The Common Cause of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Autism and Chronic Fatigue.
By William Wong ND, PhD, Member World Sports Medicine Hal of Fame

 

The road to discovery is long and winding. Some of its paths lead to dead ends, some of its paths curve round and round until they lead to truth. The paths trod by those seeking the cause and then a cure for the ills that effect the brain are no different.

In the search for the root cause of Alzheimer's many degenerative changes in the brain of its victims have come to light: protein cross linking short circuiting nerve transmission, aluminum shards in DNA strands, decrease in neurotransmitters, the shrinking of the brain due to loss of its fat content (the brain is 70% cholesterol), but all of these factors are the results of the condition and not its direct cause. It is now known that moderate inflammation, not enough to be called Enchaphilitis, but enough to have been medically detected, is the root cause of the condition. (1).

With Parkinson’s patients a part of the brain called the Substancia Nigra dies off. This vital part of the brain makes a substance called Dopamine. It is dopamine that connects the brain to the body. As dopamine levels decrease while the Substancia Nigra dies off, slowly the control the brain exerts over the body diminishes. So essential is dopamine that doctors can tell a “pre morbid” (just before death) condition by monitoring blood levels of dopamine. Three days after the last drop of dopamine is made by the brain the person dies! A link between sub clinical brain inflammation and Parkinson’s has just been found! (2).

What do these two dreaded and deadly conditions have to do with Chronic Fatigue? Plenty. Chronic Fatigue is actually a name for what the disease brings. Only in Europe is a true name for Chronic Fatigue used: Myalgic Enchaphilitis or Brain Swelling caused Muscle Pain. With CF patients there is a brain swelling that triggers the rest of the disease. CFS typically has many things attributed to being the root cause of the disease from Mononucleosis (Epstein Barr Virus), to Post Polio Syndrome in those of us that received the live Sabin polio inoculation. The Mono, initial Polio and Post Polio all have a brain inflammation associated with the condition.

Autism has been found to be due to a brain inflammation. (3). The root cause of this inflammation is under heated debate due to the liability implications involved. Many docs think it's from the mercury in childhood inoculations, each shot having 5 times the OSHA stated standard for toxic levels for mercury. Multiply 5x the toxic levels by the number of shots administered and you have quite a heavy load of mercury in an infants brain. (Flu shots for seniors have the same mercury preservative and some docs have been saying that any senior taking 5 or more flu shots is sure to get Alzheimer's)! Other docs think the inflammation stems from the viruses in the infant vaccines themselves most of which are weakened (attenuated) versions of a live virus, for example the Sabin oral polio vaccine is a live vaccine and all virus we are exposed to will stay in the body for life. Most conventional docs think Autism just happens. It needs to be remembered that there was no such thing as Autism or any condition close to it before childhood inoculations were invented.

A study published in the Oct. 2003 issue of the Townsend Newsletter for Doctors said that the use of systemic enzymes could control the process of autism decreasing its behavioral symptoms and though the study has some erroneous notions as to the function of systemic enzymes, the test subjects all did better taking the enzymes. This was due not to what they attributed the final effects to but to the anti inflammatory effect of the enzymes.

In all people as we increase in age we increase the chronic inflammation we carry internally. Medicine has now come to realize that internal inflammation is the root cause of everything from heart and vascular disease to diabetes and cancer. Why does inflammation increase as we age? In our youth part of the feeling of invincibility we possessed came from our bodies ability to fight off the natural results of play and effort and inflammation, with its own unique anti inflammatory substances: the proteolytic enzymes our pancreas makes. The pancreas is part of the exocrine system along with our sweat, salivary and tear glands. It is a gland that makes digestive juices which contain enzymes as well as the very essential insulin we need to be able to use sugar for energy.

As we age our production of proteolytic enzymes decreases (4). There are only two products the body makes finite amounts of dopamine and proteolytic enzymes. Half of a persons production of proteolytic enzymes are used up by the age of 25, that’s part of the reason we feel invincible at that age - our own enzymes are controlling inflammation. By 27 our bodies figure out that if we maintain that level of enzyme output we’d be dead by the time we got to forty. Physiology teaches that old age begins at 27 and lack of enzymes are the reason why! So the body begins to dole out the enzymes with an eyedropper instead of with a tablespoon to stretch out the store of enzymes for as long as we can and it is the downturn in enzyme availability that causes an increase in inflammation as proteolytic enzymes are the bodies first line of defense against inflammation. (4).

From 27 onward the markers for inflammation C-Reacitve Protein and Homocystine increase demonstrating an increase in inflammation inside of the body. Inflammation is a reaction to over work, stress, over exercise, over use and injury in both micro trauma and macro trauma. Some nutritional gurus have tried to lower CRP and Homocystine levels through B vitamin and amino acid supplementation but all they have managed to do is tear down the road signs and leave the road. None of the nutrients used to lower CRP and Homocystine is anti inflammatory so as a result the markers to warn about inflammation are gone but the inflammation has stayed. A highway without road signs still leads to the same place. (5).

Long term use of the standard drugs for fighting inflammation, i.e. cortico steroids and Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs (NSAID’s) are worse than the inflammation they are trying to stop. Guaranteeing an earlier death. New research findings have stopped the use of cortico steroids against brain inflammation in head injury patients due to the fact that such patients treated with the cortisone die at a faster rate than those not treated with the drug! (6). Besides, the long term side effects of steroid use, the water gain, moon face, thinning/tearing skin, osteoporosis, bursa tissue death etc. make these drugs unsuitable for daily long term use. And as to the NSAID drugs these already kill 18,000 to 22,000 a year from their kidney failure, intestinal hemorrhage and liver failure side effects just from regular use. (7). The Cox 2 NSAID Vioxx itself killed 39,000 people and gave another 159,000 heart attacks and strokes! The other Cox 2 drugs have been shown to have the same potential for creating heart and vascular inflammation, yes inflammation. Imagine an anti-inflammatory drug that causes inflammation - and the egg head chemists and MD’s in these drug companies promised the Cox 2 drugs would be completely side effect free when the drugs were first introduced. That claim lasted all of 3 weeks as Celebrx had killed 11 patients from side effects in it’s first 21 days of use! (8). So the NSAID drugs are not the way to go either as here again the regular even low dose use of these drugs can have lift threatening side effects.

Recently in an effort to broaden the use of the anti cholesterol drugs, statins have been researched as anti inflammatory drugs. It must be said that the side effects of the statins have caused Dr. Graham of the US FDA to call them the next Vioxx. Statin drugs create liver toxicity, neurological problems and kidney failure via the horrible disease Rhabdomyosis, a condition where the muscles literally melt away and clog the kidneys causing them to fail. Death by kidney failure is not painless or pretty! The use of statins against inflammation would definitely be a case of the cure being worse than the disease, and more life threatening.

The only anti inflammatory substances that are safe to take long term are systemic enzymes. They completely lack toxicity as they have no LD-50 and are safe at any level of ingestion. Systemic enzymes have been used in Germany and Central European conventional medicine for going on 60 years and in Japan of 3 decades. there are over 200 peer reviewed studies confirming not only the absorption of orally ingested enzymes but also confirming their therapeutic effects. (www.enzymescience.com). Against inflammation, systemic enzymes act not as cortico steroids, Cox 1 inhibitors or Cox 2 inhibitors do but they work on a completely different pathway of action which is one of the reasons they are side effect free. (See chart below).

Of systemic enzymes not all are created equal. While preparations may seem to have the same enzyme components and claims can be made as to the enzymatic action of particular components, not all of the same name enzymes have the same action.

Systemic enzymes give people a way to address long term chronic inflammation in a manner that will not create short or long term problems, side effects or early death. It does a patient no good if the method of dealing with a chronic inflammation shortens the life by it side effects.

PS: After writing this article news releases of new studies implicating brain inflammation as being involved in mental depression were released. More fuel for the fire.