Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
You’ve probably heard about omega-3 fatty acids and their benefits for a healthy heart and fending off inflammation, but have you heard of DHA? This omega-3 is incredibly important for supporting brain health in people of all ages.
Everyone deals with stressors on some level, but if you deal with chronic stress, this can have serious impacts on your overall health. This is why it is so important to take the necessary steps to help your body adapt to these stressors.
peripheral neuropathy
InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
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You’ve probably heard about diabetic peripheral neuropathy and it is definitely a real thing. The prevalence rate of peripheral neuropathy in diabetics is upwards of 50%. That is a big problem. Generally, this is going to affect the feet, which is why they emphasize so much about diabetic foot care. That’s important, but we want to try to stop ourselves from getting to that point.†
Peripheral neuropathy is not just solely impacting diabetics. This issue can impact someone who has completely normal blood sugar. This is because there are over 100 different types of peripheral neuropathies. They all have their own symptoms and prognosis. There are different nerves that are implicated with the different forms of neuropathy. When you have neuropathy that affects all different types of nerves, this is when the issues really start to drive home.†
There are a lot of different things that we know can lead to peripheral neuropathy. Physical injury or trauma to a particular bone or area can lead to significant nerve damage, which can then lead to neuropathy. We know that diabetes is the leading cause of any of the polyneuropathies that are reported. This is why we need to look at what we can be doing.†
We can look at vitamin imbalances. If we don’t have adequate amounts of our B-vitamins, like B12 and B6, for example. We can see the neuropathy symptoms kicking into high gear when we have this. We can look at hormone imbalances and autoimmune diseases that can create neuropathies. There are also different medications that can drive up neuropathy, as well as infections such as shingles.†
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I want to focus a little bit more on diabetic peripheral neuropathy because it’ll still cross off all of the different spectrums, so even if someone doesn’t have diabetes but they’re experiencing neuropathy, the different nutrients that I’m going to highlight would still be beneficial in those situations.†
We know that our B-vitamins are huge. Having those B-vitamins onboard is really helpful. Benfotiamine, which is found in our Nerve HxⓇ formulation, for me is a number one go-to. Benfotiamine is the fat-soluble form of Vitamin B1 and combining that with the Methyl-B formulation is a really nice one, two punch for helping to enhance nerve function.†
Glycation is involved in neuropathy and this causes inflammation, so we want to make sure we’re including things like alpha-lipoic acid and acetyl-l-carnitine, which are in our Alcar with ALA formulation, to help fight off this inflammation. We also have to look at common things such as omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin D.†
In this episode, Amanda Williams, MPH explains the issue of peripheral neuropathy, which frequently affects diabetics. She outlines some common causes of this issue and also offers recommendations for nutrients that can help fight it.†
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Thank you for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at InViteⓇ Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.
Inflammation is a big part of both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, so it’s important that we are taking the correct steps to protect our body. This is where important anti-inflammatory nutrients such as green tea, curcumin and Vitamin D come into play.
As the weather gets colder, it’s very common to develop itchy, scaly or dry skin. The good news is that there are nutrients that can help hydrate your skin from the inside, out.
DHA
InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
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By now, you’ve probably heard of the importance of omega-3 fatty acids. Today, I want to focus in particular on DHA, which is docosahexaenoic acid. I want to zero in on this fatty acid in particular because it is very critical for proper brain development, even in an infant, which is why we’re starting to see infant formulas containing DHA. We understand so much more now about those essential fatty acids and why we need them for not just our brain, but for the entire body.†
DHA in particular plays a very vital role in the structure and function within the brain of children, developing infants and adults. This component of phospholipids is very essential, but our exposure to DHA is usually not sufficient enough, which is why we are more prone to issues with cognitive decline as we get older.†
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We have to think about what omega-3 fatty acids are doing within the brain itself. I want to talk about a study that was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, where they were looking at the effect of DHA supplement and how that could actually change the volume of the hippocampus while also helping to enhance cognitive function. This was a 12-month randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial and they looked at how the DHA was playing a role in brain functions. They saw that a higher DHA intake was inversely correlated with that relative risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.†
The participants in this study received either two grams of DHA a day or they were receiving a placebo. The researchers were looking at global and specific subdomains of cognitive function, as well as measuring the hippocampal volume. They measure this at baseline, at six months in and again at the conclusion of the study. There were significant differences in terms of the hippocampal volume in the group that was given the DHA. The findings suggested that DHA supplementation for that 12 months in people who had mild cognitive impairment could significantly improve cognitive function and slow the progression of brain atrophy.†
The Department of Nutritional Sciences through the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan worked with researchers out of the University of Texas Health Science Center to look at the association between omega-3 fatty acids and markers for inflammation in people who had bipolar disorder. They wanted to assess if there was a correlation between low levels of omega-3, including DHA and EPA, and higher levels of inflammation found in the body. Indeed, that is exactly what they found. They found higher levels of things like interleukin-18 and tumor necrosis factor alpha. They also found that when these people had higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood, these levels of inflammation came down.†
We know that omega-3 fatty acids are playing this very substantial role when it comes to targeting and easing inflammation and at the same time, maintaining the structure and function of the brain.†
In this episode, Amanda Williams, MPH discusses the powerful omega-3 fatty acid, DHA. She explains why this nutrient is important for development and overall brain function and also details studies focusing on this essential fatty acid.†
Key Topics:
Thank you for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at InViteⓇ Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.