Label: L-Serine serindipity?
TL;DR
Aging brains always get worse, and they get worse faster if we don’t take action. Ever since I read “The Brain that Changes Itself”, I’ve been taking action.
I wrote about it here: 70 Years Old. WTF!: Cognitive decline
L-serine is an inexpensive FDA approved food supplement that may have neuroprotective effects for normal aging and people at risk for Alzheimer’s. It’s currently in Phase II clinical trial due to complete in August. But why wait? You can get it on Amazon in bulk.
Dale Bredesen, MD is a researcher with 224 peer-reviewed papers on PubMed and book called “The End Of Alzheimer’s” and a website that provides a program for assessing and improving cognitive health—including but not limited to Alzheimer’s. He claims that he has reversed Alzheimer’s and other forms of cognitive decline in many patients. Maybe he has.
As aging changes my brain in unavoidable ways, I check my cognitive ability with interest. Hey, I can’t remember that name. I think. How interesting! I wonder how I can get it back. Whenever I forget something, I see it as an opportunity to learn something about my brain.
Bobbi, on the other hand, checks hers with worry approaching terror. Her Dad died (younger than she now is) with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Seeing him was somewhere between tragic and horrific. Closer to horrific, actually.
Out of general fascination with all things science and to make sure that we both are doing the best we can reasonably do to protect our brains I dive into the literature on cognitive health periodically.
The state of the literature
ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) is a neurodegenerative disease. It’s not Alzheimer’s, but it’s mentioned in the same breath in lots of research
Here’s an article from Brain Chemistry Labs that makes the connection:
Neurodegenerative diseases all share a common problem, proteins accumulate in the brain. We have found that an environmental neurotoxin can trigger two kinds of protein build up known as brain tangles and amyloid plaques.
So what can be done about it?
The Institute for Ethnomedicine discovered the dietary amino acid L-serine as a possible new ALS drug through careful studies of the mechanisms of protein misfolding
The principal researcher at the Institute is Paul Cox. This long, long article in Fortune details his research. Well worth the read:
Here’s what we now think is astonishing about L-serine,” Cox said. “It appears to be neuroprotective against all possible protein misfolding. It basically turns on a system in our brains that looks for unfolded proteins and is quickly poised to act on them.”
They have mouse models, in vitro experiments to support their research. Ethnological investigation of the Ogimi, a group on the island of Okinawa backs the hypothesis. The Ogimi are extraordinary long-lived people who don’t seem to suffer much cognitive decline.
This peer reviewed paper summarizes some of their research.
Our hypothesis that the high l-serine content of the Ogimi diet is related to the paucity of tangle diseases among villagers is buttressed by in vivo results with non-human primates where dietary l-serine slowed development of neurofibrillary tangles and β-amyloid plaques by up to 85% and a human clinical trial finding that l-serine at 15 grams/day twice daily slows functional decline in ALS patients. Analysis of the Ogimi diet suggests that l-serine should be evaluated for therapeutic potential as a neuroprotective agent.
This article in Pharmacy Times summarizes research findings, and points to a Phase I trial to assess safety. The trial demonstrated safety (and also reported significant improvements in the people with ALS.
Astrocytes in the human body produce L-serine, and the average American diet consists of about 3.5 grams of L-serine a day. The FDA states L-serine is generally regarded as safe, as long as it consists of no more than 8.4% of total protein in the diet (CFR Title 21 Section 17.320.18). A 6-month phase I randomized double-blind (pharmacist unblinded) trial was conducted to assess safety of doses 0.5, 2.5, 7.5, and 15g twice a day.
There’s now a Phase II trial in progress, due to report in August.
15 grams of L-Serine (15 gummies containing 1g of L-serine) orally twice daily for 246 days
So Bobbi and I are doing our own non-double-blinded non-placebo-controlled study of l-serine. I ordered 500 g from Amazon, and we’re each taking 15 g twice a day.
I’m not a person who goes for vitamin and food fads, but the research here seems solid and promising, and what the hell else are we going to do with our money?
I now buy this supplement from here
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