Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
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Blue blockers
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Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
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Jerry Hickey, Ph.: [00:00:40] Okay, welcome back to my podcast episode. Blue Blockers Protect You From Vision Problems and Alzheimer’s Disease. The blue blockers are found in green leafy vegetables. They’re called lutein and zeaxanthin. They help protect you from blue light and we’ll get into that over this episode. They’re very important. In fact, they’re so important that I generally recommend that people take additional as a supplement. So they found out researchers like at Harvard and Johns Hopkins, etc., Tufts, that green leafy vegetables are great for the brain and the eyes and they slow down the aging process and make aging a much better experience. And then they took the ingredients separately in studies and they found that, hey, these things are remarkably important and these are key nutrients in these foods that help block the aging process of the eyes and the brain and help reduce the risk of brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and help reduce the risk of eye diseases such as age related macular degeneration and even cataracts and glaucoma, all these things that can rob you of vision and even cause blindness. So now we’re going to go into this a little bit deeper.†[00:01:55]
[00:01:57] So welcome back to the podcast. My name is Jerry Hickey. I’m a nutritional pharmacist. I’m also I am pretty good with this nutrition stuff. I have to say, you can find all of our episode for free wherever you listen to podcasts or go to invitehealth.com/podcast and please subscribe and leave a review. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at InViteⓇ Health.† [00:02:21]
[00:02:24] So a quick review. Women tend to have more body fat than men, about 20%. There’s a much higher incidence of Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases in women that can occur at a younger age than men. And also eye diseases such as age related macular degeneration are much more common in women. Many of the pigments found in green leafy vegetables like arugula and broccoli and Brussel sprouts and lettuce and kale and spinach can get trapped in fat. And women tend to have 20% more body fat than men, like I just said. One of the things to protect you from it’s not just blue light, but it’s also oxygen. So I said that 60% of the oxygen with every inhalation goes to your brain. And if you don’t have enough of these antioxidants, molecules can be created that damaged brain cells, we said that part one of the of this podcast. So lutein and zeaxanthin are the primary carotenoids in our brain. You can get a little bit in pistachio nuts, you get it in egg yolks, you can get the zeaxanthin in corn, zea maize it’s named after corn zea maize, zeaxanthin. But you generally find them in green, leafy vegetables. I’ll go into a selection of green leafy vegetables at the end of this podcast episode.† [00:03:51]
[00:03:52] Now they are super concentrated in parts of our brain where we process information like where we know where we are and if we’re standing or sitting or what day it is, or what’s that person’s name or, you know, things like that and memory and learning. So they’re super concentrated in our hippocampus, which is core to learning and memory in our occipital and frontal lobes of our brain, where all of these things take place, all of these executive functions and cognitive skills take place. So evidence is rapidly building that the lutein and zeaxanthin found in these green leafy vegetables help prevent Alzheimer’s disease and a low level of lutein and zeaxanthin in your blood serum is tied into an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This is in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. And this is information from the rush memory and aging process. And also Inserm in France, a major research hub, and Oregon Health and Science University. † [00:04:57]
[00:04:59] Now additionally, lutein and zeaxanthin help stop the buildup of beta amyloid plaques in our brain, preventing them from gunking together and becoming toxic. This is according to Harvard researchers with a bunch of researchers from China who published their findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. But it gets bad in that. So lutein and zeaxanthin help prevent aging related diseases of the brain. But it gets better. Because lutein and zeaxanthin make the brain work better. They make the cells in your brain like the learning cells, the memory cells more efficient. They actually improve cognitive function, showing you how key they are. So it’s not just protecting the brain with lutein and zeaxanthin, you’re actually involved with making the brain function better. † [00:05:48]
[00:05:51] So several studies led me up to doing this episode, this podcast episode in the first place. Several years ago, there was a super important study that was kind of like glossed over because everybody was focused on COVID 19. It was overlooked because of the pandemic, and it was a meta analysis. Now, this is important. A meta analysis, if done properly, tells you if something works or it doesn’t work. It could be a food, it could be a vitamin, it could be a surgical procedure or anything. A diet, that’s a meta analysis. † [00:06:29]
[00:06:30] So they scan, they do a systematic review of the information on a website such as Ovid and Web of Science and PubMed. And they look for key terms like in this case it would be lutein and zeaxanthin or green leafy vegetables, brain, neurological, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, things like that. And then they gather all the evidence and they get rid of the studies that do not look right, that there’s something wrong. Like maybe there’s a bias, there’s a big risk of bias, or maybe the the results are just too good. There’s something wrong here. Or, you know, they’re not reported well, they’re not designed well. So they throw those out and they keep what’s left, which could be five studies, could be 100 studies. So then they analyze it. So all of a sudden they have this data from all these different research institutions, all these different clinics and hospitals and universities, etc., and medical schools. So all these different researchers, that takes out a further risk of bias and it gives you a lot more data and makes it very powerful because all of a sudden you’ve got a study of 100 people, you’ve got thousands and thousands and thousands, maybe even millions of people. So if you do it right, it tells you to something work or doesn’t work. So during the pandemic, they did this meta analysis which reviewed 24 different meta analysis, 24 different previous systematic reviews. † [00:08:03]
[00:08:05] So this means something. I mean, this this is very powerful. This is well powered. Many, many people, many, many years high intake of green leafy vegetables strongly led to a lower all cause mortality. Now, that’s profound. Researchers don’t commonly use words like strongly, so when they say a word like strongly, that really means something. They strongly lower, they strongly lead to a lower all cause mortality. So what’s all cause mortality, it’s the journal food chemistry. All cause mortality could be dying from anything, getting run over but that can happen because your brain’s foggy, you’re not paying attention, you get depressed, suicide. But usually it could be infections, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, a heart attack, a stroke, cancer. You know, the common causes of mortality, a broken hip, you know, broken hips lead to blood clots and infections. It could it could be really dangerous.† [00:09:04]
[00:09:05] So this big analysis shows a precise amount that you would need to consume daily to lower your risk of dying from all these different causes, including cancer. 100 grams of green, leafy vegetables a day. Now, if you have a salad with a arugula and different kinds of lettuce and you have a serving of spinach or broccoli, you can easily get to 100 grams. 100 grams is about three and a third ounces, three and a third ounces. Reduce the risk of all cause mortality by 25%, including cancer. I mean, that’s big. And Lutein and zeaxanthin are major players in green leafy vegetables. They help prevent memory loss because they’ve been studied separately. They’ve been taken as supplements and studied separately in many, many studies. And there’s a very large volume of research, huge amounts of green leafy vegetables and a very large volume of research now on lutein and zeaxanthin supplements. So the effect is real. The government needs to do the right thing and allow companies to put really strong claims on the labels for well-made lutein and zeaxanthin supplements about protecting the eyes and protecting the brain. It’s really time. They help prevent memory loss, they help prevent neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.† [00:10:37]
[00:10:39] But lutein and zeaxanthin protect your eyes also. And the eyes are connected to the brain. About 90% of the information your brain gets is from your vision. And if you look at, you know, when the eye doctor looks at the back of the eyes with that little sculptor actually looking at an extension of the brain, the optic nerve is the only part of the brain you can look at without doing surgery; they look in the eye with that little sculptor looking at the optic nerve, it’s a direct extension outside the brain. So and the eyes are connected to the brain, eye health is connected to brain health, so lutein and zeaxanthin protect the eyes also, especially all of those little sensitive, vulnerable little organelles and organs in the retina needed for fine vision, and they protect them from blue light. † [00:11:24]
[00:11:24] So let’s talk about blue light. The blue light spectrum is super high energy. It’s more energetic than red and orange and yellow and green and purple because it’s a very short wave. So when you’re looking at blue light, millions of these waves are hitting your eyes much more than other light waves. And this causes a glare and the glare, uses up your lutein and zeaxanthin. And what happens if too much lutein and zeaxanthin is used up? The macular tissue that’s a shield for the inside of your eyes starts to thin because it’s mostly made out of lutein and zeaxanthin. And this allows the blue light to penetrate and it can damage the retina. † [00:12:07]
[00:12:08] Now in young children and I’ve done podcast episodes on this in young children on screens all day, you’re getting a lot of blue light. You get blue light outside, of course, you’re in the daylight, blue sky. But on your computer screen, there’s a lot of blue light on a high definition television, on video games like X-Box and even on your cell phone, you’re getting blue light, you’re getting a lot more blue light than our ancestors, you’re getting a lot more exposure. This uses up the lutein and zeaxanthin in your macula. In young people, it leads to eye fatigue and brain fatigue, which there’s a clue there for your kid in college. Give them a lutein and zeaxanthin supplement, and they’ll probably do better academically, because their brain and their eyes won’t get as tired. Because I could tell you this, when I go on a computer screen, if I do lutein and zeaxanthin, I could go for hours without my eyes getting tired. If my eyes did get tired, if I didn’t take the lutein and zeaxanthin then my eyes got tired like after an hour or an hour and a half, if I take the lutein and zeaxanthin within about 10 minutes, my eyes aren’t tired anymore, it’s pretty amazing. And here’s something else that’s interesting, the lutein and Zeaxanthin have to negotiate their way, inside your brain to get to your eyes. † [00:13:21]
[00:13:22] So because they’re so important for the brain, the brain grabs a lot of lutein and zeaxanthin and holds onto it. Maybe not enough is getting to your eyeballs. I think it’s really important, especially as we get older, to take a lutein and zeaxanthin supplement because it does protect your eyes, it does protect your brain and does a lot more than that and even helps your brain work better and it and improves your day to day vision and your visual acuity, how sharply you see and contrast sensitivity like picking things out from a background, like you’re driving at night and it’s raining and it’s gloomy and everything. And you know, there’s a tree branch across the road. You’ll see it quicker if you have enough lutein and zeaxanthin in your eyeballs and help you recover from glare quicker. They did a study at the Moran, eye center. That’s the University of Utah, and when they gave elderly, it was something like 100 very elderly people. When they gave them lutein and zeaxanthin or placebo, over the course of a year, the people on lutein and zeaxanthin their vision actually improved a little bit, which is just the opposite of what normally occurs with aging. They did an interesting study in China on people who dried professionally hours and hours and hours of driving every day. These people do an amazing amount of driving like truck drivers, etc., that driving across China and the Gobi Desert, etc. And when they gave them lutein, it really helped their vision. It really helped her eye fatigue and their brain fatigue and their ability to pay attention while they were driving, etc. † [00:14:39]
[00:14:39] So these are incredibly important for our eyes and the optic nerve that goes into your eyes as a direct extension out of our brain. So on a protective side, once again, they reduce glare, uh, the glare from the blue light. Oh, and let me just say something else. Let me backtrack a little bit. In young people, use up the lutein and zeaxanthin by going on a computer screen all day, their eyes and their brain get tired. But in older people, it’s worse than that. You can actually get some eye damage and brain damage. So you always want enough lutein and zeaxanthin. And unfortunately, with age, this happens with a number of nutrients like zinc, you absorb less zinc with age, you absorb less fish oils for your meals with age, you absorb less lutein and zeaxanthin from your food with age. So it really becomes important to take a good supplement. So on the protective side with lutein and zeaxanthin they reduce glare in the eyes and this affects your visual processing speed and it can improve their contrast sensitivity, their visual stamina, the visual acuity. This affects our ability to solve problems. This affects our memory. This affects our executive functions and also protects our hippocampal region, which is so important for our memory. I’ve done some podcast episodes on the hippocampus, our frontal cortex of our brain and regions of our eyes. I mean, so key. The lutein and zeaxanthin help prevent age related vision loss and age related blindness, I’m going to go into some studies now. † [00:16:19]
[00:16:22] They help prevent the development of the diseases, including brain diseases like memory loss well, I mean, that’s not a disease, anybody can have memory loss, subjective memory loss. But they help prevent memory loss and they help prevent the development and disease of diseases like Alzheimer’s disease. And their progression, which means worsening progress is not always a good thing, progress of the disease means it’s worsening. So there was a very recent study in nutritional neuroscience, and this was the direct trigger for me to do this podcast episode. It was published on June 11th of this year. Consuming lutein and zeaxanthin rich foods reduced the risk of dementia and reduced the risk of eye diseases. † [00:17:10]
[00:17:14] Now, this is a benign approach to getting antioxidant defenses to help prevent inflamaging, to help prevent memory loss, to help prevent brain diseases, to help prevent eye disease. A lot of green leafy vegetables. So let’s get back to women. You have to take into account women’s immune systems. There’s this really brilliant researcher, Dr. Billy Hammond, he’s the kind of person I follow when it comes to the science of nutrition. He’s the principal scientist in Division Sciences Laboratory at the University of Georgia, that’s in Athens, Georgia. They do a lot of brain research and fusion research at the University of Georgia in Athens. He’s also a professor of the Brain and Behavioral Sciences Program at the University of Georgia. And he’s done a great deal of research on diseases of aging in women that affect both vision and memory. And he’s also done a great deal of research on lutein and zeaxanthin because they’re so key.† [00:18:16]
[00:18:19] So I’m going to quote Dr. Hammond now. “Females have a much more robust immune response, but then suffer from the long term consequences such as enhanced responses, injury” end of quote. So women’s immune systems, because they have to go through pregnancy, etc. are very powerful, they’re more powerful than men. Now, when the immune system is really functioning well, you’re releasing chemical messengers like chemokines and cytokines, like interleukin six. These are the things that have damaged the lungs of people with COVID 19 that led to so many deaths. Antioxidants are some of the things that quench those things and protect regions of the brain in the eyes and the lungs and every other part of body. So it’s very key for women to have enough of these nutrients, especially since some of these nutrients get trapped in the fat in your body, have a higher fat content in general than men. So they actually need more of these nutrients. That’s really key to a long, healthy life for women. So let’s look at the nurses health study. It’s almost 50,000 nurses that were followed for a 22 year period, that’s amazing. Women in the highest quintile of intake of lutein and zeaxanthin quintile would be the top 20%. Women in the top 20% of intake of lutein and zeaxanthin had a 24% lowered likelihood of reporting reduced cognitive function over the 22 year period. But don’t forget, these women were getting questioned by the researchers all the time. There was always follow up questioning. So when they would ask these women, you know, how’s your memory? How’s your brain? They’d say, Well, my, my brain is fine. I’m not I’m not forgetting words and I’m not forgetting that I’ve been somewhere or read a book, etc., and I can remember things and I can learn. They had a lot of these green leafy vegetables, they were getting in a lot of lutein and zeaxanthin. † [00:20:14]
[00:20:17] So here’s the problem in a nutshell, women just need more lutein and zeaxanthin and carotenoid pigments in general like lycopene. So here’s the Journal of Vision Research. That’s the Shepherd’s Eye Research Institute in Boston. Although women tend to consume more lutein and zeaxanthin than men, women average 38% less lutein and zeaxanthin in their retinas. So potentially this is going to affect their eye health and their brain. It’s all connected. So even though women tend to eat more green, leafy vegetables and high quality foods, etc., than men, they tend to have 38% lutein and zeaxanthin in their eyeball and their retina where it counts. And lutein and zeaxanthin are the only carotenoids, and you’re right, they’re the only ones. They’re the most important carotenoids in your brain also. So they protect the retina from the blue light and other insults. And if you don’t have enough whatever there is depleted quickly, it’s used up very quickly and then you’re really in trouble. † [00:21:24]
[00:21:26] So using a pollutant and zeaxanthin in your eyeballs will then quickly use up the remaining lutein and zeaxanthin in your brain, and your brain won’t work as efficiently, but it’s more likely to get damaged by the free radicals are always occurring in your brain at high levels. So it’s a problem. Potentially, this also leads to cataracts. There’s studies showing that when you have enough lutein and zeaxanthin, but also zinc and other nutrients, it lowers the risk of having cataracts. There’s a big study from Finland showing that. † [00:22:02]
[00:22:04] And you know what? There’s also a recent study using data from Rush Russia’s Memory Project. The Rush Institute is over in Chicago, and they study aging. And they’re the people that came up with the MIND diet. They took the the best of the Mediterranean diet and combined it with what they considered the best of the dash diet. The Dash diet is a diet developed to help prevent heart disease and high blood pressure, etc. Help prevent strokes and heart attacks. So they mixed the Mediterranean diet with the dash diet. Now these are patterns of eating. They’re not like calorie restricted, restricting diets aimed at dieting and losing weight. However, when you eat properly like these kind of foods, you lose weight anyway. They’re not fattening foods and they’re super healthy foods. So they use- and they’ve proven with this MIND diet that it cuts to risk of Alzheimer’s so they were using so I’m doing one more brain study because I kind of left it out before using a Rush memory project data higher in take of total carotenoids substantially. And once again, that’s a huge word for researchers, lowers the hazard of developing Alzheimer’s disease by an incredibly powerful 48%. So a good diet, there’s other things that lower the risk of Alzheimer’s reading, studying, learning, talking to people, being social, getting enough sleep, getting exercise. All these things help lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. But they found that intake of total carotenoids and there’s a lot of data on this this is just one thing I’m quoting especially lutein and zeaxanthin lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by an incredibly substantial and incredibly powerful 48%. These are Harvard researchers. And they found that this help prevent a buildup of beta amyloid plaques in the brain and also lowered fibril formation. That’s the sticky plaques that become so damaging and toxic in your brain. † [00:24:06]
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[00:24:08] So age related macular degeneration is a major cause of vision loss and blindness in people over the age of 55. And it’s more common in women by far. So these are Harvard researchers, people who consume the most lutein and zeaxanthin have a 40% lowered risk of advanced age related macular degeneration, which leads to blindness. This was approximately 100,000 men and women. It was published in JAMA Ophthalmology. So the data is real, the data is real. Additionally, other carotenoids in the study, like beta carotene and alpha carotene especially reduce the risk of age related macular degeneration by 25 to 35%. But there’s more Harvard research looking at glaucoma. Glaucoma is very common. It’s usually from pressure in the eyeballs. The plumbing of the eyeball isn’t working properly, and you get a buildup of fluids and they’re crushing down on the retina and they cause damage to the retina and they can lead to vision loss and blindness. It’s a very common cause of vision loss and blindness, especially in older people. So this is more Harvard research. And once again, it’s it’s almost 100,000 men and women, it’s from two very long term studies mixed together. Both of them lasted longer than 25 years. So this is really good data consuming a lot of green leafy vegetables reduce the risk of developing glaucoma by 20 to 30%. † [00:25:33]
[00:25:35] So studies of lutein and zeaxanthin, they don’t just protect the eyeball, they actually improve your vision health. Like I mentioned at Marin Eye Health, that eye center study at the University of Utah. So not only do they make the brain work more efficiently, they make the eyes work more efficiently. I remember the study, I can’t find it now because I read it many years ago. All they did was give women DHEA and lutein, and their memory improved, their cognitive functions improved. That’s all they did was give them lutein and DHEA. DHEA is one of the two most important oils in fish oil capsules and eating fish. It’s very important for the brain and memory. Studies show that if you get 100, 200 milligrams of DHA every day, you cut your risk of Alzheimer’s disease by about 36%. So it’s really, but they also are really super important for your memory. † [00:26:22]
[00:26:25] Now, just a couple of other things. High blood levels of lycopene and lutein and zeaxanthin in research reduced the risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancers. They lead to stronger bones because they reduce inflammation in the bones. And this improves osteoblast activity, which builds bone and reduces osteoblast activity that breaks down bones. So when you reduce the inflammation in the bones, you’re actually building bone. So they’re important for that, too. And they help prevent sarcopenia, which is that age associated loss of muscle and strength, which is a hazard, because then that affects your balance and your mobility and your independence. They lead to a healthier heart, better circulation, healthier skin, they even reduce wrinkling and help protect your skin from the sun and a reduced risk of autoimmune diseases so these are really important foods. † [00:27:14]
[00:27:14] So the take away, have a lot of green leafy vegetables every day. Now, a couple of caveats there, don’t have raw cabbage, vegetables cause there’s goitrogens in there. Things that slow down your thyroid gland, your thyroid gland you need it for your memory and heart health and reducing inflammation for energy and strength, etc. So you don’t want to slow down your thyroid, so cook your cabbage vegetables and there’s a lot of cabbage vegetables. I mean, there’s broccoli rabe, there’s bok choy, there’s collard greens, there’s kale. I grew up on kale when I was a little kid in Ireland, we grew up on kale, we ate so much kale, we never ate cabbage, we ate kale. Cabbage, brussels sprouts, all these things are in the cabbage family. I wouldn’t have them more than four times a week and I would cook them, four times a week is fine. So on the other days you’ll look at other greens like lettuce, dandelion greens. I was very good friends with a family from Barry, Italy and they would make salads on Sunday afternoon with dandelion greens, and I got to tell you, it was so bitter, but they’re super healthy. Lettuce, arugula, all those are greens. But don’t risk it, take a well-made, natural source of lutein and zeaxanthin. The synthetic doesn’t work well, it’s sort of a different chemical structure. They don’t have that nailed properly.† [00:28:38]
[00:28:38] So you want a natural lutein and zeaxanthin. Generally, they get these from flowers. They reduce your risk of depression, they reduce your risk of eye inflammation, they reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. You’ll want to add to that some fish oils, you want your B vitamins, you want your minerals, especially your zinc and your magnesium and adequate calcium, you want your vitamin C. If you want a couple of other things that are great for the brain, well absorbed turmeric. Turmeric is very poorly absorbed, it’s that pigment and curry that gives it that smell and taste and color. Well absorbed turmeric is great for the brain, resveratrol is good for the brain, acetyl-l-carnitine is good for the brain. Alpha lipoic acid is good for the brain. These are all things we’ve done podcasts on.† [00:29:20]
[00:29:20] So I want to thank you for listening to today’s episode. You can listen to all of our episodes wherever you listen to the podcast for free or go to invitehealth.com/podcast. And if you could subscribe and leave a review, it would be very helpful. You can also find us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at InViteⓇ Health. I want to thank you for listening today and please join me again in future podcast episodes. Jerry Hickey, signing off, have a great day. † [00:29:20]
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Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
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InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InViteⓇ Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!
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Jerry Hickey, Ph.: [00:00:40] There are plenty of hazards that threaten our lung function, the health of our lungs: Inhaling dusts of all sorts; pollution, both indoor and outdoor. Now, indoor pollution can include smoke from wood burning and coal burning stoves and smoking, of course. Infections, even aging, affects our lung function. So many things can harm the tissues of our lungs, I’ll go into the anatomy of our lungs in a minute, and this can contribute to lung diseases, among them pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma. Many studies are pointing to the benefits of resveratrol for lung function. So hi, my name is Jerry Hickey. I’m a nutritional pharmacist. Welcome to my episode, Resveratrol and Lung Health. You can listen to all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or just go to invitehealth.com/podcast. Also, you can listen to us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @invitehealth.† [00:01:50]
[00:01:51] So what exactly is resveratrol? It’s found in plants, it protects plants. For instance, red grapes under a lot of stress… So there’s a red grape growing in a part of Spain where it’s very dry and it’s very hot. The plant releases resveratrol to protect the grapes. And in fact, in red wine, you could get a tiny bit of resveratrol, maybe a milligram in a good red wine, but it dissipates very quickly. Once you open a red wine, the resveratrol evaporates in about a day, and even if you cork it really well, it only lasts about five days. And when you purchase a resveratrol supplement do not get a liquid, do not get a powder, because both light and oxygen cause resveratrol to decay. So you want to get resveratrol protected with something in the capsule. For instance, we use chlorophyll, the green stuff from vegetables and plants, to shield resveratrol from light and we use these capsules with a really tight weave that keep oxygen away from resveratrol. And if you could find a resveratrol supplement, by the way, with some other natural ingredients that are found in the same plants as resveratrol, science has proven that the resveratrol will be more beneficial. They amplify the benefits of resveratrol, namely, quercetin. Quercetin is found in good foods like garlic and onions and green tea and broccoli and spinach. And grape seed extract, any polyphenol similar to grape seed extract, which is an oligomeric proanthocyanidins, an OPC. So if you could find an OPC and quercetin in with your resveratrol and if it’s protected from light and oxygen, it’ll last longer. It’ll work better.† [00:03:41]
GETTING THE MAXIMUM OUT OF RESVERATROL – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 479. Listen Now>>
[00:03:43] Now, there’s a bunch of proven benefits for resveratrol. I’ll go into that at the end of the program, but it really has an impact on the lungs. In fact, there’s some evidence that it protects the lungs from viruses, which is really important during the time of COVID-19. Resveratrol has alkylamines in it. Certain plants have alkylamines, like green tea, turmeric, you know, the curcumin in turmeric, and resveratrol, and these signal the immune system to fight viruses. But resveratrol is also an anti-inflammatory antioxidant in the lungs, and it also triggers genes that protect the lungs and improve the health of the lungs. For the lungs, resveratrol helps reduce inflammation, helps protect the tissues of the lungs, works as a powerful antioxidant to reduce damage by free radicals. Free radicals are found in things like smoke, but that’s just part of daily life. When you eat food and create energy, you create free radicals. So you need to shield the lungs from this as you grow older. It’s been shown to reduce fibrosis in the lungs. Fibrosis is a buildup of kind of scar connective tissue that can stiffen the lungs with age. Like I said, it can help inhibit viruses.† [00:04:50]
[00:04:52] So let’s talk about the lungs. Your respiratory system, of course, you nose and your mouth are part of your respiratory system and you inhale. And then there’s this sort of curve at the end of the nasal pharynx. So you breathe in and the air has to start to go down to the lungs. So first it goes through the trachea, which is your windpipe. It’s a pipe from your, the back of your throat down to your lungs and that branches off to a left and a right bronchi. They connect the trachea to the lungs. So there’s two lungs, you need two bronchi. And the lungs are spongy tissue that exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. And in the lungs, there’s these little sacs, they’re tiny air sacs called alveoli. We have millions and millions of them and they exchange the carbon dioxide for the oxygen. That’s where it takes place.† [00:05:46]
[00:05:48] So some of the common conditions that affect the lungs, there’s pneumonia. Now, there’s different types of pneumonia. If you got liquid in your lungs, that’s droplet pneumonia. But most pneumonias are caused by inflammation related to bacterial infections and viral infections, like viral pneumonia is fairly common. And what happens, you get cytokines, immune messengers, and fluids affecting the lining of the lungs and this reduces the surface area of the lungs that’s working, so it makes it harder to breathe. And of course, it could get dangerous. And then there’s bronchitis. I didn’t mention the bronchioles before when I was talking about the lung anatomy, but at the end of your bronchi, remember, there’s the windpipe, the trachea that splits into bronchi. And at the end of the bronchi, there’s these little branches that are called bronchioles. And in bronchitis, the bronchioles become inflamed and you get lots of mucus and it can really affect your breathing. Then there’s asthma. Asthma. Did I say asthma? Asthma. And once again, it’s the bronchioles. The bronchioles are narrowed and they spasm and this greatly reduces the airflow. And it’s a very scary, very, very dangerous situation. We’ve done some podcast episodes on nutrients that can aid, nutrients that can aid breathing in asthma. And if you have asthma, I would recommend listening to those. Of course, asthma is a very serious, dangerous situation and I’m sure it’s quite scary. You should always have, if you have asthma, a new inhaler, rescue inhaler, in case you have an attack with a good expiration date on it. Because you never know. Then there’s emphysema. I mentioned inside the lungs there’s these tiny sacs called alveoli, and in emphysema, something’s causing them to break down and they squash down on one another and makes it terribly hard to breathe. And of course, there’s COVID-19. COVID-19 can trigger acute respiratory distress syndrome, where the lining of the lungs filled with fluid, making it terribly hard to breathe and that’s when it’s really, truly dangerous. Vitamin D can help offset that. We’ve done several podcast episodes on Vitamin D lowering the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome. There’s plenty of research on that at this point.† [00:08:02]
[00:08:04] Aging. Oh, aging affects your lungs. Lung, lung capacity declines with age, and resveratrol can help make up for all these situations, by the way. It’s not the total answer. It’s part of the equation. It’s part of the answer. It’s helpful. I wouldn’t just depend on resveratrol, but resveratrol is very good for the lungs. I’ll go into some other nutrients that are good for the lungs at the end of the episode. So aging affects lung capacity. A bunch of things happen. The diaphragm muscle, there’s no muscles in the lungs. You have a muscle called the diaphragm that helps you breathe. It pushes your lungs up and helps you breathe, helps you exhale, and then the lungs drop and you inhale again. The diaphragm weakens, nerves weaken, the tissues in the lungs weaken. It’s all not good. So I take resveratrol every day to actually counter a lot of things that go wrong with aging in the brain, believe it or not, in the back of the eyes, in the heart and in the lungs. But it’s also good for your bones. We’ll go into it. Exercise is always good for your breathing capacity, maintaining a good body weight. If you’re overweight, it makes it harder to breathe. Avoiding smoking. Obviously, smoking is terrible for the lungs. Try to avoid pollution if it’s possible. Both indoor and outdoor pollution are terrible for the lungs. And I would take resveratrol. I would definitely add some resveratrol about 200 milligrams a day because that’s the dosage that’s great for the brain and memory also.† [00:09:34]
[00:09:35] So the Department of Infectious Diseases, the University of Rome, Sapienza, they do a lot of great research. They’re coming out with research all the time. They said resveratrol is a promising antiviral agent. Well, that’s true. I mean, plants release resveratrol to help protect them from infections as well as help protect them from stress, environmental stress. So resveratrol has some antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal activities. So they said that the University of Rome and Sapienza resveratrol has activities that can affect viruses that are bad for the lungs, like SARS-CoV-2, you know, the COVID-19 infection, influenza, the flu, respiratory syncytial virus. It can help prevent lung damage. I mean, it really is terribly, terribly important. So the University of Rome at Sapienza, they published a study in the journal Antiviral Research from the Department of Infectious Diseases. The rhinovirus. It often triggers asthma attacks and it creates attacks on people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. And there’s no, there’s no immunization against the rhinovirus. That’s a common cold virus. Well, resveratrol inhibits many viruses, including the rhinovirus and to a degree, coronaviruses. It weakens them. But in human rhinoviruses, resveratrol seems to have a pretty powerful activity. It reduces the inflammation triggered by the common cold virus. So that’s not a bad thing. I mean, it’s not the answer, but it’s helpful.† [00:11:15]
[00:11:18] So the University of Catania is also in Italy. I’ve read many studies from the University of Catania, just like I’ve read many studies from the University of Rome in Sapienza. Very good quality studies, non-biased, very, very legitimate studies. And the doctors reviewed the research pertaining to resveratrol, lung health and lung disease, including chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases like emphysema, asthma, lung fibrosis. Lung fibrosis is scar tissue build up in the lungs and it’s terrible and it can happen to anybody as we age. And they said resveratrol has benefits as a therapeutic agent. So we’re not just talking about prevention here, we’re talking about treatment. And that’s because it’s a great anti-inflammatory in the lungs.† [00:12:01]
[00:12:05] Now patients with asthma and patients with respiratory tract problems, they have cells called eosinophils that are extremely active in a bad way, which attack the lungs and cause inflammation and all kinds of symptoms and damage. So these are researchers from China. It’s the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Xinjiang Medical University in China, and they’re looking at eosinophils from asthmatic patients. Eosinophils are dominant immune cells, white blood cells that are strongly involved with the symptoms you suffer with an allergy. So you find them in your nose and in your throat and by your lungs or by your skin and by your eyes. And but they’re also involved with asthma attacks and the symptoms of an asthma attack and danger of an asthma attack. So they express the eosinophils from patients with asthma and they treated it with resveratrol and other things. And resveratrol is preventing the eosinophils from multiplying. That’s really important because that’s what happens in like an asthma attack or an allergy. The number of eosinophils proliferate, grow in number. And that’s dangerous because they keep on whipping up all the turmoil in your lungs and your respiratory tract. So the resveratrol effectively suppressed the proliferation of these eosinophils for these asthmatic patients. And the longer the exposure of the cells and the greater the exposure of the cells, the better the resveratrol worked.† [00:13:34]
[00:13:35] So let’s go to people now. Evidence inside people, not just in a test tube. This is the journal Allergy and Asthma Proceedings. And once again, it’s Italian researchers. It’s the University of Verona, their pediatric department, and it’s almost 50 kids with moderate to severe asthma. And all of these kids had attacks bad enough that they were admitted to the hospital. It’s Misurina Hospital up in the Italian Alps. They were given corticosteroids. These are the inhalers that block the inflammation, but they gradually were able to reduce the dosage of the corticosteroid inhaler. Corticosteroids are commonly used to treat asthma because they’re such powerful anti-inflammatory agents. Now, a group of these children also received a nutraceutical, a combination of herbs and nutrients: curcumin, which is from the turmeric plant, you know, the curry plant; zinc, which is great for the lungs; selenium, which is great for the lungs; Vitamin D, which is magnificent for the lungs; but of course, resveratrol was the key component in there. And when they gave these children these these pills, the inflammation in their lungs was greatly reduced. So, for instance, you would measure that inflammation by an exhalation. And they found that the products of inflammation in the exhaled air was greatly reduced in the children on the supplements. So the combination strongly reduced lung inflammation. It’s pretty common to combine nutrients that affect similar pathways. For instance, you’d want to combine fish oils with other nutrients for brain health, like B-vitamins and Vitamin C or Vitamin E, they’re all important for the brain. So there are certain combinations that work well together, so they hit on a combination that was pretty darn good.† [00:15:34]
HOW AIR POLLUTION IS HARMING YOUR HEALTH – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 277. Listen Now>>
[00:15:37] Okay, so this is the European Respiratory Journal. It’s University Medical Center Groningen. Groningen would be in the Netherlands. And they’re looking at how come… Does red wine and white wine really support lung function? There’s been some evidence that red and white wines support lung function, but I wouldn’t go down that route because they’re clearly not healthy for your liver or your intestines. The wine, any alcohol tends to kill off your good bacteria, so it’s not the best way to treat something. But inside the red wine is resveratrol. So the doctors gave these people resveratrol or placebo. Now, this is a pretty big study, it’s 3224 people of all different ages, 3224 people. And they found that the resveratrol improved forced expiratory volume. That’s the amount of air you can quickly exhale after taking your deepest breath. And it also improved forced vital capacity. That’s the amount of air you expel after taking your deepest breath. Oh, that one’s not timed. So, resveratrol improved breathing. These people were able to inhale better and exhale more air, a stronger exhalation. I mean, this is just the opposite of what happens with aging. So just to go back and explain a little better, the forced expiratory volume is measured with time. It’s you know, you take your biggest gulp of air and you exhale, but you have to do it within like a second, where the first vital capacity, it’s just how much can you exhale after a deep breath? But they both improved with resveratrol. That’s what we’re looking for.† [00:17:30]
[00:17:32] Now, there’s a lot of evidence that resveratrol lowers the risk of lung cancer. So that’s important if you’re exposed to a lot of pollution, that’s important if you’re exposed to secondhand smoke. So this is University of California at Merced. It’s a team of researchers from California. And they’re looking into, is there truly evidence that resveratrol helps prevent lung cancer? So they said before tumors grow in the lungs, there’s a buildup of toxic free radicals. Free, free radicals are generated in abundance. And they found that, yes, resveratrol is an antioxidant that quenches free radicals, but it does something else. They found out that the resveratrol protected caspases in the lungs. So what’s a caspase? Because this was not something they expected. This was an unexpected finding in the study. Caspases are cellular executioners, and one of the things they execute are cancer cells. So what they found is things like cigarette smoke and pollution, etc. destroyed the caspases and then the caspases can’t control the growth of evil, bad, dangerous cells like cancer cells. And if they gave people resveratrol that you swallow, it protected the caspases in the lining of the lungs. That helps get rid of bad cells and it keeps the lungs healthy. Every time a smoker takes a puff from a cigarette, millions of these bronchial cells in the lungs become inflamed. And this causes white blood cells to flood into the region. These white blood cells, they do not have the ability to discriminate between a damaged lung cell and a healthy cell. So the caspases help prevent the damage by the white blood cells by breaking down the damaged lung cells. This reduces the level of the immune response, therefore protecting the lung tissue. So it’s all a bit complex. The problem is that smoking also destroys the caspases. See? So when you smoke, you’re inflaming the lungs, you’re causing white blood cells to rush in there. The white blood cells will destroy the good cells and the bad cells. But the smoking destroys the caspases, so you can’t protect the lungs. So when you take resveratrol, the resveratrol protects the caspases, it prevents the inflammation of the lungs, it gets rid of damaged cells. It’s all really good. So the University of California team in the Journal of Biochemistry and Cellular Biology said resveratrol protects the caspases from cigarette smoke and other things that could be inhaled and this in turn protects the lung. So there really is some evidence that resveratrol protects the lungs. Like I said, it’s not the total answer. It’s part of the equation for the answer, for the correct answer.† [00:20:31]
[00:20:31] Now what? And 200 milligrams a day is sufficient. When they did studies on brain health… Let me give you some other benefits of resveratrol and then I’ll tell you some other supplements that are good for the lungs. When they did studies on elderly people and resveratrol, 200 milligrams was like a perfect dosage. It improves circulation to the aging brain, circulation to the brain declines with age and their memory improved. So I said, why not make 200 milligrams? But they also found that resveratrol improves bone strength like even an elderly women, postmenopausal women. It helps prevent a hip fracture. Resveratrol is good for heart and circulatory health and people with elevated blood sugar, resveratrol helps normalize blood sugar. It’s part of the benefit you can give. It’s part of things you can give to benefit people with pre-diabetes or diabetes. It doesn’t affect blood sugar and people with normal blood sugar levels. It only seems to help people with elevated blood sugar levels. So that’s a good thing. So there’s other benefits for resveratrol: memory, bone strength, heart health and circulation, improving blood sugar. There are other benefits too. Now, so I take 200 milligrams a day. It’s good for my aging lungs. It’s good for my brain and my memory. It’s good for my heart, it’s good for my pancreas. I didn’t even discuss that. It’s good for my kidneys and my liver, so, and it’s good for my bones.† [00:21:48]
[00:21:49] Other supplements that are good for the lungs: NAC. NAC is a stabilized version of the amino acid cysteine and cysteine’s unstable, so when you add an acetyl group to the cysteine, it becomes N-acetyl-cysteine, it’s stable and it creates a master antioxidant all over the body, including in the lungs that shield the lungs from damage. So NAC’s great for the lungs. People come in and see me with bronchiectasis and chronic bronchitis and emphysema and asthma. I always put them on NAC. Once again, it’s part of the answer. Black seed. Black cumin seed. Black cumin seed is used in those flatbreads in the Middle East and Northern Africa and because it protects the bread and keeps it fresh. Black seed, black cumin seed has many benefits, but it’s great for the lungs. It’s great. It’s helpful for asthma. It’s helpful for allergies. Vitamin C and Vitamin E. There’s a surface liquid in the lungs. And this surface liquid has to be loaded with glutathione, Vitamin C and Vitamin E to protect the lungs. So getting some Vitamin C and Vitamin E every day, you don’t need a lot of Vitamin E, helps protect your lungs.† [00:23:00]
[00:23:02] I want to thank you for listening to this edition of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or go to invitehealth.com/podcast. You can also listen to us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. I want to thank you for listening to this episode and this is Jerry Hickey signing off.† [00:23:02]
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