The brains of Parkinson's patients tell us the secrets of the disease at autopsy...
"How much truth can a man bear?
Error is not blindness, error is cowardice".
Friedrich Nietzsche
What
Parkinson's screams at us in autopsy, once we cross the last border.
The same thing prevents the disease, controls the symptoms, slows its
progression... It's the same thing! There are hardly any differences,
except for nuances. It is the final scene of a drama that lasts a
lifetime: oxidation, inflammation... vulnerable points that are not
reinforced...
The panorama, like battlefields or cities destroyed by war...
For
50 years we have walked lost through the Parkinsonian maze without
knowing where we were or why we were locked up there. But that has
changed thanks to the increasingly luminous and enlightening books and
studies of dozens, hundreds of brilliant and courageous neurologists, as
well as other neuroscience experts (Ahlskog, Coimbra, Shults,
Birkmayer, Karobath, Suzuki, Monti, Perlmutter, Sechi, González
Maldonado, Marjama Lyons, Mandel, Hurni, Braak, Fahn, etc.) Hundreds of
old studies (Jenner, McGeer, Mattson, Coimbra, Powers...) tell us what
Parkinson's is and thousands of more recent studies (Alberts, Suzuki,
Marashly, Monti, Schaeffner...) show us everything we need to have a
fairly clear view of the puzzle solved, although still with our eyes
slightly closed. Important details are missing, but the essential is
already known. As long as we do not turn our backs on Nature and leave
aside our arrogance to recognize that we had entered "the world of
Parkinson's" in a block in a dead end or also endless (we could continue
on the current path 100 or 200 years without finding anything
significant to improve the daily life of patients and family caregivers.
I would bet my life on it).
The
last frontier to which I refer in the title is death. The autopsies
they have done on the brains of deceased Parkinson's patients not only
confirm everything we already know, but seem to point us in the same
direction. And they have recently been confirmed with brain-scanning
techniques when the patients are still alive. The studies that have been
carried out "post mortem" tell us that in the brains of Parkinsonians there was (especially in the famous and vulnerable "sustantia nigra")
a brutal oxidation and inflammation, as well as an alteration of
everything: mitochondria, glutathione, coenzyme Q10, NADH, etc. Multiple
factors, multiple deficiencies. A growing chaos over the years because
it is not corrected, but rather gasoline is poured into the fire:
1) many traces point to an intense OXIDATION
(Jenner already said it since 1992), that's why so many antioxidants
prevent the disease and slow down or reduce the severity of the symptoms
(folate or vitamin B9 prevents Parkinson's by 49% and regulates the
severity of the symptoms by reducing the level of the neurotoxic and
still underestimated homocysteine);
2) very clear signs of NEUROINFLAMATION
(as indicated by McGeer, a world-renowned neurologist on Alzheimer's
disease) The traces of this inflammation are the activation of microglia
and the remains of pro-inflammatory molecules: cytokines, interleukin,
etc (Block 2007, McGeer 2008). Those who have taken non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin prevent Parkinson's by 46%, as
well as natural anti-inflammatory drugs such as ginger, curcumin (which
crosses the barrier that protects the brain), the polyphenols of green
tea, the omega 3 DHA (Yamamoto 2005, 47% less dementia according to
Schaeffer 2006), etc. Alpha-synuclein plays an important role in this
inflammation (Zhang 2005, Lee 2008, Reynolds 2008, Su 2009). Magnesium
and green tea protect the nervous system and prevent the aggregation of
both iron- and spontaneously produced alpha-synuclein (Golts 2002);
3) neurotoxic accumulations of IRON (Antonini 1993) and ALUMINIUM
(Yasui 1992). Possibly the lack of essential vitamins to correctly
metabolize iron - such as riboflavin - produce these accumulations.
Green tea and alpha lipoic acid are chelators (antidotes, eliminators)
of iron (Koonyosying 2018, Tai 2020). Autopsies or laser analyzers
detect accumulations of iron in the brain, especially in the basal
ganglia and substantia nigra (Dexter 1991, 1992, Good 1992, Linert
2000). The iron produces a greater oxidation that feeds back and enters a
vicious circle that would explain the progressive worsening of the
disease (Linert 2000). In parkinsonian autopsies there are aluminum
deposits in the basal ganglia and gray substance (Perl 1982, Yasui 1991,
1992). Its "antidote" or chelator is magnesium, so deficient in the
current average westernized diet and so worn out by the stress of modern
life (magnesium is the anti-stress mineral that regulates the necessary
and dangerous cortisol), that aluminum and other heavy metals ravage
the brain. Turmeric is also a lethal enemy of aluminum (Laabdar 2016).
4) an almost total lack of GLUTATHION (Perry 1982, 1986, Pearce 1997, Sian 1994, Arakawa 2007), the main antioxidant of "sustantia nigra".
It is not rare, since in the advanced stages of the disease there is
only 2% left (Adams 1991). Vitamin C is the most important external
antioxidant to protect the neurons of the hydroxyl groups, so linked to
Parkinson's. To cross the blood-brain barrier as if it were glucose, the
membrane of the neuron and that of the mitochondria is converted into
dehydroascorbic acid (the oxidized form of the prodigious vitamin C)
that would have to be brought back to life - reduced - by glutathione.
But there is a serious problem: there is hardly any left. In autopsies,
no trace of glutathione has been found in the substantiantia nigra;
5) And pathologists see the brain of Parkinson's patients as an old battlefield: damage to mitochondria in complex I of cellular respiration (Parker 2008); Lewy bodies and alterations of alpha-synuclein (Zhang 2005, Lee 2008, Reynolds 2008, Su 2009), etc.
The
"father" of modern medicine, Dr. William Osler referred to Parkinson's
more than a century ago as an accelerated aging of the brain. In another
powerful image, someone spoke as if the brain was on fire and had to be
"put out" with antioxidants and anti-inflammatories (Wang 2006, Sanders
2013), liver protectors (Lombard, Marjama Lyons), probiotics for the "second brain" (Gershon, Bercik, Tillish, Scheperjans)...
I recommend watching the documentary "The Mystery of Alzheimer's",
available in Spanish on Youtube. And read a lot between the lines or
watch between the frames... because the world around Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's is very similar.
The
brains of Parkinson's patients in autopsies are destroyed like an old
battlefield, like a ravaged city. But as the scientific police, as
detectives, we are reconstructing what has happened... so we will know
how to avoid it. But with the "weapons" of Nature (EGCG, allicin,
quercetin, resveratrol, curcumin, magnesium, melatonin...).
NOTE:
This is a draft I am working on now for the book. I am sharing it with
you because I am touching the target with my fingers. This is what I
mean when I ask for your help so as not to postpone it now for material
reasons or not to go all the way because of lack of books and sufficient
medical journal studies. You see how everything in the world of
Parkinson's screams out to us: it's the vitamins, minerals and trace
elements, phytochemicals, fats, etc.! I hope to be able to convey the
passion with which I live what I am looking for and finding. Not only do
we see on the floor of the labyrinth the clues that the wise men left
us (Karobath, Sacks, Birkmayer, Riederer, Jenner, Mattson...), but the
labyrinth itself speaks to us of the same thing: when everyone is
silent, the child shouts: But the emperor is naked!
As it happened to me in 2015, I already have "the whole book in my head". There's no going back until it's out, written and laid out.
"Some things from the past are gone
but others open a gap to the future
and they are the ones I want to rescue."
Mario Benedetti
