In this week’s blog, we are going back to a popular topic-aging supplements; Specifically PQQ.
Why PQQ?
Recently a discussion occurred between a couple of my subscribers: Old Alabama Gardener and Ken Rach, about PQQ. Old Alabama Gardener mentioned that he’d been taking PQQ for a while. Particularly, the LifeExtension® version. That said, Ken Rach asked him if it worked.
As is usually the case with supplements, Old Alabama Gardener had to say, “Look, I don’t know. I can’t tell.” This is especially true of accessories associated with the mitochondria (it’s hard to tell if they worked).
Regarding PQQ, information is limited. However, I found a fascinating article. Just so you know, I had yet to take PQQ but after reading this article, I went on Amazon and ordered a bottle.
One of the biggest attractions for me was the journal PQQ study was is posted in. It was Nature Magazine, posted in June 2018. The exact title of the article” PQQ Ameliorates Cognitive Impairments.”
The article went into some of the technical information- the D-galactose is a model of senility which is created in lab rats. How does it work?
· Via antioxidant way
· Signaling pathway in terms of gene expression
How does PQQ work?
Let’s talk about a couple of points. PQQ stands for Pyrroloquinoline quinone; PQQ may influence the generation of pro-inflammatory mediators, including cytokines and prostaglandins during the aging process.
Next, it is time to review the aging process within the brain and other tissues. Start here. Mitochondria is where we use oxygen to burn carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. We boil them by adding oxygen.
When you add oxygen to something, it’s called rust or burning. You also get reactive oxygen species.
We lose our mitochondria in the aging process because the peroxide burns up the mitochondria.
Most folks in the baby boomer generation remember in their teenage years, they used to use peroxide to take the color out of their hair.
Then they realized how badly it burned the hair. What’s regularly happening inside our bodies is associated with oxygenation within our mitochondria—use of this glutamate, the D-gal.
This is how they demonstrate it. It’s a lab model for showing increased or early aging.
You do have other proinflammatory mediators. What does that mean? You begin getting inflammation. Some of the mediators are cytokines. Cyto means cell, and kines means chemicals that attract. Therefore, these are chemicals that attract.
When you start burning tissue around mitochondria, you have chemicals that attract inflammatory cells – immune cells. Prostaglandins are involved in this process too.
The researchers saw something else that was very interesting. In a previous study, they saw that PQQ statistically enhanced superoxide dismutase. Superoxide dismutase is a protein that our bodies developed as mammals to combat this reactive oxygen species- aka this peroxide. Specifically, it breaks up peroxide before it can burn too much tissue.
In labs, they have genetically altered mice that don’t have superoxide dismutase. Those mice develop early senility.
Sadly, if your body is not handling reactive oxygen species appropriately, the ongoing oxidation around the mitochondria is burning up your brain.
These are some of the mechanisms researchers referred to in the study. The upregulation of the expression of PAKT.
To explain, we bring oxygen in. We use oxygen to burn carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. However, combining oxygen with anything produces rust, inflammation, and burning.
Importantly, some of the byproducts produce peroxide. The peroxide burns the tissue. It starts burning tissue around the mitochondria and damaging, and even destroying, cells.
The body has developed some countermeasures for that, such as superoxide dismutase. It will go in and hit the degraded peroxide early.
Researchers are saying they found a supplement that will do that. But i’m not a huge believer in supplements, and here’s why. Lifestyle – by far – has the most significant impact on our health. You can’t supplement your way out of a destructive lifestyle.
However, as you get older and things start wearing out anyway, sometimes it’s helpful to have a little help.
Why Recommend PQQ?
Two things attracted me to this study. One is the journal because it is a highly respected journal. The other are the dramatic results that they show.
Let me explain something here. This is spontaneous alteration; in other words, this was where mice just started learning how to go through a maze.
The mice fed with glutamate regularly started doing weird things, such as taking wrong turns unpredictably. These were the control mice, the glutamate mice, who began having problems. On the other hand, the mice given PQQ supplement didn’t have that problem.
The last group was the glutamate mice fed PQQ. They showed improvement. There was an increase in the cognitive performance of the aging mice after giving them PQQ. This was another parameter- it was looking at latency. That means how long they remembered how to carry out the same tasks.
Again, the glutamate-aging mice only remembered as long as the PQQ mice. It was similar. But when the researchers fed PQQ to the glutamate-treated mice-they saw improvement in cognitive performance.
Here’s another parameter of cognitive performance. Looking at error rates, the same thing happened with glutamate. When you added the PQQ to the glutamate, it stopped the error rate.
These results have to do with inflammation.
MVA reactive oxygen species – they looked at those. They saw a massive increase in reactive oxygen species in glutamate-fed rats. It’s knocked out again after feeding the mice PQQ. Similar results with T-AOC and MDA were other indicators.
D-gal or glutamate induces changes that resemble natural aging in animals, like cognitive dysfunction and oxidative stress neurodegeneration. It’s been used as a lab rat model for aging and senility. It causes the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in vivo- meaning in the rat itself, not just in the lab- that is in vitro.
Here is an exciting part I still need to cover. Recently this article was a massive help in that area. Glutamate is a major- critical excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system.
The Role of PQQ
Why is that important? There may be some significant association between ongoing critical excitation of our brains and oxidative stress.
You remember there are synapses – or connections between cells. In the cell, during excitation, it moves electrically. There has to be a transmission from one cell to another: that’s a neurotransmitter.
Depression drugs work by impacting the neurotransmitters involved with depression. Glutamate is involved in excitation in 90% of the pathways.
All and all, researchers associate chronic mental stress as a way of aging quickly. This is a transparent biological model for that.
What they’re discussing is that they’ve done previous research which has supported this activity.
This research says PQQ does decrease the entire oxidative process:
· The inflammation process and it decreased inflammatory markers
· It decreased oxidation
· It decreased the excitation
This study goes into the issue of superoxide dismutase. Some rats have been genetically bred to no longer have superoxide dismutase.
Those rats get old fast. You can remember the term superoxide dismutase. Just remember how they get old. The rats can’t handle the peroxide, the other oxygen radicals created by the mitochondria in their brain.
There are a lot of exciting dots to connect.
I’m going to get some PQQ. I’m not planning for it to replace:
· Keeping my weight down
· Continuing to do high-intensity intervals
· Monitoring my inflammation
· Watching my blood sugar and my carbs.
If you found this article helpful and want to start taking steps toward reversing your chronic disease, Dr. Brewer and the PrevMed staff are ready to serve you no matter where you’re located.
To find out more, schedule a consult here: prevmedhealth.com
REFERENCES:
1. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-26962-9
2. https://prevmedhealth.com/effects-of-intermittent-fasting-on-aging-and-cv-disease/
3. https://prevmedhealth.com/the-information-theory-of-aging-david-sinclairs-book-lifespan-part-1/
4. https://prevmedhealth.com/the-information-theory-of-aging-david-sinclairs-lifespan-part-2/
5. https://prevmedhealth.com/longevity-diets-vs-pills/
6. https://prevmedhealth.com/the-secret-life-of-fat-cells-is-it-the-secret-to-longevity/