarkers for early detection of the disease. A 2019 paper16 in Current Medicinal Chemistry acknowledges that defects in autophagy, microautophagy, macroautophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy pathways result in the accumulation of protein aggregates.

These are common features in several neurodegenerative disorders, including Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's. They concluded that in the development of new interventions, researchers need a deeper understanding of the autophagy defects in Parkinson's disease and should also account for the multifactorial nature of the disease process.

Alzheimer's and the Gut Connection

Alzheimer's continues to be a leading cause of death in the U.S. According to the Alzheimer's Association,17 1 in 3 seniors dies with Alzheimer's or another type of dementia and, according to the CDC,18 it is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

While a cure has remained elusive, researchers have made the connection between the gut microbiome and brain health, suggesting the bacteria in the intestines influences brain function and can even promote neurodegeneration.19

In one study20 of 89 people between 65 and 85 years of age, researchers used PET imaging to measure amyloid deposits in the brain and they also measured lipopolysaccharide and short-chain fatty acids. Lipopolysaccharide (LPSs) are dead bacteria, or more specifically, the cell walls of dead bacteria.

Since your immune system perceives LPSs as living bacteria, it mounts an immune defense and raises the inflammatory profile. LPSs have been found in amyloid plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The study revealed high levels of LPSs and the short chain fatty acids acetate and valerate were also associated with large amyloid deposits in the brain.

Butyrate, another short-chain fatty acid, appeared to have a protective effect as high levels were associated with less amyloid. As in the featured study, which demonstrated specific strains of gut bacteria are associated with the development of Parkinson's disease, this study also demonstrated bacterial products in the intestinal microbiota influence the number of amyloid plaques in the brain.

"Our results are indisputable: Certain bacterial products of the intestinal microbiota are correlated with the quantity of amyloid plaques in the brain," explains Moira Marizzoni, a study author with the Fatebenefratelli Center in Brescia, Italy.21

Another study22 published in March 2023, identified 10 bacterial types that were associated with a higher likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease. As with the harmful bacteria identified with a higher likelihood of Parkinson's disease, researchers hope this finding will also lead to new treatments that help to lower a person's risk of developing the disease and potentially slowing the progression.

Optimize Your Gut Microbiome

In the Parkinson's study, researchers found harmful strains of Desulfovibrio were associated with the development of Parkinson's disease and in the Alzheimer's study, the team found individuals with Alzheimer's had a reduced microbial diversity and had 10 bacteria overrepresented and other microbes decreased.

As research teams continue to find stronger connections between gut microbiota and neurological health, it only makes sense to optimize your gut bacteria to protect you from these and other health conditions. By reseeding your gut with beneficial bacteria, you help keep populations of pathogenic microbes and fungi in check and keep them from taking over.

One of the easiest ways to optimize your gut is to regularly eat traditionally fermented and cultured foods. This is indisputably the most effective and least expensive way to make a significant impact on your gut microbiome. Healthy choices include cultured grass fed organic milk products such as kefir and yogurt, natto and all kinds of fermented vegetables.

I'm not a big supporter of taking many supplements since I believe the majority of your nutrition should come from food, yet probiotics are the exception if you don't eat fermented foods on a regular basis. Spore-based probiotics, or sporebiotics, can be particularly helpful when you're taking antibiotics and they're an excellent complement to regular probiotics.

Antibiotics indiscriminately kill your gut bacteria, both good and bad.23 This is why secondary infections and lowered immune function are common side effects of taking antibiotics.24 Chronic low-dose exposure through food also takes a toll on your gut microbiome, which can result in chronic ill health and increased risk of drug resistance.

In addition to seeding your gut with beneficial bacteria and supporting those bacteria with prebiotic fiber, it's also important to avoid things that disrupt or kill your microbiome. These include:

• Antibiotics, unless absolutely necessary
• Conventionally raised meats and other animal products, as these animals are routinely fed low-dose antibiotics, plus genetically engineered and/or glyphosate-treated grains
• Processed foods (as the excessive sugars feed pathogenic bacteria)
• Chlorinated and/or fluoridated water
• Antibacterial soap and products containing triclosan

 Comments (49)