FOUR CRITICAL ASPECTS OF
LIFE SPAN NUTRITION

First, we are what we observe.

    The ancients believed that we are what we eat. They knew, intuitively it seems, that we are our food and our food is us. They seem to have known what their food was and how it affected them. Our problems today are different. We neither know what our food is nor understand how it affects us. Does a man eating a lunch of cheeseburger, French fries and milk shake know what is in his food? Does he know how such food will affect him? Does he ever try to observe the relationship between his food and himself? Optimal nutrition for the life span of an individual requires that he learn to observe how his food responds to him and how he responds to his food.

Second, bowel is the most important defense organ of the body.

    Human molecular defenses exist as plants rooted in the soil of the bowel contents. The bowel is the primary interface between the world within us and that outside our skin. Altered bowel ecology states are the dominant chronic disorder of our time. Recent research clearly shows what the ancients seemed to recognize intuitively: that the human bowel is the primary seat of our molecular defenses against disease. Molecular events in the bowel determine whether we stay healthy or get sick. Immune cells (T cells, B cells and Killer lymphocyte cells) are of secondary importance in the integrity of the immune system. Changes in the number and function of these immune cells occur late in the continuum of health, dis-ease and disease. Antibodies, lymphokines and related molecules produced by these cells are messenger molecules. The events that initiate and perpetuate immune dysfunctions are molecular events that occur in the bowel. Life span nutrition requires that we understand what our bowel ecology is and how it is preserved.

Third, injured foods injure tissues.

    Food items, like people and plants, have defined life spans. The life span of food items, like that of people and plants, is determined by the equilibrium between the food LSMs and food AOMs. This equilibrium sets the rate of oxidation of that particular food. In other words, foods, like people, have their own redox potential. Aging (spoiling) of foods is caused by their own oxidative mechanisms. Foods have built-in mechanisms for controlling their oxidative pathways. To illustrate, lettuce is rich in vitamin C, but it can lose up to 80 % of its vitamin C if it is finely chopped and exposed to oxygen in air.

    Our foods are badly injured. We injure our plant foods when we injure our food chains. We injure our plants with fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. We injure our animal foods with antibiotics and steroids. We injure our foods with processing. We injure our foods with preservatives. What is not good for bugs cannot be much good for us.

Fourth, we must respect our food if our food is to respect us.

    To be able to respect our food, we must first know it. To know it, we must first learn and understand it. To learn and understand it, we need two things: the science of food and the common sense test. "Food science" alone is not enough. I cite some examples in the chapter, On Limbic Eating. Bad numbers are driving good sense out of our nutrition, just as they do to our medicine. This is true of many of the so-called research studies published in some of the most prestigious medical journals in this country. The acid test of common sense must be accepted as the true test of what is right and what is not in nutrition.

Nutrition Researchers, Nutrition "Experts," Nutrition Enthusiasts
and Nutrition Philosophers

    Nutrition researchers are people who study the effect of one nutrient at any time and carefully define the molecular structure and function of individual nutrients. Nutrition experts, I mention earlier, are people who put mice or medical students on some diet for a few weeks, produce and publish their numbers, never try to reverse health disorders with nutritional protocols and call all those who try to do so quacks. Nutrition enthusiasts are those who are fascinated with one nutrient and ascribe all types of health benefits to it. Their belief is usually based on some bit of sound molecular knowledge. These enthusiasts consume large quantities of their favorite foods in the hope of supplying themselves with their favorite nutrients, usually with limited benefits. Nutrition philosophers think holistically. They have a much wider perspective. They see, and are guided by, the holistic molecular relatedness in human biology.

    The work of our nutrition researchers about the structure and function of nutrient molecules must be treasured. They give us the true science of nutrition. Our nutrition philosophers must be honored and heeded. They give us the larger vision of health and the human condition. Our nutrition enthusiasts should be tolerated, for they may be the future nutrition philosophers. Perhaps some of them may even become future nutrition scientists. We have no use for our nutrition experts, who practice drug medicine, consider nutrients of no value in treatment of disease , and look down upon those who practice nutritional as quacks.

ANTIOXIDANT ENTHUSIASTS

    Antioxidant enthusiasts have good "molecular" reasons for their enthusiasm. They point to studies that show that mosquitoes and other insects live longer if they are fed antioxidants. Aging is widely believed to be the result of molecular injury caused by free radicals that in turn are produced by oxidative molecular injury. Another theory of aging considers protein cross-linking as the basic chemical reaction of the aging process. The proponents of this theory point out that cross-linking of proteins is primarily caused by free radicals. This also supports the viewpoint of antioxidant enthusiasts. The fundamental nature of the aging process is the spontaneity of the process of oxidation in nature. Oxidation in nature is a spontaneous process. It does not require expenditure of energy.

    Antioxidant enthusiasts have sound scientific reasons for their enthusiasm. We must, however, recognize that there is little conceptual difference between drug therapy for symptom suppression and antioxidant therapy to reverse oxidant damage. Both approaches build dams downstream and attempt to make the water flow upstream. We need life span strategies to prevent the need for accelerated molecular oxidative damage. This requires effective self-regulatory methods that down-regulate the metabolic oxidative stress.

 NIACIN ENTHUSIASTS

    Niacin enthusiast believe that niacin is a great "energy" and "cholesterol-lowering" vitamin. Indeed, niacin plays important roles in molecular events that generate energy, and may be rightfully regarded as an electron transfer vitamin. Niacin also lowers blood cholesterol levels. So we cannot simply dismiss their claims. However, we need to remember that prolonged, unsupervised niacin therapy has been known to cause liver injury.

OXYGEN ENTHUSIASTS

    Oxygen is essential for life. The oxygen enthusiasts consider this to be the final truth in human biology. There are many types of bio-oxidative therapies in vogue. Many of them do give good short-term results. How can we disagree with the oxygen enthusiasts? Or can we? Oxygen is a molecular Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The oxygen enthusiasts understand the Dr. Jekyll role of oxygen but do not seem to know the Mr. Hyde side of the oxygen story. Oxygen ushers life in. Oxygen sustains life. The oxygen enthusiasts know this. Oxygen also terminates life. Oxidant enthusiasts do not know this.

PANTETHEINE AND CYSTEINE ENTHUSIASTS

     These nutrients are powerful life span molecules. Pantetheine is necessary for production of another molecule called Co-enzyme A which is essential for energy generation. Pantetheine enthusiasts consider themselves "energy people," hence their infatuation with pantetheine. Cysteine is a part of methionine-cysteine-taurine complex, which plays a critical antioxidant role in human life processes. It is easy to see why cysteine enthusiasts worship their deity.

OMEGA-3 AND OMEGA-6 ENTHUSIASTS

    Omega-3 and omega-6 oils are required for production of essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids, of course, are called essential because they are essential for the health of all cells in the body. These fatty acids are essential for the structural and functional integrity of plasma membranes of cells and for production of almost all hormones. Furthermore, these acids are source molecules for all the prostaglandins and leukotrienes that are essential for our molecular defenses.

MAGNESIUM ENTHUSIASTS

I must confess I am very reverential to magnesium.

    Life began on our planet Earth with conversion of solar energy into chemical bond energy. Chemical bond energy is the thread which holds together the posies of life form flowers. Chlorophyll converts solar energy into chemical bond energy and is a magnesium chelate.

    ATPase and Acetyl CoA are premium molecules in human energy dynamics. Magnesium is a cofactor for both.

    Methionine-homocysteine-cysteine-taurine and cysteine-glutathione sulfhydryl systems are essential life preserving anti-oxidant defenses of the body. These pathways are magnesium dependent.

    The first step in glucose metabolism is conversion of glucose to glucose-6-phosphate. This reaction requires hexokinase which is a magnesium-dependent enzyme.

    Delta-6-desaturase is a critical enzyme in the conversion of fatty acids of plant and animal origin into longer chains and unsaturated fatty acids essential for human metabolism. Delta-6-desaturase is a magnesium dependent enzyme.

    Magnesium serves as a cofactor in diverse reactions involved in DNA and protein synthesis.

    Magnesium is essential for many enzymatic reactions that use vitamin B1 (thiamine) and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine). These vitamins, in turn, are required for biosynthesis of essential neurotransmitter such as serotonin, GABA (gamma-amino-butyric acid) and melatonin.

    Magnesium is a cofactor for the metabolism of yet other neurotransmitter such as acetylcholine.

    Increased intracellular levels of calcium poison cellular enzymes, hence the fascination of our drug industry with calcium channel blockers. Magnesium is nature's calcium channel blocker.

    Magnesium serves as a cofactor in many biochemical reactions that are involved the maintenance of intracellular concentration of other cations such as potassium, sodium and calcium. Magnesium is also a cofactor for a large number of enzymes such as kinases.

    Acutely ill hospitalized patients almost always become magnesium-poor within a few days. Such deficiency almost always goes unrecognized because we continue to insist that a deficiency state must be documented with blood tests before embarking upon magnesium replacement therapy. The fact that only less than 1% of total body magnesium exists in the blood does not seem important to us (skeletal and intracellular compartments contain approximately 53% and 46% of magnesium respectively). We fail to see the obvious: Increased oxidant stress on cell membranes associated with illness and resulting in hospitalization leads to leakage of magnesium out of the cell and into the extracellular space. In addition, it masks the intracellular magnesium deficiency.

    The ideal test for functional magnesium deficiency, in my judgment, is an intravenous therapeutic trial.

    It is my clinical observation that oral magnesium supplements frequently fail to replenish magnesium stores within the cells. In patients with chronic fatigue, myalgia, fibromyositis, and persistent muscle spasms and pain, oral magnesium supplements often give poor results while intravenous magnesium therapy almost always gives rapid and satisfactory clinical benefits. The same holds for patients with asthma, irregular heart rhythm, and severe backache. I once used intravenous magnesium along with other micronutrients for one of my patients with severe depression in a desperate — and fortunately successful — attempt to avoid hospitalization (this patient had very traumatic memory of previous hospital admission for depression). Indeed, there is extensive evidence that disorders of mood, memory and mentation, and psychiatric symptoms such as confusion, disorientation, agitation and depression are common in magnesium-deficient patient (JAMA 224:1749; 1973).

    Magnesium is often poorly absorbed; clinical studies indicate absorption rate ranging from 50% to 70% in healthy subjects on normal diet (Shils, M.E. in Modern nutrition in health and disease Philadelphia: Lea & Fibiger, pp. 159-192). The intestinal absorption of magnesium is further decreased in magnesium-deficient states ( Intern. J. Neuroscience 61:87; 1991). Indeed, correction of magnesium deficiency in many patients is so problematic that a genetic basis for reduced magnesium absorption has been considered (Cecil Textbook of Medicine 1988).

    I know my advice to use intravenous magnesium drip as a test for functional magnesium deficiency in states of accelerated oxidative stress will rankle many of my colleagues in mainstream medicine. I stand by my recommendation. It is one of the most valuable diagnostic tool for the clinician caring for people with unremitting suffering. I refer the professional reader to my review article Magnesium and Oxidative Cell Membrane Injury that appeared in the spring 1992 issue of The Environmental Physician published by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, Denver, Colorado.