6 replies to this topic

[cuprous]

This Christmas I am planning to buy relatives and friends primarily supplements as opposed to material junk. I have an uncle who is mid-70s who is known to drink to excess. He probably drinks 3-4 glasses of wine a night and probably 2x that a couple times a week. Obviously alcoholism is very complicated and teasing out what is substance abuse vs what is substance addiction vs what is trying to cover up depression vs what is end-of-life abandonment is beyond the scope of this forum and surely beyond my own capabilities. But I would like to give him a chance at regaining some perspective or at least offsetting the damage of his habits.

I can think of the following possibilities for supplements but I would like to hear what other options are out there as far as mental health.

- NAC - glutathione precursor, will help the body rid itself of acetylaldehyde, the toxic metabolic byproduct of ethanol degradation. Makes a big difference IMHO when imbibing to excess.

- Vitamin B complex - Alcoholics are typically deficient in thiamine. This can lead to cognitive impairment.

- Milk thistle (sylmarin) - Evidence seems really mixed and I am thinking about dropping it from my own regimen. I've noticed no effect in hangover prevention or the like.

- Theanine - Supposedly reduces BAC levels but I can find little supporting evidence in the literature.

Is there anything else that would be regenerative or counteractive?

[blood]

Results from this newish study are fairly astonishing...

Microdose lithium - a mere 300 mcg lithium/ day - appears to stabilise cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's patients.

Hopefully these results can be replicated!

http://www.ncbi.nlm....eimers disease.

Curr Alzheimer Res. 2013 Jan;10(1):104-7.

Microdose lithium treatment stabilized cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Nunes MA, Viel TA, Buck HS.

Source

Department of Physiological Sciences, Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas da Santa Casa de Sao Paulo. R. Dr. Cesario Motta Jr, 61, CEP: 01221-020, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil.

Abstract


A lower incidence of dementia in bipolar patients treated with lithium has been described. This metal inhibits the phosphorylation of glycogen-synthase-kinase 3-α and β, which are related to amyloid precursor protein processing and tau hyperphosphorylation in pathological conditions, respectively. Following the same rationale, a group just found that lithium has disease-modifying properties in amnestic mild cognitive impairment with potential clinical implications for the prevention of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) when a dose ranging from 150 to 600 mg is used. As lithium is highly toxic in regular doses, our group evaluated the effect of a microdose of 300 μg, administered once daily on AD patients for 15 months. In the evaluation phase, the treated group showed no decreased performance in the mini-mental state examination test, in opposition to the lower scores observed for the control group during thetreatment, with significant differences starting three months after the beginning of the treatment, and increasing progressively. This data suggests the efficacy of a microdose lithium treatment in preventing cognitive loss, reinforcing its therapeutic potential to treat AD using very low doses.

PMID: 22746245 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Dr's Best lithium (5 mg/ tab):
http://www.iherb.com...0-Tablets/22628

Edited by blood, 09 December 2013 - 01:50 AM.

[Dorian Grey]

Curcumin, SAM-e, and PPC appear to have remarkable hepatoprotective properties when it comes to alcohol...

Curcumin prevents alcohol-induced liver disease in rats by inhibiting the expression of NF-kappa B-dependent genes

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/12388178

Prevention and treatment of liver fibrosis based on pathogenesis

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/10371420

[Darryl]

Perhaps most of the toxic effects from alcohol (including hangovers and flushing), are from its initial metabolite acetaldehyde. Increasing activity of the next enzyme in its metabolism, mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2), should reduce acetaldehyde levels during drinking bouts. Perhaps the most effective ALDH2 activator is novel compound ALDA-1, under study for prevention of ischemia/reperfusion injury. However, lipoic acid did the same trick.

As many of the benefits of lipoic acid result from induction of Nrf2-regulated endogenous antioxidant responses, ALDH2 is a known Nrf2 promoted gene, and Nrf2 protects mice from alcoholic liver injury, its plausible any of the many known Nrf2 inducers would also upregulate ALDH2. As noted above, these include silibinin from milk thistle and curcumin, though andrographolide from Andrographis paniculata is a more potent inducer in vitro (1, 2) and protects from ethanol induced toxicity in animal models.

@blood: Cool news on the lithium. I wonder if lithium's effectiveness as a mTOR-independent autophagy inducer might also be contributing to its benefits in Alzheimer's at that dose.

Edited by Darryl, 09 December 2013 - 07:49 AM.

[cuprous]

Looks like fish oil can be added to the list.

Fish Oil Could Help Protect Alcohol Abusers from Dementia

[Next]

I am a 1st year rotating graduate student in a lab studying binge alcohol. Here is a link to a blurb about my mentors research:

Interest: Alcohol as neurotoxicant and neuroprotectant
This laboratory is interested in mechanisms of brain neurodegeneration as well as neuroprotection relevant to alcohol (ethanol). Our past studies with adult rats in collaboration with Dr. E.J. Neafsey clarified that subchronic, repetitive alcohol intoxication sufficient to achieve the high blood levels reported in “binging” alcoholics causes brain edema as well as neurodegeneration largely in the hippocampus and temporal cortex. The facts that diuretics that prevent brain edema neuroprotect, whereas antagonists to glutamate receptors, calcium channels, and nitric oxide synthase do not, suggest a key role for nonsynaptic brain overhydration as opposed to synaptic excitotoxicity. Organotypic rat hippocampal-entorhinal cortical slice cultures are employed by us to further study binge alcohol’s mechanisms in vitro. With these cultures, diuretics, phospholipase A2 inhibitors, antioxidants, and an inhibitor of astroglial-rich aquaporin-4 water channels are neuroprotective against binge alcohol, indicating that aquaporin-4 activity underlies the brain edema, which then triggers damaging oxidative stress in part by mobilizing omega-6 arachidonic acid (AA). We also found neuroprotection by an omega-3 (fish oil) fatty acid, which prevents the elevated AA mobilization. On the other hand, preconditioning brain slice cultures over several days with low-moderate alcohol concentrations promotes a “neuroprotected” state—specifically against HIV-1 gp120 or amyloid-beta, two potent neuroinflammatory proteins linked to dementia in AIDS and Alzheimer’s. Examining temporal events induced by such moderate alcohol preconditioning, we find that NMDA glutamatergic receptors are possible early sensors. Later upregulation of protein kinases such as PKC and focal adhesion kinase suggests that they function as transducers, with their inhibition abolishing subsequent increases in neuroprotective heat shock proteins (hsp70; hsp27) that may be among the ultimate effectors. We speculate that this mechanism could in part underlie reported neuropreventative actions of moderate alcohol intake against dementia in older individuals.

Heres a link to the papers on pubmed and I would be glad to ask him if you are more interested...

http://www.ncbi.nlm....doptcmdl=DocSum

TLDR: DHA within 5 hours of a binge (defined as 4-5 drinks I believe) but I take it after even 1.

[GetMaxed]

Another major cause of inflammation/damage is from endotoxemia as alcohol consumption increases gut permeability. There's a number of studies showing pro-biotics help with this. Also zinc and l-carnitine. I've done a fair bit of research in the area and have a half complete site on it, pm me and I send you the link.